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The International Business Times, a digital business, politics and culture publication, has laid off at least 15 employees in New York and California, according to multiple sources. Additionally, Global Editor in Chief Peter S. Goodman will be leaving the company, though his planned departure was not related to today’s layoffs.
IBT is owned by IBT Media, which bought legacy print magazine Newsweek back in 2013. Sources tell Re/code that four staffers have also been laid off at another IBT Media brand, Latin Times, which is roughly half of the LT team. It is unknown how other publications (such as medical trade publication Medical Daily) are impacted, but our sources say that Newsweek will be unaffected.
Sources add that the layoffs came without warning, and that some employees were notified they had been let go by phone calls to their desk phones. Employees who were not at their desks were notified by co-workers. Employees laid off had their work email accounts terminated, and they were given 10 minutes to pack up their belongings and leave.
Last month, Politico’s Peter Sterne reported that between December and February, IBT employees were paid irregularly because of a payroll processing error. At the time, Goodman told Sterne that “there has been no discussion of budget cuts or hiring freezes.
“I very forthrightly pressed [IBT Media co-founder Etienne Uzac] on this question,” Goodman told Sterne. “He assured me that we’re not there and that we’ve got sufficient funds and that this is poor management by finance and we’re bringing in a chief operating officer to address these problems.”
Representatives for IBT Media and IBTimes.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story is developing, expect more details to be added.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
