With major entertainment and media-related companies furloughing staffers and cutting salaries across the board due to the coronavirus lockdown (the Los Angeles Times being the most recent example), it is presumed that certain employees of The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard will suffer draconian measures before too long.

Three days ago the headline of an unpublished story by TheWrap‘s J. Clara Chan seemed to confirm the worst. Chan’s story apparently reported that THR and Billboard cutbacks were imminent. The story never surfaced but the headline leaked. The two publications along with SpinMedia are owned by the Greenwich, Connecticut-based Valence Media.

Industry colleague: “That place” — THR — “and its parent company have been financially [struggling] for a long time. Good opportunity for the mean owners to start job eliminating — no surprise here. Why not hit ‘em when they’re down?”