RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ … 
HBO, FX Lead Critics’ Choice TV Awards — But … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Lionsgate Acquires U.S. On Guillaume Canet’s … 
Toronto Fest Lands World Preem Of Godfrey Reggio’s … 
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
UPDATE: Yes, my info is correct – BWR public relations made 7 staff cuts today. A total of 5 junior and 2 midlevel flacks were laid off in the corporate area. No senior publicists were let go, and no one from the entertainment area. “After years of strong annual growth, we decided to ‘right-size’ the company based on current economic conditions and the weakness in the hospitality, retail and consumer products sectors,” an insider tells me. The firm is not ID’ing those laid off, which I think is a mistake because it helps them get hired sooner. UPDATE: I am hearing that Heather McGuire (Events) and Alfred Hopton (Sports) were among those let go.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
I have barely any emotion left for this anymore. Every day more layoffs. It’s just…unjust. My heart goes out to my PR colleagues.
i hear many assts. at BWR will be let go.
Only a PR firm would use the term ‘right-size’. Well, maybe Obama would too. It’s a very positive way to put things. Makes me feel pretty good about it all. How about you? Let’s right-size the American workforce everybody and lay people off!
writer-boy
“Right-size”? That’s an even bigger douchebag marker than “proactive” or “empower.”
Good luck to those who were “right-sized.”
“Right-sized” – that is insulting! I bet their decision doesn’t feel “right” to the people that were laid off. Have some damn respect – Baker, Winokur and Ryder.
After being “right-sized,” many will be interfacing with the unemployment office.
No wonder this PR firm had to lay people off. The people who are still employed there use a jackass corporate-speak term like “right-size.” I hope it never finds work again. A word like that is completely offensive to the people who just lost their jobs.
When I and three other co-workers were laid off, our employer had the good decency to say the quality of the institution was going to suffer because of the move. I hope prospective clients of this PR firm read this post. And I hope they never pay this firm a single dime. “Right-size?” Are you kidding me? Shame. Shame. Shame.
Tell me how this firm ever found work in the first place if a jackass, like this “insider” quoted in the post, works there?
in addition to being a class act and awesome guy; Hopton recently had a baby. Such a sad and disgusting thing for BWR to do.
Alfred Hopton is a great publicist- I have worked with him for years—What an insult ! Prior to working at BWR Alfred worked for years with Maureen O’Connor at Rogers & Cowan. Me thinks that there is a bigger story behind his being let-go from BWR. One of the BWR Sports Division’s biggest clients is the WWE. Perhaps the WWE is about to end their pr contract with BWR – not Alfred’s fault- but it’s the WWE- how much Hollywood PR can a good publicist really get them- so if the WWE is handing BWR seperation papers (ie- they don’t want BWR to handle their publicity anymore) then Alfred is just a fall guy due to this lost highpaying account. I’m just speculating here…
Heather McGuire is also a wonderful person and publicist. She was with BWR for a very long time and it’s too bad BWR didn’t feel she was “right”.
There are so many people there that have much larger paychecks and are much larger idiots.
i hope the company is “right-sized” now, wouldnt want anyone else to lose the opportunity to get a stapler thrown at them by Matt Labov
don’t think it fair to judge upper management at BWR. Having worked for the CEO’s for almost four years I know it was a difficult thing for them to do. Times are tough. I will say there is some other “fat” that maybe should have been trimmed there but unfortunately the PR “monthly retainer” business model is a dying breed.
Shout outs to the BWR 7 (I heard 12) especially Alf and Heather, whom I got to work with:
http://plopculture.blogspot.com/2009/01/im-pourin-40-for-my-boy-alfs-job.html
and really the problem is clients that don’t fulfill their contracts. there are so many that sign up with the best pr firms in the world and decide to skip out on their bills. so many times that happened to me and all the work was for nothing.
clients sign contracts in hopes that the press will bring them the funds so they can pay their bills. what bwr needs is a more hawkish collections and legal department.