TechCrunch reprints Jerry Yang's email to his fellow yahoos, announcing the 10% layoffs in an effort to save $400 million. No indication of any real strategic changes unfortunately. Kara Swisher draws a comparison between Yang's continued blind optimism and that of the McCain campaign. Ouch.
Readers of this blog know that I've been a vocal supporter of Donors Choose. The Donors Choose bloggers challenge is currently on. Rather than entering this blog directly, I've made my donations through Fred Wilson's Donors Choose page and would encourage you to do the same. Fred's blog is a nose ahead of TechCrunch and All Things D right now, but there are some amazing projects that still need funding. Why not take a minute to help Mrs. S's Texas classroom buy the flash drives they need for their Spoken Word project or contribute towards the purchase of a digital camcorder for Mrs. O's New York City math class so they can use multimedia to generate excitement about math. You can donate as little as a few dollars (or fully fund the project if you so choose). Donors Choose is making a huge difference in the life of our students and it's the most rewarding charitable donation process I've ever seen. Try it and you'll be hooked like me.
Last, on a sad note, former Primedia founder and CEO Bill Reilly passed away last Friday. Bill was the longtime president of Macmillan, then went on to found Primedia (then K-III Communications) when Macmillan was sold to Robert Maxwell's Maxwell Communications. At its peak, Bill led the company to more than $2 billion in revenue. A financial analyst by training, it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch him dissect a business unit's financials on a white board. More than anything though, Bill was a gentleman and a pleasure to work with. He will truly be missed.
