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Textbook publisher shelving 550 jobs

We'll cheer when they start laying off test producers.


FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

McGraw-Hill Cos., which has educational publishing operations in central Ohio, has cut 550 jobs, or 2.5 percent of its work force, it said yesterday.

McGraw-Hill said the deepest cutbacks were in the education unit, which lost 340 positions, followed by information and media with 125 and financial services with 85.

A spokesman could not offer details on how the layoffs might affect its central Ohio operations. The company has several offices locally, including at Easton, Polaris and Gahanna. It also has a distribution center in Groveport.

However, "Columbus remains a significant driver of our education business," said Jason Feuchtwanger, senior manager in corporate communications.

McGraw-Hill's Columbus operations employ more than 1,000 people, including more than 100 workers who are focusing on the company's new Center for Digital Innovation. The number of Columbus employees working on the new venture, announced last month, is expected to grow as schools use more Web-based learning tools.

The New York company also owns BusinessWeek magazine and the credit-ratings agency Standard & Poor's. It said it will take a $24.3 million pretax charge for severance costs in the second quarter.

Accounting for taxes and lower-than-expected costs from previous cutbacks, the charge will amount to about 3 cents per share.

The recession has cut across a broad swath of the company's businesses. McGraw-Hill reported a 22 percent drop in first-quarter profit in April.

Revenue from the education and financial-services units fell more than 5 percent year-over-year. Information and media, including BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates, saw revenue slide 7.4 percent.

This week, the company signaled that it might seek a buyer for BusinessWeek, which is facing an industrywide crisis brought on by the shift of advertisers to the Internet on top of a severe recession.



— staff
Columbus Dispatch
2009-07-17
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2009/07/17/mcgraw_hill_layoffs.ART_ART_07-17-09_A10_48EGD0V.html

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