BAD NEWS: The Wall Street Journal reports News Corp. is cutting a large number of jobs from its news division to shift "resources into digital media efforts and core coverage areas." Bureaus in Europe and Asia, as well as smaller coverage groups in the US, will be shuttered or scaled down.
It appears that Amplify, News Corp.'s education division, is undergoing a shakeup as well. Chris Cerf, the former New Jersey Education Commissioner who joined Amplify in February 2014 to lead the assessment division, appears to have departed (at least on the company's leadership page). So, too, has Stephen Smyth, who was in charge of Amplify's tablet effort.
According to News Corp,'s latest earnings report, Amplify (classified under "Digital Education") saw $21 million in revenues in the first three months of 2015, "which was flat compared with the prior year." The company's EBITDA, however, improved 53 percent--suggesting that the company has cut down on costs.
