Friday, September 12, 2008

10,000 Journalists Kicked to the Curb

From graphicdesignr.net


It’s a day no one really wanted to see, but the 87 buyouts at the Sacramento Bee pushed this year’s total of layoffs/buyouts at U.S. newspapers above 10,000. That’s 39.39 jobs per day.

The total doesn’t tell the full story, though: More layoffs and buyouts have not been reported.

Earlier this week, the Billings Gazette laid off two reporters One of them, Luella Brien, was told not to tell her co-workers that she’d been laid off. The paper, owned by Lee Enterprises, did not report the layoffs on its Web site or (that I’ve found) in print. In July, Tribune Co. did the same thing but on a larger scale at the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Officials at both papers eventually released statements after bloggers and professional organizations called them on it: The Sentinel laid off 52 employees; the Sun-Sentinel laid off 58 employees.

The following papers have laid off employees or offered buyouts:

(Any help filling in missing numbers is appreciated.)










Even if each entry is just one layoff or buyout, and that’s still 124 more jobs. No matter what, our industry has lost a lot of jobs, and a lot of great journalists.

See the map and more information at Paper Cuts. If you know of a layoff/buyout that’s not included, or can help track down some numbers, send Newsdesignr an e-mail.

> Here's a list from McClatchy Watch.


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