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Thursday, April 17, 2008

UPDATED: Fort Worth Star Telegram executes surprise layoffs on Thursday

By Teresa Gubbins

Updated 02:24 p.m., April 17, 2008

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FORT WORTH — If you hear screaming from the West, it's probably because a round of surprise layoffs is currently underway at the Fort Worth Star Telegram; 15 employees were called into Human Resources on Thursday morning to be let go.

Among those in editorial who got the ax: Rex Seline, managing editor/news; "reader advocate" David House; night business editor Jim Frisinger (a layoff veteran who was part of the Dallas Morning News layoff of 2004); design editor Monique Miller; and illustrator/graphics artists Dave Seymour and Matt Pinkney.

Layoffees were offered six weeks' pay and three months' worth of health insurance. The newspaper has announced a meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss a restructuring.

The Star-Telegram is part of McClatchy Co. since late 2005, when McClatchy bought S-T's previous owner Knight Ridder. McClatchy's stock has fallen in the last year from $30 per share to about $10 per share. Layoffs of approximately 200 employees at the Seattle Times, a sibling McClatchy property, were announced last week.

UPDATE: The ST issued an announcement from publisher Gary Wortel that it was eliminating 15 jobs through a restructuring of management, with 8 cuts from the newsroom, and the rest from reductions in marketing, operations, circulation, and advertising.

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Comments

Teresa Gubbins

Teresa Gubbins Staff

eric c. at Frontburner has the memo

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

hellofromfw Anonymous

This is my hometown paper. I am very shocked, but I have noticed that the paper keeps getting thinner and thinner, the stories shorter and shorter. Seeing these people's names makes it hit a little harder. David House, the paper's ombudsman, used to be my neighbor.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99

Billusa99 Anonymous

Damn... Jim F. took another bullet.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

David Goodspeed Verified

I love how the "official" statement qualifies that this will affect less than 1.5 percent of the staff. BULLdookey. It is going to AFFECT everyone who works there, all walking around like deer caught in the headlights. "Am I next, what now, do we all have to work harder now for the same pay?" Less than 1.5 percent my arse.

3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Erin Rice

Erin Rice Staff

Eric Celeste's comment on Frontburner is telling:

"I can also say that this sparked even more concern at the Morning News, where the newsroom is VERY worried that there could be more layoffs later this year, based solely on what is happening to the industry at large."

Industry at large? Uh-oh, paper.

3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Chris Climer

Chris Climer Verified

I was informed this week of a large increase in the per inch charge for the News. What used to cost the small business $ 80.00 per day now will run $ 240 to $ 520 depending on which area and its now $ 1950.00 for a full run on a good day. You can't stay in business even with no competition by not selling any ads, so how many employees will this reverse thinking take down.

3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren

Mike Orren Staff

(Can't help myself)

piano, you might want to check out alternatives to print-- And I don't just mean us.

We're hosting an event to help local businesses make sense of all this mess. Hope you can join us:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/blogs/pega...

Meantime, the kind of bucks you're talking about there would get you a super-targeted campaign (based on geo and behaviors) and lots of extras on Our Little Site. Drop a line if you want to discuss further.

And while I'm here, some more thoughts on the layoffs:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/blogs/pega...

3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle

Scott Doyle Verified

Holy hell, average income is $78k? Can't say I'm surprised about anything else among users, but damn - that's much higher than I would have guessed.

3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren

Mike Orren Staff

Note imbroglio about McClatchy veep's hotel expenses:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=...

Also interesting that a company in wired telephony business laid off the exact same percentage of its workforce:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/18/at...

3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

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