JOBS CUT AT CONDENET AMID 'SLOWDOWN'

CondeNet, the online arm of Conde Nast Publications, laid off 18 employees from its 147-person staff March 6, slightly more than 12% of its workforce. Sarah Chubb, president of CondeNet, said, "The whole point of this is to get leaner in a lean year."

Part of the reason, she said, was Conde Nast's decision to slow down the rollout of 16 "companion" Web sites for its magazines, of which the eighth, for beauty title Allure, went up last week. The other reason, she added, was "the overall slowdown in the marketplace" and at Conde Nast.

"It's going to be a tough year," Ms. Chubb said. The ad sales department was the only area of CondeNet not affected by the cutbacks. Ms. Chubb said about half the cuts came from editorial positions, and the rest were the result of merging technical positions with the Jersey City, N.J.-based AdvanceNet, which handles newspaper Web sites for Conde Nast's parent company, Advance Publications.

Copyright March 2001, Crain Communications Inc.