layoffs in Greensboro

Of the 17, how many were in sports?

 

Not sure. heard they lost a "community sports" position and a designer.

but heard that third hand.

 

I know for a fact that one of the layoffs was a sports designer.

 

Am I crazy, or was the community sports position a relatively recent add to headcount? I remember interviewing there a few years ago for a different job, and based on my experience, I would have guessed that a community sports sport would be the last thing they'd cut. Could be they'll replace the laid off person with someone else on staff and ax THAT position.

FIVE WRITERS for a 100K with all four N.C. ACC schools within 90 minutes, the ACC tournament on a semi-regular basis, a handful of D-IIIs and small D-Is, an ark of high schools and the usual minor league franchises? That's borderline crazy. The border between crazy and cow-raping insane, that is. And does Dustin Long count as one of the five, or is he just considered a Landmark employee? (I believe at one point his immediate supervisor was the Greensboro SE)

I'm not one to go immediately to "OH SHI- THE WORLD IS FALLING OFF ITS AXIS" or "GOD DAMN YOU ASSHOLE RICH PUBLISHERS" every time a layoff takes place, but if the GNR is down to four beaters and a column mug, then that's just WRONG.

 

Thanks, all, for your concern. Yesterday was terrible around here. I don't expect today to be any better.

We lost 17 folks (11 full time, 6 part time). That's about 10 percent of our News staff.

Sports lost our community sports reporter, our C1 designer (she was technically assigned to the news side, but she worked with us five nights a week) and our part-time copy desker. They're all good folks and good journalists. I already miss the hell out of them.

Cuts here were by position first, then seniority. For instance, the N&R did away with a news secretary position (she'd been there 25 years or thereabouts) and all of its News part-timers (including a features writer who has been here about 20 years). When it came down to bigger groups of folks like reporter and photographer and news editor, management started at the bottom of the seniority list and worked up. Same with Sports -- our community person was last hired.

Our current headcount in Sports after yesterday:
* Editor
* Assistant editor (me)
* Columnist
* Two college beat writers (mostly for the ACC's Big Four, but we have three other D1s and two D3s in our coverage area)
* One High schools writer
* One GA/golf writer (because Greensboro has had an annual PGA event about ever since there was a Greensboro)
* Our NASCAR writer (he's based here -- I'm his boss -- but he's technically a Landmark employee because Greensboro, Roanoke and Norfolk split his salary and expenses.)
* Six full-time copy desk/inside designers

If you're counting at home, that's four writers and a columnist. That's not a Sports staff - we're a penalty-killing unit.

 

More on the fiasco in Greensboro ... seems there are a LOT of PO'd people in the newsroom right now ...

http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2007/06/nr_layoffs.html

 

Jesus, John, that really is insane. Good luck making things work with that staff.

 

http://www.gatewayva.com/biz/virginiabusiness/magazine/yr2007/jun07/rich1.shtml#mars

Maybe Jr. Batten is making an attempt to make his net worth top a billion just like daddy.

 

How the fuck do you live with yourself if you brought someone in a week ago and then let her go? There's a lot of people expressing support for the editor, but if he knew layoffs were coming, and he hired her anyway, then he deserves a sharp stick where the sun don't shine.

 

To continue the hockey analogy: the penalty-killing unit put on the ice after a vicious bit of slashing. And the suits are no good cheap-shot goons.

This just stinks big-time. I don't know Monica Chen's situation. But if she quit a perfectly good job to take that job in Greensboro, that is just unconscionable. How could they her do that when they had to know she was about to get laid off.

 

If this is true, a stick would be the least he should get.