McClatchy's untouchables -- no layoffs at the DC bureau

Editor & Publisher:

While McClatchy newspapers nationwide are suffering the company's second massive job reduction in three months, the chain's highly praised Washington bureau has again survived the cutbacks without any layoffs or buyouts.

But that does not mean the D.C. bureau did not lose people, according to Bureau Chief John Walcott, who says the luck of attrition helped make the cuts less painful."

It's easier as a manager to have people leave for their own reasons than to fire people," says Walcott. "But do we have as many people as we had two years ago? No. We have had a fair amount of attrition and that has taken care of it."

Some of the editors and publishers at the chain's 30 daily papers, meanwhile, say the latest round of cuts is not easy, but vow to push forward with the best journalism possible. "We are focused on doing the best we can," says Publisher Timothy Kelly of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, which laid-off 22 employees, including nine in the newsroom. "It is just a very difficult day."

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Walcott in D.C. says his newsroom missed the buyouts and layoffs, but still lost a handful of staff. While the bureau has 10 editors, it does not have a Washington Editor, the top newsroom post that was eliminated following the departure of David Westphal, who left in the spring to take a job at the University of Southern California.

"We are the only [McClatchy] place where the top guy has left and not been replaced," Walcott says.

In addition, the national reporting staff -- now at 14 -- lost two reporters in the past year, while the regional reporting staff will drop to 11 when David Montgomery returns to McClatchy's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Although each regional reporter covers D.C. for specific McClatchy newspapers, their salary comes out of the D.C. budget.

Finally, the foreign staff has been reduced from eight to six with Cairo reporter Hannah Allam taking a year off for a Nieman Fellowship and Brazil-based correspondent Jack Chang returning to D.C.

"We fortunately have not had to lay off anyone," Walcott says. "Unfortunately, the people who have left are among the most experienced in the business. We are not exempt from the pressures the rest of the company is under to curtail spending."

I don't think Walcott will get any sympathy from McClatchy's bloodied local newspapers.

Incidentally, Walcott is the genius who predicted the US would lose the Iraq war.
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