MNI lays off more longtime journalists

Market News International, the financial news service commonly known as MNI, has laid off at least three more of its longtime journalists, the third such layoff in the past 18 months, multiple sources have told Talking Biz News.

MNI laid off 17 editorial staffers in July 2016, and in September 2017, two other longtime journalists also left.

John R. Carter, a founding employee of MNI in 1984, was among those laid off last week.

Carter was Washington bureau chief, Europe managing editor and Asia managing editor during his tenure at the company. He was promoted to global managing editor in September 2012. Carter helped launch MNI in both Europe and Asia.

Markets reporter Sheila Mullan also departed. Mullan has daily newspaper experience, wire service experience and a long specialty at MNI in covering U.S. treasuries, the overnight repo market and the New York Fed. Mullan is the former president of the New York Financial Writers’ Association, the nation’s oldest financial writers group.

Also laid off was Vicki Schmelzer, MNI’s senior foreign exchange reporter. Schmelzer is the creator and author of MNI OnTheRadar, a daily currency feature for MNI’s Main Wire.

Schmelzer traded spot and forward currencies for over 20 years at major U.S. and international banks, including Citibank, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Dresdner Bank and Westdeutsche Landesbank before joining MNI in 2000.

In addition, former MNI reporter John T. Shaw is poised to lead Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute as its next director. He starts next week.

Talking Biz News has also been told that other staffers in Europe and Asia were laid off last week but was unable to confirm those.

The business and financial news service was acquired by private equity firm Hale Global, which is also running AOL’s former Patch operation, from Deutsche Börse, in early July 2016. Charles Hale did not reply to an email from Talking Biz News seeking comment about the latest layoffs.