99 laid off at Daytona Beach

I have a slightly different take than 2MCM. I feel that the News-Journal executives knew that they were making a risky move when they used $13 for the naming rights to an arts facility built in Daytona. I think they put their employees' jobs on the line simply because the majority owners wanted to invest in the arts. There's a little more to it. One of the key members of the ownership family was a huge fan of the fine arts. He was near death, I believe. I think it was a gesture to his contributions to the arts.

But it was the wrong gesture. Cox was pissed, and rightfully so. In these tight economic times, the majority owners threw $13 million over a cliff. It was just too generous and put too many people under the bus. The worst scenario played out when Cox sued over the loose spending of the majority owners.

From there, it's all slid downhill into a pile of steaming shit. Cox wants out, and they're calling the shots. The courts are siding with Cox and their big-time lawyers. Oddly, Cox won the battle over the value of the company. They claimed it was worth tons. Now they're asking the paper's court-appointed handlers to step in and cut off the fat because there's no way in hell the paper is really worth what the judge agreed it was worth in his decision. The paper can't sell until it can show a buyer that it might be profitable at some point.

 

And if the News-Journal's lawyers are smart, they're going to use that fact in court.

 

As someone who recently went through this type of situation, I feel the folks in Daytona's pain. But getting their insurance through the end of the year and a minimum of four weeks severance was more than I got.

I don't know the situation going on at Daytona now, but I'd wager there's a fair number of those 99 people who don't know they're out of a job, yet.

 

Every day I check this site and there's another X amount of jobs gone. It's never going to stop. Having survived the McClatchy hammer, I absolutely don't feel safe at my job even though I feel like my beats are pretty important to the sports section. I never thought I'd say this but leaving the business is a very real possibility. And I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

I got a phone call at 6 p.m. from one editor who worked in the DeLand bureau. It was her first day back from vacation. She called with a question about a story I wrote for another editor. Apparently, the person who gave me the assignment was released today. I am only vaguely familiar with her background. A photographer who worked out of the DeLand bureau says on his MySpace that he was laid off. He is a buddy. He's talented, and he'll land on his feet. Where and how is another question. He just bought a house a few years ago, and the market has dropped considerably since then. That has to be the big issue for some folks battling this stuff these days.

I just checked my fantasy baseball league. One of the deskers says he's among the group. I believe he's a sports desker, but I can't be sure on that one. I'm sure he's reading this and can enlighten us to other cuts in sports if he so chooses.

So that's three of the 99. I have my fingers crossed. Hopefully, there were no other cuts in sports. Preps editor Brian McLaughlin announced last week that he's leaving for The Sporting News. I imagine someone will fill that position, and they'll have a shitload of work to handle with football season on the way.

They dropped their New Smyrna Beach bureau, also. Buddy Shacklette had worked from that office. I don't know what is happening with him. But I imagine they'll find a spot for Buddy. At least, I hope so. If not, he'd be a great addition for someone should he seek to move elsewhere.

 

Good for Brian on getting hired at TSN. I wonder if Buddy will get moved into Brian's old slot. It would make sense.

 

An update: I believe it's six people in sports plus McLaughlin's voluntary departure, which was already a done deal. It sounds like Shacklette wasn't one of them. But fellow staffer Andy Mikula was a casualty along with Ken Hornack and four others.

This cuts their preps staff to three, I believe. In the past year, they've also lost Tony Jones and Steve Master. Both were key to their preps coverage. The News-Journal's coverage area includes 15-18 high schools. Five or six of those are relatively small schools that normally shouldn't expect strong coverage. But the News-Journal did a great job under McLaughlin of covering the small schools, too.

Where I live, the News-Journal and the Orlando Sentinel had been in competition for subscribers. With recent cutbacks at the Sentinel, I think it's fair to say some people around here are left with scant coverage both in news and sports.

This stuff sucks. I'm going to make a concerted effort to read more about the changes at papers that don't directly affect me. I want to have a better read on what's going on out there. It's like a damn Jackson Pollack painting to me.

 

Somebody should hire Ken Hornack. He's been their NBA/Magic beat writer for years and has done good work despite not traveling to road games.

That is, if anybody's still hiring these days. :-\

 

AP has some openings in Orlando, and one of them involves some Magic coverage.

 

Any word on newsside departures?

 

I haven't heard much on the news side as of yet. It's my understanding that some of the production people working for the bureaus were released. The only name I know is a special sections editor, Trisha Cormeny. I hear Roy Parry was spared. He's a hard worker. I don't know where he's moving now that the bureaus are gone. He had been bouncing around of late. Photographer Chad Pilster was among the fallen, too.

 

A tough day at the N-J -- as our Exec Editor said "our worst day in history". A sign of the times, I guess, but our situation was a unique one with family ownership/problems, etc. It was just a sad day all around. We've always kept everyone else's layoffs in our thoughts and prayers, we hope you do the same for our guys.