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January 8, 2008, 4:41 pm

McGraw-Hill and ‘information transparency’

McGraw-Hill (MHP), owner of Standard & Poor’s and Business Week, said Tuesday it has cut 3% of its staff in a move to hold down costs. The New York-based business and educational publisher said its restructuring plan resulted in 600 fourth-quarter layoffs, half of them at McGraw-Hill Education. “Reducing staff is never an easy decision,” the company says, though it hastens to add the deal will “fortify the corporation’s long-term growth prospects.”

McGraw-Hill goes on to note that the global economy has three critical needs, including “the need for information transparency.” Fair enough. Yet in the same breath, McGraw-Hill lapses into obfuscating flack-speak. Its press release attributes the business publishing group layoffs, for instance, to the “reallocation of certain resources to support continued digital-evolution and productivity initiatives,” and blames the education group firings on “steps to centralize certain management functions and to better leverage outsourcing opportunities.” If this is information transparency, we’ll take a pass.

And on the subject of transparency, Fortune certainly has no vested interest in kicking a competitor while it’s down?

Posted By Dan - Reno, NV : January 8, 2008 6:43 pm
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Colin Barr covers business and finance for Fortune.com. Previously he was an editor at TheStreet.com and author of the weekly Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column, and an editor at Dow Jones Newswires.
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