VNU to slash 4,000 positions

The corporate owner of the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard announced Monday that it plans to lop another 4,000 jobs worldwide, but the entertainment publications can rest easy -- they already gave at the office.

VNU, bought earlier this year for $10 billion by a private consortium of six equity firms, plans to reorganize itself into a simpler structure, said spokesman Jack Loftus, a move that will include cutting about 4,000 of its 42,000 jobs worldwide.

Most jobs on the chopping block are internal organization positions, similar in strategy to the 10 jobs cut at the Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, in which editors and other non-writing positions were eliminated.

VNU also cut nine jobs at Billboard and 17 at Radio & Records in August, again focusing on editing positions.

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Scott Martelle