TAMPA, FL (July 3, 2008) – Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV photographers have been told that they will need to "reapply" for their jobs in the next two weeks, according to an internal memo published this week on The Feed, a Tampa-area Blog.
The memo from management said that all photography department employees at the newspaper and television station will be merged, and that sometime in the the next 8 weeks "10 individuals will be let go" (from WFLA-TV).
The memo closed with, "If you apply for a position and are not accepted for that position, we were told that you would still receive the buy-out package."
Earlier this week Tampa Tribune employees were told that 21 more newsroom jobs would be cut by the end of the year, and 10 from WFLA-TV. The two news outlets are owned by Media General Inc.
At the paper, 11 people were laid off immediately as Media General Inc. moved to reduce the newsroom size by one-fifth.
WFLA-TV news director Don North said that the merged TV and newspaper photo departments will be a "single pool" of photographers who can shoot video or still images, according to The Feed.
Media General Inc. also owns The Times-Dispatch in Richmond, VA, and the Winston-Salem (NC) News Journal. The company says they expect to save $40 million because of the cutbacks they're making across the organization.
Florida newspaper employees have taken some big hits in the last fourteen days. Last week The Palm Beach Post announced that 300 jobs are being cut, and The Daytona Beach News-Journal laid off 99 employees in preparation for a sale to a new owner. Two of those layoffs came from the photography department, a group that has gone from 15 in 2004 to 9 photographers today.
