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.


Sphere: Related Content

9/11

Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

You Can Be King of the Hearst Castle... for a Night


For half a century, the beds at Hearst Castle have been empty.

But now one can be yours for a night. And eight of your friends can join you to dine, swim in the Neptune Pool and toss off lines from "Citizen Kane" like, "I think it would be fun to run a newspaper!" [Click for MORE] Sphere: Related Content

Monday, September 8, 2008

Google to Digitize, Scan Images of Newspapers


A Google screenshot of the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from July 21, 1969.

Google Inc has stepped up efforts to digitize dozens of historical newspapers and make scanned images of the original papers available online, the Internet search leader said on Monday.

In a blog post on the Silicon Valley-based company's website, Google said it is looking to make old newspapers searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives.

The effort involves the archives of dozens of newspaper titles and expands on a two-year-old effort by Google to work with two major U.S. newspapers -- The New York Times and Washington Post -- to index old papers in Google News Archive. [Click for MORE]

Sphere: Related Content

L.A. Times Editor: Newspapers Have
Only 35 More Years of Life

Bradley Wilcox of California State University's Daily Sundial talks with Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton about the future of printed newspapers. Click below to listen to the interview.







Sphere: Related Content

New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper

Plastic Logic/Sony/Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times

The Plastic Logic reader, left, has a screen the size of a sheet of paper for a copy machine. Center, Sony’s eReader; right, Amazon.com’s Kindle. The Plastic Logic device, which is yet to be named, can be updated wirelessly and store hundreds of pages of documents.


The electronic newspaper, a large portable screen that is constantly updated with the latest news, has been a prop in science fiction for ages. It also figures in the dreams of newspaper publishers struggling with rising production and delivery costs, lower circulation and decreased ad revenue from their paper product.

While the dream device remains on the drawing board, Plastic Logic will introduce publicly on Monday its version of an electronic newspaper reader: a lightweight plastic screen that mimics the look — but not the feel — of a printed newspaper.[Click for MORE]

Sphere: Related Content