EMI, home to Norah Jones and Coldplay, plans to cut its workforce by more than one-third, consolidating support services and restructuring the company to eliminate up to 2,000 jobs, according to several British newspapers.
The Telegraph is reporting that Guy Hands, whose Terra Firma equity firm bought EMI last year, plans to invest in new talent scouts and supporting new acts, while reducing marketing. The Times is reporting that Hands plans to focus on the fact that half of the company's profits come from its back catalog -- from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, David Bowie and others -- even though that portion of the company employs 4 times fewer than the new music end of the company.
Hopefully, Hands recognizes that those back catalog hits required a great number of marketing and back office people to turn them into the hits that they were and that they have become. If he doesn't, the once-mighty EMI may become a past-obsessed shadow of its former self very quickly.
PHOTO: Norah Jones by Danny Clinch for EMI.