Crain’s New York lays off 40 percent of editorial staff

Crain’s New York Business on Thursday laid off a dozen reporters and editors — 40 percent of its full-time editorial staff — with publisher Jill Kaplan citing a need to “re-align the brand’s costs with its revenues,” according to people who described the company’s explanation for the downsizing.

Editor Glenn Coleman told his staff he was moving into a new role as editor-at-large and announced the promotion of managing editor Jeremy Smerd to executive editor leading the smaller newsroom team. Coleman did not respond to a request for comment.

Sources said Coleman told the staff he would spend at least three months helping Smerd and Crain’s “reinvent” the weekly newspaper and its website. His plans after that were not made clear.

Kaplan did not respond to a request for comment.

The move follows layoffs at its sister paper, Crain’s Chicago Business, last week that resulted in the closing of the Washington bureau.

The Crain’s New York staffers who were laid off on Thursday are:

• Deputy managing editors Valerie Block and Erik Ipsen;
• Art director Steve Krupinski;
• Senior reporters Theresa Agovino and Lisa Fickenscher;
• Reporters Chris Bragg and Thornton McEnery;
• Web reporter/producer Nazish Dholakia;
• Data editor Suzanne Panara;
• Copy editor Thad Rutkowski; and
• Researcher Jessica Kramer.

An open videographer/reporter position also was officially eliminated, the newsroom was told, following the December departure of Kenneth Christensen to Seattle.