layoffs in Greensboro

[long_snapper]

No breakdown by department, but sports already cut to the bone....

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/NEWSREC0101/70607025

 

[long_snapper]

My bad. Should have started this on the "journalism topics only" board.

 

[sportschick]

My bad. Should have started this on the "journalism topics only" board.

You can probably PM Moddy or Gutter and have them move it for you.

And I love the excuses from the publisher. Never blame the company's decision to cut the newsroom to the bone. It's always the Internet's fault.

 

[Moderator1]

Landmark also owns papers in Roanoke and Norfolk. Wonder if anything will happen there? Tampa had cuts and I don't think other MG papers had any - well, Winston-Salem a while ago - so maybe the rest of the Landmark chain is OK.

****ty time in this here business.

 

[micropolitan guy]

"This action was taken after careful consideration of the marketplace, the changing media environment and the needs of our readers and customers," Saul said.

(and after learning I won't get my annual bonus if the profit margin dips below 20 percent, Saul added).

 

[Ira_Schoffel]

Wow! This is not a good sign at all.

Landmark's not your typical cut-throat, bottom-line newspaper chain.

This is very surprising ... and disheartening ... and could be a terrible sign for the future. I have always been optimistic about the future of newspapers as we know them, but this is bad with a capital B.

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

I've been employed with LCNI for more than 7 years.

Never seen something like this.

Although according to the story, Greensboro had more than 400 employees. It's not four times the size of my paper in terms of circulation, but it had four times as many employees.

Granted this is bad, but it seems like it had room to cut (or my paper is bare bones and we never layoff people or go through hiring freezes. Every newsroom position gets filled).

 

[chazp]

Landmark also owns papers in Roanoke and Norfolk. Wonder if anything will happen there? Tampa had cuts and I don't think other MG papers had any - well, Winston-Salem a while ago - so maybe the rest of the Landmark chain is OK.

****ty time in this here business.

I second that!

 

[boots]

Landmark also owns papers in Roanoke and Norfolk. Wonder if anything will happen there? Tampa had cuts and I don't think other MG papers had any - well, Winston-Salem a while ago - so maybe the rest of the Landmark chain is OK.

****ty time in this here business.

I second that!

From what I understand, plans are still a go to name a new SE in Norfolk. But this picture is getting very ugly not just for Landmark but for many other chains.
From what I can see, the smaller single-family owned operations - and there aren't that many any longer - seem to be fairing much better.

 

[ondeadline]

Apparently these layoffs were done according to seniority. The people laid off were the people who had been there the shortest time.

 

[luckyducky]

That really sucks for all involved in Greensboro...the SE's a great guy and the staff, which, as someone stated above, was already down to the bone, is also great. Sorry to hear.

 

[long_snapper]

17 from the newsroom let go. 11 full-time, 6 part-timers.

Once-proud sports dept. down to 5 writers, I believe, including one columnist.

Pity for a great college hoops market.

 

[ondeadline]

Of the 17, how many were in sports?

 

[long_snapper]

Not sure. heard they lost a "community sports" position and a designer.

but heard that third hand.

 

[ondeadline]

I know for a fact that one of the layoffs was a sports designer.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Not sure. heard they lost a "community sports" position and a designer.

but heard that third hand.

Am I crazy, or was the community sports position a relatively recent add to headcount? I remember interviewing there a few years ago for a different job, and based on my experience, I would have guessed that a community sports sport would be the last thing they'd cut. Could be they'll replace the laid off person with someone else on staff and ax THAT position.

FIVE WRITERS for a 100K with all four N.C. ACC schools within 90 minutes, the ACC tournament on a semi-regular basis, a handful of D-IIIs and small D-Is, an ark of high schools and the usual minor league franchises? That's borderline crazy. The border between crazy and cow-raping insane, that is. And does Dustin Long count as one of the five, or is he just considered a Landmark employee? (I believe at one point his immediate supervisor was the Greensboro SE)

I'm not one to go immediately to "OH SHI- THE WORLD IS FALLING OFF ITS AXIS" or "GOD DAMN YOU ASSHOLE RICH PUBLISHERS" every time a layoff takes place, but if the GNR is down to four beaters and a column mug, then that's just WRONG.

 

[John Newsom]

Thanks, all, for your concern. Yesterday was terrible around here. I don't expect today to be any better.

We lost 17 folks (11 full time, 6 part time). That's about 10 percent of our News staff.

Sports lost our community sports reporter, our C1 designer (she was technically assigned to the news side, but she worked with us five nights a week) and our part-time copy desker. They're all good folks and good journalists. I already miss the hell out of them.

Cuts here were by position first, then seniority. For instance, the N&R did away with a news secretary position (she'd been there 25 years or thereabouts) and all of its News part-timers (including a features writer who has been here about 20 years). When it came down to bigger groups of folks like reporter and photographer and news editor, management started at the bottom of the seniority list and worked up. Same with Sports -- our community person was last hired.

Our current headcount in Sports after yesterday:
* Editor
* Assistant editor (me)
* Columnist
* Two college beat writers (mostly for the ACC's Big Four, but we have three other D1s and two D3s in our coverage area)
* One High schools writer
* One GA/golf writer (because Greensboro has had an annual PGA event about ever since there was a Greensboro)
* Our NASCAR writer (he's based here -- I'm his boss -- but he's technically a Landmark employee because Greensboro, Roanoke and Norfolk split his salary and expenses.)
* Six full-time copy desk/inside designers

If you're counting at home, that's four writers and a columnist. That's not a Sports staff - we're a penalty-killing unit.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

Hopefully the money man's powerplay is killed soon. Good luck down there.

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

More on the fiasco in Greensboro ... seems there are a LOT of PO'd people in the newsroom right now ...

http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2007/06/nr_layoffs.html

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

Jesus, John, that really is insane. Good luck making things work with that staff.