Update: 65 to lose jobs in KofP as Hibu shuts local magazines

FRIDAY UPDATE: While Hibu is closing its community-magazines business -- the subject of WARN Act business-closing notices sent to state and local officials -- the company has other operations in King of Prussia that will continue, spokesman Andrew Speybey tells me this morning. He won't say what businesses, or how many people will still work for the company locally, or how many home-based workers have been separately terminated.

Speybey also provides this statement by CEO David Eckert, to employees, from Monday: "Although the efforts of our editorial, product, fulfilment, and sales teams have been strong, and the product superb, we will be discontinuing our magazine business in the U.S., as we cannot see a clear path to near term, sustainable profitability. This decision is consistent with previous actions in the U.K., Spain, and LatAm." Any additional information will only be provided "where necessary in compliance with the WARN Act," he added.

THURSDAY: Hibu Inc., the British-owned phone-directories publisher formerly known in the U.S. as Yellowbook.com, will close its non-union publishing operation at 2201 Renaissance Blvd., King of Prussia, by June 6, and terminate all 65 employees, according to a letter the company sent state and local officials April 7, as required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

The company told workers it was cutting costs at multiple locations "to protect the future of the digital business at a time of continuing decline in our directories' revenue," Hibu told workers in a statement Monday, according to this article in the Norristown Times Herald which did not specify the number of jobs to be cut. Hibu's Web site says it operates U.S. centers in Bellevue, Wash.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Woodlands, Tex.; Uniondale, N.Y.; and "local offices in 48 states." Hibu also has locations in the U.K., Spain, Latin America, India and the Philippines.

"Employees in Hibu's office in the Philippines will be trained to pick up some of the work currently being done in King of Prussia," the Times Herald added, citing an unnamed employee. Reached at the King of Prussia office, a Hibu human resources official declined to comment and referred questions to a company official who did not immediately respond.

Media observer Jim Romenesko says here that "nearly 200 journalists" were hired for Hibu's U.S. local-news operations in recent years, some fulltime and some parttime, to write 600 "hyper-local" 32-page full-color peridicals mailed to upper-income households. But workers began fearing for their jobs after a financial reorganization under business consultants at Deloitte last year, followed by the hiring of new bosses. The community news group has now been closed, Romenesko says, quoting unnamed workers.

ALSO: I've heard from people who say they work for Hibu that dozens of workers at the Woodlands, Texas location were laid off last month.