Columbus Dispatch to lay off 45 from editorial

[Bucknutty]

I believe they have somewhere around 200 total in editorial, so you do the math.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/02/dispatch_staff.html?sid=101

The great news just keeps rolling in.

 

[Angola!]

Who owns this?

 

[Bucknutty]

The Wolfe family owns the Dispatch.

 

[accguy]

Almost 25 percent. Damn.

Have some friends there. Ugh.

 

[sg86]

I know quite a few people there.

This is particularly sad for me.

 

[Moderator1]

Awful. I have some friends there, including one of my best friends in this business (and one of THE best in the business).

 

[SockPuppet]

Mommy .... make it STOP!!!!!

 

[WaylonJennings]

At least they asshole-proofed the story by not allowing reader comments.

 

[imjustagirl]

Well, crap.

 

[MileHigh]

What she said.
(I like your kicker; he kicks ass; sorry, but I might be stealing it.)

 

[Furry Tractor]

Editor Benjamin J. Marrison said the newsroom staff reductions will hasten a restructuring of the newsroom to put a sharper focus on local news, local sports, enterprise reporting, and building a more robust online presence at Dispatch.com.

Doesn't bode well for the guys they have covering Browns/Bengals/Reds/Indians/Cavs, though I'm not sure exactly what they're doing in those departments these days.

 

[Cosmo]

Tractor, nice sig ...

Also, if I read:

"These are challenging times for many industries, including the newspaper industry,"

... one more time, I'm going to puke. Also, the "it's getting dusty in here" thing. Sorry, pet peeves.

 

[cbus insider]

The Dispatch is all-OSU all the time already. The sports department, at least, really could use a major retooling. In my opinion. Seriously lacking good leadership. But I digress.

The Wolfes also own a TV station, some radio, ONN and a decent group of suburban weeklies (about 20, I think, all produced at one location by one staff). Wages are frozen for those remaining. I may be wrong, but I don't think they're hiring to replace anyone who quits, either.

My understanding, and again, I could be wrong, is that it's really the daily paper that's dragging everyone down, although other entities aren't quite making budget either.

Somebody better figure this **** out quick.

 

[sg86]

Editor Benjamin J. Marrison said the newsroom staff reductions will hasten a restructuring of the newsroom to put a sharper focus on local news, local sports, enterprise reporting, and building a more robust online presence at Dispatch.com.

Doesn't bode well for the guys they have covering Browns/Bengals/Reds/Indians/Cavs, though I'm not sure exactly what they're doing in those departments these days.

There's only one guy that would qualify for this who covers Cincy stuff. They've been getting Cleveland copy from the Plain Dealer ever since Walker left for ESPN.com.


Whoever said the sports department lacked good leadership was correct.

They have great people working there and an incredibly dedicated pool of writers, but the leader pretty much mocks the entire city of Columbus every single chance he gets, which probably doesn't help draw in the readers.

 

[bmm]

More with less - we've heard this line of crap before. The Dispatch draws most of its stuff outside of Columbus from the other Ohio papers already. It can make a few more cuts - two I believe - and get all the outside Columbus stuff from other papers, but it will probably lose a local reporter, too. I could see them going to covering OSU women basketball games on the road with other papers.

 

[Bucknutty]

The Dispatch is all-OSU all the time already. The sports department, at least, really could use a major retooling. In my opinion. Seriously lacking good leadership. But I digress.

The Wolfes also own a TV station, some radio, ONN and a decent group of suburban weeklies (about 20, I think, all produced at one location by one staff). Wages are frozen for those remaining. I may be wrong, but I don't think they're hiring to replace anyone who quits, either.

My understanding, and again, I could be wrong, is that it's really the daily paper that's dragging everyone down, although other entities aren't quite making budget either.

Somebody better figure this **** out quick.

It's my understanding that ONN is bleeding money and has been for years, and therein lies one big part of the problem.

 

[steveu]

My understanding about the Dispatch is the paper could be so much better for a city of 700,000 people (give or take). Still, Columbus does a great job on OSU athletics and it has some other good parts to it.

This sucks. Like the article said, they waited as long as possible, but the executioner visited.

 

[Bucknutty]

For those of you with the Facebook:

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