Am I Next?

[harbinger]

With just about every newspaper/magazine/website downsizing almost quarterly, it's not a bad idea to take a look at the people who are most targeted and for the survivors to ask themselves: How long before I fit one of those categories?

1. National beat
2. Secondary beat
3. Backup beat writers
4. Bureau job
5. Age: over 40
6. Among highest paid
7. Most tenure
8. Least tenure

I see there are some hiring managers who visit this site. Given how much effort they've put in to come up with lists of possible layoff targets as part of their job, it would be generous if they could be honest and provide their own lists of what's getting slashed and in what order. I know much of this is repetitive, but I just thought it would be good to put it all in one place.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I don't think tenure matters at all.

Right now, national beat is a euphemism for "waiting to be bought out"

Higher salary definitely makes you a bigger target.

I think preps guys, even ones in a bureau, have better job security than some of those who are on a college beat.

If you live and report outside of your circulation area, that's another way to know you're ****ed.

 

[Ace]

I think copy/layout editors are in a tenuous spot because papers now have the technology to plays the designers and copy editors one one location and produce several papers.

Not as well, but more cheaply.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I wish I didn't believe that age and experience were factors that made you more likely to get jettisoned, but I think they are. That said, given the fact that the whole damn business seems to be about opinion these days, the bigtime beat guy may well be endangered more than any other.

 

[MacDaddy]

Depends on where you are. If it's a union shop, it's generally based on how long you've been there.

 

[harbinger]

I wish I didn't believe that age and experience were factors that made you more likely to get jettisoned, but I think they are. That said, given the fact that the whole damn business seems to be about opinion these days, the bigtime beat guy may well be endangered more than any other.

The role of beat guy is evolving more than any right now. They better be good bloggers, be able to write opinion, and still break stories. They have to be better on deadline now because they're writing for the web, not next day's newspaper. The days of beat writers being objective chroniclers are over.

I think beat writers are more valuable now than ever.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Harbinger should be telling, not asking.

 

[bake1234]

Does performance - or talent or ability or whatever - factor into it at all?

 

[FileNotFound]

Now that most places are cut basically to the core, here's who I'm seeing is in danger:

1/Writers who won't/can't work the desk
2/Deskers who can't/won't write
3/Anybody who can't/wont pull an agate shift
4/Anybody who has a negative attitude toward multimedia
5/Anybody who says "that's not my job" to just about anything

I can also say that if my title included the words "assistant" and "editor," I'd probably be worried.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Does performance - or talent or ability or whatever - factor into it at all?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

:-[ Ahem.

Only if you're lucky.

 

[editorhoo]

Does performance - or talent or ability or whatever - factor into it at all?

No, which is why I'm becoming more bitter by the day. We're told when we're young that if we work hard and make ourselves the best we can be, we'll be successful. We're also told a fat man in a red suit flies a sled powered by reindeer, stops at every house in the world within a scant few hours, falls down the chimney to deliver every kid in the world presents (he apparently gives more to kids from rich families), and has the stomach to eat milk and cookies at every house he illegally invades. We're also taught the way children should celebrate the resurrection of Christ is to worship a bunny that lays eggs.

It's all a big f'in lie.

 

[buckweaver]

Does performance - or talent or ability or whatever - factor into it at all?

No, which is why I'm becoming more bitter by the day. We're told when we're young that if we work hard and make ourselves the best we can be, we'll be successful. We're also told a fat man in a red suit flies a sled powered by reindeer, stops at every house in the world within a scant few hours, falls down the chimney to deliver every kid in the world presents (he apparently gives more to kids from rich families), and has the stomach to eat milk and cookies at every house he illegally invades. We're also taught the way children should celebrate the resurrection of Christ is to worship a bunny that lays eggs.

It's all a big f'in lie.

Thing is, we stop believing most of those when we're kids. That first one lingers a bit.

 

[editorhoo]

^^^
Precisely. That's what makes it difficult to cope with.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Does performance - or talent or ability or whatever - factor into it at all?

No, unless you're a columnist.

They target salaries and positions, not people. At my most recent job they've been trying to get rid of the same person for two years and he's still there because he has the right position and his salary isn't high enough to make him a target.

 

[agateguy]

More and more I wish I had done something else.

But who had the foresight to know that technology and the economy would turn out like it has?

 

[editorhoo]

More and more I wish I had done something else.

But who had the foresight to know that technology and the economy would turn out like it has?

Oh, it'll be all right. The way the government is bailing out big business, I'm sure they'll throw billions into journalism and save us all. :

Wait, journalists are government watchdogs. No interest there.

Christ, I give up.

 

[Fredrick]

Does performance - or talent or ability or whatever - factor into it at all?

We know the answer to this.
Of course not.
This is where all ME corporate ****s (you know who you sellouts are) should be unable to look themselves in the mirror. The best of the best are the ones getting laid off. You people making these decisions should be ashamed of yourselves.

 

[Cosmo]

Now that most places are cut basically to the core, here's who I'm seeing is in danger:

1/Writers who won't/can't work the desk
2/Deskers who can't/won't write
3/Anybody who can't/wont pull an agate shift
4/Anybody who has a negative attitude toward multimedia
5/Anybody who says "that's not my job" to just about anything

+1

 

[CitizenTino]

My shop (non-union) has laid off two people in editorial this year: a photographer who had been with the paper for about a month and a graphic designer who had been with the paper 24 years. At least in our neck of the woods, it seems seniority plays no part in deciding who goes.

I'm just thankful for every day I show up and my key card still works.

 

[Drip]

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

This prayer has helped me through rough times like this and it may help others.