Monday, December 14, 2009

Has McClatchy stopped reporting on its own layoffs?

Here's an odd development I'm noticing about recent McClatchy layoffs...

Early this month this month a reliable source informed me 4 employees at the Macon Telegraph had been laid off. Since then, there has been no official word from the paper. Which is a change from how the Macon Telegraph handled its last layoffs (March, 2009), when the information was published in the newspaper.

Last week an anonymous poster said several employees at the Idaho Statesman were pink-slipped a few weeks earlier. If true, the Statesman hasn't reported the story.

Then there is the Miami Herald... reports of the Miami Herald axing 24 positions on December 2nd were widely reported by several news organizations, including the Associated Press, the Sacramento Business Journal, Broward New Times, and, Miami New Times.

But good luck finding any evidence the Miami Herald reported on its own layoffs. The Herald did run a correction of the original AP story but I haven't seen a Herald piece reporting on its most recent layoffs. Last March, though, the Herald reported the news when it laid off 175 employees, the Herald published a story on the layoffs.

What happened to reporting the news?
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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

News is something that happens to someone else.

Anonymous said...

They've been doing stealth layoffs for over a year now and denying it all the way. No surprise here. All you have to do with McClatchy is find out what they are not talking about and that is the news.

Anonymous said...

There's no secrets in a newsroom. The company may not report it, but there's always plenty of insiders to get the real story out if you want it. Ask and you shall receive the uncensored versions.

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize every company is required to report its layoffs to the public.

Is McClatchy the only company in the country laying off employees?

Anonymous said...

Publicly-traded companies, like MNI, are required to report such things.

And no, numbnuts, obviously MNI is not the only company in the country laying people off. But if they are purposely not reporting their own layoffs, then that IS shady.

Anonymous said...

8:07AM - You are wrong. Public companies are only required to report material layoffs. That is, those above a certain threshold prescribed by the government and SEC.

The layoffs noted in this thread infer small layoffs, not of large scale or part of a corporate program.

Yes, McClatchy has been laying off, but the numbers pale compared to the mass layoff earlier this year and don't require an SEC filing or "public" notice.

Ad, my nuts are not numb. I know it's hard, but try to stay on topic.

Anonymous said...

Like Dear Leader and Melanie Sill’s (I mean Nancy Pelosi’s) Congress promising to be the most openly transparent administration, Siamese-twin-McClatchy is joined at the hip with the frauds they cover for.

Anonymous said...

EDITORIAL: Obama secrecy (The Washington Times)Sounds like McCrappy huh?

You can't have a closed-door meeting about the need for fewer closed-door meetings and expect anyone to take you seriously.

That's like writing a memo to order fewer memos. Such folly is business as usual in the Obama White House.

President Obama promised a historic level of transparency from his administration but hasn't delivered. On Dec. 7, the president had a "workshop" on government openness that was closed to the public.

Perhaps Mr. Obama didn't want the public to hear about some of his less-than-glamorous transparency report cards.

This comes on the heels of a purported transparency Web site - recovery.gov - delivering fake information to the public about fantasy jobs in imaginary congressional districts.

The political landscape is littered with broken promises for ever-greater transparency.

Mr. Obama promised that all health care negotiations would be open to the public.

Yet the day before the secret meeting to condemn secrecy, the president held a Democrats-only closed-door strategy meeting to push a new version of his partisan health care plan.

Anonymous said...

The Anchorage Daily News has axed their Production Manager and given the duties to Circulation. Is this type of restructuring happening elsewhere?

Anonymous said...

The next step in downsizing is consolidating management positions. There are too many useless managers and not enough revenue to support their salaries. Nobody will miss these drones.

Anonymous said...

How can they not restructure with so many changes in the biz and so few bodies left? The biggest mistake McClatchy has made is its reluctance to make major changes fast. A newsroom boss from the Internet side is sorely needed at the big papers. Let the assistant newsroom managing editors shape the news coverage and go cyber NOW. Even now they're two years late.

Anonymous said...

They only report the news that they perceive to help "their" side. Once you decide not to report on Climategate, or Max Baucus' girl friend or the communist Green Jobs Czar or the pervert Safe Schools Czar etc etc., it's easy to skip reporting on your own problems if you feel it's useful to your side.
If they were more concerned about the truth and less concerned about their side, they might have better ad revenue and more readers.

Anonymous said...

Aw, they'e not reporting the little stuff because they're saving up for the big, massive layoffs in the coming weeks.

Anonymous said...

I happened to scan through a copy of the Sunday Sac Bee and it was such a total mess they would do well to lay off everyone and use a high school class to put out a paper. We saw 1/3 page on Governor Sanford's marital woes for the
98th time. And you gotta love this 1/2 page article on the
"President's 'lost years' now a New York tour". Some guy offers a walking tour in the neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan, Columbia University and City College where Obama lived, worked (?) and studied. And from the guide we learn "Here Obama worked in NYPIRG, organizing students on issues like recycling." (WOW)" He also lobbied to have the 137th street subway station cleaned up." Can you believe the experience it takes to become President. And this is the stuff put out.

The total demise can't occur soon enough. They are absolute morons at that paper. And we don't feel sorry for anyone who gets booted. Get a real life like normal working people. You sold your soul, now go get a job. You are owed nothing.

Anonymous said...

McClatchy is too busy laying off hard workers and figuring out how to give their salarys to worthless people. They don't have time to do the "above the board" reporting.

Anonymous said...

To 3:25 p.m. (Sunday Sac Bee) Remember that Sacramento is the home of a state government that is overwhelmingly Democrat, from the Legislature to the staffs to the permanent unionized workforce. So, such story placement decisions, while looking lame and slanted to outside observers, may make perfect sense in that insular world. They make think they are, in fact, serving their readers.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm.....
I thought that websites like this one are the future. If that's true, where is your own reporting? Instead, you're throwing a tantrum because no one is spoon-feeding you news that you can use on this site.
No reporters = no real news.
Layoffs are happening all over McClatchy.
For example, The Olympian has laid off Chester Allen, who is a very popular outdoor writer and columnist.