Thursday, April 16, 2009

Staff meetings with managers about the reorganization

There are meetings going on today about the newsroom reorganization. Anyone who wants to give a report, the comments are on.

7 comments:

  1. High points from the meeting with George:
    The pay cuts saved 130 jobs in Belo newsrooms.

    Al Dia is now making money. Quick is almost breaking even.

    Local news will go from 8 to 21 community reporters in the reorg.

    Marketing will truthfully tell readers what we’re doing new and good.

    The DMN is still a moneymaker, as are most newspapers. Corporations saddled with debt, not so much.

    Questions concerned: e-mail migration to Blackberries — not exactly seamless. Whether Projects reporters should be returned to the weekend rotation. How to balance a need for greater collaboration with the fear of “bigfooting.”

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  2. About the weekend roation, the discussion came up because metro reporters are working a weekend shift less than once every two months.

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  3. They cut local reporters, telling us our jobs are no longer needed, then expand local coverage by moving editors into those slots? Yeah. Nothing against any editors, i don't want anyone, period to lose their jobs, but that's absurd. More Belo B.S.

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  4. Politics, as always, played a larger role in the layoffs than anyone is willing to admit. Just toss those performance evaluations out and keep the high paid folks employed.

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  5. Specialty beats -- social services, public health, religion -- are gone as separate assignments. Will remain only as 'mini-beats' within other assignments.

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  6. Anyone have news out of other departments?

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  7. The latest "reinvention"? Investigative journalism, per the half-page house ad in Sunday "Points." So, was DMN not doing that before? That's almost what the ad implied.

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