Beliefnet cuts staff, sale offerings

Christian Century, May 16, 2001

Beliefnet, a major online location addressing religion, spirituality and morality, has reduced its staff and will scale back the e-commerce aspect of its business. Steven Waldman, cochairman and editor in chief of the New York-based Web site, said his overall staff has decreased from 02 in mid-February to 52 in mid-April, due to layoffs and attrition.

"We had to cut back a little bit in costs, which includes some staff cuts," he said. "Basically, the overall picture for us financially is good, but we had several different revenue streams. One of them was e-commerce and that basically didn't work out." Sales of books, music, videos and products like "Zen garden fountains" have not been as successful as hoped, he said.

Waldman predicted that unlike other dot-corns that lay off part of their staff and close a few months later, Beliefnet will have a different future. "The cutbacks put us on a real good financial footing," he said.

In a separate development related to the Internet and religion, Christianity.com announced it has entered a three-year, $3.3 million strategic partnership with Crosswalk.com. Christianity, com, a provider of site management for Christian organizations, will provide Web content management technology leading to the redesign of Crosswalk.com, a Christian site that promotes integrating faith and values into everyday life.--RNS