Newpaper Jobs Cut In Baltimore, Orlando, Modesto

 

BALTIMORE, MD (July 21, 2008) – About 100 more jobs were cut at The Baltimore Sun last week, and union leaders say 55 of those positions were in the newsroom. While the newspaper won't say exactly how many jobs have been eliminated, the company would say that their goal for cutting the workforce by around 100 jobs while using a minimum numbers of layoffs had been met.

The Baltimore-Washington Newspaper Guild was more specific, saying that 43 newsroom employees accepted buyouts and two reporters agreed to voluntary layoffs.

The cuts are a continuation of new owner Sam Zell's slashing across the board at all Tribune Co. newspapers as Tribune shoulders $8.2 billion in debt taken on when Zell purchased the company in December 2007.

At The Sun the number of newspaper employees represented by the Guild has been cut in half since 2000, and last week's cuts followed staff reductions in March and June of 2007.

Also last week, The Orlando Sentinel eliminated about 20 percent of its newsroom employees and warned employees that another round of job cuts are coming at the end of July, and 80 more jobs were eliminated at The Modesto Bee when their managers decided to have the Bee printed at their sister newspaper in Sacramento. Both are owned by McClatchy.

And The Palm Beach Post will lose more than 300 jobs just by itself, and even though more people than sought applied for the voluntary buyouts the newspaper says there will still be layoffs in some departments.

The Wall Street Journal cut 50 copy editing positions last week, in Atlanta the Journal-Constitution announced a planed 8 percent reduction in the workforce (about 190 jobs), and MediaPost's Media Daily News tabulated that more than 3,500 newspaper jobs have been done away with in the past two months, most of them being newsroom positions.

 

NPPA Marketplace

Join the NPPA

NPPA members receive a wide range of benefits, from educational opportunities to mentoring, exclusive discounts, insurance options, business tips, and much more.