Relatively stable newspapers?

My recollection is that this subject has come up from time to time ... but which (if any) newspapers out there, from major metros to smaller dailies, not only are hiring but offer at least a small degree of job security, even for desk folks?

I ask this because one of my youthful co-workers just accepted an offer for a design position at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. It seems unusual for a major metro to make a desk hire in these days of centralized design/editing studios and papers that have decided they can do without desk operations. Also, she doesn't seem especially worried about being laid off in the short term, which would tend to indicate the outlook is at least OK, if not robust.

Is this really the case at the Star Tribune -- or anywhere else?

 

When it happens at our place, it's usually because there were a round of layoffs, followed by other people leaving on their own shortly thereafter, leaving a massive hole to fill. Two people whom we once laid off were re-hired as soon as their severance period was up . . . because a bunch of other people departed in the interim.

 

I know of at least one place where this has happened -- after layoffs followed by a few voluntary departures, several laid-off people were brought back post-severance pay because the desk simply didn't have enough people to do the work.

On the other hand, if you're laid off/bought out by the Tribune papers in Orlando and South Florida, it appears that once you're gone, you're gone.

 

NYT and WaPo. In a year or two, the LAT will be up there. It's amazing to see them hiring like crazy after shaking off the tronc shackles.

That is unusual. However, how old is your "younger co-worker?" If she is in her early 20s, the Star Tribune is likely replacing an older, just-retired, highly paid designer with someone who is younger and, more importantly, cheaper.

Indeed. The Start Tribune is one of the few papers at the metro level taking print design seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if it overtakes The Virginia Pilot, which is one of the best-designed newspapers in the country and, sadly, recently outsourced its design desk.

My biggest piece of advice: Tell your co-worker to learn as much front-end web development as she can. I know designers at some big papers, and their skills in print and digital design is hot right now.

 

I took a buyout from a Trib paper a few years ago and part of the language in the agreement was along the lines that I could never apply to or work for another Trib paper in the future. Since I was retiring, it wasn't even a consideration.

 

If you want a stable newspaper job find a specialty publication or something put out by an organization for its members.

 

You're basically looking at the New York and LA Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe and Star-Tribune. Just about everyone else is owned by one of the chains (Gannett, Digital First, Gatehouse, Tronc, etc.) and thus always in danger of cuts.

 

The first point occurred to me because she's about 25 and won't cost them much. Haven't had a chance to talk to her in great detail yet, but I'll have to ask her if they told her anything about how the opening occurred. I'll also ask if she'll be learning front-end web development. Wouldn't surprise me if she will be and it's part of the attraction of going there.

 

The Villages in Florida apparently is doing well.
Print Is Dead? Not Here

 

Any place with a bunch of old people will do relatively well. Until they pass on, unfortunately.

 

We don't lay people off any more. We just don't replace the ones that leave now. That's how the last four or five newsroom jobs at my shop have been eliminated.

 

The Globe newsroom has been whacked hard by John Henry. They’re cutting sections and still laying folks off. That’s not “relatively stable.”