Thomas Nelson Cuts 54 Positions 

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 12/3/2008 7:27:00 AM

In a statement on his blog Tuesday night, Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt announced that the Christian publishing house has laid off 54 employees, or 10% of its workforce. The entry, dubbed "The Recession Hits Home," explained that the cuts, which take effect on Friday, affect almost all departments and were necessary because of the slumping economy. 

This round of layoffs is the second Thomas Nelson has recently endured, as Hyatt noted in the entry; in April the publisher laid off a small number of employees that spokesperson Lindsey Nobles described only as "a single digit percentage of our workforce." These cuts, which Hyatt said he was hoping he wouldn't have to make--he wrote that "as recently as September 19, I assured our employees that we were not planning another reduction in our workforce"--were impossible to avoid given the sales reports from September and October.