Bloodletting at Lee papers in Greensboro, Winston-Salem

The layoff on the copy desk is former sports editor Bob Meseroll, who was laid off once before and brought back some months later in another capacity.

And in Helena:



Haven’t heard of any layoffs in Billings, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been layoffs in Billings.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country:

 

I'm an SE at a Lee paper.

Not surprising, end of the fiscal year. No layoffs at my shop, but we've been pretty decimated over the last few years, so there is hardly anything to cut. Of course, that never stops them.

We recently covered like the biggest story in the country and did a great job (yeah, I know, giving myself an atta-boy), so we were crushing the company in digital traffic as of late, despite being far from the biggest of their papers.

As I always say, I've totally stopped worrying about these things. I'm frankly amazed I've made it this long. Been laid off before (before we were acquired by Lee) and took a circuitous route back, now I'm the only one left in sports. Figure I'm playing with house money now. I'll do this until they tell me to pack up. I have no complaints, there's other jobs out there.

 

Here, you’ll need some of this.

 

Haha, too bad I quit drinking!

Like I said, I don't sweat it too much. What am I gonna do about it? I've accepted that most things in life are beyond my control. As long as I do my best and my bosses are happy, which they are, this is one of those things.

 

I was in Branson MO for the weekend at the beginning of the month. Over the two nights there I watched more local sports tv than I have watched in the last 15 years combined. It was all high school football with footage. Part of it was a special sports show. There were at least four games with footage and every other score was reported. It was such a shock. The sports coverage was actually relevant when there were no pro teams being covered 24/7 by local cable stations and sports talk radio.

 

Was the coverage out of Springfield, by chance?

 

Gotta be. I've seen some of the coverage from that TV station and website this fall, and they are just doubling down on high school coverage, with little else going on. Their staff is smaller than it was at its peak, after some layoffs a few years back, but they are still pouring a ton of resources into high schools. I assume they are making money on it?

 

Oddly I don't know where it was out of. It was branded as an Ozarks tv station.