Thu Dec 4, 2008 12:31PM3 comments ›
Thu Dec 4, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger
More Industry Layoffs
Wiizards of the Coast, Pocket Books Affected
Wizards of the Coast is the latest genre publisher to announce layoffs, in this case, it was the game company’s second round this year. Among those terminated were VP of Digital Gaming Randy Buehler, Director of Digital Games Andrew Finch, Creative Manager of Digital Design William Meyers, and Online Community Manager Jennifer Paige according to ICv2.
A WotC spokesperson told the trade website, “Wizards of the Coast consolidated its digital game organizations to streamline execution of digital growth strategies for core brands.”
“Consolidating internal resources coupled with improved outsourcing allows us to gain efficiencies in executing against our major digital initiatives Magic Online and D&D Insider,” Wizards of the Coast President Greg Leeds added.. “Wizards of the Coast is well positioned to maximize future opportunities, including further brand development on digital platforms. The result of this consolidation is a more streamlined approach to driving core brands.”
Simon & Schuster laid off 35 people yesterday including Senior Editor Marco Palmieri. Palmieri, a former DC Comics marketing staffer, joined Pocket and successfulyl edited Star Trek novels in addition to helping Pocket expand its media tie-in operations to incude Blizzard's RPG titles and Marvel's super-heroes. Margaret Clark, another former DC staffer, is now solely responsible for the media tie-in line along with editors Jennifer Heddle and Ed Schlesinger.
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Comments (3)
Anonymous (12:21 PM on Thu Dec 4, 2008)
Wow, what a surprise that WotC should be laying people off. They are only asking their fans to spend $120 on a system that makes no sense after they further broke what needed to be fixed. Anyone remember TSR...anyone?
Anonymous (8:02 PM on Sat Dec 6, 2008)
"Margaret Clark, another former DC staffer, is now solely responsible for the media tie-in line along with editors Jennifer Heddle and Ed Schlesinger."
Please forgive some syntactical snark at what's clearly a dark time for those affected by these layoffs, but what does it mean to say that one person has "sole" responsibility for something along with two other people?
Glenn Hauman (1:00 AM on Sun Dec 7, 2008)
It's who's responsible for what. Margaret is now solely for the Star Trek media tie-in line; Marco's other titles are expected to be split between Ed and Jennifer, but we aren't sure of the final split yet.