Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Modesto Bee lays off 35

BusinessJournal.com:
The Modesto Bee this week announced plans to lay off 12 employees, including its sports editor — the only cut to impact the paper’s newsroom.

More:
Sacramento-based McClatchy is struggling with double-digit declines in revenue as its main source of revenue — advertising — dwindles. McClatchy has been particularly hard hit because its biggest newspapers — The Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald — are in California and Florida, states where the housing downturn has been more pronounced.

In a memo to employees at the Modesto paper, publisher Margaret Randazzo said the 12 layoffs, combined with 23 recent buyouts, represent a reduction of 9 percent of the company’s work force.

The 12 employees laid off, plus the 23 who accepted buyouts, brings the total employees laid off to 35. (The earlier post noted only the 12 employees laid off.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gary Pruitt has a theme song now how about a movie title...Nightmare Before Christmas? Terminator? McClatchy Chainsaw Massacre? The Grinch that stole Christmas?...Gary...YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK!!!
This weeks layoff included people in advertising, operations (prepress), circulation and others.
If you have the stomach, check out Mark Vasche's (executive editor) Sunday column on Modbee.com...do a search for Mark Vasche and it will take you to his articles). What tripe...Yadda, Yadda, Yadda...we are here for the community...Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. I feel sorry for the editors, reporters, and others who were asked to contribute to his "Hey every body, you still need to read the Bee, nothing has changed, we're just one big happy family!" More like a dysfunctional family!
If you thought morale was bad before, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth...seriously, it is bad, real bad, ladies teary eyed, nobody talks much, the most common questions are (not in this order), Did you take the buyout?, I wonder who is next? What do you think will happen with the building? I wonder what happened to so and so? ...For those of us who will be let go Sept 28 the common questions are "How are you doing?" "Do you have anything lined up yet?" "Do you have any plans?" "What is EDD doing, or have you talked to EDD yet?" I am speechless (almost). With so many people being let go, how can security keep tabs on who is still employed and who isn't? You walk in the building, and security just lets you in past the turnstiles, no badge swipe, or ID check...I suggest a metal detector and X-ray machine!

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many of these contributing employees will still be working there a week from now? A month from now? A year from now? Sunday brings a glimpse of the employee's lives at the Bee, then Tuesday a bunch more employees get the dreaded whit envelope! HYPOCRITES!!!!