Tough times in Philly. Merry Christmas

MORE LAYOFFS PLANNED
The company informed Guild leadership this afternoon that it intends to eliminate 35 bargaining-unit jobs at the Inquirer and Daily News effective Dec. 31.

The layoffs as planned would come primarily from the newsrooms, specifically from the photo and graphic arts departments and the copy desk. The company also plans to cut six positions in advertising.

And for the last time, no, Philebrity is not hiring. We’ll ponder this at greater length tomorrow when Philebs returns. The rest of the bad news — including specific cuts, and the number you, PMH Employee, can call if you wanna throw down for a voluntary layoff — after the jump.

Layoffs among management are also planned. The company would not say how many. Tomorrow, it will send letters to all 320-plus independent employees across the company asking for volunteers. If it does not get enough volunteers, the company said it will resort to forced layoffs of independents. Management cuts are assured in all departments.

The projected Guild layoffs are as follows:
At the Inquirer:
7 photographers
2 photo lab technicians
3 photo editors
7 copy editors
3 graphic artists

At the Daily News:
1 photographer
4 part-time copy editors
1 full-time copy editor
1 graphic artist

In Advertising:
4 outside sales positions
2 retail supervisor positions

The company said the job cuts are necessary as revenue continues to decline.

The Guild leadership urges anyone interested in volunteering for a layoff to contact Administrative Officer Bill Ross at 215-928-0118 (the Guild office) or 267-240-8540 (his cell) as soon as possible.

The company has indicated it will accept volunteers in any job category but is most interested in achieving the numbers in the categories outlined above. Volunteers in those targeted categories will be accepted and will save a fellow member on a one-for-one basis based on seniority.

Volunteers who are accepted will be entitled to full severance pay, unemployment, unused 2008 vacation and personal days and COBRA health insurance coverage up to 18 months. They also would be eligible for recall for one year. The same applies for any employee laid off involuntarily.

Guild leaders will resume discussions with the company tomorrow

 

Why are they laying off so many photographers? That seems like a lot to me.

 

I'm guessing, and I'm really guessing here, that they will use more wire and if they're web size has shrunk there is less room for photos.

That seems to be the case where I'm at; smaller paper size means one good photo per page, not two in some cases.

Often when I'm on the desk, it's a big, solid photo and then a one column photo or mugshots to break up the text. Oh, and the banner/strip ads across the bottom of course.

 

I don't know if the Inky's e-mail contacts list is all-inclusive, but that looks like more than a third of its photo staff, editors included.

 

The probelm in Philly is that you have a business man who doesn't know a thing about newspapers running everything. As a result, he's in a financial boat that is taking on a lot of water.

 

You could just replace Philly with ______ and then use this post as a copy-paste for all of these threads.

 

Not really. Philly was sold by Knight-Ridder and that began the chaos that exists today, somewhat.

 

One issue here is that the Inky and the Daily News are separate entities produced from the same building, owned by the same people. They combined the photo staffs several months ago. I don't work at the Inky, maybe somebody with more knowledge can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm told they had like, 25 staff photogs. The combined department needs fewer people (one shooter for both papers now vs. one for each paper at, say, a Penn-Drexel basketball game).
None of which, of course, makes this any less painful for the families of those laid off.

 

You are correct although I never, and should, keep up with the number.