And raises prices, the sure sign of dire times.
The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram is laying off about 12 percent of its workforce and enacting wage cuts for those who remain. Although it is not an exact match, the paper is one of the best proxies out there for the Carolinas operations of MNI, the largest of which remain oddly silent about the impending layoffs, furloughs, and wage cuts.
Nothing exact, but the rumors are that the S-T cuts hit 20 percent of the newsroom. That would mean drastic, drastic cuts in either Raleigh or Uptown operations. Interestingly, the cuts came with the announcement of free circ “entertainment” option that is supposed to be highly profitable. Don’t know if that is the plan for Uptown as well, although ramming through those new city regs on distribution of free circ pubs certainly looks even more Orwellian.
Is it my imagination or did the Uptown paper never cover the adoption of those regs? I know there was a pre-emptive story, but no follow up that I saw.
Update: Soooo…they are merging features between Raleigh and Uptown? OK. What does that mean for headcount? And why do I want to read features about Cary? Why do the folks in Cary want to read features about Pineville or Matthews?
Besides, this is not sports, this is not an objective event which requires commentary and coverage. Features are much more subtle and harder to quantify. I know, I always sucked at them. Still awaiting the layoff news.
Update II: McClatchy Watch notes that the new unit will be led by Linda Williams, who got into quite a dust-up with a blogger last fall.
Update III: Jon Ham files the changes under “deck chairs, rearranged” and moves on.
