Position eliminations: Ballpark figure

This from the Houston Chronicle editor's post-layoff, all-is-well memo:

"This is the most interesting time I can remember in 30 years of working as a journalist."

Interesting, huh? Yeah, sure is interesting when long-tenured professionals are losing their jobs to pad the bottom line.

 

We know what triggered the buyout trend.

But when did the position whacking begin?

I think back to the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and there didn't seem to be many layoffs then -- then again, I could be wrong, as I was pretty young at the time. Of course, many two-paper towns were becoming one-paper towns around that time, too.

Have staffing levels always been cyclical?

 

How about the rest of that paragraph, where he wrings his hands while noting that this is the type of stuff a newspaper has to do "to stay competitive." Competitive?

No, it's what a newspaper chooses to do to keep its profit margins at an exorbitantly high level. Reduce staff, end careers and damage the product, then wonder why cancelled subscriptions and lost ad dollars continue next week and next month. Moron.