LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Baltimore Sun....

... This week's ugly spate of 100's of "voluntary buyouts" can stop just about any time.

Scary times...

 

At least the ad above provides some comfort: "Jobs for News Writers" AHN is continuing to expand its news division ... careercenter.allheadlinenews.com

 

Should this not be considered a scare tactic?

 

Consider that three of the four named papers are from the Trib chain, and the fourth is a Media News property.

I'm not sugarcoating these, believe me. If Gannett, Lee and McClatchy join the fray here shortly, then a good dose of syrup of ipecac might be in order.

 

At least they're buyouts. My shop is quietly doing layoffs.

 

Trust me on this one: Media executives are going to look back on 2006-2007 in about five years and say, "Man, we were really shortsighted." Won't fix the problem, of course, but the lack of vision at the top is going to become apparent at some point pretty soon.

 

When was the last time USA Today had buyouts or layoffs?

 

I believe they laid off around a dozen from the newsroom in about 2002 or so. Not aware of any since.

 

The Mother Ship always gets what it needs, or something close. The rest of the chain often has to suffer to pay the freight.

 

A couple of questions from a rube here at a family owned paper in flyover country.

Are a lot of the buyouts and layoffs just in in the newsroom or are every other department of the newspaper cut also? Are the layoffs at the major metros or are medium and small papers being impacted too?

And generally, what kind of belt tightening have you seen at your respective papers?

Just kind of curious.

 

My paper just isn't hiring replacements when someone leaves.