No Clever Way to Say Laid-off

The company I work for CleverMedia Inc. is reorganizing and I’ll be jobless as of Thursday, March 13, 2008. “Beware of the Ides of March” to quote Shakespeare. Gary Rosensweig is the owner and principle of CleverMedia, which he founded in 1997. I worked for CleverMedia from 1999-2002 as Technical Director, and did sound design and some web design for CleverMedia’s game sites. I was laid-off during the first Bush recession, as web advertising revenues dried up. CleverMedia struggled on with only Gary programming games and William the artist/illustrator supplying the artwork.
With the advent Of Web 2.0 and a resurgence of Web advertising CleverMedia’s popular free online games site GameScene.com was generating revenue. As a result, Gary was able to rehire me in 2005.
I was rehired as Video Producer, Gary had started Clevermedia.TV to try to exploit video podcasting and other video for Web opportunities. Over the last three years we produced hundreds of Podcast episodes, and became well known in the Podcasting community for our show “Podcast Salad” with Katie Bevard as host. We also produced a Podcast about books and publishing called “BookStories,” a conspiracy theory spoof podcast called “Secrets of Y” and finally we started producing a podcast called “MacMost” about all things related to Apple computers with Molly Stanberry as the host. Over the three year period, While I worked hard writing, directing and editing video, we we’re unable to find any way of monetizing (making money) from video podcasting. However, we were able to generate some traffic and Ad revenue from the MacMost.com website.
With the softening economy, Gary has decided to cut all full time staff, and continue CleverMedia by managing Gamescene.com and MacMost.com by himself, and hire labor on a contract basis.
I don’t blame him, and I feel bad that we were unable to turn podcasting into a viable business. It was a great ride while it lasted.
I will continue on seeking opportunities in video editing and producing, as a freelancer while looking for a full time employment. Any leads or contacts that you may be able to send my way are greatly appreciated.