Last Day at Atex (nee Mactive)

Shortly before 9 a.m., my boss Bill phoned me to say the company was conducting a reduction in force and that today would be my last day with Atex. After seven years collaborating with some of the best professionals in the business, working dozens of projects and meeting hundreds of great people at customer sites, it's a bit unsettling not knowing what I'll do next.

Our industry is in the doldrums right now. Newspapers are facing pressure on two fronts. First, the economy in the United States is in distress right now, whether it's auto manufacturers, retailers or the housing industry. All of those companies are bread-and-butter newspaper advertisers, so their ad budgets are shrinking.

Second, much of the advertising revenue that had been devoted to newspapers has shifted to the web. Companies like Craigslist and Google are growing, while newspaper ad revenues are declining. I saw some stats last month saying classified advertising revenues are down 24.9% this year.

With bad economic news like that among our customer base, it's inevitable that our company would be affected. In fact, today's news was at least the third time in the last two months that reductions in force have occurred. Not many people have been affected at Atex each time, but today was my turn.