I thought of that when I read John Landsberg's report today that the KC Star laid off a sports reporter.
Cole Young, who has covered high school sports and the Kansas City Wizards soccer team for the Kansas City Star, will be departing the newspaper effective May 31 as part of ongoing cutbacks.
A 2006 graduate of Northwest Missouri State, Young has worked at the paper as a contract employee. The move is a bit surprising considering he had to be low on the payroll scale, particularly in the Star Sports Department, which has some of the highest-paid talent at the newspaper.
"He couldn't have been making even $25,000 a year," said a former Star reporter."That doesn't make a helluva lot of sense. But I have given up trying to figure that place out."
Was this a stealth layoff designed to fly under the radar? Or a financially-strapped company responding to pressure to reduce personnel costs?
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10 comments:
How does anyone know that it is due to "downsizing"?
Maybe he violated his contract? Maybe because high schools generally don't do anything during the summer and there is only 3-4 Wizards games left it was easier to end his contract now?
Perhaps because as a so called "contract employee" his contract had ended.
That sports department at The Star could probably go its own way and become an independent publication. Unlike the beat reporters, the sports department isn't tarred by being in the same building as The Star's Editorial Bored (with the exception of the occasional Judge cartoon, but who in sports would be dumb enough to read the Star's editorial page?).
Anywho, I think a lot of those guys have ongoing contracts elsewhere that are of value to The Star and would be when it goes all digital.
the star is not cash-strapped. mcclatchy is. weighed down by all those loser rags in california and florida.
"the star is not cash-strapped. mcclatchy is. weighed down by all those loser rags in california and florida."
This seems to be the argument at all of their papers. It's not us, it's the other papers. It's the KR papers that are dragging us down.
I think it's all BS. They're all sucking wind and lying through their teeth (what's new) to make it look like they're not the losers.
A contractor is a contractor and an employee is an employee. There is no such thing as a contract employee.
OK, here is what s going on.... I have it on good authority that many of those left behing are increasingly more and more frustrated with all the added work and have complained and raised such a stink that many of the Bee Managment are letting them go with some sort of severance. Better to get rid of them than to have them organizing anything or going postal.
This seems to be the argument at all of their papers. It's not us, it's the other papers. It's the KR papers that are dragging us down.
Wrong ! The Knight Ridder papers showed excellent profits every year. It wasn't till mcclatchy bought knight ridder that knight ridder had to pay back gary pruitts debt for trying to salvage mcclatchy for a few more years.
@May 15, 2009 5:04 AM
Hate to burst your bubble, but the Miami Herald was in serious trouble well before Mcclatchy bought KR. It was well known that the KR cuts were to help keep their troubled papers out of the red.
Most didn't know of these cuts since they didn't hit the departments that you would notice. Those mainly focused on the Production and Circulation areas, which don't piss off readers like cutting reporters and columnists does. Sorry but making it sound like all KR papers were perfectly profitable until bought by MNI is being delusional.
Just in case anyone sees this, I need to say it. The Miami Herald was NOT in serious trouble before McClatchy bought it. It was beginning to feel the affects of the recession early (Miami's market has always been a bellweather of national economic trouble). The Herald was making money, maybe not as much money as corporate parenthood would like, but lots of money nonetheless. It was NOT losing money. It wasn't anywhere near losing money. Overstaffed, yes (not anymore). Stuck in a past tradition of print greatness and slow to move into new media, yes. But on its worst day The Miami Herald could put any other paper in the shade, including the storied SacBee.
- Miami Forever
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