Saturday, March 14, 2009

What we think we know now

The last official information we had was from Jim Moroney's meetings. We were told that AH Belo would be cutting about 500 jobs. That Riverside would be cut proportionately worse than the DMN. That the DMN should hear by the end of February something about how many cuts we would have, and maybe something about how departments would be affected. And that the cuts should be completed by the end of March.

February came and went. We've seen cuts at some smaller departments at the DMN, notably al Dia. (If anyone who was cut from al Dia wants to use this blog to post a farewell, you are surely welcome.) But we have not been given any further official information about the size of the cuts.

Last week, we got semi-official word that the newsroom layoff has been pushed back at least a week, to April 7. We also heard that furloughs and pay cuts were now being considered in addition to the layoffs.

There was also a persistent rumor about the number of proposed cuts to the newsroom -- in the mid-60s. There was also a rumor that a preliminary list had been sent to corporate but was not approved.

That's all I know. If anybody has additional or better information, please send it to me.