Friday, August 5, 2011

Cuts have happened today -- I've heard nothing about newsroom so far

Production at North Plant. IT. I have no numbers or other details. If you have information you'd like to share or if you have lost your job and would like to deliver a farewell, email it here. The rumors have been consistent that this set of layoffs would not happen on a single day. If true, nobody can feel safe because they haven't been notified today.

One other rumor to report: Most of the earlier chatter has been about editors and production. I am hearing that editorial is also concerned. House editorials have always been a luxury, a luxury that the bosses wanted. It's a small shop that works hard and has that recent Pulitzer. It has evolved greatly from the reflexive right-wing offerings produced in decades past. Is it now a luxury that the bosses no longer believe they can afford at present levels? There is no content more commonly available today than opinion. Is quality enough?

7 comments:

  1. Editors and production as in management and prepress or editors and production as in copy editors and designers?

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  2. Best guess: The layers of editors between the reporter and the page/web. Where now there is usually a line editor and copy editor handling copy, that might be reduced to one editor for some stories. Which layer takes the hit? No idea. Will those other categories you mentioned also be affected? No idea.

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  3. There will be one editing desk for all sections, including features and sports.

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  4. A datum! What would the duties be of the people on this new desk? How would they differ from the current copy desk, U desk or whatever we are now calling the various desks? How would it reduce the number of people needed to put out the paper?

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  5. They'll just have to do a lot more of the same thing.

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  6. Isn't features already handled by the current copy desk? That was supposed to be part of the last round of cuts.

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  7. Yes, the desk does features already. They also do a lot of publishing to the web site and the Ipad app.

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