Big cuts in Salt Lake City

Since the News is church-owned - I could see the BYU or LDS cable network developing a website with news etc. on it. Perhaps a section on Salt Lake City happenings...

 

Seriously? What website?

 

Hilarious.
Digital news sources? Aside from Twitter does this include just short little snippets on Iphones? Looks like this will be the next step. Every paper hacks half the staff. Obviously in cutting that many bodies, the newspaper will be going all online with no print product whatsoever. No way they'll be able to reinvent themselves and have half the staff cut and still put out a print newspaper.

 

They got rid of every part time scoreboarder and phone answerer.

I have no idea how they'll put together a scoreboard or agate page or take phone calls from 200 high school games on a given day.

The Deseret News just gave away whatever claim it had to be an authoritative voice on local sports in any way shape or form.

 

Yeah but the suits kept their jobs. That's all they care about.

 

Actually, the publisher and editor resigned as well. They may have had a more significant severance package than the rest of the staff was offered, but they're gone, too.

 

Thanks for the info, Idaho. I spoke with John Coon last night, who filled me in on the staff details I was curious about. I'm shocked about the phone answering/clerk help. I always felt like the Des was a step ahead of me on local schedules and scores, which was certainly frustrating. It seems like they've given up on the area they had an advantage in.

 

Wow. I remember three years ago, the D-News' goal was to have a gamer of every high school football game, and paid stringers the same rate if a story was online only.

 

For those wondering, I was one of those let go yesterday. Came as a complete shock considering I felt I was one of the very few on the staff embracing and actively using new and digital media in my daily routine - plus I was breaking news on some of the biggest stories to hit the state in years even when not on my beats. I thought that would have made me an ideal candidate to keep around but when the cuts are 42 percent deep, it's hard to make sense of any decision because there honestly is no sense to it.

Before anyone starts sending me well wishes, I'm perfectly OK and have some very exciting job opportunities opening up to me already. First interview is tomorrow, in fact, and with a PR agency that knew me and contacted me within an hour of me walking out the door.

 

Good luck, Idaho!

 

Well, my chain wants to embrace members of the community to provide content online that we can use in print. I'm guessing my paper goes twice-weekly or just becomes a bureau of the big paper in the chain.

 

Congratulations Idaho. You must have a great reputation to have so many offers already. His/her story proves again that it really doesn't matter if you embrace the new media or not or if you are breaking a batch of stories and excelling. They'll still get rid of you.