As
The New York Times prepares to lay off several dozen in its newsroom, I'm reminded that many of the newspaper industry staff cuts made public are dominated by those involving editorial workers. That's often because those reporting layoffs are mostly newsroom employees -- the same group that tends to dominate readership of blogs like
Romenesko and
Gannett Blog. But what about job cuts in advertising, production, finance and other departments? Surely some of those workers are getting the ax at the
NYT, too.
Ditto for
USA Today, which recently cut an identical number of newsroom jobs -- 26. When I've covered layoffs at Gannett's marquee title in the past, I rarely got reports of cuts outside the newsroom.
So, questions:
- Did any staff reductions hit non-editorial workers at USAT?
- And what about severance? The New York Post's Keith Kelly says that many of the NYT staffers getting buyouts left with two years of severance. What are the terms for those getting forcibly laid off?
At
USAT, the 26 laid off earlier this month got
"transitional pay," the same severance given those Gannett employees cut during
the July layoffs. How it works: those who qualify for state unemployment get paid enough by Gannett to cover the difference between their unemployment benefits and their salary. So, if you earned $600 a week, and your state jobless benefit is $350, Gannett pays the other $250 -- so long as you qualify for the state jobless benefit. (I assume, as well, that
USAT employees went on
COBRA health insurance immediately. True?)
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
Jim you are a complete idiot if you think USA TODAY didn't lay off people outside the newsroom. I know of plenty that have been laid off, not only this past years but for nearly the past ten years. You may not have received reports but if you did your due dilligence instead of rely on crowd sourcing you would know.
ReplyDeleteI apologize if I didn't make myself more clear. Indeed, I KNOW there have been layoffs and job cuts outside newsrooms. The point of this post was to acknowledge that. Too often, non-editorial folks have felt ignored when layoffs are reported at newspapers.
ReplyDelete"...cuts made public are dominated by those involving editorial workers....what about job cuts in advertising, production, finance and other departments?...
ReplyDeleteDitto for USA Today, which recently cut an identical number of newsroom jobs -- 26. When I've covered layoffs at Gannett's marquee title in the past, I rarely got reports of cuts outside the newsroom.
So, questions:
Did any staff reductions hit non-editorial workers at USAT?..."
Sorry but that is pretty clear to me. If you KNOW then say so. The way you spun your original post makes it sound like you not only don't know, you don't even think so.
This is the type of spin by the blog author that has annoyed me so in the past. I was hoping that part would go away. I was also hoping you would leave posts that are critical of you but not nasty. I see you are editing (censoring) at will yet again.