McGraw-Hill is currently trying to sell off BusinessWeek, but they'll be lucky to make a buck on the deal. Worse: today the company announced it has laid off 550 people.

A tipster tells us that of the 550, "340 people laid off mostly in the school textbook publishing division (40 in NY, including entire copyediting department - closing Los Angeles office completely)."

McGraw-Hill buried the layoffs at the verrrry bottom of a press release that led with the headline, "The McGraw-Hill Companies Creates Achievement-Focused PreK-12 Education Group to Help Students Develop 21st Century Skills." That restructuring=layoffs.

The job cuts amount to about 3% of McGraw-Hills work force.
[Headquarters pic via]