DMNcuts

Spartacus over and out

2011-09-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

Pageviews are down to a trickle. Jobs that people are sending in are found on obvious job boards like journalismjobs.com so nobody need to look for them here. Thank you all for your help and attention. I'm sorry it was necessary.

One last reminder about Saturday SPJ event

2011-09-26T10:17:00.000-05:00

SPJ-Fort Worth is hosting a Life After Layoff workshop from 9:30-1 this Saturday, Oct. 1, in downtown Dallas. We'll have experts on hand to give you financial advice, job-search tips and ways you can use your skills for many other opportunities. Please register here: http://spjlifeafterlayoffs.eventbrite.com. All are welcome.

Jobs continue to trickle in

2011-09-20T10:49:00.004-05:00

Here is one:

The Department of Communication in the College of Arts & Letters at The University of Tampa is seeking candidates for a full-time tenure track position in Broadcast/Convergence Media to teach courses in the Communication and Journalism major(s) at the Assistant Professor level beginning Fall 2012.

The ideal candidate will combine experience in professional studio television, including multi-camera and multi-platform work, with scholarship and production skills in broadcast journalism or entertainment television. Candidates are encouraged to discuss how
their scholarship and production experience relates to media studies courses within an interdisciplinary program rooted in the liberal arts.

Qualifications: Candidates with a Ph.D., experience in studio television production and a strong commitment to liberal arts teaching are invited to apply. Degree candidates may be considered provided they have degree in hand by August 15, 2012.

For those of us who remain unRIFed

2011-09-13T14:12:00.000-05:00

A blogfriend has just sent me the link to a poem that describes the way some of us are feeling. Called "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell," by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert. He is the Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan. One verse reads:

"Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig!"

The poem involves cheerful cannibalism. Gallows humor is still humor. Read the whole thing here.

Here are some jobs

2011-09-13T13:21:00.000-05:00

I've moved this post up to the top because the list of jobs in the comments continues to grow. New ones today.

From a DMN alumna:

Emily Ramshaw Hartstein wrote:
Feel free to post:

My mom, Mary Leonard, is the AME at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
They're hiring a state capitol reporter in Harrisburg, a breaking
news/local news editor and a sports reporter, and they have permission
to hire veterans (at veteran salaries) for all three of those jobs.
Email her at mleonard@post-gazette.com, or me at eramshaw@gmail.com.

So heartbroken for you guys.

Some others:

The Record (Bergen County, NJ) has the following openings in the newsroom.

Editorial Writer (Woodland Park) The Record’s Opinion Department has an opening for a full-time editorial writer. The candidate should have an ability to write clear, tight editorials with a definite point of view. Our editorial focus is North Jersey, and we comment most frequently about regional issues. Ideally, we are looking to add a moderate/conservative voice to our page. The candidate must be able to work in a collegial atmosphere, write quickly and pitch in where needed in the department. An editorial writer occasionally is asked to edit and proofread columns, letters to the editor and Sunday Opinion pieces. He or she also will participate in editorial boards with a variety of newsmakers, including candidates for public office. Candidates should have at least three to five years newspaper experience, or equivalent. If interested, send a cover letter, resume and your five best writing samples to Alfred Doblin, Assistant Managing Editor/editorial page.
Days/Hours: Varied work schedule
Contact: Alfred Doblin, Dublin@northjersey.com

Reporter - (Woodland Park) - The Features Department, serving The Record and the Herald News, has an opening for a full-time, entry-level reporter. This reporter will produce engaging stories that explore a variety of topics, but generally concentrate on how North Jersey residents live, shop and entertain themselves. In general, the reporters must initiate, research, report, interview and write news features on their beat and generate trend stories. The skills and experience required for this position include: Ability to write stories, especially feature stories where tone and language are key components. The ability to write critically and in an engaging manner is essential. Ability to identify stories that have the greatest potential to engage readers in North Jersey. Ability to work with the Features’ department senior management in formulating strategies to capture readers and the ability to carry that strategy out. The successful candidate must have at least two years of daily newspaper reporting experience, or equivalent. Hours may vary and may include working occasional weekends as part of a schedule rotation.
Days/Hours: Varied work schedule
Contact: Send a cover letter, resume, and your five best clips to Douglas Clancy, Clancy@northjersey.com

More jobs in the comments.

SPJ Fort Worth hosting a seminar to help the recently axed and anybody else

2011-09-12T16:01:00.005-05:00

In my email this afternoon:

Life after the Layoff

Join the SPJ Fort Worth professional chapter for a special downtown Dallas seminar from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1. Experts will offer advice on finances, job-search strategies, retooling job skills, and other practical considerations. The seminar, free of charge, will be held at the Universities Center at Dallas, 1901 Main St.

A parking garage is adjacent at Main and Harwood streets, across from the old Municipal Building (once known as the cop shop). Also, parking meters are located around the building. The website for the center is: http://www.ucddowntown.org/. For more info or to reserve your spot, email Tracy Everbach at teverbach@yahoo.com or call 214-995-8464.

We're here to help.

Good people. They've done this after several of the rounds of cuts at the DMN. You can register at
http://spjlifeafterlayoffs.eventbrite.com/

Anybody need to say anything else here?

2011-09-12T09:08:00.001-05:00

Looks like this round is pretty much done. I'll continue to check for comments and emails but not with the same frequency. If the bosses are right, we have about 16 months until the next round unless there is a miraculous turnaround in the economy and the fate of the daily newspaper. Hope springs eternal.

Spartacus out.

{Well, maybe not quite yet. Comment here says two more were axed today. Departments? Some additional positions suggested in the jobs thread this morning, also. I will stay attentive as long as there is traffic}

Support group for the RIFed

2011-09-08T08:14:00.000-05:00

In the morning's email:

To TDMN's 2011 alumni:

After the 2009 layoff, a group of survivors formed a support group of sorts. We met monthly to talk about freelancing work, unemployment issues, health care options, etc. But mainly we gave each other encouragement and the willing ear of someone who really knows how you feel.

Our yahoo group is still open. We use the mailing list primarily to share job leads. And thanks to the diligence of Mary Gladstone, some still meet in person every other month.

Most of you are likely still in shock and will be for some time. But when you're ready to ask questions about unemployment, freelancing, job leads, health insurance and more, please consider this group as a willing and sympathetic resource. Most of us have walked in your shoes; we want to help.

Please email me if you'd like an invitation to the yahoo group, information about the next possible meeting or just the contact information for someone who's been where you are. All former TDMN employees are welcome.

Best of luck to you all,
Beth Langton
TDMN Class of 2009
bethlangton (at) yahoo.com

What Mong and Rodrigue said today

2011-09-07T17:14:00.002-05:00

I have been emailed a summary of what was said at the Local News meeting:

This is a summary of the official line: Last year sucked less that the previous couple of years. Bonuses for everybody! But starting in January, the level of suckitude increased dramatically. May was especially sucky and the summer continued in that fashion. Eventually Corporate instructed the DMN to cut a certain number of dollars, including a specific amount from the newsroom.

Based on the operation experience of the Toronto Star, we decided to merge the Sports production with the News production departments. What was the smallest number we could get away with of copy editors? The rest got chopped. (Most of those copy editors we lost were from Sports.) This means most stories will get far less attention from copy editors than in the past. (Which certainly means more typos and errors in the paper. None of us are perfect.)

From Rodrigue: "The difference between a blog post and a story is going to get smaller."

Then to other parts of the newsroom. What was the smallest number of assignment editors we could get away with? And finally, how many reporters needed to get cut to hit the number? And that's how we got to the cuts.

There is no plan for a pay cut or furloughs.

Digital is back to being the flavor of the month. Breaking news desk moves under digital management and will get more bodies. The mobile app is about to get a much needed upgrade. Blogs are important again.

The Backfield desk will get more bodies and more responsibility.

Rodrigue talked about the challenge of keeping readers. If they believe they are asked to pay more to get less, they will leave angry and in droves. How we maintain the illusion (not his word, of course) that we are not doing exactly that will be the big challenge of the next several months.

Rodrigue did not dispute the body count of 38 on the blog. He was careful to add that he did not confirm it, either.

Anybody else who wants to either dispute this summary or add your own is welcome to comment.

For any who have forgotten the recent past

2011-09-07T01:05:00.000-05:00

This was reported five months ago:

Providence Journal parent A.H. Belo awarded its top five executives nearly $1.6 million in cash bonuses last year, the company disclosed Monday in an SEC filing.
A.H. Belo CEO Robert Decherd’s total compensation more than tripled to $1.87 million in 2010, up from $499,180 in 2009, according to WPRI.com calculations based on the SEC filing.

Decherd’s 2010 pay package included a $480,000 salary; a $408,000 cash bonus; $949,998 worth of stock awards; and $29,872 in “other compensation.” The latter category included $8,760 for life insurance, $3,150 in tax gross-ups to make up for the cost of taxes on other benefits, and a $420 cell phone allowance.

Among the other four top executives, Dallas Morning News Publisher James Moroney earned $1.3 million in 2010, up from $478,090 in 2009; Morning News President and General Manager John McKeon earned $1.3 million in his first year on the job; Chief Financial Officer Alison Engel earned $800,001, up from $276,765; and Senior Vice President Daniel Blizzard earned $575,000, up from $211,228.

The largest cash bonus went to McKeon, who received $584,960, most of it as a retention bonus. Moroney got $327,250 in cash, Engel got $150,000 and Blizzard got $100,000. Dallas-based A.H. Belo owns the Projo, The Morning News and The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.

My favorite is Decherd's cellphone allowance.

A place for the RIF-ed to have their say

2011-09-07T00:27:00.000-05:00

Lee Hancock placed her farewell as a comment to another post. I will put it here and set this post up as a place for others to do likewise as comments should they want to.

To all at 508 Young--

It has been quite a 24-year ride (plus one month, two days & four hours -- though who's counting?). I am grateful for the fun it's mostly been. I hope for better, happier days for all who remain.

Off to the next adventure: trying my hand at freelancing & a low-residency MFA program at Bennington College.

Write well. Do good. Tell great stories.

Xoxo

Lee Hancock
C. 903.520.5452
Leefhancock@gmail.com

Numbers and positions affected -- what may be the whole list

2011-09-06T16:17:00.004-05:00

Apparently at least some of the RIFed were given a document intended to head off another age discrimination lawsuit. Or maybe it's some kind of legally required handout to RIFed above a certain age. It is titled, and I am not shitting you, "Exhibit A."

It lists every newsroom position and the age of the person in that position, those fired and those not. No names. Based on the document I count 38 people RIFed. In some cases the departments are clear, others not, so I am not going to do that breakdown.

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

The list does not, far as I can tell, include any jobs at the AME level or above.

Read the whole thing, including the Orwellian intro, here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/64100162/List

To those of you who are leaving: You are welcome to post comments here

2011-09-06T14:21:00.000-05:00

If you want to use this blog as a place to say a public good-bye, leave contact information and/or let potential employers know you are available, post here. I recall from the last round that at least one person said they had made contact with a potential next job this way.

It's on, apparently

2011-09-06T09:39:00.004-05:00

Tell us what you know in whatever detail you can. No names unless it is your own.

Comments on prior post report one cut each in editorials and sports.

Commenter says one Metro reporter.

Several others listed in the comments here.

No more rumors

2011-09-04T12:37:00.000-05:00

With no way to know if they are real or trolls, I have had enough. I believe that posting rumors is causing more harm than good. I will continue to post possible jobs in the area if anybody wants to share them. I will continue to allow discussions in the comments that meet my guidelines.

If Tuesday is Cut Day, or if or whenever it happens, I will post whatever I am sent about numbers and departments. Do not assume that I have some backdoor pipeline to management. I do not. The only reason this blog served us well the last time was that many people shared real information they had. By the end of that first day, we had collectively assembled the list you see to the right, needing only minor adjustments. Do post comments or send me emails.

I will also post any messages from those who have lost jobs that they want to share with us. The farewells from last time are archived on a link to the right.

If the layoffs do happen and are anything as large as some of the chatter, there is a special place in Hell for whoever in HR or the legal department or whatever other layer of the corporation decided this was a good way to do this, shared by whichever of the top bosses agreed and issued the orders to stay silent. We in the newsroom are journalists, from the copy editors to the researchers to the photo editors to the line editors to the photographers to the reporters to anybody I have left out. Journalists have a need to know set deep in our DNA. All of the previous layoffs, the bosses gave us enough advance notice to let us plan and to satisfy some of that inbred curiosity. To leave us this time with nothing but rumors that have been impossible to validate was a needless cruelty.

Why could you not have been as informative as the last four rounds. Acknowledge publicly that cuts are coming. Say that you expect to have them completed by some approximate date. Or if the rumors are all false, say something about that. There are legal limits to what can be released. We are not stupid. But you certainly could have told us this time what you told us in the past.

There are no good ways to do this that will not cause pain and leave horrible scars. The first round of layoffs years ago where people were escorted out of the building in a few minutes was needlessly painful. So is this.

Anybody who disagrees with anything here is welcome to comment.

Happy Labor Day.

Looks like the newsroom has survived another full week of paydays

2011-09-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

On the other hand, two commenters in the past few minutes have said that Tuesday is the day:

Newsroom cuts are happening Tuesday. The lawyers signed off on everything faster than they were expected to do so. Number should be around 40 cut. If you're offered the opportunity to take on a new role by your manager, you'd be wise not to roll the dice.

And

I hear the newsroom is getting hit on Tuesday of next week (September 6th).

If true, I think that somebody else has already noted the bitter irony of firing people the day after Labor Day. Have a good weekend. If anybody has actual information to share, I will be moderating the comments and checking for emails.

Commenters say there were RIFs at the North Plant

2011-09-01T22:25:00.000-05:00

Commenters say several production jobs were cut today.

"Plano/Dallas layout guys. I know of three, heard of more, but couldn't confirm."

About the newsroom, other than the reports about RIF training, I have nothing and more nothing.

Comment on a post earlier today says managers got layoff training today

2011-09-01T17:02:00.000-05:00

Anybody out there got an amen? Or can say it isn't so?

(We now have one comment with possible confirmation. Circumstantial evidence.)

A place to fling virtual monkey poop

2011-08-31T19:51:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago, I put down an uncivil comment by explaining that this was not a place to fling monkey poop. Poop tossers, I said, can find their own place on the Internet. Someone did. He calls himself Antoninus. I guess he is a movie fan. The name of the blog is Flinging Monkey Poop. He sent me an email. Quoting here:

Here are the rules: Nothing that could get me sued. And make it entertaining. The only judge will be me. All comments will be moderated before posting. Scatology and vulgarities are allowed in the interest of yuks. Think Jon Stewart without the bleeps. And while I'm starting it as a place to vent about DMN bosses, anyone can play. Tell your friends!

Have a good time.

A different management approach to hard times

2011-08-29T08:34:00.000-05:00

FRESNO, Calif. - Some people give a bit back to their community. Then there’s Fresno County School Superintendent Larry Powell, who is giving back $800,000, his compensation for the next three years.

Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with 195,000 students, all for less than a starting California teacher earns.
“How much do we need to keep accumulating?’’ asks Powell, 63. “There’s no reason for me to keep stockpiling money.’’

Full story here.

And an eerie silence covers the land

2011-08-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

Unless somebody out there tells me different, looks like the newsroom ends another full week of paychecks. Which I realize is no solace for our ad-side colleagues who lost jobs yesterday. Have a good weekend and be thankful we aren't in the Hurricane Irene bulls-eye. It can always be worse.

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em

2011-08-25T20:10:00.000-05:00

As the saying goes. We've got a break in the action. I've not heard even a whisper about whether today's layoffs mean anything about whether more will come tomorrow. The most definitive count I've been given for today is from a comment on the previous post:

The advertising side lost 16 dedicated, creative and enterprising workers today. They deserve support and appreciation, which is more than they ever got from management.

I don't know if anyone from marketing was also let go. I also do not know what positions were affected, if any were managers.

Layoffs today in advertising and marketing

2011-08-25T12:53:00.002-05:00

Multiple sources report layoffs. One commenter here says "8 so far." I do not know if there have been more since that comment was posted. (Another now says "17 or 18.")

The purpose of this blog has been to report newsroom events. However, if anybody from other departments who has been RIFed wants to post a farewell here, you are welcome to post a comment or send me an email.

Does this mean newsroom cuts are also set for this week? Which would mean tomorrow. Based on my lousy track record from last week I refuse to speculate, but if anybody out there thinks they know, we'd all appreciate any information..

What the predictions are like

2011-08-22T09:33:00.001-05:00

This week? Next week? Next month? Bermuda? Puerto Rico? Minor trim or bloodbath? At this point I trust none of them. I would be very surprised if there was no truth to the basic line that layoffs are coming. The rest of the chatter is all over the map, so to speak.

Should I publish the rumors?

2011-08-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

I have no way to independently confirm the tips I am getting. Right now it looks like this is twice that confident predictions about when the layoffs will happen have been wrong. Unless something happens this afternoon.

Is it better that I let us all know what people think they know? Or am I adding tension that doesn't need to be there? If the bosses would give us even a hint of real information, that would solve the problem. I'm getting more traffic here than many of the DMN "community" blogs, so I can tell management that there's very high interest.

Yes, I know you have legal restrictions about what you can say and when. Those restrictions are not absolute. We know that because you told us about the previous cuts before the ax fell. Why can't you either tell us these rumors are all false, or that you are working on restructurings or RIFs or right-sizings in the offing and that you expect they will be finished by some particular date? Or that no date has been set and negotiations about the size and shape are still ongoing? Something? In the absence of good information, your staff will obsess about anything that looks like a clue. Not good for morale or productivity.

On the other hand, if today really is not a "day," that means another week of full paychecks for us all. Tension or not, I will not complain about that.

As the Scarecrow told Dorothy...

2011-08-19T09:40:00.000-05:00

Dorothy: Now which way do we go?
Scarecrow: Pardon me, this way is a very nice way.
Dorothy: Who said that?
[Toto barks at scarecrow]
Dorothy: Don't be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don't talk.
Scarecrow: [points other way] It's pleasant down that way, too.
Dorothy: That's funny. Wasn't he pointing the other way?
Scarecrow: [points both ways] Of course, some people do go both ways.

We have a commenter with a "good source" who says that today is not the day. But we had a commenter with a "good source" who said it would be. It is still early for most of the newsroom on a normal day. Does anybody have anything more definitive to contribute?

Crumbs

2011-08-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

Two different sources today telling me that tomorrow is going to be the day, or "a" day. Also the comment on the prior post. I don't know if they are right. Maybe they're just hearing what's been posted here, passed along secondhand. I don't think that is the case. We'll know soon enough. If it's true, and depending on what happens, morituri te salutant.

Reading entrails

2011-08-18T08:32:00.000-05:00

From a blogfriend:

A couple of Metro editors have altered travel plans this week so that they will be in the office on Friday.

Is this an indication of events to come? Since the corporate managers are saying nothing in public, we are reduced to playing detective with whatever clues anybody can find.

See last post

2011-08-17T08:32:00.000-05:00

The current chatter is the old chatter. Nothing new about timing. I wish I had something to tell you. I wish the bosses saw fit to share enough information to let us plan our lives better. Somebody thinks this is a smart way to do this. Somebody thought CueCat was smart.

Nothing and nothing and more nothing

2011-08-12T10:31:00.000-05:00

If I had it, I'd post it. If it hasn't happened by now, rumors of this week must have been wrong. Unless something is happening right now. If anybody knows different, you know how to contact me.

This week?

2011-08-09T19:26:00.000-05:00

One blogfriend says this is the week for some of it. Says it's from a good source. Another blogfriend says to watch for the boxes. The day before the previous layoffs, the cardboard boxes appeared.

But if the consistent rumors are right, it won't all be on the same day this time. Boxes may not show up until actually needed.

Nothing new in rumors about the actual targets for cuts.

Some job possibilities in academia

2011-08-07T22:10:00.000-05:00

From a former DMN-er:

Wichita State, an urban-serving research university, is seeking a
scholar who can bring expertise in advertising and branding (creative
and/or account management), recent and successful advertising industry
experience, and the ability to teach quantitative research methods.

The salary will be $50,000+ per year.

To discuss the position or arrange a meeting at AEJMC, contact Interim
Director Lou Heldman, lou.heldman@wichita.edu

To review the complete job description and to apply for this position,
please go to http//Wichita.edu/wsujobs

And:

Ole Miss seeks candidates for several journalism faculty jobs. Details and applications will be available at jobs.olemiss.edu. The job openings are:

Assistant or Associate Professor in Visual Journalism (tenure-track)
Assistant Professor of Integrated Marketing Communication (tenure-track)
Assistant Professor or Instructor in Multimedia Journalism
Assistant Professor or Instructor/International Programs Coordinator

And:

The Indiana State University Communication Department is in search of an instructor or associate professor to fill a one-year special purpose faculty appointment. The job comes with benefits.

For more details, find the posting here:

https://jobs.indstate.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1311617756425

Click here

2011-08-05T16:03:00.002-05:00

http://make-everything-ok.com/
Worth a smile if nothing else.

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

2011-08-05T15:53:00.001-05:00

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?

Hot rumors? Just hot heat

2011-08-03T20:52:00.000-05:00

I have nothing new. Just what we all know: Any time more than two of us are talking together in the building, chances are excellent that this is one thing that we are talking about. Everybody is worried. Productivity? Not good for it. Unless the cuts will be an unprecedented bloodbath, many more of us will still be here when they are over. A little additional transparency now would stifle the useless churning over no-facts and make it a little bit easier to put out a paper or generate content or whatever it is we are supposed to be doing. Weather stories. Our readers would not know tomorrow that it was hot today unless we tell them.

A newsroom is filled with pattern-seeking animals. If we aren't given information, we will generate those patterns out of whatever is handy. This is doubleplus ungood.

Will DMN layoffs happen before the iPhone 5 is released?

2011-07-30T13:38:00.003-05:00

A recap of what we think we know: Plans are well along for layoffs. Likely to happen in the next month or so. Likely to focus more on editors than reporters. Likely to force remaining editors and reporters to do more production using the capabilities of Newsgate. (In possible confirmation of that, Metro has just scheduled "refresher" Newsgate classes for reporters.)
The death of Quick was not part of the larger layoff plan but was its own specific demise.

Rumors have not carried to me about layoff numbers or how high into management the layoffs might go. Level of tension is high, but is that a clue about the size of cuts?

Current open positions are staying open or are being filled from inside. As with every summer, the interns are doing good work generating stories and papering over some of the gaps.

How is the company doing financially? The top managers took the conference call about second quarter financials on Thursday. None of the questions included anything about possible layoffs. Here are some highlights.

Barry Lucas - Gabelli & Company - Analyst
Can you tell us how many people are actually paying for one digital device, or is that possible to break out?

Jim Moroney - A. H. Belo Corporation - Executive Vice President
It is certainly possible to break out, but we said that we are just going to hold off on that number because the minute we put that number out it is just going to be all that we are going to talk about. I will tell you we continue to add digital-only in every single one of the channels through which we distribute, and we are encouraged by where we are today.

Robert Decherd - A. H. Belo Corporation - Chief Executive Officer
Barry, what we said about that previously still holds. We want to get into the first quarter of next year and see what a full year looks like. These are modest numbers. I don't want to give you the impression that there is some fantastic breakthrough that we are going to announce next spring, but as Jim said, they are meaningful in the sense that we know there's a market. It's a niche market but we want to see how it progresses, what the usage patterns are, how much time do people spend on these sites and be able to come out with something that's meaningful.

That does not sound like someone keeping a huge success hidden. Page views are down only 20 percent since the paywall went up, they said. Is most of the traffic therefore to parts of the site outside the paywall? That was not asked.

On the other hand:

We continue to anticipate full year 2011 adjusted EBIDTA in the range of $45 million to $50 million, which assumes no gains from real estate dispositions. As of June 30, the Company had approximately $50 million of cash and cash equivalents, had no borrowings outstanding at its bank credit facility, and remained in compliance with bank covenants. This strong cash position and debt free balance sheet enabled our Board of Directors to declare a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share payable on September second, 2011 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 12, 2011.

Based on that, if you are an employee and a stockholder, you've hedged your bets. You may lose your job, but you'll get a dividend because the company has such a "strong cash position and debt free balance sheet."

If you have information to share, please send it to me at dmncuts@gmail.com. Information is power. Maybe not much power, but better to know than to not.

(Those latest rumors about iPhone release? Early or mid-September. You're welcome.)

Quick cleanup and the 2nd quarter financials

2011-07-27T16:30:00.001-05:00

I chose the wrong day to be away from the computer. Frontburner and Unfair Park and Mixmaster have had details about the end of Quick, along with some comments or explanation from Moroney. I have only a small amount more to add. The basics: Quick is ended. Next issue will be its last. How many lost jobs? I'm told it's 9 which includes a pair of parttimers. I'm told that four fulltime jobs were from the remaining Quick newsroom. If anybody would like to confirm or fine-tune those numbers, please add a comment or send me an email.

I'm told the people who were fired did get some kind of severance package, but I don't know how much.

Was this part of the rumored layoffs? Moroney's told Unfair Park that this was something that was going to happen, on its own, because Quick was never able to make money. So are there other layoffs coming? If you can pull a clear answer from what Moroney has said, please send in a comment.

Today's other news was the release of second quarter financials. Read it here. It is not pleasant reading. Down and down and down. DMN circulation up a tiny amount. Does this mean jobs will be cut?

A note to those who lost jobs today: As with the last layoffs, I'm happy to offer this blog as a place to post any farewells you'd like to share. Add a comment or send me an email.

Getting out ahead of the wave -- does anybody know of jobs available?

2011-07-24T17:51:00.000-05:00

After the last round of layoffs, I asked for alerts about jobs and other activities that would be useful to the suddenly jobless and posted what was sent to me. I am happy to try that starting now. No time like the present, as my auntie always said. Put it in comments or send me an email.

The return of Spartacus

2011-07-21T19:48:00.008-05:00

Never wanted to come back here but I left the blog active. Looks like there's need again.

Rumors of another round of layoffs started seriously circulating several weeks ago. I do not have anything like hard evidence but there is a lot of smoke. Here is what I've heard so far.

As some of us know, there have been isolated layoffs in non-newsroom positions in recent weeks. The rumors say that the newsroom is also going to face cuts. Editors may be more in danger than reporters. And production editors may be more in danger.

That is because Newsgate lets line editors do much more production than had been possible under the old CCI. It is possible that management believes that fewer editors are needed to put out the paper.

This does not mean that other positions are safe.

It is possible that none of this is true. This will be a place where people who know better and want to share will be able to let the rest of us know.

One other consistent rumor is that this layoff will not the same as the last ones. Instead of an announced date where the cuts will happen, if the rumors are right, these will happen when they happen. That would mean no warning and no way to know if they're over.

What kind of severance package would be involved?

Rules for the resurrected DMNcuts blog are the same as the last time. You can comment, and comment anonymously. But do not name anybody other than yourself. Personal insults will not be tolerated. If you want to send information to me directly, the email address is dmncuts(at)gmail.com

(Erm. Update: Comments will be welcome as soon as I can figure out why I can't reactivate the comments. Meanwhile, the email address works.)

(Another update: With a little help from my friends, comments are now enabled.)

Job site has an interesting local job listed

2009-06-03T09:29:00.002-05:00

A reader notes:

I learned today from this terrific web site below, higheredjobs.com, that UT Arlington is looking for a publications editor. This might be something to add to your blog. Also, journalists ask me all the time about jobs in University communications and marketing shops. This web site is a very good source for these types of jobs.

http://www.higheredjobs.com/admin/search.cfm?JobCat=37"

Local SPJ chaper has a free workshop upcoming for freelancers

2009-06-03T09:28:00.001-05:00

From my e-box:

Are you up Freelance Creek without a paddle? Come to SPJ’s free seminar on Saturday, June 6, at the University of Texas at Arlington and you should leave with, if not a paddle, at least some ideas on how to navigate chores like finding clients, negotiating with them, creating your own website, and dealing with taxes and 401Ks.

We’ll have panels on getting out in the market, dealing with the business side and visual and multimedia freelancing. The seminar is open only to media professionals; there is no fee.

Panelists will include:
Carol Zuber-Mallison, who, after stints at both the /Morning News/ and /Star-Telegram/, has had a successful freelance graphics business for 17 years;
Photographer Manuel Pecina of the American Society of Media Photographers
Paul Foutch, former stock market editor and business reporter of /The Dallas Morning News/, now with Edward Jones Investments;
Catherine Team, creator of NeedMedia.com, and an advertising and marketing pro for the past 30 years;
Meda Kessler, editorial director of /360 West/ magazine.

The seminar will run 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with most of the action in Room 258, Fine Arts Building (Central Section). The Fine Arts Building is on the west side of Cooper Street at Greek Row Drive. Parking is available in faculty lots on the north side of the building and across Nedderman Drive to the west. Once you park, there should be signs directing you to the room.

Directions to UTA from I-30 are available at: http://www.uta.edu/maps/directions-i30

And here’s a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=700+Greek+Row+Dr.+Arlington,+Texas&hl=en

Please RSVP to Gayle at gayle.reaves@fwweekly.com so we know how many donuts to buy. Also message Gayle with any questions or requests.

See you there!

Sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists-Fort Worth Pro chapter, with assistance from the University of Texas at Arlington and friends in the media.

Recent Dallas-area job postings

2009-05-22T08:30:00.001-05:00

From a couple of readers:

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=510512

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=786114

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1051313

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1027379

and

Just got word today about an opening for an assistant public information officer at Lewisville ISD. It’s posted on the Texas School Public Relations Association website under job listings: http://www.tspra.org/page.php/services_jobs_listings.

Job posting -- Dallas PR firm

2009-05-05T19:30:00.000-05:00

A reader sends this:

Hi, I’ve followed your blog and am so sorry about all of the cuts at the Dallas Morning News. I was a journalism major and would-be reporter before making the switch to the PR side of the business and am troubled by the industry changes. In any case, I am hiring at Jackson Spalding Dallas: http://www.jacksonspalding.com/employment.html. JS is an Atlanta-based independent marketing communications firm and we opened our Dallas office in March. In Atlanta, we have many former Atlanta Journal Constitution and Atlanta Business Chronicle reporters/editors on staff – journalists have always been highly valued and respected within our firm. I’m looking to fill a full-time position for someone with 2-4 years of experience and a summer internship.

Best,

Joanna

Joanna Singleton

JACKSON SPALDING

O 214.269.4401

M 214.206.5963

E jsingleton@jacksonspalding.com

Another freelance opportuntity

2009-05-02T19:20:00.002-05:00

A reader who many of us knows says:

A woman I profiled a few years ago in Texas Living, Deb Lewin, is looking for a freelance editor to help her with a memoir. Don’t think she can pay much, but it’s a chance to sharpen book-editing skills, and Deb is a rare and special person. She was an Olympic athlete who was partly paralyzed in a car crash and has been an advocate for (and exemplar) of equestrian therapy. Deb won the 2009 NorthStar award from Henry S Miller and Highland Park Village for exceptional community service and volunteering, and anyone would enjoy working with her. Contact her at baobabbb@aol.com.

Please pass this around. Thanks!

Steve Steinberg
Director of Communications
Office: 206-616-0827
Fax: 206-616-6269

The sound of ghostly chains rustling

2009-05-02T01:47:00.003-05:00

A reader sends this:

I heard a rumor today that the plans for the next round are already being made.

If anybody out there can either confirm or knock this down, please e-mail me.

The DMN is hiring

2009-05-02T01:44:00.003-05:00

Save the irony. It's a job that somebody out there might want. A reader sends us this:

The Local News department is looking for a super-organized journalist with good writing and reporting skills for a news assistant’s position. The successful candidate will work on our fast-paced Metro Desk night team on a variety of assignments including writing news briefs, writing obituaries, assisting on the reporting of stories, manning the phones and watching newscasts. Aggressive staffers with good news judgment have an opportunity to cover breaking news and do enterprise reporting. Interested candidates should contact Mike Drago in Local News at mdrago@dallasnews.com or 214-977-8931.

And a boss says that while the layoff rules say something about people not being eligible for rehire for some period of time, applicants will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Meaning, I guess, that if someone they want to rehire applies, that the rules can be amended to suit.

Interesting job available in Dallas

2009-04-28T19:33:00.004-05:00

A reader tells us:

PIO for the Dallas County health department is suddenly open -- right in the middle of the swine flu mess. The position will be posted on the Dallas County web site at Dallascounty.org. The salary range is between $45,000 and $57,000.

And as long as I'm posting:

We have a temporary opening at Sunwest Communications for a receptionist position. It would be 3 days a week for four to six weeks, depending on the health of our current receptionist. Contact stownsend@sunwestpr.com

Another Grothe tale

2009-04-27T21:36:00.002-05:00

There may be a book in this for somebody. This story is about Randy Grothe, from David Hanners who, a lifetime or so ago, was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for the DMN for an amazing special section on how to investigate a plane crash. I can still remember the clue that the filaments of the light bulbs offered. Do they still use light bulbs? Anyway:

Jeezamae. What a sad tale. I remember when we called the DMN “The Voice of Texas.” Now it seems more like “The Hoarse Whisper of Dallas.” You could run a damn-fine newsroom with the people who have left that place. Not that anybody's in the mood to run a damn-fine newsroom these days, though.

I remember traveling with Randy up to the Middle of Nowhere, Okla., to do a story on a guy who ran a company that manufactured barbecue cookers. He was having some beef (no pun intended) with the government because he called his stuff “barbecue” and it didn’t fit the FDA’s bureaucratic definition of what constituted barbecue. The feds wanted him to cease and desist, but this guy knew barbecue; in fact, when he’d been in college, he’d written a scholarly paper on the subject.

So Randy and I fly up, rent a car and head out. To reporters, photographers had different reputations when it came to traveling, just as I’m sure the photographers rated the reporters. Most of the shooters were ok to travel with, and some were actually fun. On the other side of the spectrum, there was one photographer we derisively nicknamed “Mr. Personality” and we’d generally make some excuse about “logistics” and insist on taking separate flights and cars because the thought of being stuck in an enclosed space with him for hours on end was unbearable.

The word on traveling with Randy was that he always had to have his five squares a day. Crammed in his camera bag was a book or two listing cool out-of-the-way places to eat. So we’re heading down the road to the barbecue cooker factory and Randy pulls out the book and, sure enough, it lists some café in a small town a few miles ahead that is known for its pies.

“Let's stop and eat," he said.

“Uh, Randy, I think the barbecue guy will probably have some food for us when we get there. He’s wanting to show us what his cooker can do. I’m thinkin’ we don't need to stop.”

“Nah, they're not gonna feed us,” he replied. “We need to get lunch.”

Randy could be persuasive and I was hungry anyway so we stopped and ate. I had chicken-fried steak -- one of two times in my 12 years at the DMN I had chicken-fried steak, and don’t ask me why I remember that -- and then since the place was known for its pies, we had some of that, too. I had banana cream.

We waddle out to the car, climb in and continue to our destination. We get to the town (it was some small town founded by freed slaves, oddly enough) and drive up to the business, walk inside and there, in a conference room, is the single largest spread of barbecue I have ever seen. The Titanic set sail with less food. The guy wants us to try a bit of everything, so Randy and I look at each other and, being the professionals that we were, we took one for the DMN team and ate the guy’s barbecue. And I don’t care what the Food and Drug Administration said. This stuff was barbecue.

It turned out to be a decent story, but when you were traveling with Randy, the quality of the story was kind of a secondary issue….

New Yahoo group for former DMN-ers

2009-04-23T10:46:00.002-05:00

From a reader:

Several of us laid off on April 9 got together yesterday with Trey Garrison to discuss freelancing. We decided to create a yahoo group to allow us to network with each other and others who have left the Dallas Morning News.
There, we can post info about the type of jobs we are seeking, our contact information, if we want, jobs that may not be right for us but may be perfect for someone else, tips on navigating unemployment benefits, Cobra, 401K rollovers, and more.
All former DMNers are welcome. The more we have, the better this works. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/aftertdmn/

Well, one more job posting

2009-04-21T10:16:00.001-05:00

Too good not to pass along. A reader sends this:

I know the DMN layoffs blog has gone dark but my editor at McGraw Hill, Andy Wright, asked me to put the word out for a recent job opening. If you can put something on the blog or pass this along to folks who can spread the word, I would appreciate it.

He's looking for someone with journalism experience who can handle overseeing a regional publication covering the construction sector in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Anyone with a few years under their belt reporting or editing at the DMN would be able to take it on provided they are willing to handle the spectrum of duties; editing, reporting, layout, budget management - you name it.

McGraw Hill has not posted the opening anywhere yet but they need to fill this relatively quickly. I've worked with the company and this editor for the past five years and they are good people.

McGraw Hill Publications is looking for an editor for its regional magazine Midwest Construction (http://midwest.construction.com/) based out of Chicago. Contact Andy Wright News Director, McGraw-Hill Construction Andrew_Wright@mcgraw-hill.com

Goodnight moon

2009-04-20T20:20:00.000-05:00

Until next time...

Last day

2009-04-20T07:02:00.002-05:00

I'll leave the comments open today. That's at least long enough for you all to read Grothe's farewell and react. And then, unless someone comes up with a good reason not to, we'll go dim if not dark. Send me e-mails any time. If there's relevant news I'll post it.

Until the next cuts.

"Spartacus"
dmncuts(at)gmail.com

A farewell worth signing off with

2009-04-19T18:12:00.008-05:00

(WELCOME VISITORS FROM ROMENESKO, ETC. This blog was active for the weeks just before and after the DMN newsroom layoffs. Comments are off now, but Randy's email address is on the bottom of his farewell. We had some other pretty good good-bye notes (though nothing at this level). Click here to read all I got.)

If someone else wants to send in a farewell, I'll be honored to post it. But if this is the last in the series, what an ending. Some of the farewells from the younger people who lost jobs showed that the DMN ate some of its seed corn. This one shows that we also lost some of our old growth forest. The institutional memory this represents can never be replaced:

Whenever a Monkey Screams, Think of Me

I always wanted to be a writer, but somewhere in the sixties I got sidetracked by a Polaroid Swinger.

Now, being a writer seemed to be an admirable profession, but being a photographer seemed to be just plain cool. And being a newspaper photojournalist with a Nikon dangling from your neck as well as a press pass opening doors, whoa, that was tres cool.

So that's the road I took. That road led me here, and from here came all the memorable characters and exciting destinations.

I replaced a footnote in history - Jack Beers, who almost won a Pulitzer if his flash hadn't triggered Bob Jackson's reflex-response which froze on film the exact moment Ruby shot Oswald.

What I heard about Jack Beers was that he was a Mapsco unto himself - he knew every back road in Dallas by memory. That is something to emulate, I said to myself, and to this day I'm a student of directions and try to go mapless in Big D.

We all have heroes in our chosen profession and mine were right down the street at The Dallas Times Herald. Their photo department rocked in the 70's and 80's, and you only had to pick up their paper every day to be inspired to go out and try to beat them at their own game.

Legendary shooters like Jay Dickman and Skeeter Hagler would fast-talk you, wise-crack you, all the while snapping pictures intuitively at the exact decisive moment while you were standing beside them shooting the breeze like an idiot.
I fed on the rivalry, studied their skills, pushing myself to make better and better pictures.
Focus editor Bob Compton was really my mentor, a lovable, laid-back guru to young journalists, the newsroom Yoda who transcended space and time over the decades. He taught me how to find a great feature story and how to go after it in the face of long managerial odds. It was all about going for the heart. Uncle Bob was my spiritual guide in this business, a great lover of everything Texan.

I salute him to this day. Without him the well would have gone dry years ago.
My good friends were always in the photo department, the folks I used to eat dog food nachos with at wild goodbye parties with commode-hugging inebriated future mayors (when the police would arrive, somebody would say: "Send out the theater critic, let him handle it.").

After Friday Night Football we would caravan to the rather seedy Guadalajara on Ross Ave., eat greasy cheese enchiladas together and wait for late-night celebrities such as Lyle Lovett and Paul Simon to show up as sirens wailed and the bodies piled up outside.

We had one photog we treasured so much we threw him a goodbye party not once, but six or seven years in a row, the count being lost. Every year we always put the same notes up around the DMN to establish general confusion: "Jay Godwin is leaving The Dallas Morning News, please come to his Goodbye Party and wish him well!".

Jay, being the nice guy he is, would always faithfully drive up from Austin for his goodbye party even though eventually he really didn't know any of the people who attended his party.

One constant that still persists: you can be assured that walking through the halls of the photo department, you will hear sounds and see sights you will not witness anywhere else in Belo world.

An old geezer trying to breakdance to Michael Jackson, folks wearing riot gas masks during the basement leak, the Art dept marching in angrily to demand the stereo be turned down, a year-round Christmas tree decorated with the ex-boss's badge a blonde riding an invisible horse, Bic lighters exploding in fireballs in reaction to overruled edits by executive Sports editors, reporters hiding out in the darkroom darkness snoring away, a cowboy photo editor reading "Lonesome Dove" over the dept intercom, holiday grapefruits from upper management being hurled at lab personnel resulting in flurries of memos, staff meetings with shocked staffers photo-shopped into bikinis, on and on it goes ...

Some days being a news photographer is like being in a dream. One memorable shift, I photographed a cop killing in Grand Prairie, then Chuck Berry and Elizabeth Taylor at the Meyerson, and finally a botched burglary where a pathetic robber was trapped in a chimney trying to enter a house. One morning I was climbing a West Texas mountain with paraplegics in wheelchairs, that night I was photographing prostitutes in Juarez. If you love life and its wonderful tapestry, this job's for you.

A few personal notes with universal meaning:

Gary Barber, thanks for walking with me down to HR. That was above and beyond. But next time, let's take the stairs. Less traffic. It will be easier on the both of us.
I'm leaving David Woo in charge of highly-questionable requests on the 50/50 camera equipment program.

Doug Swanson, I'm leaving Woo in charge of you. Sorry about that. But at least you'll be able to survive a silver crisis. I guess I'll try to finish my photo essay "Voluptuous South Dallas Strippers and Their DMN Reporter Boys On Assignment." I've only got one picture in the essay and it's of you, but it's a start.

David Guzman, no matter what, take 15 more seconds out of that video edit. It's too long.

Mona Reeder, please don't get drunk again and try to steal my dog in the middle of the night. These days you could get shot by some neighbor defending his castle.
Irwin Thompson, you knucklehead, if I get one more call from you impersonating a Morning News subscription salesman ...

Leslie White, sorry I fell through the dumpster and snapped the LCD display off my video camera and then contracted a deadly staph infection that nearly ate my nose off but it was all for Elvis you know.

Nathan Hunsinger, may your scratch disk never be full. Ron Baselice, you misspelled your name in your latest video. Sonya Hebert, when things get slow and you have nothing to do, please enlarge the type on all the photo computers. Do Mahoney's first.

Tom Dillard, my original boss, wherever you are in the afterlife, I apologize for getting hired in 1975 while wearing a nice-looking suit and a Boy Scout haircut, and then showing up a few weeks later looking like Wavy Gravy from a Grateful Dead concert. It was a plan that worked.

Steve Blow, I still can't believe the DMN sheriffs let us go down Highway 16, the longest state highway, not once but twice. Twenty years from now on the story's anniversary, I will track you down in the Nursing Home For Folksy Metro Columnists and we'll hop in the Honda Civic hatchback and go looking for Arkey Blue again.

Richard Pruitt, hanging around you created a thirst for gadgets and camera equipment that leaves me very well-stocked for a free-lance career. At the time of explaining those purchases to my wife, I wanted to strangle you. Now I drink to your materialistic spirit. She does too.

Gerry McCarthy, I would say I will miss your constant stream of e-mail spam, but I just don't think I've hit rock-bottom yet. The abyss has got to be pretty deep for that to happen.

Guy Reynolds, if I get any more butt-calls from you, I'm sending Roky Erickson your way, the 13th Floor Elevators and all. Lara Solt, kill your babies. Michael Hamtil, I would love to buy you lunch, but, as you know, I have left my wallet in the car. Evans Caglage, don't get too good at anything you don't want to do around this place.
Mr. Ainsworth, you know what to do with those cross-dissolves. Louis DeLuca, you are the most well-rounded photographer I know and I do not mean that in the jelly-belly sort of way. Tom Fox, check with the card-stacker, see if he needs an assistant.

Chris Wilkins and Brad Loper, order me some boudin to go from the Shaq. Ahna Hubnik, to somewhat quote the Prairie Mystic known as David Leeson, a video is never finished, it is only abandoned, especially by our web audience.
Vernon Bryant, thanks for setting my camera controls when they became too small for me to see. Juan Garcia, remember: when something just doesn't look right, it's probably right.

John Zak, sorry I never got my mileage in on time. Maybe in the next life. Jerome Sims, please organize me before I die. Courtney, give me back my monkey.
John Rhodes, or rather Mr. Atomic Fireball, for growing up on the grounds of a mental institution, you seem perfectly sane to me. Melanie Burford, we'll always have the Taco Joint. Kye Lee, Richard Pruitt wants his carbon-fiber tripod back. Pronto.

John Davidson, the Boss With A Bite, if I just would have taken your advice years ago when I asked you where I should go with my career and you said: "Take a left out of my office, turn right, go to the window, open it, and jump" - none of this would be happening now.

I will really miss the wry wit of Jim Mahoney, who pounds the mean streets of Big D looking for amazing local pictures. It's hard to forget his comment about one of our more colorful globe-trotting photojournalists: "It really doesn't bother me that she goes away on these great international assignments, it just bothers me that she always comes back."

To former staffers Paul Brown and Ed Hille, as far as carpetbaggers go who headed south to plunder the plantation, you guys were the absolute best.

Paul, why we ended up with chocolates on our pillows and golden telephones by our toilets in the most luxurious hotel in San Antonio during the Pope's 1987 visit is a mystery that Belo Travel obviously must have had to answer for. The high-performance rented Mustang - hmmm, that too.

Ed, on the matter of the Nikon 85 mm 1.4 with the major focus problem you gave me in a big-hearted gesture upon your departure over 20 years ago, I sold it recently on E-bay for $500. A true confession.

Judy Walgren, dance with me, woman. How many cows did that African tribe offer for you again? I bet the numbers are down in this economy.

Allison V. Smith, give me a reflector to hold and a Hasselblad to load.

Barbara Davidson, during the swamp tour when the redneck alligator-hunters were showing off and crashed their airboat into the riverbank in the middle of nowhere, and all looked lost for us, good thing you pulled out that Canadian charm.

And then there was the great tale-spinner Joe Laird, our longtime society photog. He could easily segue from telling stories about machine-gunning "Japs" on Iwo Jima to stinky hippies skinny-dipping in the Trinity River at the 1969 Lewisville Pop Festival and then on to escapades of the rich and famous of Dallas smuggling diamonds across the Atlantic in their, ahem, privates. My eyes were as big as softball-sized hail.

And thanks to all my DMN buddies and future photo Pulitzer winners who appeared in our humble home movie "East Dallas Vice vs. Godzilla." Evans Caglage, Jan Sonnenmair, Juan and Leslie Garcia, Nuri Vallbona, Milton Hinnant - they all died horrible deaths at the hands of the monster and his evil BMW driver, Ken Geiger. William Snyder as detective "Sunny" Crockett saved the world at the end.

We were very young and crazy then.

To all the cameras I've loved before, thanks for the auto-exposure, the auto-focus, and the auto-white balance.

There were many great reporters I've had the pleasure to work with.
Bryan Woolley, who never met a chicken-fried steak he didn't like. Bill Minutaglio, who I ate horse-sausage with unknowingly in Moscow one night before catching the Aeroflot flight where we sat next to the large Russian wolfhound. Bill, who was once told in my presence in the hills of Nicaragua that he had the face of a priest, also introduced me to the male Aretha Franklin one night. We also were chased by federales in Mexico when I mistook a pull-over hand signal for a go-ahead gesture. Sorry, Bill, didn't mean to scare the guacamole out of you.

And there was ____ , who made me go swimming with her in the middle of an assignment in the 80's. I wrote a song about the experience called "I Feel Like a Fool In Your Husband's Swimsuit." The tape got passed around the newsroom; she never spoke to me again. That was fine.

Brad Bailey, who I never could find for hours while on assignment at a nudist camp because he took off his clothes and just kinda looked like everybody else. Those Miss Nude Texas assignments only come around once in your lifetime, right, Jim (rhymes with Moroney)?

Miss Marlyn Schwartz, who refused to go on assignment with me in my lime-green 1967 Mustang with black racing stripes and no muffler because, well, it wasn't air-conditioned.

Not to mention ____ , who smoked the funny stuff in my car on the way to interviewing large and scary Texas Rangers of the law enforcement variety at
the nuclear plant and had me and my career frozen with fear and paranoia for days on end. She would not be denied. It was the 70's, man, and a lot of people were still stuck in the 60's.

Michael Granberry, I've come to the place where the road and the sky collide. I'm not running on empty yet, but I probably could use somebody to doctor my eyes. As long a I don't run into Daryl Hannah, I think I will be okay.

Beatriz Terrazas, who proved to me she could roll with the best of the roller-derby girls.

Steve McGonigle, we were Horned Frogs all those years ago. As far as being an endangered species, things haven't changed that much.

I will miss the quiet intelligence of Zen Master Tom Huang, whose staunch support of photojournalism is a treasure for this newspaper. I remember, back in the heyday, going on assignment with him to the biggest BBQ festival in the nation in Memphis, Tennessee (well, I called it an assignment, the boss called it a "friggin' vacation").
After a few exquisite spring days covering good ol' boys partying to Southern rock on the beer-infested banks of the Mississippi, interviewing beautiful, wasted Scarlett O'Haras, and eating all parts of the pig and cow possible in the tastiest of ways, I noticed Tom had this blissed-out look on his face, punctuated by a subtle smile.
I asked what the matter was and he said: "I'm just not used to having fun on an assignment for the paper", a comment which seemed to justify the whole assignment to me.

Tom, I wish you were here now. This thing needs some editing.

Seen a lot of change here. When I first arrived, it wasn't too far away from the time when, if Metro needed an eye-burner feature photo, they would send the trusty Clint Grant to the zoo to grab an animal, bring him in the studio, then work with that chimpanzee or penguin or whatever til some magic happened to anchor the Metro cover. I am not making this up.

From black and white film to Kodachrome slides to color negatives to digital images and now HD video and frame-grabs, it all came to pass.

If I ever got down about the place, I would crank up the Springsteen between assignments, fast-forward the cassette to his third-most signature anthem "Badlands" with its uplifting chorus line: "Keep pushing til it's understood / And these badlands start treating us good." It seemed to cure the Belo Blues in that simplistic, unexplainable rock 'n' roll kind of way.

I've always found the photo dept to be an oasis of anarchistic, invigorating insanity within the rather buttoned-down walls of the DMN. Whenever an Observer story would come out with tales of our stuffy conservatism, I'd just scratch my head, remembering who hired belly dancers in the Dallas Life dept, or who made cheese nachos on the print dryers in the long-gone wet lab or just the vision of the tattooed Courtney Perry swing-dancing and laughing maniacally in the photo scanning room. I would wonder: what department are they talking about?

Photographers are much like drummers in a rock band. Somewhat crazy and unpredictable, a little Keith Moon is in every one of them. In the 70's, for those who remember, it might have been something in the fixer or ferrocyanide. Personalities, twisted humor and camaraderie always abound in photo. And the old farts there stay a bit young at heart.

I remember one stormy night falling off a ladder, breaking my ankle covering a protest. After the surgery the photo dept presented me with a framed, black-and-white crime-scene photo of the accident area, with my body drawn out on the sidewalk, surrounded by the very protestors I had been photographing and, of course, smiling members of the photo dept.

What could I say? That was a pretty thoughtful bunch of people, those photo friends of mine. I must admit the gesture did make the 23 pins and 2 metal plates hurt just a little less.

I really don't understand why photo departments seem to have the most gregarious, hilarious characters at a newspaper, but it's been that way for years at the DMN. John Rhodes could do stand-up. Melanie Burford, call Conan. Gerry, are you really Woody Allen? We have maintained that image while racking up multiple Pulitzers and gaining national recognition for serious work.

There were always surprises in this job.

Once, I went to a gentrified East Dallas neighborhood to shoot a fireplace. Just a stupid fireplace. The owner opened his door and a Doberman ran out to basically attack me. When I put my right hand out in defense, my Nikon took a slide down the arm, perfectly landing around the snarling dog's neck.

I just remember standing there speechless and helpless, watching the Doberman grinning real big, running down Swiss Ave. wearing my gift like a new necklace, the camera bouncing with large ugly clunks! on the concrete street.
How do you explain that to anybody much less your boss?

Or the time I sat on my walkie-talkie in my car and the entire newsroom gathered around to listen to an hour-long argument I was having with my wife, largely about choosing a Mexican food destination. Ouch. Double-ouch when Christie found out about the public broadcast.

Hurricane Allen, 1989. Record flooding everywhere. I was in a crowded National Guard helicopter. We landed in shallow water. I stepped out and it was like being dropped into the dead calm of the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Water as far as you could see, horizon to horizon. A steady stream of the elderly pouring out of a quaint schoolhouse, escorted by soldiers through the waters. It was an unforgettable scene. In waist-deep water, I took one step. The big fat diamondback rattlesnake swam by only inches away and suddenly my heart was pounding like a runaway locomotive.

I showed up one morning for work and was promptly handed an amateurish camera and told to get some gym clothes and go workout with Jane Fonda. What, excuse me? The class was private, the press was barred, and I was posing as an excited fan snapping a shot after the workout. I have to admit - the picture was exclusive, great idea.

I was lucky enough to experience print journalism when the cotton was high and this was a bad-ass newspaper firing on all cylinders. We were all living way above the cloud line. At that time the possibilities at this outfit seemed limitless.

I remember developing color negative film amidst the chemical fumes, wearing a stained lab apron, when the cylindrical darkroom door noisily swung around and managing editor Stu Wilk stuck his head in. "Randy," he said, " Do you like Simon and Garfunkel?"
"Yes, Stu," I said, "I like Simon and Garfunkel." "Do you remember their song ..." and then he started singing:
"... they've all gone to look for America ... ?"

Boom. A few days later, Allen Pusey and I were criss-crossing the nation, from East to West coast, asking folks where they were on November 22, 1963.
From meeting the girl who first dyed Roy Orbison's hair black to getting healed by the spirit of Pancho Villa, it's been great fun. I have no regrets.

And, with the hurricane wind that's been blowing through our industry, I thought I was prepared emotionally for this day, but you never really are.
As the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said: "Everybody has a plan til they get their teeth knocked out."

I felt somewhat that way last week, or at least similar to when the 6 foot 4 inch Rockwall tight end slammed into me on the sidelines a few years ago and I woke up on my back, eyes to the fuzzy heavens, with a hole through my lip where my camera eyepiece had punctured it. The football team's doctor pushed aside the concerned cheerleaders, leaned over me and said: "Listen, son, let's get you over to the bench.
We're gonna patch you up with some Super-Glue."

So, I'm looking for some Super-Glue now.

It hurts at first, being released into this fresh water, but I feel really lucky to have worked here with some measure of success. Especially compared to toiling your life away in a smelly petrochemical plant, the South Texas life I escaped from.

My tight-knit family in Pasadena never did really understand this job. Myleather-tough brothers, who worked all their lives in ship channel refineries or the prison system or the prison system known as public schools, would look at me with shock-and-awe when I told them I had just been hanging out all day with Willie Nelson, or trying to find the best swimming holes in Texas, or riding around in a hot air balloon or chasing a Mardi Gras parade or mixing it up with Elvis impersonators.

"What?!?!?" they would say, "You call that a job?"

Yup. The best job in the world. It's the first one I ever had some 34 years ago. It was my ticket to ride. And I will never forget it, this place and all the usual suspects. See you a little further down the road.

Randy Eli Grothe
randygrothe@gmail.com

Last call

2009-04-17T12:48:00.002-05:00

Given the tone of the past few days,I have the feeling that we're just about done here. I'll leave everything as is through the weekend. But unless there is a flood of traffic or an obvious unmet need, I intend to go on hiatus on Monday. Practically speaking, that means I turn off the comments and check the email once in a while. I'll make it a point to post any farewells. And if there are jobs being offered I'll try to get to those.

I can't say it's been fun. It has not. But it has been oddly rewarding. Thank you all for your participation and support.

Let's be careful out there!

Staff meetings with managers about the reorganization

2009-04-16T10:30:00.000-05:00

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

An interesting managing editor job?

2009-04-15T19:26:00.000-05:00

A reader sends this:

I'm looking to fill a Managing Editor Position . If you know of anyone qualified and interested, please feel free to pass on this email.

Show Initiative is an established trade media and events company with a background in games, virtual worlds, and social media.. We already run two successful blogs, but are preparing to expand both in content and scope. We're looking for an experienced managing editor to help set the tone, direction, and team for a new network of blogs.

More details here: http://www.showinitiative.com/managingeditorjobdescription

A question about how the cuts were decided

2009-04-15T17:30:00.002-05:00

Here's a comments thread on another post:

1) A person I know who was laid off let me see the list of positions selected for termination. According to it, 136 people lost their jobs this go-round. We were told that all positions in our small dept. were being considered for termination. On the list, all positions in each department were listed and an "X" was placed by the position(s) selected for termination. However, the person in our dept. who lost their job's position was the only one on the list, which leads us to believe she was specifically targeted, that perhaps her name/position was submitted in advance. If all our positions in this dept. were subject to the RIF, as we'd been told, why weren't all the positions on the list?

2) A friend showed me the list and I noticed there were no photo editors or any photo management on the list. I echo the above question, why weren't all the positions on the list?

3) Good question.

Similar examples can be found elsewhere on the list. For example, for "Editorial Page," only four positions were listed, one of which was "selected" for layoff. There are a lot more than four people in that dept.

Also, the list of those who apparently were considered for layoff included no line editors for national, foreign, TSW, Downtown Bureau, Metro Central Zone, Metro West Zone or Metro East Zone.

If I read this right then these people are saying that there were certain positions that were never considered for cuts -- no matter who was filing them. Unless there was a prior evaluation during which everyone in those positions was already determined to be necessary before the creation of the lists these people say they saw. Anybody have first-person information to contribute?

Another farewell note

2009-04-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

The invitation is still open to others. Here is the latest:

Hello all,

A week after the cuts, I finally feel like my head is screwed on straight enough to give a proper farewell (that is, farewell for now).

Thanks to everyone who has offered condolences, encouragement and assistance during this very difficult time. I am deeply appreciative. You have helped replace despair, uncertainty and even self-doubt with hope and optimism.

To those who are still devastated by last week: I hate to get cheesy with the glass-half-full metaphor, but sometimes a different perspective really helps. I was in a serious car crash three weeks ago, and the outcome would have been very different had I not been wearing a seat belt. Before the accident, I was already a bit of a wreck because I fretted the possibility of losing everything (i.e., my job). I thought journalism was my entire life. But that mentality changed after the accident. When you almost lose it all, you realize everything else from that moment forward is actually a bonus. Hopefully you don't need to get in a terrible wreck to feel the same way.

To both the DMN exes and remaining staffers: It takes an admirable level of commitment, passion and determination to stick it out this long in such a turbulent industry. Don't forget that. Jobs can disappear, but our common dedication to educating the public and doing what we do best is untouchable. And it will translate well to anything we do in the future.

I am truly honored and humbled to have worked with such remarkable colleagues and friends. I wish you all the best. Please keep in touch.

Holly Yan
HollyEYan@yahoo.com

Sports job in the region

2009-04-15T10:11:00.001-05:00

A reader posted this message today:

Found this today:
SPORTS FANATIC? Waxahachie Newspapers Inc. (WNI) is seeking an
experienced SPORTS WRITER to serve on our award-winning sports team.
Candidates should have a minimum of three years experience with a
daily or weekly newspaper and possess the ability to juggle a lot of
balls in the air at the same time. This is not a 9-5 job as this desk
is responsible for the assignment and coverage of the sports, athletes
and coaches in the communities we serve. "Didn't get to it" is not
acceptable. We are looking for an enterprising individual capable of
writing compelling sports stories, covering games and assisting the
sports team to ensure all bases are covered. Excellent writing and
time management skills are a must. Preferred candidates will also have
experience in photography, Photoshop and Quark. This is a full-time
position with competitive compensation and excellent benefits, which
include 401(k) plan, health/dental insurance and annual paid vacation.
Waxahachie Newspapers Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. E-mail
cover letter, resume and three writing samples to WNI Editor Neal
White at neal.white@wninews.com

Posted by Anonymous to DMNcuts at April 15, 2009 9:52 AM

Question from a reader

2009-04-14T06:40:00.003-05:00

One of the recently cut asks:

The severance agreement contains a requirement that you not seek re-employment or any remunerative relationship with the company. This would seem to prohibit freelancing. But some who left in prior layoffs and buyouts have freelanced for the paper.

Anyone know if this was part of past agreements? Wondering if it's just not enforced or if this is a new issue.

Thanks.

I know there are managers out there who read this blog. Can we have something like a definitive answer, please? Anonymous would be fine.

Question from the comments

2009-04-14T06:38:00.002-05:00

A reader writes:

What are they going to do about the reporter rotations? We're 11 people short now. Will projects people be included in the rotations--how can they not be? Many of us don't mind getting the overtime (and many of us are now the sole supporters in our homes), but I can't imagine they'll keep paying OT every weekend, holiday etc. Clerks are already short and having to rotate regularly. What's the plan here?

Speaking for myself that's a very good question.

Quo Vadimus?

2009-04-12T11:18:00.005-05:00

This blog was created for a very specific purpose: To provide information about this round of layoffs. The layoffs are over. Before we move on, I think we need to note that we all committed some remarkable journalism on deadline.

With no help or hindrance from our corporate overlords we: Were able to publish the size, departments and categories of the layoffs in one day. Which if you missed it was:

11 from Local News. 10 reporters, one news clerk
1 production editor from Editorial
6 from Lifestyles: Two part-time editors, one full-time editor, two writers, one Guide listings editor/writer.
3 from business: One reporter, a wire editor and an assistant editor.
13 from the sports: 8 from desk, 4 writers, 1 phone clerk
6 from Photo (Photo details: 4 photographers, 1 color tech, 1 photo librarian)
3 from News Art: One graphic artist, two designers
6 off the news copy desk
1 off the news desk

(As I look at it, we could still use the specifics from Photo and News Art. Update: Photo and News Art info now supplied. )

Engage a community in spirited and sometimes useful discussions. Feature some astonishingly good writing -- not mine, but some of the farewell notes are amazingly good. Distributed useful information about some of the kinds of help our now-former colleagues might be able to find.

If only dallasnews.com was as consistently successful at taking advantage of the possibilities of online journalism. Cloud-sourcing, immediacy, error correction, interactivity. Also, with very few exceptions, the tone of the comments has been civil enough. Some were pretty strong, but we were all entitled to that.

Are we done? I'm still getting a trickle of farewell notes, and I promise I will always get those posted. A few job and seminar notes are also coming in.

My question for this community: Do I need to keep DMNCuts going after this week? Is there a purpose that is not being met in other places? I'm incredibly proud of what we all did here, but like all of us, I need to spend my energy and time wisely. I'm open to staying open. I could go on hiatus and shut off the comments until the next round of cuts is announced. Or I could let the mask pass to someone else, as Mr. Sunbeam and RockOfTruth did to me.

What do you think?

I've put all the farewell notes on one post

2009-04-11T14:56:00.005-05:00

And the link is in the "links" list on the right. If anybody else wants to send me a note or to post one in comments, the invitation remains open. I will, of course, add any new ones to that other post.

Here's a new one that was posted in comments that I'll pull out here:

Though the ax has fallen on my head this go-round, too, i will always be glad for having had the opportunity to be a part of The Dallas Morning News.

And while it may sound like patting myself on the back, I can truly look back and know that while I felt lucky to be there, I also worked hard to stay. While I may not have walked away with any big journalism awards in my box, I could walk away knowing i did a good job.

In my time there I led the Metro coverage of the first Breeder's Cup race ever in the Southwest, I was the first to report on Farmers Branch's efforts to make illegal immigrants unwelcome there - a story that would put them in the national spotlight - and continued to top every other media outlet in the country in following that story over the next two years, and my reporting on a mayor's lies about her background derailed her bid for re-election.
Not bad for a small-town girl with no degree, lol.

I am proud to have been a part of what was long considered one of the best papers in the country, and to have known each and every one of you.

Today, i remain heartbroken to have been let go after 13 years with the company. I also am at a loss to explain it. Coming in from the old suburban newspapers I know my salary never reached those of many of my colleagues. So the didn't save much by letting me go.

But it is what it is, and it was time to move on.

I with all of you who remain the best of luck. i really don't expect newspapers to be around much longer, and that's the saddest part of all.

To those of you who were laid off, this time or previous times, I hope you find happiness and fulfillment and stability, whereever the road takes you.

Stephanie Sandoval

Job fairs in the near future

2009-04-11T14:17:00.003-05:00

A reader sends this in:

Link to complete list of upcoming job fairs:
http://www.cityofirving.org/library/jobfairs.html

Tuesday, April 14
Cities of Carrollton and Farmers Branch Job Fair, 2 to 6 p.m., Addison Convention Center, 15650 Addison Road, Addison, TX 75001, (972) 573-3533
University of Phoenix Career Fair, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West, 1590 LBJ Freeway at Luna Road, Dallas, TX 75234, (214) 675-3059

Wednesday, April 15
Grand Prairie WorkForce Solutions Greater Dallas Job Fair, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 801 W. Freeway St., Suite 500, Grand Prairie, TX 75051, (972) 264-5881
Spring Career Fair, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mountain View College, 4849 W. Illinois Ave., Dallas, TX 75211, (214) 860-8553

Additional Job Openings:
Dallas County Community College District
Openings for teaching and non-teaching. The pay is good. I'm happy to provide my name for applicants. They ask for people you know who work in the district. Appplication is online and timed so have your materials ready.
http://www.dcccd.edu/Business+Community/Jobs/DCCCD+Job+Openings/

Collin County Community College District
Also an online application. Have your materials ready.

https://jobs.ccccd.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1239472779857

UPDATE: Check the comments for more job ops. If you have more jobs, this is a good post to use. Add to the comments.

Help with resumes

2009-04-10T22:07:00.001-05:00

A reader writes:

I was wondering if you could get word out on the blog that Assistant News Editor Michael Apuan and I willing to help anyone who might need a resume designed …

We’ve been helping some folks with this already — we have the graphics equipment at home to handle almost any project. We’ll tailor your work history to fit your needs; it won’t be a templated resume that will get lost in a heap of others.

We both work night shifts, so this would mean we’d be available during the day to have discussions on what would work best for you.

We lost a hell of a lot of great colleagues this week across multiple departments. If we can help anyone with this or anything else, please don’t hesitate fire one of us an e-mail at jschnick@dallasnews.com or mapuan@dallasnews.com.

Thanks …

Jeff Schnick
Assistant Business Editor

Enough with the dark

2009-04-09T18:49:00.002-05:00

When I started this blog I chose the dark template because that seemed appropriate and somber and respectful. Now that the cuts have happened, I think that it is more respectful to those who have left and those who remain to change the look. For all of us, we need to figure out how to get on with things. This is not to make light of the terrible event we have all gone through. The content will not change.

The truth is, I found the white-on-black hard on my eyes. Since I'm the owner, this is a place I can make a change without calling a meeting or assembling a focus group or getting six sets of signatures. Unlike where I work and still draw a paycheck.

Enough with the dark.

Good people want to help

2009-04-09T18:41:00.001-05:00

I have heard that previous SPJ events have been useful.

SPJ WANTS TO HELP

The Fort Worth SPJ pro chapter wants to help. We've put on several "how to survive a layoff" programs for folks from the DMN and Star-Telegram over the last several years, featuring things like financial advice on 401K rollovers. This time we're thinking about organizing a freelancers' "summit" -- probably a half-day program on a Saturday. To do that, we want to hear from you -- what advice or help do you need most? How to handle the finances? Find clients? Negotiate prices? Build a website? Learn new skills? What else?
Please write back and let me know. We will try to build a program around what we hear from you.

Thanks

Gayle Reaves
(SPJ-Fort Worth board member and editor, Fort Worth Weekly)
gayle.reaves@fwweekly.com

Health insurance advice?

2009-04-09T18:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not endorsing but a reader writes:

Hi! I am a fellow DMN employee, but I also own a health insurance agency. Undoubtedly those who are affected are going to have concerns and questions about their options, including COBRA subsidy eligibility. Our advice is free and confidential and we would be happy to help anyone who needs answers. Please feel free to direct anyone my way if they would like to speak to someone. And thank you for providing the blog for all of us! It is nice to see everyone coming together to help each other.

Best regards,

Amanda (Carruth) Wray
Tailor Made Insurance
4618 Cedar Springs Road
Suite A
Dallas, TX 75219

214-437-1410 cell
214-558-7908 office

amandawray@me.com
www.tminsure.com

A reminder about the rules

2009-04-09T17:53:00.002-05:00

Don't put a name in a comment unless it's yours or it's someone who has posted their own name. I just had to kill an otherwise fine comment because it mentioned someone who sent me a note asking that the name not be there. Let's be extra kind to those who have lost jobs.

Any more people want to leave a farewell note?

2009-04-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

If so, I'll put this post on top this morning so you can post a comment here.

---------------------

As many of you know, I have a hard time saying goodbye. I am usually one of the last ones to leave a party and my “goodbyes” tend to turn into 20-minute long conversations. Perhaps, this is why it’s taken me a couple of days to collect my thoughts and say farewell to so many wonderful friends and colleagues, who are like family to me.

This week, after 12 and a half years in newspapers, I lost my job. People often asked me why I remained in newspapers or if I’d come up with a Plan B yet. My answer was always that I still believed in newspapers and still loved telling stories. I wanted to be part of the solution to keep newspapers alive – even if it meant that content would ultimately be entirely online.

Reading The Dallas Morning News and my hometown newspaper, the Waxahachie Daily Light, was a tradition, a habit in my family. My father, an immigrant from Mexico who spoke no English when he arrived, was curious about this country that everyone called the land of opportunity. He wanted to fit in like everyone else. He struggled with the language, but because of newspapers he learned new words. He would often point out words and ask me about their meaning. When I got older, he’d often ask if I’d read what Dallas or Waxahachie city officials had done or what a particular sports columnist thought about the Cowboys or Rangers.

When I returned to Texas in 2002, after spending more than six years in Florida, my parents were beyond thrilled. They would finally get to see and read their little girl’s stories. My mom sometimes knew where a story of mine ran before I did, because she’d seen the paper first that day.

My parents don’t have much formal education, don’t speak English that well and don’t have much money. But this they value: the importance of newspapers. I hope that my friends and colleagues who are left behind will remember there are many like my parents who still have a thirst for knowledge – regardless of their background.

On Tuesday, when I walked out of the DMN building, the moment seemed surreal. But I have no regrets. I am fortunate to have worked with so many talented people from whom I learned so much. It is truly an honor. I will miss you guys, but I won’t forget all of the valuable things you’ve taught me.

Keep up the great work!

Stella M. Chávez
starchavez@aol.com

KERA announces layoffs but says it will be beefing up local content

2009-04-09T06:09:00.000-05:00

A reader points out this news release from KERA:

KERA REALLOCATES STAFF RESOURCES

DALLAS/FORT WORTH - KERA announced today that the equivalent of four-and-one-half positions have been eliminated so that resources can be reallocated to other areas within the organization. The positions affected are in volunteer services, data management, education programs and television production.

“We regret that these layoffs were necessary,” said Mary Anne Alhadeff, President & CEO, “but the station is on a course to increase news and public affairs reporting and advance online services consistent with the station’s mission and the needs and interests of our audiences. This reallocation of resources allows the station to maintain its budget and have the resources available for content expansion.”

In the coming months, KERA will implement plans to significantly expand its local radio news and public affairs coverage on KERA 90.1 FM and increase online content and resources.

When it does that expanding, maybe it will need new staff?

Job possibility

2009-04-09T06:08:00.000-05:00

A reader writes:

Just got the following from one of my high school friends, Libby McIver. Doesn’t seem like the best fit, but what does? Also, does anyone know whether the Census Bureau is still hiring?

Hi all,

My company is hiring now for a new team dedicated to servicing the Black Card clients.

If you know anyone who has a strong customer service, call center, travel, hotel background, and they are looking for work, they should go to www.vipdesk.com apply. You work from HOME.

From Trey Garrison

2009-04-09T06:03:00.001-05:00

Trey writes:

I've been successfully freelancing for six years now, with a year-and-a-half interruption to take a full-time gig at D, which I left a year ago.

If there's enough interest, I'd be willing to give a seminar or whatever you want to call it to any and all former DMN staffers on how to make a living freelancing.

If the crowd is big enough, I figure we could charge a minor fee to cover the cost of an appropriate venue. Maybe even coffee and donuts or whatever. If it's a small group, we could probably find somewhere free to do it.

Figure between the two of us -- and I'd protect your anonymity -- we could organize this sooner rather than later.

If you want to post this to gauge interest, feel free.

Either way, good luck and Godspeed to all our inky brothers and sisters.

Also:
I'm still figuring out the details, I don't have a business plan drawn up, and I haven't called the first potential investor, but...

I'm trying to figure out how to make a purely online newspaper focused exclusively on Plano work. Plano is sort of a unique critter -- big enough, tech-friendly enough, and prosperous enough to merit its own independent coverage, but underserved by both the DMN and the Plano Star Courier.

I foresee something that marries video and print, and is primarily enterprise reporting on city issues, cops, local sports, and some lifestyle stuff. Not big on opinion, though there would be a blog, forum, etc.

If there are any Plano-based DMN pink slippers, I'd love to at least touch base with them as I develop this idea, and see what could be reasoned out on how to make this work.

Feel free to pass along.

--
Trey Garrison
treygarrison.com
trey@treygarrison.com

Freelance gig?

2009-04-09T06:01:00.000-05:00

From a reader:

I have a client who wants to pay $ 100 dollars per article and it is possible it may be more than 10 articles. Do you know of anybody who would be willing to write these articles? You talked about some people from the Dallas Morning News you may not have a job anymore who may want to write these.

The only thing my client is asking is the person come out to visit with them and take a tour of their facility. Their building is located near Plano Road and Forest.

They would like someone to come out this week or next week.
If you're interested, please e-mail paul.foutch@edwardjones.com.

The entire list of farewell notes

2009-04-08T14:48:00.006-05:00

This is the comprehensive list of farewell notes.

----------------------------------------------------------

Whenever a Monkey Screams, Think of Me

I always wanted to be a writer, but somewhere in the sixties I got sidetracked by a Polaroid Swinger.

Now, being a writer seemed to be an admirable profession, but being a photographer seemed to be just plain cool. And being a newspaper photojournalist with a Nikon dangling from your neck as well as a press pass opening doors, whoa, that was tres cool.

So that's the road I took. That road led me here, and from here came all the memorable characters and exciting destinations.

I replaced a footnote in history - Jack Beers, who almost won a Pulitzer if his flash hadn't triggered Bob Jackson's reflex-response which froze on film the exact moment Ruby shot Oswald.

What I heard about Jack Beers was that he was a Mapsco unto himself - he knew every back road in Dallas by memory. That is something to emulate, I said to myself, and to this day I'm a student of directions and try to go mapless in Big D.

We all have heroes in our chosen profession and mine were right down the street at The Dallas Times Herald. Their photo department rocked in the 70's and 80's, and you only had to pick up their paper every day to be inspired to go out and try to beat them at their own game.

Legendary shooters like Jay Dickman and Skeeter Hagler would fast-talk you, wise-crack you, all the while snapping pictures intuitively at the exact decisive moment while you were standing beside them shooting the breeze like an idiot.
I fed on the rivalry, studied their skills, pushing myself to make better and better pictures.
Focus editor Bob Compton was really my mentor, a lovable, laid-back guru to young journalists, the newsroom Yoda who transcended space and time over the decades. He taught me how to find a great feature story and how to go after it in the face of long managerial odds. It was all about going for the heart. Uncle Bob was my spiritual guide in this business, a great lover of everything Texan.

I salute him to this day. Without him the well would have gone dry years ago.
My good friends were always in the photo department, the folks I used to eat dog food nachos with at wild goodbye parties with commode-hugging inebriated future mayors (when the police would arrive, somebody would say: "Send out the theater critic, let him handle it.").

After Friday Night Football we would caravan to the rather seedy Guadalajara on Ross Ave., eat greasy cheese enchiladas together and wait for late-night celebrities such as Lyle Lovett and Paul Simon to show up as sirens wailed and the bodies piled up outside.

We had one photog we treasured so much we threw him a goodbye party not once, but six or seven years in a row, the count being lost. Every year we always put the same notes up around the DMN to establish general confusion: "Jay Godwin is leaving The Dallas Morning News, please come to his Goodbye Party and wish him well!".

Jay, being the nice guy he is, would always faithfully drive up from Austin for his goodbye party even though eventually he really didn't know any of the people who attended his party.

One constant that still persists: you can be assured that walking through the halls of the photo department, you will hear sounds and see sights you will not witness anywhere else in Belo world.

An old geezer trying to breakdance to Michael Jackson, folks wearing riot gas masks during the basement leak, the Art dept marching in angrily to demand the stereo be turned down, a year-round Christmas tree decorated with the ex-boss's badge, Bic lighters exploding in fireballs in reaction to overruled edits by executive Sports editors, reporters hiding out in the darkroom darkness snoring away, a cowboy photo editor reading "Lonesome Dove" over the dept intercom, holiday grapefruits from upper management being hurled at lab personnel resulting in flurries of memos, staff meetings with shocked staffers photo-shopped into bikinis, on and on it goes ...

Some days being a news photographer is like being in a dream. One memorable shift, I photographed a cop killing in Grand Prairie, then Chuck Berry and Elizabeth Taylor at the Meyerson, and finally a botched burglary where a pathetic robber was trapped in a chimney trying to enter a house. One morning I was climbing a West Texas mountain with paraplegics in wheelchairs, that night I was photographing prostitutes in Juarez. If you love life and its wonderful tapestry, this job's for you.

A few personal notes with universal meaning:

Gary Barber, thanks for walking with me down to HR. That was above and beyond. But next time, let's take the stairs. Less traffic. It will be easier on the both of us.
I'm leaving David Woo in charge of highly-questionable requests on the 50/50 camera equipment program.

Doug Swanson, I'm leaving Woo in charge of you. Sorry about that. But at least you'll be able to survive a silver crisis. I guess I'll try to finish my photo essay "Voluptuous South Dallas Strippers and Their DMN Reporter Boys On Assignment." I've only got one picture in the essay and it's of you, but it's a start.

David Guzman, no matter what, take 15 more seconds out of that video edit. It's too long.

Mona Reeder, please don't get drunk again and try to steal my dog in the middle of the night. These days you could get shot by some neighbor defending his castle.
Irwin Thompson, you knucklehead, if I get one more call from you impersonating a Morning News subscription salesman ...

Leslie White, sorry I fell through the dumpster and snapped the LCD display off my video camera and then contracted a deadly staph infection that nearly ate my nose off but it was all for Elvis you know.

Nathan Hunsinger, may your scratch disk never be full. Ron Baselice, you misspelled your name in your latest video. Sonya Hebert, when things get slow and you have nothing to do, please enlarge the type on all the photo computers. Do Mahoney's first.

Tom Dillard, my original boss, wherever you are in the afterlife, I apologize for getting hired in 1975 while wearing a nice-looking suit and a Boy Scout haircut, and then showing up a few weeks later looking like Wavy Gravy from a Grateful Dead concert. It was a plan that worked.

Steve Blow, I still can't believe the DMN sheriffs let us go down Highway 16, the longest state highway, not once but twice. Twenty years from now on the story's anniversary, I will track you down in the Nursing Home For Folksy Metro Columnists and we'll hop in the Honda Civic hatchback and go looking for Arkey Blue again.

Richard Pruitt, hanging around you created a thirst for gadgets and camera equipment that leaves me very well-stocked for a free-lance career. At the time of explaining those purchases to my wife, I wanted to strangle you. Now I drink to your materialistic spirit. She does too.

Gerry McCarthy, I would say I will miss your constant stream of e-mail spam, but I just don't think I've hit rock-bottom yet. The abyss has got to be pretty deep for that to happen.

Guy Reynolds, if I get any more butt-calls from you, I'm sending Roky Erickson your way, the 13th Floor Elevators and all. Lara Solt, kill your babies. Michael Hamtil, I would love to buy you lunch, but, as you know, I have left my wallet in the car. Evans Caglage, don't get too good at anything you don't want to do around this place.
Mr. Ainsworth, you know what to do with those cross-dissolves. Louis DeLuca, you are the most well-rounded photographer I know and I do not mean that in the jelly-belly sort of way. Tom Fox, check with the card-stacker, see if he needs an assistant.

Chris Wilkins and Brad Loper, order me some boudin to go from the Shaq. Ahna Hubnik, to somewhat quote the Prairie Mystic known as David Leeson, a video is never finished, it is only abandoned, especially by our web audience.
Vernon Bryant, thanks for setting my camera controls when they became too small for me to see. Juan Garcia, remember: when something just doesn't look right, it's probably right.

John Zak, sorry I never got my mileage in on time. Maybe in the next life. Jerome Sims, please organize me before I die. Courtney, give me back my monkey.
John Rhodes, or rather Mr. Atomic Fireball, for growing up on the grounds of a mental institution, you seem perfectly sane to me. Melanie Burford, we'll always have the Taco Joint. Kye Lee, Richard Pruitt wants his carbon-fiber tripod back. Pronto.

John Davidson, the Boss With A Bite, if I just would have taken your advice years ago when I asked you where I should go with my career and you said: "Take a left out of my office, turn right, go to the window, open it, and jump" - none of this would be happening now.

I will really miss the wry wit of Jim Mahoney, who pounds the mean streets of Big D looking for amazing local pictures. It's hard to forget his comment about one of our more colorful globe-trotting photojournalists: "It really doesn't bother me that she goes away on these great international assignments, it just bothers me that she always comes back."

To former staffers Paul Brown and Ed Hille, as far as carpetbaggers go who headed south to plunder the plantation, you guys were the absolute best.

Paul, why we ended up with chocolates on our pillows and golden telephones by our toilets in the most luxurious hotel in San Antonio during the Pope's 1987 visit is a mystery that Belo Travel obviously must have had to answer for. The high-performance rented Mustang - hmmm, that too.

Ed, on the matter of the Nikon 85 mm 1.4 with the major focus problem you gave me in a big-hearted gesture upon your departure over 20 years ago, I sold it recently on E-bay for $500. A true confession.

Judy Walgren, dance with me, woman. How many cows did that African tribe offer for you again? I bet the numbers are down in this economy.

Allison V. Smith, give me a reflector to hold and a Hasselblad to load.

And then there was the great tale-spinner Joe Laird, our longtime society photog. He could easily segue from telling stories about machine-gunning "Japs" on Iwo Jima to stinky hippies skinny-dipping in the Trinity River at the 1969 Lewisville Pop Festival and then on to escapades of the rich and famous of Dallas smuggling diamonds across the Atlantic in their, ahem, privates. My eyes were as big as softball-sized hail.

And thanks to all my DMN buddies and future photo Pulitzer winners who appeared in our humble home movie "East Dallas Vice vs. Godzilla." Evans Caglage, Jan Sonnenmair, Juan and Leslie Garcia, Nuri Vallbona, Milton Hinnant - they all died horrible deaths at the hands of the monster and his evil BMW driver, Ken Geiger. William Snyder as detective "Sunny" Crockett saved the world at the end.

We were very young and crazy then.

To all the cameras I've loved before, thanks for the auto-exposure, the auto-focus, and the auto-white balance.

There were many great reporters I've had the pleasure to work with.
Bryan Woolley, who never met a chicken-fried steak he didn't like. Bill Minutaglio, who I ate horse-sausage with unknowingly in Moscow one night before catching the Aeroflot flight where we sat next to the large Russian wolfhound. Bill, who was once told in my presence in the hills of Nicaragua that he had the face of a priest, also introduced me to the male Aretha Franklin one night. We also were chased by federales in Mexico when I mistook a pull-over hand signal for a go-ahead gesture. Sorry, Bill, didn't mean to scare the guacamole out of you.

And there was ____ , who made me go swimming with her in the middle of an assignment in the 80's. I wrote a song about the experience called "I Feel Like a Fool In Your Husband's Swimsuit." The tape got passed around the newsroom; she never spoke to me again. That was fine.

Brad Bailey, who I never could find for hours while on assignment at a nudist camp because he took off his clothes and just kinda looked like everybody else. Those Miss Nude Texas assignments only come around once in your lifetime, right, Jim (rhymes with Moroney)?

Miss Marlyn Schwartz, who refused to go on assignment with me in my lime-green 1967 Mustang with black racing stripes and no muffler because, well, it wasn't air-conditioned.

Not to mention ____ , who smoked the funny stuff in my car on the way to interviewing large and scary Texas Rangers of the law enforcement variety at
the nuclear plant and had me and my career frozen with fear and paranoia for days on end. She would not be denied. It was the 70's, man, and a lot of people were still stuck in the 60's.

Michael Granberry, I've come to the place where the road and the sky collide. I'm not running on empty yet, but I probably could use somebody to doctor my eyes. As long a I don't run into Daryl Hannah, I think I will be okay.

Beatriz Terrazas, who proved to me she could roll with the best of the roller-derby girls.

Steve McGonigle, we were Horned Frogs all those years ago. As far as being an endangered species, things haven't changed that much.

I will miss the quiet intelligence of Zen Master Tom Huang, whose staunch support of photojournalism is a treasure for this newspaper. I remember, back in the heyday, going on assignment with him to the biggest BBQ festival in the nation in Memphis, Tennessee (well, I called it an assignment, the boss called it a "friggin' vacation").
After a few exquisite spring days covering good ol' boys partying to Southern rock on the beer-infested banks of the Mississippi, interviewing beautiful, wasted Scarlett O'Haras, and eating all parts of the pig and cow possible in the tastiest of ways, I noticed Tom had this blissed-out look on his face, punctuated by a subtle smile.
I asked what the matter was and he said: "I'm just not used to having fun on an assignment for the paper", a comment which seemed to justify the whole assignment to me.

Tom, I wish you were here now. This thing needs some editing.

Seen a lot of change here. When I first arrived, it wasn't too far away from the time when, if Metro needed an eye-burner feature photo, they would send the trusty Clint Grant to the zoo to grab an animal, bring him in the studio, then work with that chimpanzee or penguin or whatever til some magic happened to anchor the Metro cover. I am not making this up.

From black and white film to Kodachrome slides to color negatives to digital images and now HD video and frame-grabs, it all came to pass.

If I ever got down about the place, I would crank up the Springsteen between assignments, fast-forward the cassette to his third-most signature anthem "Badlands" with its uplifting chorus line: "Keep pushing til it's understood / And these badlands start treating us good." It seemed to cure the Belo Blues in that simplistic, unexplainable rock 'n' roll kind of way.

I've always found the photo dept to be an oasis of anarchistic, invigorating insanity within the rather buttoned-down walls of the DMN. Whenever an Observer story would come out with tales of our stuffy conservatism, I'd just scratch my head, remembering who hired belly dancers in the Dallas Life dept, or who made cheese nachos on the print dryers in the long-gone wet lab or just the vision of the tattooed Courtney Perry swing-dancing and laughing maniacally in the photo scanning room. I would wonder: what department are they talking about?

Photographers are much like drummers in a rock band. Somewhat crazy and unpredictable, a little Keith Moon is in every one of them. In the 70's, for those who remember, it might have been something in the fixer or ferrocyanide. Personalities, twisted humor and camaraderie always abound in photo. And the old farts there stay a bit young at heart.

I remember one stormy night falling off a ladder, breaking my ankle covering a protest. After the surgery the photo dept presented me with a framed, black-and-white crime-scene photo of the accident area, with my body drawn out on the sidewalk, surrounded by the very protestors I had been photographing and, of course, smiling members of the photo dept.

What could I say? That was a pretty thoughtful bunch of people, those photo friends of mine. I must admit the gesture did make the 23 pins and 2 metal plates hurt just a little less.

I really don't understand why photo departments seem to have the most gregarious, hilarious characters at a newspaper, but it's been that way for years at the DMN. John Rhodes could do stand-up. Melanie Burford, call Conan. Gerry, are you really Woody Allen? We have maintained that image while racking up multiple Pulitzers and gaining national recognition for serious work.

There were always surprises in this job.

Once, I went to a gentrified East Dallas neighborhood to shoot a fireplace. Just a stupid fireplace. The owner opened his door and a Doberman ran out to basically attack me. When I put my right hand out in defense, my Nikon took a slide down the arm, perfectly landing around the snarling dog's neck.

I just remember standing there speechless and helpless, watching the Doberman grinning real big, running down Swiss Ave. wearing my gift like a new necklace, the camera bouncing with large ugly clunks! on the concrete street.
How do you explain that to anybody much less your boss?

Or the time I sat on my walkie-talkie in my car and the entire newsroom gathered around to listen to an hour-long argument I was having with my wife, largely about choosing a Mexican food destination. Ouch. Double-ouch when Christie found out about the public broadcast.

Hurricane Allen, 1989. Record flooding everywhere. I was in a crowded National Guard helicopter. We landed in shallow water. I stepped out and it was like being dropped into the dead calm of the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Water as far as you could see, horizon to horizon. A steady stream of the elderly pouring out of a quaint schoolhouse, escorted by soldiers through the waters. It was an unforgettable scene. In waist-deep water, I took one step. The big fat diamondback rattlesnake swam by only inches away and suddenly my heart was pounding like a runaway locomotive.

I showed up one morning for work and was promptly handed an amateurish camera and told to get some gym clothes and go workout with Jane Fonda. What, excuse me? The class was private, the press was barred, and I was posing as an excited fan snapping a shot after the workout. I have to admit - the picture was exclusive, great idea.

I was lucky enough to experience print journalism when the cotton was high and this was a bad-ass newspaper firing on all cylinders. We were all living way above the cloud line. At that time the possibilities at this outfit seemed limitless.

I remember developing color negative film amidst the chemical fumes, wearing a stained lab apron, when the cylindrical darkroom door noisily swung around and managing editor Stu Wilk stuck his head in. "Randy," he said, " Do you like Simon and Garfunkel?"
"Yes, Stu," I said, "I like Simon and Garfunkel." "Do you remember their song ..." and then he started singing:
"... they've all gone to look for America ... ?"

Boom. A few days later, Allen Pusey and I were criss-crossing the nation, from East to West coast, asking folks where they were on November 22, 1963.
From meeting the girl who first dyed Roy Orbison's hair black to getting healed by the spirit of Pancho Villa, it's been great fun. I have no regrets.

And, with the hurricane wind that's been blowing through our industry, I thought I was prepared emotionally for this day, but you never really are.
As the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said: "Everybody has a plan til they get their teeth knocked out."

I felt somewhat that way last week, or at least similar to when the 6 foot 4 inch Rockwall tight end slammed into me on the sidelines a few years ago and I woke up on my back, eyes to the fuzzy heavens, with a hole through my lip where my camera eyepiece had punctured it. The football team's doctor pushed aside the concerned cheerleaders, leaned over me and said: "Listen, son, let's get you over to the bench.
We're gonna patch you up with some Super-Glue."

So, I'm looking for some Super-Glue now.

It hurts at first, being released into this fresh water, but I feel really lucky to have worked here with some measure of success. Especially compared to toiling your life away in a smelly petrochemical plant, the South Texas life I escaped from.

My tight-knit family in Pasadena never did really understand this job. My brothers, who worked all their lives in ship channel refineries or the prison system or the prison system known as public schools, would look at me with shock-and-awe when I told them I had just been hanging out all day with Willie Nelson, or trying to find the best swimming holes in Texas, or riding around in a hot air balloon or chasing a Mardi Gras parade or mixing it up with Elvis impersonators.

"What?!?!?" they would say, "You call that a job?"

Yup. The best job in the world. It's the first one I ever had some 34 years ago. And I will never forget it, this place and all the usual suspects. See you a little further down the road.

Randy Eli Grothe
randygrothe@gmail.com

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Hello all,

A week after the cuts, I finally feel like my head is screwed on straight enough to give a proper farewell (that is, farewell for now).

Thanks to everyone who has offered condolences, encouragement and assistance during this very difficult time. I am deeply appreciative. You have helped replace despair, uncertainty and even self-doubt with hope and optimism.

To those who are still devastated by last week: I hate to get cheesy with the glass-half-full metaphor, but sometimes a different perspective really helps. I was in a serious car crash three weeks ago, and the outcome would have been very different had I not been wearing a seat belt. Before the accident, I was already a bit of a wreck because I fretted the possibility of losing everything (i.e., my job). I thought journalism was my entire life. But that mentality changed after the accident. When you almost lose it all, you realize everything else from that moment forward is actually a bonus. Hopefully you don't need to get in a terrible wreck to feel the same way.

To both the DMN exes and remaining staffers: It takes an admirable level of commitment, passion and determination to stick it out this long in such a turbulent industry. Don't forget that. Jobs can disappear, but our common dedication to educating the public and doing what we do best is untouchable. And it will translate well to anything we do in the future.

I am truly honored and humbled to have worked with such remarkable colleagues and friends. I wish you all the best. Please keep in touch.

Holly Yan
HollyEYan@yahoo.com

---------------------------------
Though the ax has fallen on my head this go-round, too, i will always be glad for having had the opportunity to be a part of The Dallas Morning News.
And while it may sound like patting myself on the back, I can truly look back and know that while I felt lucky to be there, I also worked hard to stay. While I may not have walked away with any big journalism awards in my box, I could walk away knowing i did a good job.
In my time there I led the Metro coverage of the first Breeder's Cup race ever in the Southwest, I was the first to report on Farmers Branch's efforts to make illegal immigrants unwelcome there - a story that would put them in the national spotlight - and continued to top every other media outlet in the country in following that story over the next two years, and my reporting on a mayor's lies about her background derailed her bid for re-election.
Not bad for a small-town girl with no degree, lol.
I am proud to have been a part of what was long considered one of the best papers in the country, and to have known each and every one of you.
Today, i remain heartbroken to have been let go after 13 years with the company. I also am at a loss to explain it. Coming in from the old suburban newspapers I know my salary never reacherd those of many of my colleagues. So the didn't save much by letting me go.
But it is what it is, and it was time to move on.
I with all of you who remain the best of luck. i really don't expect newspapers to be around much longer, and that's the saddest part of all.
To those of you who were laid off, this time or previous times, I hope you find happiness and fulfillment and stability, whereever the road takes you.
Stephanie Sandoval

-------------------------
As many of you know, I have a hard time saying goodbye. I am usually one of the last ones to leave a party and my “goodbyes” tend to turn into 20-minute long conversations. Perhaps, this is why it’s taken me a couple of days to collect my thoughts and say farewell to so many wonderful friends and colleagues, who are like family to me.

This week, after 12 and a half years in newspapers, I lost my job. People often asked me why I remained in newspapers or if I’d come up with a Plan B yet. My answer was always that I still believed in newspapers and still loved telling stories. I wanted to be part of the solution to keep newspapers alive – even if it meant that content would ultimately be entirely online.

Reading The Dallas Morning News and my hometown newspaper, the Waxahachie Daily Light, was a tradition, a habit in my family. My father, an immigrant from Mexico who spoke no English when he arrived, was curious about this country that everyone called the land of opportunity. He wanted to fit in like everyone else. He struggled with the language, but because of newspapers he learned new words. He would often point out words and ask me about their meaning. When I got older, he’d often ask if I’d read what Dallas or Waxahachie city officials had done or what a particular sports columnist thought about the Cowboys or Rangers.

When I returned to Texas in 2002, after spending more than six years in Florida, my parents were beyond thrilled. They would finally get to see and read their little girl’s stories. My mom sometimes knew where a story of mine ran before I did, because she’d seen the paper first that day.

My parents don’t have much formal education, don’t speak English that well and don’t have much money. But this they value: the importance of newspapers. I hope that my friends and colleagues who are left behind will remember there are many like my parents who still have a thirst for knowledge – regardless of their background.

On Tuesday, when I walked out of the DMN building, the moment seemed surreal. But I have no regrets. I am fortunate to have worked with so many talented people from whom I learned so much. It is truly an honor. I will miss you guys, but I won’t forget all of the valuable things you’ve taught me.

Keep up the great work!

Stella M. Chávez
starchavez@aol.com
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I'm gone and I will miss all of you more than I can say. It has been an honor to work with such clever and loving people. I believe in what we accomplished at the DMN and hope there is a future for all newspapers everywhere. I would appreciate any advice or leads you might know of. Natalie Caudill Natalie.Caudill@gmail.com

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I too have had the hammer fall on my head. I devoted myself to the newspaper biz and the Morning News. It has been an honor to work with so many talented and committed people in news. I appreciate the prayers and best wishes. I am 58 years old, a woman, single and have had a stroke. What now? Here is part of the breakdown: 6 off the news copy desk, all in their 50s except one; one off the news desk, 13 in sports; 2 in business; mostly zone reporters in metro; no one from TSW, national or international except a special writer. Where are the managers? God bless you all! Laura Miller, 15 years at DMN, 32 year career

----------------

Thank all of you in The DMN newsroom for your words of support and encouragement this morning. It's the world's greatest understatement to say that it has been an honor to work with you.

I have learned so much from you during my two decades at The News. The talent and dedication in that room is amazing. Some of you, and you know who you are, have given help and understanding during many difficult times.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at a job that has allowed me to do so much with my life so far.

I'm still a little numb, knowing that for the first time in nearly 32 years I do not have a newspaper job.

But I will be fine. I have many good friends, a loving family and a partner whose unconditional love has indeed made me a better person. We will celebrate 21 years of being together next weekend.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

--Frank Trejo
Trejojr@aol.com

----------

Greetings all,

After nearly nine years of contributing all I have to the company in the sports department, I have become a statistic. I will miss being a sports writer and smiling at the compliments from those who read my work, but at the same time, I'm not overly upset.

It'll be tough, but I won't complain. I will start my master's program in educational technology this summer. In the meantime, I'm hoping to land a job with benefits just to help out around the house. I ask for all of your prayers in these dire times. Please pray for my family, and send up a financial prayer for all who have been RIFd.

God bless you all.

Damon L. Sayles
DLSayles@yahoo.com

-----------

I’ve been saying for weeks that I would stick with this beloved profession until I was told to stop, and then I would figure out Plan B.

So, time for Plan B.

I grew up reading the Times Herald and Morning News. Seeing my byline in this newspaper was a dream come true. I feel privileged to have called you all colleagues and lucky to count so many of you as my friends.

Thanks for the warm wishes, loving support and righteous indignation on my behalf.

Please don’t be shy about sending the freelance and job leads.

Good luck to all who remain behind but especially to the amazingly talented crew of people walking out the door with me.

Cheers,
Beth Langton

(bethlangton (at) yahoo.com or find me on facebook)

-----------

You can add my name to the list of those RIF'ed. Just reached my 12 year anniversary in sports. Not gonna bore everyone with a long, sappy farewell -- I trust that the people who have helped me along the way and have been my friends know how I feel about them.

I don't have any immediate plans, but I'm not sad, angry or panicky. I know there are worse things than losing a job. My wife and son are happy and healthy. My dad's having heart surgery today and my sister is about to give birth to my nephew - life goes on.

If anyone needs to reach me, I can be found on facebook and at keithwhitmire (at) sbcglobal.net.

Good luck to all,
Keith Whitmire

-------------

At the moment, it’s hard to imagine work that’s as invigorating, as important and as much fun as being a journalist at a daily newspaper. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside some of the best reporters, editors, photographers and designers in my years at the Morning News and the Star-Telegram, and I’ll always cherish the memories.

That said, tomorrow will be a new day, with new adventures. I’m looking forward to exploring them.

Here’s hoping that, for democracy’s sake if nothing else, the decision-makers in our industry figure out how to steer journalism through these icebergs safely. Meanwhile, my parting requests to you are that you never abandon the principles and passions that drew you to journalism and that you continue to be kind to each other.

Journalists are some of the smartest, funniest and most compassionate people I know. Please stay in touch. You can find me on Facebook.

All the best,
Mary McMullen Gladstone

-----------

To my colleagues at SportsDay,

I had a dream last night that my house was invaded by a bear. It attacked me, but I fended it off with a banana. True story. So I woke up knowing that today would be an adventure, but that the ultimate outcome would be favorable and possibly humorous.

My thoughts are with those of you who have families, mortgages, and livelihoods to hold together. Our workplace was not without adversity, but we shared some special moments, and created one of the finest sections in the nation as well. I am proud to have worked with you, and honored to call you my friends.

There's no need for an Amber Alert this time; I'm not coming back!

Best wishes,

Bavand

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Nancy Moore posted a lovely farewell over on the Unfair Park blog.
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Most of you will not know me by name. I worked as a Photo Librarian for 9 years, 8 months and 3 days. I walked the hallways a lot and loved interacting with all the unusual characters that make up the News Department. I will miss being there more that I can possibly say. Thank you all being so generous in spirit.
Cris Miller
cris.miller@att.net
-----------------------------
I didn't want to comment on here yesterday for obvious reason. This has been the worst week of my life, and I haven't quite been able to understand it.

I don't understand the decision that were made. I wrote more than 450 stories and produced 70+ videos in 37 weeks, but it didn't save me from getting RIFed. My less than 40K salary didn't help me either.

Ironically, months before I was laid off, I was told that I was doing exactly what they wanted my position to do. I never heard any negative comments about my work.

I just don't understand.

I was hoping to make a year at the DMN, but I feel two months shy. I'll miss you all. I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Dan X. McGraw
danxmcgraw(at)gmail.com

Newsroom managers are meeting with staff today

2009-04-08T12:30:00.002-05:00

If anyone wants to share a report on what they were told, the comments here are on.

All the information I have at the moment about the cuts

2009-04-08T08:30:00.002-05:00

Based on the data left in the comments:

11 from Local News. 10 reporters, one news clerk
1 production editor from Editorial
6 from Lifestyles: Two part-time editors, one full-time editor, two writers, one Guide listings editor/writer.
3 from business: One reporter, a wire editor and an assistant editor.
13 from the sports desk: 8 from desk, 4 writers, 1 phone clerk
6 from Photo
3 from News Art
6 off the news copy desk
1 off the news desk

Corrections, additions, and more details about categories of jobs please.
-----------

These are all the farewell messages in the comments so far:

I'm gone and I will miss all of you more than I can say. It has been an honor to work with such clever and loving people. I believe in what we accomplished at the DMN and hope there is a future for all newspapers everywhere. I would appreciate any advice or leads you might know of. Natalie Caudill Natalie.Caudill@gmail.com

-----------

I too have had the hammer fall on my head. I devoted myself to the newspaper biz and the Morning News. It has been an honor to work with so many talented and committed people in news. I appreciate the prayers and best wishes. I am 58 years old, a woman, single and have had a stroke. What now? Here is part of the breakdown: 6 off the news copy desk, all in their 50s except one; one off the news desk, 13 in sports; 2 in business; mostly zone reporters in metro; no one from TSW, national or international except a special writer. Where are the managers? God bless you all! Laura Miller, 15 years at DMN, 32 year career

----------------

Thank all of you in The DMN newsroom for your words of support and encouragement this morning. It's the world's greatest understatement to say that it has been an honor to work with you.

I have learned so much from you during my two decades at The News. The talent and dedication in that room is amazing. Some of you, and you know who you are, have given help and understanding during many difficult times.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at a job that has allowed me to do so much with my life so far.

I'm still a little numb, knowing that for the first time in nearly 32 years I do not have a newspaper job.

But I will be fine. I have many good friends, a loving family and a partner whose unconditional love has indeed made me a better person. We will celebrate 21 years of being together next weekend.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

--Frank Trejo
Trejojr@aol.com

----------

Greetings all,

After nearly nine years of contributing all I have to the company in the sports department, I have become a statistic. I will miss being a sports writer and smiling at the compliments from those who read my work, but at the same time, I'm not overly upset.

It'll be tough, but I won't complain. I will start my master's program in educational technology this summer. In the meantime, I'm hoping to land a job with benefits just to help out around the house. I ask for all of your prayers in these dire times. Please pray for my family, and send up a financial prayer for all who have been RIFd.

God bless you all.

Damon L. Sayles
DLSayles@yahoo.com

-----------

I’ve been saying for weeks that I would stick with this beloved profession until I was told to stop, and then I would figure out Plan B.

So, time for Plan B.

I grew up reading the Times Herald and Morning News. Seeing my byline in this newspaper was a dream come true. I feel privileged to have called you all colleagues and lucky to count so many of you as my friends.

Thanks for the warm wishes, loving support and righteous indignation on my behalf.

Please don’t be shy about sending the freelance and job leads.

Good luck to all who remain behind but especially to the amazingly talented crew of people walking out the door with me.

Cheers,
Beth Langton

(bethlangton (at) yahoo.com or find me on facebook)

-----------

You can add my name to the list of those RIF'ed. Just reached my 12 year anniversary in sports. Not gonna bore everyone with a long, sappy farewell -- I trust that the people who have helped me along the way and have been my friends know how I feel about them.

I don't have any immediate plans, but I'm not sad, angry or panicky. I know there are worse things than losing a job. My wife and son are happy and healthy. My dad's having heart surgery today and my sister is about to give birth to my nephew - life goes on.

If anyone needs to reach me, I can be found on facebook and at keithwhitmire (at) sbcglobal.net.

Good luck to all,
Keith Whitmire

-------------

At the moment, it’s hard to imagine work that’s as invigorating, as important and as much fun as being a journalist at a daily newspaper. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside some of the best reporters, editors, photographers and designers in my years at the Morning News and the Star-Telegram, and I’ll always cherish the memories.

That said, tomorrow will be a new day, with new adventures. I’m looking forward to exploring them.

Here’s hoping that, for democracy’s sake if nothing else, the decision-makers in our industry figure out how to steer journalism through these icebergs safely. Meanwhile, my parting requests to you are that you never abandon the principles and passions that drew you to journalism and that you continue to be kind to each other.

Journalists are some of the smartest, funniest and most compassionate people I know. Please stay in touch. You can find me on Facebook.

All the best,
Mary McMullen Gladstone

-----------

To my colleagues at SportsDay,

I had a dream last night that my house was invaded by a bear. It attacked me, but I fended it off with a banana. True story. So I woke up knowing that today would be an adventure, but that the ultimate outcome would be favorable and possibly humorous.

My thoughts are with those of you who have families, mortgages, and livelihoods to hold together. Our workplace was not without adversity, but we shared some special moments, and created one of the finest sections in the nation as well. I am proud to have worked with you, and honored to call you my friends.

There's no need for an Amber Alert this time; I'm not coming back!

Best wishes,

Bavand

-------
Nancy Moore posted a lovely farewell over on the Unfair Park blog.
----------

Most of you will not know me by name. I worked as a Photo Librarian for 9 years, 8 months and 3 days. I walked the hallways a lot and loved interacting with all the unusual characters that make up the News Department. I will miss being there more that I can possibly say. Thank you all being so generous in spirit.
Cris Miller
cris.miller@att.net
-----------------------------
I didn't want to comment on here yesterday for obvious reason. This has been the worst week of my life, and I haven't quite been able to understand it.

I don't understand the decision that were made. I wrote more than 450 stories and produced 70+ videos in 37 weeks, but it didn't save me from getting RIFed. My less than 40K salary didn't help me either.

Ironically, months before I was laid off, I was told that I was doing exactly what they wanted my position to do. I never heard any negative comments about my work.

I just don't understand.

I was hoping to make a year at the DMN, but I feel two months shy. I'll miss you all. I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Dan X. McGraw
danxmcgraw(at)gmail.com

Job opportunity

2009-04-08T07:11:00.001-05:00

This is Gretchen (Perrenot) Shelby, and I'm passing along a job opportunity in Kuwait. The company is CSA, Ltd. and the job is in the communications department. I worked at Belo for 10 years and then went to Kuwait to work for CSA on a one-year contract. I came back after that year and took another job at TDMN. If you're interested in this job, feel free to e-mail me at gretchen1996 (at) yahoo.com and I will send you my phone number and answer any questions you have.

Purpose: Under the general direction prepares, writes and edits various communications instruments for the company.

Supervisory Role: N/A

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Assists in the annual communications development plan for the organization.

2. Prepares internal communications, such as company newsletter, bulletins, letters, and other communiques.

3. Prepares policy and procedure communications, including policy statements, training materials, and other communiques&ea cute;s.

4. Prepares Employee Handbook, Employee Housing Handbook, and other similar company documents.

5. Prepares Desk Guides for the Human Resources Departments.

6. Writes media scripts and oversees production of such materials (i.e., CD-ROMS, videos, DVDs).

7. Handles media management issues, when needed, preparing appropriate responses and seeking appropriate approvals.

8. Coordinates and assists in the development of materials for website Internet and Intranet sites.

9. Coordinates events such as Service Award programs and other public forums, to include research and preparation for remarks and/or speeches.

10. Coordinates Employee Forums and handles written responses to questions.

11. Performs other related tasks as directed.

You can get other details from her. But there is this one interesting requirement:

3. Must be able to work in extreme environmental conditions including dust and high temperatures.

A fair question

2009-04-07T21:19:00.002-05:00

A reader writes:

None of the layoffs in Metro were managers. Were there any managers laid off in any department? Every manager was more valuable than any of the reporters, photographers, etc. who lost jobs? Some of the reporters who lost jobs were experienced in years and their subject area. Are editors who have not worked as reporters for many years expected to step in instantly and to do as well? Even a good editor is not necessary a competent reporter, just as some good reporters are not good editors.

I have no ill will toward the managers who kept their jobs today. Like reporters, they are trying to do their best work. This was a terrible day for the survivors as well as those who were cut. But I think this reader raises a fair question that can also be found in many comments. I know that Bob Mong and George Rodrigue have meetings scheduled. I hope this is a question they will answer without needing to be asked.

An idea among the comments

2009-04-07T20:39:00.003-05:00

This was buried inside the comments on an earlier post. It's an idea that somebody might be interested in following up on. If not, please do not insult the post-er or the idea. Everyone is trying to come up with ways to make what is terrible a little less bad. Is this a good way? A reader writes:

A well-meaning manager asked me to pass along this thought:

Several years ago, in advance of the first RIFs, the newsroom collected money and divided it among those who lost their jobs. This manager said he had heard that the money was very helpful. And suggested that if someone not a manager wanted to create such a fund now, that it might be helpful this time.

I told him that I was distantly linked to that fund back then. That it was a lot of work. That we started collecting well in advance of the RIF. That there had been a lot more of us.

He was not comfortable making the suggestion publicly and asked a reporter -- me -- if I would try to get it onto this blog. Because he knows I'm the kind of person who posts comments on this blog. Which I am.

Somebody stepped up to create this blog. Perhaps someone will want to step up to try to administer a rapid collection. If you do so, I expect you'd find *some* financial support among the managers.

A local job possibility

2009-04-07T20:36:00.001-05:00

A reader sends in:

Saginaw High School in Northwest Tarrant County has a journalism position open. If any of you are interested or know of anyone who is, please feel free to contact: cbradshaw@ems-isd.net

Juggling chainsaws

2009-04-07T15:22:00.002-05:00

I can't pull out the iinformation now. But I'll go through all the comments tonight and create an aggregate post of numbers and names. So keep on posting data or parting notes. I will get it together later.

Post farewell messages here

2009-04-07T11:06:00.003-05:00

If anyone leaving wants to post a farewell, let's leave the comments
on this post for that. Sympathetc comments of support can go on other posts. Let's leave this one for those who got cut.

Frank Trejo has posted a comment.

Noli nothis permittere te terere

2009-04-07T07:03:00.000-05:00

Or if you prefer: Illegitimi non carborundum.
Either way, here we are. D Day.

Repeating the rules of the day:

1) If you are laid off and want to let people know, give contact information and/or give a parting message, send me an e-mail -- dmncuts(at)gmail(dot)com -- and I'll get it posted. Or you can post a comment here with the information. I'll try to get those kinds of comments aggregated onto their own post as the day goes on. The same applies for tomorrow and the next several days, as people recover from shock and decide they want to be public. During previous layoffs, a few people got job offers because they made their situation public, if that helps.

2) Do not post a name in the comments as having been laid off unless it is you. Do not launch a personal attack on any person. This blog will have no collateral damage if I can help it. I realize that will make it less newsy and interesting to read. I can live with that. What do you want for nothing? A rubber biscuit?

3) Those of you keeping lists, if you want to share, here's what I want at the end of the day: Department breakdowns and category breakdowns. That is, how many from local, sports, UD, etc. How many reporters, line editors, copy editors, etc.

I will neither be liveblogging nor Tweeting. I will post e-mails as quickly as I can. If you have a problem with the pace, see #2 above. At the moment, I still have a job. Working this blog on a company computer feels like a bad idea.

Most of those who have gone before this have landed on their feet and say they are happier than they were when they were here. May it be so for those who leave today.

The comments are on.

200 gone from the whole DMN?

2009-04-07T02:48:00.002-05:00

A TV-watching reader writes:

A.H.Belo rep told Fox 4 News that the 500 company-wide cuts include 200 at the DMN...that's according to the story they aired tonight on the state of journalism. For what it's worth.

Non-newsroom cuts

2009-04-06T11:10:00.002-05:00

A commenter asks about non-newsroom layoff numbers. I'm not going to make an effort to get those. Too much already on my plate. But if
others want to post comments here with information, go ahead.

Cuts at DMN start today

2009-04-06T09:53:00.001-05:00

But newsroom is tomorrow. Moroney sent this out this morning:

Previously Announced Reduction in Force

DALLAS (DATE, 2009) – As part of cost-cutting measures previously announced by parent company A. H. Belo Corporation, The Dallas Morning News is beginning today a company-wide reduction in force. The majority of the actions will take place today and tomorrow. As A. H. Belo stated in January, this initiative will affect approximately 500 jobs across all of its properties, but numbers for the individual companies were not disclosed.

"Our company continues to face unprecedented economic challenges during this prolonged recession, making this staff reduction a very difficult but necessary decision," said Jim Moroney, publisher and CEO of The Dallas Morning News. "As The Dallas Morning News evolves to meet these challenges, we remain committed to serving our readers and community in important and unique ways."

A reader has set up a Twitter group

2009-04-06T07:12:00.003-05:00

The reader writes:

I set up a group twitter account for us. The only prblem is that the procedure for being able to post on it is slightly awkward. People need to:

1. Go to twitter.com/dmncuts and follow it.
2. LOGIN to twitter as dmncuts with the password dmncuts2009 and follow themselves.
3. Then, as the day-of progresses, they can tweet to that group by sending a text message or update to their twitter in this format: D dmncuts blah blah blah.

Yeah, it's not perfect, but the autofollow site I found only checks for new people every 6 hours. :-/

This way, we can update from our phones, etc., while things are happening.

We can document on a moment-by-moment basis. Cause that's what we do.

We're journalists.

If you know of a better way to do this, I think it's a worthwhile idea. It's less conspicuous than having the blog up at work.

The Twitter group is not affiliated with this blog and I neither endorse nor not. I think that our bosses won't mind us checking in here every so often on D Day. They'll have more their minds than this. But let a thousand flowers bloom and all that.

Morituri te salutamus

2009-04-06T06:16:00.003-05:00

From what we're getting here, it looks like Tuesday will be D-Day. But I'm taking no chances. If today's the day, here's how I'm handling it:

1) If you are laid off and want to let people know, give contact information and or give a parting message, send me an e-mail and I'll get it posted.

2) Do not post a name in the comments as having been laid off unless it is you. This blog will have no collateral damage if I can help it.

3) Those of you keeping lists, if you want to share, here's what I want: Department breakdowns and category breakdowns. That is, how many from local, sports, UD, etc. How many reporters, line editors, copy editors, etc.

If today is not the day, we reset the clock for tomorrow. If you know that the cuts have started and you don't see it posted here yet, the comments are on.

D Day will be hard on us all. Post your feelings in the comments, but please follow the rules: No personal attacks. Period. Not on peers, not on bosses. If you want to say that any particular decision or situation at the DMN since it opened was a turd in the company punchbowl, that's fine. If you say that any particular person is a turd in the punchbowl, I'll kill that comment.

How the Houston Chron is restructuring news coverage

2009-04-05T18:12:00.002-05:00

The Houston Press blog has a comment on it that purports to be a copy of a memo about how the Houston Chronicle has re-arranged itself after its recent layoffs. A few highlights:

* Story lengths. Reporters and assigning editors will agree on target lengths for every story and include them on the budget. Because we continue to be respectful of our readers’ time, anything longer than 15 inches needs to be discussed with the lead editor for the section.

* Suggested headlines. Reporters need to provide a suggested headline in the Web headline field in DTI. This can serve as a Web headline and be considered when the print headline is written. Reporters should also write a summary in the Web summary field that will appear online. The Web summary is a short recap of the story, typically the lead or nut graph.

* Subject matter experts will focus on their areas of expertise, but everyone on the copy desk will work across multiple sections. An editor, for example, may lay out and edit the Television page inside Star and then work on the Newsmakers page inside A.

A reader suggests that internal Belo finances may not make sense

2009-04-05T12:52:00.003-05:00

If I get it, I think this reader is saying that some ad sellers are double-dipping commissions for online ads, which is a needless hit to the company bottom line. Can someone explain this?

If ad rep A sells an ad, they get 100 percent commission. but they are being allowed to pay ad rep B 100 percent commission on the same ad. Given that these online ads make no where near what the ads for the paper makes, this seems like highway robbery and an insult to the rest of us who have been hit with having to pay for our blackberries, parking fees, cuts in 401k contributions, salary cuts, etc. etc. etc.

Is this true? Given how little those ads are worth, compared with print, I can't see how even double dipping would be much of a hit.

Can anybody sign onto the Belo extranet from home?

2009-04-05T12:47:00.005-05:00

Several commenters cannot. Neither can I. As has been noted on this blog elsewhere, technology is not Belo's strong suit, so I'm not taking anything as an omen. I'm getting an error code that says:

extranet.belo.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate expired on 4/4/09 6:59 PM.

(Error code: sec_error_expired_certificate)

Looks like the tech champions at IBM missed a deadline. Imagine that.

Stronger indications that it's coming Tuesday

2009-04-04T15:24:00.004-05:00

A comment on an earlier post says:

Security says the layoffs will start Tuesday, April 7. The hit list includes a lot of managers. Let's hope they lay off fewer workers. Who needs, in one department, a director, two assistant directors and several managers. My manager is either getting the axe or he is just plain lying that he has heard nothing. I hope he has to go through the pain of losing a job.

If this tip is real, it seems like a good source. Security will need to know what the day is so they can prepare.

An aside: I wish pain on nobody. There is a third alternative: That manager actually doesn't know yet. It may be that the word will not be given to the lower manager levels until Monday. That might explain why the cuts themselves don't happen until Tuesday.

Managers are in the same mess as the rest of us. If the earlier discussions are true, they face significant losses this time. Plenty of pain to go around.

UPDATE: Here's another comment that confirms Tuesday:

My supervisor told me Tuesday, too. I only found out because I was planning to be off that day, but not anymore.

Two more indications that it's coming soon

2009-04-03T16:08:00.003-05:00

Readers confirm that managers had firing school meeting today. And I'm told that two offices in the fourth floor hallway have had their windows papered over for "privacy."

Those offices have been used in the past for delivering the news.
Windows were papered over then, too.

Technical issue: Posting anonymous comments

2009-04-03T13:22:00.001-05:00

It has come to my attention that the anti-spam captcha system is hiccuping. Others say that if you try to post a comment as "anonymous" the system rejects the first time to fill in the captcha with an error message that says to try again. The second try works. I've just tried it and found that to be the case. I am not nearly knowledgeable about the technology to know why this is happening or to fix it. It looks like many of you figured this out or are not having the problem, given the number of comments. But if you do get the error message, try again.

Was there a 'firing school' this morning?

2009-04-03T12:03:00.002-05:00

One comment from yesterday said there was to be a manager-only meeting today that would lay out the script for the process. Can anyone confirm that it happened?

Another preparation suggestion to consider as we wait

2009-04-03T08:36:00.002-05:00

A reader suggests:

One more thing to put on your to-do list:
Go to any supervisor you trust and ask for a PRINTED letter of recommendation. Today. Do it now.

To which I'll add: If you're on LinkedIn, this might be a good day to ask for recommendations there, too.

Shooting down rumor about Friday

2009-04-02T16:30:00.001-05:00

A reader writes that a high level editor says the layoffs will not
happen Friday. For what it's worth.

Useful info on COBRA

2009-04-02T14:50:00.002-05:00

A former DMN-er writes:

The economic recovery act passed earlier this year provides COBRA premium assistance for laid-off workers.

Here's a link where folks can find out if it makes sense for them:
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

DMNcuts

Spartacus over and out

One last reminder about Saturday SPJ event

Jobs continue to trickle in

For those of us who remain unRIFed

The poem involves cheerful cannibalism. Gallows humor is still humor. Read the whole thing here.

Here are some jobs

SPJ Fort Worth hosting a seminar to help the recently axed and anybody else

Anybody need to say anything else here?

Support group for the RIFed

What Mong and Rodrigue said today

For any who have forgotten the recent past

A place for the RIF-ed to have their say

Numbers and positions affected -- what may be the whole list

To those of you who are leaving: You are welcome to post comments here

It's on, apparently

No more rumors

Looks like the newsroom has survived another full week of paydays

Commenters say there were RIFs at the North Plant

Comment on a post earlier today says managers got layoff training today

A place to fling virtual monkey poop

More relaxing reading while waiting for the inevitable

A different management approach to hard times

And an eerie silence covers the land

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em

Layoffs today in advertising and marketing

What the predictions are like

Should I publish the rumors?

As the Scarecrow told Dorothy...

Crumbs

Reading entrails

See last post

Nothing and nothing and more nothing

This week?

Some job possibilities in academia

Click here

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

Hot rumors? Just hot heat

Will DMN layoffs happen before the iPhone 5 is released?

Quick cleanup and the 2nd quarter financials

Getting out ahead of the wave -- does anybody know of jobs available?

The return of Spartacus

Job site has an interesting local job listed

Local SPJ chaper has a free workshop upcoming for freelancers

Recent Dallas-area job postings

Job posting -- Dallas PR firm

Another freelance opportuntity

The sound of ghostly chains rustling

The DMN is hiring

Interesting job available in Dallas

Another Grothe tale

New Yahoo group for former DMN-ers

Well, one more job posting

Goodnight moon

Last day

A farewell worth signing off with

Last call

Staff meetings with managers about the reorganization

An interesting managing editor job?

A question about how the cuts were decided

Another farewell note

Sports job in the region

Question from a reader

Question from the comments

Quo Vadimus?

I've put all the farewell notes on one post

Job fairs in the near future

Help with resumes

Enough with the dark

Good people want to help

Health insurance advice?

A reminder about the rules

Any more people want to leave a farewell note?

KERA announces layoffs but says it will be beefing up local content

Job possibility

From Trey Garrison

Freelance gig?

The entire list of farewell notes

Newsroom managers are meeting with staff today

All the information I have at the moment about the cuts