One minute we hear the advertising industry is rebounding, the next we see the New York Times, Wired.com and just about every other media property is slashing their staff.

U.S. News & World Report didn’t want to be left out of the trend, sending nine employees (or is it 10?) into the firey furnace that is media unemployment.

While the Mort Zuckerman-owned newsweekly retains its grip on third place behind Time and Newsweek, the job cuts are in line with their strategy to put more effort into their website and, well, let the print edition grovel for scraps.

But we’re feeling most for Sara Sklaroff and Linda Kulman, two staffers who received their walking papers while on maternity leave. So while they’re struggling to support a growing family on a journalist’s salary, their belated baby shower gift of unemployment should go nicely with that Bugaboo.