RIGHT about now, U2 front man Bono is probably wondering what he’s gotten himself into by buying such a big stake in Forbes Media.
Yesterday, the company cut at least 20 editorial positions in the latest move to stay ahead of the rapidly deteriorating ad market, and more are expected today as Forbes Media moves toward slashing 50 jobs once the business side and international operations take their medicine.
Among those leaving is Stewart Pinkerton, who became one of five managing editors when the company unveiled plans to combine its Forbes magazines and Forbes.com Web site.
Last Friday, the company announced that he was retiring, though some sources suggest he might have been nudged out the door. Nevertheless, sources say magazine Editor William Baldwin, not known for mustering much enthusiasm toward his charges, gave Pinkerton a glowing farewell.
Yesterday, Baldwin and Forbes.com Editor Paul Maidment called staffers to their offices one by one.
“We were afraid to answer the phones,” said one laid-off worker.
And with good reason. Sources said that shortly after meeting with their respective editor and a member of the human resources team, moving men appeared with boxes and staffers were told the boxes would be delivered to their homes.
Others heading for the exit from the magazine side include Ronda Kass, an art director, and Kasia Moreno, an editorial director.
On the dot-com side, Mitchell Martin, head of the breaking-news department, is out along with three of his reporters, Alex Davidson, Lisa Lamotta and Ruthie Ackerman.
“It looks like they’re just going to rely on wire services for the bulk of their breaking news,” said one source.
It also looks like much of the Forbes.com copy desk is being axed in order to hand over responsibility to the magazine guys.
A Forbes spokeswoman said the company would not make any comment on the changes until today.
Those from Forbes.com were said to be the most surprised, given Bono, Roger McNamee and the rest of the folks from investment firm Elevation Partners have long been described as being most interested in the Forbes.com part of the business, which had been a strong performer for the company. Elevation in August 2006 paid an estimated $300 million for a 40 percent stake in the company that’s controlled by Forbes brothers Steve, Timo thy and Christopher and sister Moira.
However, things have soured in recent months, with the number of unique visitors to the Forbes.com Web site sinking about 24 per cent in February to 4.55 million from 5.97 mil lion a year ago, accord ing to Web-tracking firm comScore.
And that’s on top of the hit that the print editions of all financial magazines have taken. Through the March 30 “billionaires” issue, Forbes was down 11.7 percent in ad pages to 445 — not nearly as devastating as the 39.8 percent decline at BusinessWeek or the 31.7 percent drop at Fortune, but still not great.
As recently as last week, Forbes.com workers were told that the magazine’s editorial staff would be moving out of the Forbes headquarters at 60 Fifth Ave. and into the Web site’s offices at 90 Fifth Ave. Some took that as a sign that the Web site was moving up in the internal hierarchy.
Pink slips
Things are getting tighter at Condé Nast.
The pampered editors-in-chief are said to be jealously eyeing one another to see whose perks are getting trimmed and whose are not.
“It used to be nobody cared, the perks were so lavish,” said one in sider. “Now they are getting a little restless.”
Farther down the food chain, populist resent ment is also boiling.
“The people at the bottom have gotten it a lot worse than the peo ple at the top,” said one insider.
Yesterday, Lou Cona, the man who replaced Richard “Mad Dog” Beckman as president of the Condé Nast Media Group, got to fire a few more people.
Plus, editorial assistants were informed that they would only be eligible for five hours of overtime a week. That could create quite a hardship since many of those workers make no more than $30,000 a year and have come to rely on their overtime pay.
But sources said the most upsetting and visible cuts came as Si Newhouse‘s empire bounced all receptionists who worked the main desks on each of the 20 floors that Condé Nast occupies at its Times Square headquarters, plus a few more at its Fairchild unit’s offices on Third Avenue.
“It’s very sad,” said one insider.
Said another, “It’s pretty lame. People just get off the elevators now and kind of wander around.”
And another added, “How do you justify Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour having a hair-and-makeup person coming to her office when you just fired the receptionist?” keith.kelly@nypost.com