WebMediaBrands, parent company of mediabistro.com and this blog, laid off 60 employees Tuesday. As CEO Alan Meckler blogged the following day: "There is a story behind the layoffs."

That story, after the jump...

"The economy is overall most responsible for the firings," Meckler wrote, but also attributed the shifts to recent "huge change" at WebMediaBrands: The company announced completion of its previously announced sale of its JupiterImages arm to Getty Images, Inc. on February 23, along with its name change from JupiterMedia Corp. to WebMediaBrands Inc.

"Most of the changes we made were based on better integrating the operations and Web sites of our three main networks [mediabistro.com, Graphics.com, and Internet.com]," Meckler said in his post. As he told PaidContent, "I can't control the economy, however, we're now pretty lean and mean and we have a lot of great businesses."