At least 17 laid off at Market News International, including Beckner

Layoffs hit the editorial operation of Market News International on Monday, with the most prominent cut being longtime Federal Reserve Board reporter Steve Beckner.

The cuts occurred in the Washington, Chicago and New York newsrooms, and one staffer who remained said they totaled about half the staff. The cuts come less than two weeks after the business and financial news service agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Hale Global, which is also running AOL’s former Patch operation, from Deutsche Börse.

MNI, as it is known, has bureaus in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and has press credentials recognized by various departments of the U.S. government, as well as the Bank of Japan and the governments and central banks of all G-7 nations.

MNI primarily provides news including markets intelligence for foreign exchange professionals and global fixed income markets.

Beckner is one of the country’s foremost reporters covering the Federal Reserve. As senior correspondent for MNI, his accounts of central bank, Treasury and foreign exchange policy developments from in and outside of the United States have long been considered the some of the best information available on finance and economics.

Beckner is a constant traveler to regional Fed bank events throughout the United States, and he has been recognized for “The Beckner Effect” on markets. He has also done National Public Radio reports for years.

Also laid off from MNI was Tony Mace, an executive editor who had been with MNI since 1985 and had stints as New York bureau chief and managing editor.

Others laid off include:

Heather Scott, MNI’s Washington bureau chief overseeing a staff of 20 reporters throughout the Americas. In addition to reporting and editing daily as needed, she covered international economic issues, including U.S. trade disputes and free trade negotiations, the Group of Seven, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and other emerging markets issues.

Joseph Plocek, vice president and economist. Plocek filled the Bullets service with minute-to-minute items that anticipate or reflect developments of interest to the fixed income and currency markets. He also covered major data lockups, contributing instant analysis pieces as well as Bullets at the debut moment of publication.

Timothy Weatherhead, economic data reporter. He had been there for just 15 months.

Alyce Andres-Frant, who joined MNI in August 1997 as a reporter covering the U.S. Treasury futures and options complex at the Chicago Board of Trade. Andres-Frant also provided spot news coverage at various industry events as well as coverage of key central bankers. In 2000 she was promoted to Chicago bureau chief.

Jack Duffy, who was MNI’s European debt reporter, based in Paris. Duffy covered developing events in various peripheral Eurozone countries, core EMU governments and other European institutions. He contributed to MNI’s daily baseline coverage of financial and macroeconomic news on the European Continent. Duffy was an editor of the Business Day section of the New York Times where, in addition to print, his duties included the NYT website and blogs.

Lou Friedman, who joined MNI as a senior FX reporter in 2015. Friedman contributed to the FX Edge product as well as FX and FI Bullet Points. Friedman also produced the MNI Asian Morning FX Analysis, which is distributed daily near the close of the U.S. markets.

Steven Levine, who covered the corporate and agency bond markets. He contributed to Corporate Bond Chatter as well as to the The U.S. Credit Supply Pipeline, Credit Bullets and Fixed Income Bullets products.

Claudia Hirsch, MNI’s senior correspondent in New York, had been with the company since 1996. Her column, Reality Check, anticipated major U.S. economic data by reporting on the businesses and tradespeople on the ground that create the economy.

Isobel Kennedy, joined MNI in 1997 and since then has covered several beats. She reported on the agency mortgage-backed securities market and the non-agency MBS market and municipal bonds. Kennedy was the author of Talk From The Trenches, a daily report on the MNI Main Wire that shed insight into the big picture of the U.S. bond markets.

Steve Arons, Frankfurt correspondent.

Clive Tillbrook, global managing editor for markets in London. Tillbrook was an arbitrage trader and also market-maker in sterling interest rate swaps before becoming a journalist.

Phil Day, Asia news editor in Manila, who oversaw editorial operations in Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Beijing for MNI.

Izham Ahmad, reporter in Singapore who managed the FX and Fixed Income Bullet Points products in Asia and has been with MNI since 2005, initially writing about foreign exchange.

Kyle Shortland, market reporter in Australia. He had produced Asian FX technical analysis. Before joining MNI, Shortland spent three years as a foreign exchange analyst for Thomson-Reuters IFR Markets. He gained his experience in the FX markets as a spot trader with Colonial State Bank in Sydney, Australia.