Microsoft Reorganization to Affect MSN Writers
October 3, 2013
Is a shakeup at MSN a loss for those of us who value news coverage? Nick Farrell at TechEye.net believes so; he indignantly reports, “Microsoft Downgrades MSN News Service.” Alas, it does seem that some of my (our?) fellow freelance writers are on the chopping block. The write-up asserts:
“Microsoft cut its MSN.com freelance and contract budget. In an industry where most of the original content comes from freelancers, this means that Microsoft is going to be playing it safe and following a news churn. “
Farrell may be jumping to conclusions here. The article he cites, “MSN Cutting Number of Contractors, Increasing Full-Time Employees” at the Seattle Times, does say Microsoft is reducing the number of contractors that write for MSN, but that they will also be adding to their full-time staff. Janet I. Tu writes:
“The company did not say how many contractor positions are being cut but did say that different vendors, who provide the contract workers, would be affected to different degrees. Full-time employees at MSN do not appear to be affected by the cuts and, indeed, the company says it’s planning to expand the number of MSN’s full-time employees.”
Tu goes on to quote Microsoft VP Brian MacDonald:
“Total dollars spent in the Puget Sound area is increasing on MSN and the Bing apps. This is a line item budget shift but absolutely not a spend reduction for cost savings.”
I’m afraid this directly contradicts Farrell’s insistence that, “according to the Seattle Times, the cuts are a result of budget-tightening and a post-reorganization cunning plan.” Hmm. Has Farrell sussed out something unstated by Microsoft (in which case, better support for his assertion would be nice), or is this a false alarm?
Cynthia Murrell, October 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
