Starting next year, publishing giant Random House will "freeze" pensions for employees and stop granting such benefits to new employees.

Spokesman Stuart Applebaum stressed that current employee pensions "will not be reduced." Also, the publisher will still support 401k plans with matching funds. The AP article has more: "Applebaum said talk of cutting pension had been going on for years, although changes at Random House have been expected since Markus Dohle replaced Peter Olson in May as chairman of the publisher's worldwide operations."

At the end of October, Random House's Doubleday division announced 16 layoffs. This pension news followed another set of gloomy headlines as Barnes & Noble announced that sales from "stores 15 months or older" fell 7.4 percent from previous years. (Via Huffington Post)