Spokane cuts 60; editor Steve Smith resigns

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/381460_spokesman02.html?source=rss

Wow. Just ... wow.

edit after reading all it...: Steve Smith is a great guy. An Oregon alum, he recruited from our j-school every year, often every term, coming down to Eugene, talking to classrooms and the student newspaper staff and conducting hiring interviews on campus. There is probably an abnormal amount of Duck alum in the Spokane newsroom, but he only recruited the best and brightest of us (and no, I wasn't one of them, although I wish I had been). Everyone I know who ever worked there or interned at his shop said Smith was the best EE they'd met. ...

On another note, wow -- 25 more newsroom folks? How many in sports? Everyone there was already being worked to the bone (like the rest of the industry, I know), IIRC. Good luck to those there.

 

To put it in perspective, that's about a quarter of the newsroom personnel.

And I'll echo what Ducky had to say about Steve. I've worked for him at two different places, and while he tends to shake things up (which turned a lot of people off) he's good people.

 

Found something with more from Smith in one of the S-R's blogs: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/boise/

 

so much for all that money they were/are gonna save from dropping ap...

 

Three in sports, unless a voluntary layoff saves one.

 

A really dark day in Northwest journalism. Really dark. Without people like Smith, I don't see much hope for the industry. The "vision" folks who might help lead newspapers out of the desert are fewer, and the folks that would choose to stay put and wait for a rescue party are hanging on. At least the Donner Party waited for the others to be dead before they started eating up corpses.

 

Smith was one of the few who didn't sugarcoat things during a previous layoff if I recall correctly.

While all the other publishers, top editors were parroting the ridiculous "we'll do more with less" bullsh_t, Smith admitted his paper and its product would suffer.

Kudos to Smith for not advocating what is being done or spitting out some weak, weak quote defending what is being done. He's been as honest and straightforward as any editor out there. Best of luck to everyone in Spokane.

 

definitely one of the few good guys out there. classy move in a shitty situation.

 

and the industry death dive is happening now at an even more precipitous angle. smith is, indeed, one of the good guys. if he can no longer fight the good fight, that doesn't bode well in general.

 

The layoffs are seniority-based...the three in sports are the most recent hires.

 

Their product has suffered badly over the past couple of years. Their newsroom hits have done noticeable damage to their coverage. I'll agree, Steve never sugarcoated it, but that didn't make the paper any more readable. Not sure what this paper will look like after these cuts, but it ain't gonna be pretty.