Text of N.J. Group memo on regional copy desk

The following was sent to employees today the New Jersey newspapers; I believe the author is Home News Tribune Publisher Skip Hidlay.

We are creating a regional news and sports copy desk and page production operation at the Tribune, plus the Asbury Park Press, the Courier News, and the Daily Record.

At each of the four newspapers, this affects the day desk, the night desk, the entertainment desk, the business desk, the sports desk, art and design.

The local reporters, the assigning/local news desk editors, the multimedia/photo editor, the local photographers/videographers and the digital editors/producers/programmers will not be affected by this change and will remain in their current positions at their current locations. The local reporters, assigning editors and photographers will cover the news just as they do now, but the copy editing and page production of their work will be handled by the regional desk operation in Neptune.

All current news and sports copy editors/designers/paginators at the Courier News, the Home News Tribune and the Daily Record are being offered transfers to the new regional desk operation in Neptune. Those who do not want to transfer will be offered a severance package. The scholastic sports editors will likely divide their time between the local and regional operations.

To lead this regional desk operation, we are creating 16 new editing management positions in Neptune. These editors will be responsible for page production and editing for all of the daily and non-daily pages produced by the four newspapers. A list of these positions and job descriptions will be posted.

The editors and assistant editors leading the copy and sports desk operations at the four newspapers are all encouraged to apply for these new regional positions. We are only interviewing internal candidates for these positions. In addition to the interview, the criteria we will use in filling these positions will be the candidate's current job performance, past experience and past job performance reviews.

We will begin interviewing for the new jobs on Tuesday afternoon and plan to announce the new regional editors and assistant editors on Wednesday, April 8. Managers who are not selected for these positions will be offered severance packages.

Once selected, the regional desk editors will immediately begin working with their staffs to plan how the new operation will work and begin phasing it in. Our goal is to have the regional desk begin producing the Courier News and Home News Tribune by May 4 at the latest and the Daily Record by June 1 at the latest.

The affected employees are being briefed on this change now. I will hold a staff meeting at 5 p.m. in the HNT large conference room for news employees not directly affected by this change. I will hold additional staff meetings at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Somerville and at 11 a.m. in East Brunswick for advertising and circulation employees.