Bay Area bloodbath

Anyone have any idea how many folks they want gone? And does this include San Jose? (Romenesko summary doesn't specifically say.)

The memo from John Armstrong says that everyone but operating directors and himself will be receive buyout info, with corporate then deciding who actually gets approved to go. It ominously adds that, if it doesn't get enough volunteers, people will be laid off and the layoffs will get only half the severance pay that the buyout applicants receive.

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13148

"We must reduce our operating costs, and we must do so quickly," says a buyout memo to employees at the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and other Bay Area News Group papers. "In the past few months, we've relied on attrition to bring down the number of employees, but that no longer is adequate. ...We are not announcing the number of job eliminations. ...But I will say this: The number of jobs that will be eliminated will be significant."

 

No. Surprise. At. All.

:'( :'( :'(

 

Fuck you, Singleton. Fuck you with an unlubricated broom handle.

 

Good ol' Lean Dean at it again. Wrecked Southern California papers. Wrecking -- as predicted -- Northern California papers. Has his eyes set on the Orange County Register with this "consolidation" bullshit.

 

Between what's about to happen to the Singleton papers and what's happened to the Examiner, is the Bay Area a dying market?

 

Um, I'd venture to say there are many dying markets.

 

sad thing is, singleton only is one of many fucked up owners today.

my heart goes out to those who no longer will be employed for simply doing their jobs.

 

I understand that there are many dying markets. I'm asking if the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose area has become one of those markets.

 

Note to self:

Invent time machine, go back in time, and convince Dean Singleton to funnel his money into the tobacco industry or something similar instead of newspapers.

 

With Lean running things into the ground there -- and in less than two years -- I'd say yes.

 

and, btw, fuck DS for what he's done to some pretty damn good papers.

 

Is it still a vital market? Probably so.
Is it dying because of the owner as opposed to the market itself? Probably more so.