Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Miami Herald lays off 24 employees, will shorten workweek for employees in production

The Miami Herald says it will eliminate 24 employees and reduce the workweek for employees in production operations. Here is the email sent by David Landsberg:

To all Miami Herald employees:

Today we are announcing a reduction plan that will result in the loss of 24 staff positions and the shortening of the full-time workweek for departments directly involved in newspaper production operations.

The move is part of our ongoing effort to ride out this unprecedented period of economic turmoil. While we are seeing some signs of improvement on the horizon, we expect operating conditions to remain challenging through much of 2010.

The reduction plan includes operational savings and the elimination of temporary labor and open positions. The job eliminations are spread across all of our divisions. Although many of these will occur through involuntary layoffs, there also will be opportunities for employees to voluntarily elect a severance package where reductions are occurring in work groups of two or more employees. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced according to least tenure.

Employees affected by this reduction are being notified immediately and provided with information about a transition package. If a voluntary option is being offered to your work group, you will receive written notification with additional information today.

The shortened full-time workweek to 37.5 hours will affect all hourly staffers in Prepress, Printing Operations, Electric Shop, Machine Shop, Packaging and Transportation. Employees who work 37.5 hours in those areas will retain their full-time status for health insurance, vacations and other benefits. There will be meetings beginning shortly for all employees in the Operations Division.

As in the past, every effort has been made to minimize the number of layoffs. At this moment, when signs of an economic recovery are still mixed, our actions will help us navigate what we believe will be a period of moderating revenue losses in 2010.

These are difficult decisions, and we realize how tough it is to stay focused on the important mission we share at MHMC. We have come a long way, and we thank you for your continued dedication and hard work.

If you have further questions about the plan, please direct them to your division vice president.

David Landsberg

According to The Daily Pulp, seven people in the newsroom are getting axed: an assigning editor, two copy editors, two designers, a photo editor, and a part-time librarian. El Nuevo Herald will lose one-and-a-half editing positions. (Thanks to the reader who sent this in.)
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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas! From all your friends at MNI!

Anonymous said...

I bet Gary Pruitts family will have a Good Christmas ! POS

Anonymous said...

At least this time, the pay cut is in the form of fewer hours rather than the same amount of hours for smaller pay. More free time to spend fewer dollars. So much for economic recovery!

Don't look now but Gannett announced possible furloughs, sooooo, that sort of pay reduction would not come as a surprise as well

Anonymous said...

The fix is in, liberal media selling out for pot of government gold (Washington Examiner)

Watching liberal journalists desperate for a government bailout as they prostrate themselves before Congress can be so confusing:

Should we be embarrassed as these media representatives of the "best and brightest" beg for official handouts while proclaiming their devotion to independent journalism?

Or should we laugh at the irony of what is left of a once-proud liberal media establishment choosing to become wards of the very state they so vigorously promoted for the past several decades?

Speaking as somebody who has made his living reporting and analyzing the news for more than two decades, I tend towards the embarrassment option.

In any case, it's clear that the fix is in and all that is left now is for the liberal journalists and their new masters in government to complete their kabuki dance enroute to congressional approval and presidential signature on a massive package of aid for newspapers and broadcasters.

You've heard of "too big to fail." Now it's "we're too important to fail, so cough it up, suckers."

Hey, when you can't produce a product enough people are willing to pay for to keep you in business, President Obama and the congressional Democrats are happy to bail you out, you've been helping each other for a long time anyway, etc. etc.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, Obama will buy a copy of the newspaper and save all of their jobs!

Anonymous said...

About Freaking time! Other mcclatchy papers have already gone through hours reduction, other papers where they are actually profitable but are paying the price for poorly managed sites like Miami.

Mcclatchy is hands down the worse company i have ever worked for and i pray every day to be one of the lucky ones that get offered a buy out.

With that said, what hell is it with 1:26? What does that have to do with this header?

Anonymous said...

Look for more the same at other papers by year's end. Gotta get those 1st quarter profits propped up because the 4th quarter is a disaster.