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Industry Euphemism of the Day: “Involuntary Separations”

July 18th, 2008 @ 8:53 pm

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Tags: Newspaper, Layoff, Industry, Orlando Sentinel, Workforce Management, Strategy, Human Resources, Management, David Weir

Any hope that my extensive roundup of newspaper cuts just two days ago could be my last on that topic for a while evaporated when I read through the media industry news today.

By now you know the drill. What’s back and white and red all over?

The Orlando Sentinel is cutting 20% of its news staff, half by layoffs and half via buyouts.

The Palm Beach Post confimed 300 buyouts, but an internal memo said there will still be “a small number of involuntary separations, or layoffs.” (It’s good they clarified that, huh.)

The Wall Street Journal has eliminated 50 editing positions. One of the owner Rupert Murdoch’s pet peeves after acquiring the company were that there were in his view way too many editors at the newspaper, so this was inevitable.

Around 150 Baltimore Sun staffers — many dressed in black — gathered outside of the newspaper’s building Thursday to protest large-scale upcoming staff cuts.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune said it expects to eliminate six positions, probably through buyouts.

Finally, the publisher of the St. Petersburg Times said layoffs are “almost certain.”

So, I guess we’ll say this week was quite the downer in the newspaper business. One personal note — after years of resisting, I’ve finally stopped subscribing to newspapers, myself. I get everything I need from them online.

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has worked at Rolling Stone, California, Mother Jones, Business 2.0, SunDance, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, MyWire, 7x7, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

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David Weir

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has worked at Rolling Stone, California, Mother Jones, Business 2.0, SunDance, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, MyWire, 7x7, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which he cofounded in 1977. He's also been a content executive at KQED, Wired Digital, Salon.com, and Excite@Home. David has published hundreds of articles and three books,including "Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets Its Story," and has been teaching journalism for... more »

AboutMedia Industry

BNET Media provides daily industry news coverage and insights for managers and executives in publishing, print, broadcast, film, and online media. In addition to detailed company profiles, we bring you critical analysis on new alliances and partnerships, new products, mergers and acquisitions, labor and cost management, investments and deal flow, and a host of other important business issues.

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