Scripps Layoffs At California, Florida, Texas, Indiana Newspapers
CINCINNATI, OH (November 6, 2008) – Waiting only two days after their election coverage wrapped up, E.W. Scripps is laying off employees at their newspaper properties in California, Florida, Texas, and Indiana.
Scripps is cutting as many as 400 jobs across the chain on the day before they report their third quarter numbers, a loss of $16.8 million for Q3 compared to profits of $88.4 million a year ago.
In Ventura, 45 people learned today that their jobs were being cut, 17 from the paper's newsroom (about 20 percent of the editorial department). At least two photographers were included in the cuts, including NPPA members Eric Parsons, Dana Rene Bowler and Jason Redmond.
At Scripps' Southwest Florida Group, publishers of the Naples Daily News, Bonita Daily News, Marco Eagle, and other regional publications and Web sites, employees learned today that 34 jobs are being eliminated, about 10 percent of their workforce. Photojournalist, picture editor, and NPPA member Judy Lutz was one of those whose positions were cut in Naples. Two imaging technicians were also included in the layoffs.
"Our business is deeply tied to the health of local businesses, and when they are challenged, we feel it," said Chris Doyle, president and publisher of Scripps Southwest Florida Group and the Naples Daily News. The cuts were in the management and administration areas and did not touch the newsroom, Doyle said.
At Scripps' Treasure Coast newspapers – The Stuart News, The Port St. Lucie News, The Fort Pierce Tribune, and the Vero Beach Press Journal – more than 30 people were laid off, including photographers Sam Wolfe and Sarah Grile. The photography staff at Treasure Coast newspapers has gone from 12 just a few years ago to 5 today.
In Texas at The Caller-Times, 23 positions are being cut and in Abilene at the Reporter News, seven full-time and four part-time jobs are being eliminated between now and January. At the Scripps paper in Wichita Falls, TX, nine positions in the newsroom and advertising were cut Thursday at the Times Record News. And in southern Indiana the Evansville Courier-Press is reportedly losing 32 jobs.
In a cost-cutting measure in October, the Scripps newspaper the Standard-Times in San Angelo, TX, announced that it will no longer print it's own newspaper, but will use the presses of its sister paper, the Reporter-News in Abilene. The Standard-Times' general manager said the newspaper's presses were installed in the 1980s and were too expensive to repair or replace, and the consolidation was similar to what other Scripps newspapers were doing in Colorado to save money.
Based in Cincinnati, Scripps operates daily and community newspapers in 15 markets as well as 10 broadcast television stations.
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