Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About newsroom staffing cuts at the Dallas Morning News. Because somebody needs to do it.
Why this blog exists
To offer a voice and a forum and a source of information during layoffs and now buyouts at the Dallas Morning News.
Here is what we lost in September '11:
Copy Editor I -- 3
Copy Editor II --5
Copy Editor III -- 5
Deputy Assistant Editor -- 5
Assistant News Editor -- 1
Office manager -- 1
Senior Editor -- 1
Design Editor -- 1
Photo Tech -- 1
Presentation Editor-- 1
Content Coordinator -- 2
Layout Editor -- 1
Bureau Chief -- 1
Special Writer -- 1
Reporter I -- 4
Reporter III -- 1
Reporter III-Business -- 1
Critic -- 1
Photographer III -- 2
Whenever this blog is active, the rules will not change: Personal attacks will not be posted or tolerated. Nobody's name will be listed as laid off without that person's permission. Anyone who wants to pass along information -- or plausible rumors -- please e-mail me at DMNcuts (at) gmail.com. Farewell messages ditto.
Here is what we lost in September '11:
Copy Editor I -- 3
Copy Editor II --5
Copy Editor III -- 5
Deputy Assistant Editor -- 5
Assistant News Editor -- 1
Office manager -- 1
Senior Editor -- 1
Design Editor -- 1
Photo Tech -- 1
Presentation Editor-- 1
Content Coordinator -- 2
Layout Editor -- 1
Bureau Chief -- 1
Special Writer -- 1
Reporter I -- 4
Reporter III -- 1
Reporter III-Business -- 1
Critic -- 1
Photographer III -- 2
Whenever this blog is active, the rules will not change: Personal attacks will not be posted or tolerated. Nobody's name will be listed as laid off without that person's permission. Anyone who wants to pass along information -- or plausible rumors -- please e-mail me at DMNcuts (at) gmail.com. Farewell messages ditto.
About Me
- DMNcutsadmin
- Dallas, TX, United States
- If anyone asks you if you run this blog, please answer "I am Spartacus" and ask why they want to know. For obvious reasons, anonymity is necessary. Email me at DMNcuts(AT)gmail.com
Posts
Prediction:
ReplyDeleteManager: Well,what's past is past. We've got to look to the future and protect the paper's reputation while vigorously pursuing our mission.
You wouldn't be here if we didn't think you are important to the company.
We're going to have to pull together. We must be unified in our efforts. We'll have to be more efficient than ever before.
And we have to have faith that we'll be the team that, years from now, is regarded as the devoted team of journalists that saved The Dallas Morning News.
From now on you'll need to bring your own towels, pencils, water, bath tissue and, because each desk is being fitted with a meter, you'll need to be able to pay for your own electricity which we are precuring at a generous rate only slightly higher per kilowatt hour than your home rate. You can pay your electricity deposit after the meeting.
Thank you all for coming and, please, remember to pay the $1 attend-a-meeting fee at the door.
You forgot the part about dusting and vacuuming your own area since the cleaning crew was pink slipped.
ReplyDeleteWhat EVERY meeting has been about for the past few years:
ReplyDelete*'We here at the top care so much about you, the product and Dallas'
*'We don't know what the future has in store'
'Do more with less'
Oh, and carry 13 buckets...
ReplyDeleteEight metro editors will become reporters.
ReplyDeleteThey can't yet name the 14 cities that metro will focus on but it isn't too hard to figure out.
Metro management will be condenced from 4 levels to two.
Allen and Edgar will each head two teams. Allen's team will be community focused and Edgar's team will be investigative.
Both will have GA clusters. Allen will have education and I'm not sure what else. Edgar will have gov't, cops, courts, and I don't know what else.
Sounds like there won't be an AME and the people who are now deputies to the department heads are most likely to be reporters.
Did I get that right?
Bob said that ethical and moral considerations were given when deciding who to lay off. Along with the obvious legal.
Mark Edgar said that instead of ranking all the reporters and then all the editors, all were ranked and the lowest ranked were laid off.
We want you to make bricks without straw! Because we we want you to use the straw and spin it into gold! -Yours cordially, Ramses Rumplestilstskin
ReplyDeleteSOSDD
ReplyDeleteIsn't this like the section journalism we abandoned years ago?
ReplyDelete@ 2:44 PM:
ReplyDelete"Mark Edgar said that instead of ranking all the reporters and then all the editors, all were ranked and the lowest ranked were laid off."
Ranked like how? Page views on stories, experience, yes-man attitudes?
Sad.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 5:53 ... he didn't say
ReplyDeleteRaise your hand if you think he doesn't know what he's doing.
ReplyDeleteThis is laughable.
ReplyDeleteThey fire the people who pound the pavement every day in search for stories, who cultivated sources for years, who wrote prize-winning stories, and in their place they place people who haven't done that for years and probably don't want to do it, either.
I'm sorry, anyone think this makes sense?
At least four of the Metro reporters are Spanish speakers, and prolly were the only ones in that newsroom. How's the paper going to cover the increasingly growing Spanish-speaking community in this town?
That they fired those reporters is yet another sign that the Morning News has no interest in covering immigration, one of the most pressing issues affecting not just Dallas but the country. It's obvious management has little idea of what are the pressing issues that affect their readers.
Give it up for "live better here."
This is pretty much rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Given a dozen more reporters D Magazine could do as well - and just may try. We hear a lot about online initiative but never see any. The community remains alienated.
ReplyDeleteBy the way is it possible to produce an Editorial Page (with 0 ads) with maybe one or two fewer editorial writers? Does the EP get enough readership to justify the amount of money spent on it? I am not saying get rid of it but really there are a lot of high paid people there just spouting off.
And really, do our columnist get read? And are there really 14 cities that are that important for us to cover?
Management lost at sea.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAs a former DMNer who departed voluntarily in the '06 RIF buyout, I read all of this with a heavy heart. I wish everyone affected the best. (Jobs are sown thin here in Alaska, too.)
ReplyDelete-Mike Peters
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAs one of the departed Metro reporters, I call BULLSHIT on the ranking nonsense. Look at the list of people axed yesterday. They were productive, innovative and well-respected.
ReplyDeleteTo say they were the bottom of the heap is simply a joke. Especially since Edgar never spoke one word to me. My guess is many of these names were selected to keep the severance payout low -- low salary plus short tenure equals tiny check.
Looks like I'll transition quickly from feeling sad about leaving to feeling lucky to be free. How disheartening.
"My guess is many of these names were selected to keep the severance payout low -- low salary plus short tenure equals tiny check."
ReplyDeleteYou know, I wondered. Thank you. Cause that one statement cleared up a lot for me and made me feel better than just about anything else that was said.
Cause, um, saying, basically, that it was more "moral and ethical" to lay me off sho nuff doesn't make me feel real good. (And, before someone yells at me -- I know it wasn't the commenter saying that. I read it.)
Let's also remember we were told job cut decisions were collaborative.
ReplyDeleteBut we lost some terrific people, whose prose and spirit will be missed.
The sad irony here is that being laid off is highly personal. But it has nothing to do with your personal skills, assets, integrity ... it's all money and politics.
ReplyDeleteMoral and ethical.. my ass.
ReplyDelete