Shake-up at Advantage?

Note: there has been an update on this story, which appears below.

I heard last night and today that Rich Reiff’s Advantage business media, a new platform started from Reed’s old New Jersey new product division, is getting-rid-of/losing 14 of its employees. To put this into perspective, Advantage had about 211 people when it was first formed, reduced to about 193 initially, and will have 178 after this recent set of departures.

Out of the others supposedly axed/leaving, I’ve heard these names:

Lori Eppel, the VP of finance

Rose Welsh, PR

Chris Zicker, an internal sales guy

Tim Canny, group publisher of the processing group

Steve Wirth, group publisher of the electronics group

Steve Koppleman, circulation director

Mike Botta, editorial director

Kay Christopher, a salesperson on one of the electronics books

Anita LaFond, an editor on Manufacturing.net

These are some serious people that are leaving. I’ve also heard rumors that different interested parties are eyeing certain books in the Advantage portfolio.

UPDATE

Since I wrote this post, I received a phone message from Rich Reiff, CEO of Advantage, who I did reach out to several times today. Right now, it’s 7:08 pm, Friday night.

In the message, Reiff corrected me and said that there are 180+ employees at Advantage due to an acquisition, and that Lori Eppel, the VP of finance is leaving of her own accord in August to live in Chicago with her family.

I regret the error and will continue to update you on the story to set the record straight.