The fairly significant announcement that Landmark Communication was considering selling The Weather Channel (with potentially as high as a $5 billion price tag according to some rumors) received a good deal of attention in the press, especially within media circles. What went somewhat unnoticed was the fact that Landmark Communication is also pursuing ’strategic alternatives’ for Dominion Enterprises, the parent company of the Employment Guide. In the press release, Landmark Chairman and CEO Frank Batten, Jr. said, “At this early stage, we cannot speculate on where this process will lead. We will consider various options, and, at the end, we will advise employees and customers of our conclusions.”
The Employment Guide publishes its free-to-the-public weekly jobs papers in roughly the 55 largest metro markets in the U.S. Since JobDig began competing directly against the Guide in a handful of our markets (Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Omaha, Oklahoma City and, most recently, Little Rock), we have noticed that their papers are getting thinner and thinner, with an average page count of about 8-12 pages. This is surprisingly the case even in the Guide’s largest markets such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, etc. As a pretty good indication of the regard the Guide has for its readers (or how desperate they are for revenue), the company continues to sell bogus job scam ads that prey on the most vulnerable in the jobseeker market. My guess is that Landmark sees a pretty decent recession on the horizon and, combined with the inherent weakness in the Guide’s operations and business model, is unwilling to fund the losses that are most likely going to ensue.