Big cuts in Arkansas

Gosh, I could have sworn I just saw a job posting for that shop.

Yep, here it is... straight from my email inbox on August 21.

Do you love editing and writing headlines for a variety of stories, from fast-breaking local news to detailed accounts of international events? Are you searching for a job at a newspaper that puts a premium on its print product?

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, the 25th-largest daily newspaper in the U.S., is looking for news copy editors. In our newsroom, copy editors can concentrate on honing their editing and headline-writing skills. Copy editors also help on the wire desk, which builds stories using articles from different services. Our daily newshole has enviable space for international, national and local news.

The successful candidate for this position on our night news copy desk should have a bachelor's degree in journalism or related field and at least two years of daily newspaper experience. Internship experience also is considered. He or she must know grammar, Associated Press style, punctuation and libel, and, of course, have a portfolio full of accurate, lively headlines. Leadership and/or wire-editing experience are pluses.

Each applicant brought in for an interview will take a copy-editing test and have an editing and headline-writing tryout.

Competitive salary is based on experience. Resumes, including a list of job references and examples of headlines and editing should be directed to: Sandra Tyler, news editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR 72203 or styler@arkansasonline.com. Phone: (501) 378-3886.

 

Heard the released employees' passwords into the system were almost instantaneously disabled.

 

A. that's a news opening.
B. the cuts were at the northwest bureau, not the ADG proper.

 

Yeah, I've heard stories about writers being told over the phone or by text while covering a game. I think it was the Baltimore Sun a few years back that got rid of a couple writers and at least one of them found out while covering an Orioles game. I know of others who have tried to use company credit cards while on the road and finding out that the card had been canceled. I know of a writer who was a few weeks removed from finishing his season and he went on a two-week vacation and was told on his second day gone that he was being let go...

There's no good way to do it, but there are definitely really, really bad ways to do it.

 

Somebody's going to snap one of these days.
Doubtful many of these schemes have built-in support mechanisms.

 

Didn't that turn out to be that the guy found out he was being laid off and said, screw you, I'm going to the Orioles game?

 

The story is pretty well known at this point: David Steele and Rick Maese, two of the Sun's three (at the time) sports columnists, were covering an Orioles game and received phone calls in the press box telling them they were laid off. Steele's now at Sporting News, Maese at The Washington Post.

 

i'm sure it's just because i've worked in the business for as long as i have, but it always seems as the the colossal eff-ups such as that usually take place at newspapers.

 

Glad I left NAN to take the job in Colorado. Fires took my old beat covering Har-Ber, so at least one person was able to keep a job. I shared an office with these guys for a year. This is really depressing for me to hear. I hope Marty and Lane land on their feet soon.