Brunico Communications yesterday shuttered Boards magazine and the print edition of Playback magazine.
Sources from inside Brunico told Marketing that 22 people were let go in total, including the entire sales and editorial staff of Boards, while Playback retained three editorial staffers to run its online presence. Other departments hit by the lay-offs were audience services, circulation and creative.
However, according to Canadian Press, Brunico president Russell Goldstein said it cut 18 full-time positions–five of them from Playback, six from its international sister magazine, Boards, and the rest from various service departments. While a popular presence in the advertising and commercial production industry, sources inside Brunico suggested company ownership had a difficult time laying out a clear vision for Boards since the 2007 departure of then-publisher Jonathan Block-Verk for Los Angeles-based Promax/BDA.
The changes come soon after the departure of executive vice-president Laas Turnbull.
While Boards also established a strong roster of industry events, sources say the recent Amsterdam Boards Summit didn’t quite meet expectations and that a San Francisco event in collaboration with Boulder Digital Works was abruptly cancelled by senior management, despite strong sponsor support.
Director Michael Gelfand of the Perlorian Brothers and Soft Citizen, said the passing of Boards will leave a significant void in the industry.
“I think around the world they will be missed,” he told Marketing.
“They were very ambitious in what they set out to do. And we have the opportunity to go into agencies and production companies all over the world and this little magazine out of Toronto was out on coffee tables,” he said.
Marketing‘s calls to Goldstein were not returned by press time, but according to the CP story, Goldstein said the Internet is a more “natural home” for Playback, and that it will continue its daily online coverage with five employees.
He said the digital edition boasts 10,000 paid subscribers while the bi-weekly published version reached between 7,000 and 8,000 people.
Meanwhile, Goldstein said the decision to close Boards, which found most of its readers in the United States, was due to the global downturn.
