Tampa Tribune to cut 70 jobs

I am often described as perhaps overly kind.

And yes, that is an interesting take. I will mull it as I finally eat dinner.

 

I've been lucky in that I've gotten to know non-newsroom people over the years. My dad worked in newspaper advertising departments and I grew up knowing his colleagues. At my first full-time job we used to drink with the composing room people every Thursday night (actually Friday mornings, it was called the FriAM Club). At two other places, a couple compositors (or printers, as they like to be called) became social friends, we'd hang at each other's homes. One was significantly smarter than me and read a lot more books on all kinds of things and she dragged me to see subtitled films (which I hated). At my first job, a grimy man stopped me in a hallway. He was a pressman and his hobby was owning a local semipro baseball team. No rocket scientist, but no dummy either. Didn't really get to know anyone in circulation as we tended to work opposite hours. Thing is, just about anyone on a newspaper from janitor to publisher could make better coin doing something else. A lot of us just love newspapers. We in the newsroom do not have a monopoly on that.

 

My Dad worked as a newspaper carrier for a year to earn some extra money. He had a huge route, some 700 papers I recall, and he brought home $600 a week after taxes. Depending on the restaurant you're working at -- you cannot touch $600 a week.

 

Fair point.

 

Out of curiousity -- did that include gas? Wear and tear on the car?
I made hella good money delivering pizzas during school. But I also left a car on Nifong in Columbia because of it.

And Frank, that might be one of the better posts I've ever read on this site.

 

No, you're right -- it did not include gas or wear and tear. Excellent point but when you're working parttime, the point is to bring home as much money as possible at that time, right? Being a carrier, and I would presume a pizza guy, fits the bill, no?

And I agree with you -- Frank, excellent post.

 

Perhaps AM papers should cease to exist and PMs should come back.

Maybe people have more time to read in the afternoon, sitting in the stands watching Johnny or Jenny play soccer, softball or basketball.

 

Sad thing is, once one chain announces layoffs, it's a domino effect. They all jump aboard, knowing they can dump some costs and, when people complain, trot out the usual excuse: "Hey, it's not just us. It's all across the industry." My chain will be doing it soon, I think. I can feel it coming.

And, to echo Frank, some of the best people I've known in this industry have been compositers and camera people (back in the day), and custodians, security guards, press workers, secretaries and other support staff.

Conversely, some of the worst people I've known were in the newsrooms. There's probably a good reason for that.

 

My closest friends were usually the circulation guys, and probably the advertising people when I was at a small shop. A lot of the people in the newsroom seemed to have an attitude as if they were better than someone. can't stand that shit.

 

My best friend is a RIT grad. He came to our paper right after graduating as our prepress/tech manager.
He's moved on and after getting a MBA, is an exec for the So. Fla. Sun-Sentinel in the building where they print the paper.

 

The St. Pete Times has a story saying their movie critic is among the cuts, that they'll use wires from now on.

But it also has this:

A sports department team leader based in Tampa and a photo lab manager rounded out the dismissed staffers.

Anybody have any more on this?

 

That is correct. Of the 70 layoffs, six were in the newsroom and one was a sports team leader. Rough day for us here in Tampa.

Bob