Memo: Des Moines losing three reporters

You know newspaper publishers are under pressure to slash spending when they elect to give up any reporters on the eve of a major news event in their own backyard.

But that's what the Des Moines Register is doing, according to a memo just forwarded to me. The paper told newsroom employees that three reporters are leaving in buyouts -- two of them before next month's crucial Iowa presidential caucuses. (At most newspapers, it's "all hands on deck'' during major news, regardless of beat assignment.)

The Des Moines cuts join those this month at USA Today, where 43 newsroom employees just got buyouts. And these all follow more job cuts across Gannett as the company races to hit earnings targets in the final stretch of the fourth quarter. (It's bonus time!)

In a memo to newsroom employees on Thursday, Register Editor Carolyn Washburn said: "It is bittersweet for me to announce that three of our colleagues have accepted retirement incentive packages and will leave us at the turn of the year."

Her memo continues: "In recent days and months, these folks expressed to managers that they wanted to be considered for a package the next time we offered one. As we planned our budget for 2008, it was necessary for us to reduce our budget some (though still thankfully less than other newspapers we have seen) and we made these packages available. We are glad this worked out for them."

Des Moines employees: How many people work in the newsroom now? How will these cuts affect news coverage? See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Image: this morning's Register, Newseum. The paper reports in its lead caucus story: "Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (left) owes some of his rise in Iowa to "a tightly knit group of social conservatives" with something fundamental in common: They are evangelical Christians who home-school their kids. Photo: Alan Marler, The Associated Press]