Baltimore Sun Layoffs Come As Shocking, Deep Cuts

 

BALTIMORE, MD (April 30, 2009) – Baltimore Sun workers were stunned Wednesday when as many as 60 of their coworkers were laid off in cuts a guild worker called "shocking."

The layoffs reportedly included top editorial page editors, three bureau chiefs, columnists, photographers, newsroom workers, copy editors, production staffers, two sports reporters, and designers.

Three Sun reporters and a photographer who were covering a Baltimore Orioles game against the Angels in Los Angeles learned mid-game via telephone that their jobs were gone. Orange County Register reporter Bill Plunkett, in the game's pressbox, blogged his peers' layoffs in the eighth inning. "Tough times in the newspaper biz," Plunkett wrote. "Stay classy, Baltimore Sun management."

Union-represented employees were told of their layoff during Wednesday afternoon and manager-level editors were laid off at the end of the day Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.

The Sun, owned by debt-laden and bankrupt Tribune Co., would not confirm how many jobs were cut, but the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild told AP that 37 people were laid off Wednesday and 21 mangers were cut on Tuesday.

The Guild said that Tribune was "bent on gutting what was once one of America's great newspapers." Since Tribune bought The Sun in 1999, the newsroom has been cut from 420 to 148 employees, the Guild reports, or roughly 60 percent.

In a press release the Guild said that many of the editors and managers let go without any warning, who are not represented by the Guild, were "ushered out of the newsroom by security guards."

The cuts amount to nearly one-third of The Sun's 200-person newsroom staff, the Baltimore Business Journal reported. In the last two weeks, seven people were laid off in the advertising and customer service departments. The move supposedly realigns the newsroom to be more of an online operation rather than print-oriented.

A group of local buyers who have been pursuing ownership of The Sun for several years have been stalled by the Tribune Co. being in bankruptcy court, and it's unknown what impact this week's layoffs will have on whether Tribune continues to operate the Sun or whether the layoffs are part of a plan to make the paper more profitable for possible sale.

 

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