Red Herring cuts 35 percent of staff

Technology news publisher Red Herring Communications on Tuesday laid off about 35 percent of its magazine staff, or roughly 33 people, in a move to cut expenses amid a continuing advertising slump. A company spokeswoman said that the layoffs were aimed to better align the magazine's costs with revenue to reach profitability. After the cutbacks, the San Francisco-based company, which publishes a monthly magazine and Web site, will employ just under 50 people--approximately the same number of staff the magazine maintained in 1996, the spokeswoman said. As part of the restructuring, editorial director Jason Pontin will become editor at large.

The layoffs are the third round for the magazine in the past 12 months. In April, Red Herring CEO Hilary Schneider left the company to become president and chief executive of Knight Ridder Digital. At that time, the company named former Ziff-Davis executive Chris Dobbrow as her successor.