Huntsville Times buyouts

At least he was No. 1 ...

 

From e-mail sent to employees today:

Sports Editor: John Turner

John is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and comes to us from the Kerrville Daily Times, where he is sports editor. John is an energetic, hard-working and versatile editor who has distinguished himself in writing, planning and page design. His work was recently honored by the Associated Press Sports Editor contest judges with top honors in feature series and page design. He finished in the Top 10 nationally for column writing and third in Texas.

 

congrats to young John Turner for securing a prestigious position. Make sure you say hello when the legendary general and former SE John Pruett stops by the shop.

 

His last column in Kerrville.
http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=214a34f3a30baa57

 

All kinds of hirings lately in Huntsville.

 

Very interesting ones, too.

 

If "interesting" translates to "inexperienced and cheap (but Internet savvy)" then yes, they are.

 

Having read this sports editor's goodbye column, I take it that he is 18 months out of school.

Call me naive, but I wonder if it's possible to find someone in this job market with a tad more experience.

 

Hearing rumblings of 5 days' furlough before end of 2011, a 3rd round of buyouts since 2009 and salaried employees' pay cut in Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville.

If so, ... damn. Hate it for friends and former co-workers at all three newspapers.

Can anyone confirm?

 

The Birmingham News Co. announced to its employees today a voluntary buyout opportunity and a mandatory one-week furlough for full-time workers.

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2011/08/the_birmingham_news_announces.html