Time to move on

Digitas announced plans to lay off approximately 70 of 2,100 US-based employees, citing reduced client budgets. Non-US employees will not be affected.

"We have redeployed talent wherever possible, but the realities of the current economy did require that we let some talented people go in order to best position the agency for continued growth and success," one spokesperson stated.

Digitas, the digital unit of global conglomerate Publicis Groupe, has offices in Atlanta, New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Norwalk. Its major clients include General Motors and American Express.

Layoffs at Digitas follow dire portents by analysts of the state of advertising in 2009. Fitch Ratings said ad weakness across all major categories, including local advertising, and the recession would contribute to a global media slump as the new year transitions. ZenithOptimedia and Borrell Associates project ad spend in '09 will fall 6.2% and 1.4%, respectively.

An earlier version of this story mistakenly confused the number of Digitas US employees (2,100) with the number planned for downsizing.

Online, downsizing has become a speculator sport. Last week NBCU and Viacom began trimming down their labor forces. And yesterday, the blogosphere was abuzz with live-action coverage of Yahoo's large-scale pink slip distributions.

Recent weeks have also seen cutbacks at agencies like Razorfish, Modernista and Curiosity Group.