Has Warner Music Group Gone VP Crazy?

Even as WMG was announcing 400 job cuts  and much wider quarterly losses, the company was promising increases
in digital staffing; and yesterday they named ex-Jet Blue exec Peter Scherr to the newly minted post of VP Of Interactive Marketing.  This makes at least the third VP hired in the last week alone at WMG and appears to be a reversal of a promise to cut expensive
executive fat that Bronfman & Co. made to shareholders when they bought the world’s fourth largest label group.

Adding new media staff may be a smart
move for Warners and cool titles may attract talent.  But with VP status also comes VP salaries as well as expensive perks and benifits.  More VP’s also means more cumbersome levels of middle management.

With revenues dropping, don’t WMG and all the majors need more cost-effective foot soldiers – think the young 80 work week crowd that you find at tech startups – and fewer suits in the executive suites?