More layoffs in Durham, N.C.

About a dozen got laid off at the Herald-Sun, including a high schools/desk guy in sports.

They laid off a bunch of folks when Paxton bought the paper in 2005 when a desk guy and a writer got laid off in sports.

 

Oof. This is terrible news. The newsroom is hurting badly as it is. My heart goes out to them.

 

The Independent Weekly has names of the newsroom casualties, with the sports staffer in the comments.

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A261691

And the Herald editor gives a mealy-mouthed explanation.

http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/ashley/index.cfm

 

For the umpteenth time in the last however many months, we are left wondering what this world will look like if and whenever the dust ever settles.

Just a bunch of weeklies and bi-weeklies with all enegries massed toward online with staffs one-third the size?

 

Not surprising at all for a bunch of reasons.

1) Paxton. 'Nuff said.

2) After Paxton did the initial bloodletting before the ink was ever dry on its purchase of the Herald-Sun, it was seeking some new hires, undoubtedly at 50 cents or so on the dollar compared to some of the people it kicked out the door.

3) Its biggest competitor, the Raleigh News & Observer, a McClatchy paper, has undergone some layoffs - including the Sherry Johnson debacle - meaning that Paxton now might think Durham isn't under siege from McClatchy.

It's still disgusting. That newsroom was lean before another housecleaning.

 

Sam Mills,
I couldn't have said it any better myself.
That's three Paxton papers with layoffs in the past two weeks or so. Is there any more bloodshed from this group?

 

Jesus. What a ridiculous "explanation." What an insult to anyone's intelligence.

 

The article states that Durham's circulation has dropped about 38 percent in three years. Wow.

 

A lot of prep guys are getting the ziggy -- which makes no sense, considering the trend to hyperlocal would seemingly start with them

 

It's all they have left to cut, Slappy. They sent their Duke beat writer, Al Featherston, out the door a long time back. Neil Amato, who worked the Chapel Hill beat (perhaps something else ... I've seen him on the board) became the SE in Wilmington, NC. Mike Potter is already overloaded. If sports were to even think of sending off Frank Dascenzo, an underrated columnist and by every account I've heard a really good guy, they might as well shut down the department (which might be next, anyway ... ).

Jimmy DuPree, last I knew, is still SE. What's left?

 

That description - "mealy-mouthed" - fits Bob Ashley to a T ... he was that way when he was an AME at Charlotte, and was even worse (based on info I got from some friends at the paper) when he headed the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. ...

 

Just read an interesting followup in the Indy Week. It really hammers Paxton management and calls them out on the claim that they'll have more reporting resources after the layoffs.

Technically true, but only up one body in the reporting ranks while requiring lots of ridiculously shallow stories.

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A262023