Layoff toll keeps climbing
Theresa Badovich was laid off from the Times of Northwest Indiana on Monday. She was the managing editor for new media, and has previously served as the marketing director and design director at the paper. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Theresa is one of journalism’s most creative, and one of the most demanding and fun people I have worked for. I got to work with her twice during different tours of duty at The Times. The paper also laid off six others on Monday.
Kinda related: The American Journalism Review just posted a great story, “Is there life after newspapers?” OK, so my name and Paper Cuts, my newspaper layoff blog, lead the story. Writer Robert Hodierne also surveyed recently laid off journalists and has some interesting stats and stories from them.
Already this year, Paper Cuts is closing in on 1,000 layoffs and buyouts. Good luck to everyone who has been put on that list.
- Posted by Erica Smith at 10:13 pm / Permalink for this post
- Filed under: , American Journalism Review, layoffs, Paper Cuts, The Times of Northwest Indiana, Theresa Badovich
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We haven’t clashed in a while (I think), but equating “most creative” with “making pretty pages” is the sort of shallow thinking that has landed journalism where it is today — going down like an anvil.
Also, that AJR story wasn’t so hot. I’m sorry, but not everyone “chooses” to make journalism all-consuming. The idiot supervisors who do nothing and hire poorly play a major role in that. Of course, few have the guts to say that, and this writer is not one of the few.
I also like this quote: “If they get into a new field, they’re competing against 22-year-olds.”
Um, dolt, what do you think newspapers have become?
Finally, can we PLEASE avoid using Joe Grimm as a source for this stuff? He’s the one who was hiring the 22-year-olds!
I’m embarrassed to have the same first name as this guy. Robert Hodierne: Utter, complete fail. If he had a catchier name, he’d replace the “I got Munsoned” catchphrase.
I am a former Post/Jrnl employee, in the creative dept, also, and after leaving there for grad school I worked for the Pittsburgh Trib in PA…some of my former coworkers that are still there told me Monday that they came in to see an envelope with their buyout offer on their desk.
if they take it, they get so many months pay, plus all their vacation and so many months of health insurance continuance. If they don’t take it they get NOTHING. No vacation pay. No extended pay. No insurance extension. NOTHING.
Apparently they can do that.
I work in an agency back in STL now and so many of my P/J friends are being let go or reshuffled and my own clients that do print in the P/J are pulling because they can’t afford to do it. Seeing how the paper has turned into 4 4-pg sections is pretty depressing.
Wenalway,
I really object to your comment criticizing Erica’s post about Theresa Badovich. Miss Badovich just lost her job. Please don’t disrespect another professional because you object to their previous position(s).
The decline in of newspapers can’t be pegged to any one area. It’s been a combination of issues. For brevity I’m gonna list four that are a combination of my opinion and opinions shared by other professionals in both staff and managerial positions.
1. Newspapers not embracing the Internet as another medium for disseminating information to their readers and a source for revenue to grow the paper.
2. Enterprises expanding to much to fast without considering future market conditions and securing their core brands.
3. The current economic climate and the three major advertising sources for newspapers basically collapsing. Those sources being Jobs, Homes and Autos.
4. Loss of revenue to free classifieds portals such as craigslist.
Perhaps if newspapers had better adapted to the evolving changes in reader habits and expanding media landscape and new technologies, we would have been in a better position to weather the current economic crisis and balance the needs of our print and online products.
But that’s just my opinion. If anyone reading this is looking for facts to pick apart my opinions and arguments, just look at the declining advertising revenues for the areas I mentioned. Oh, and also the unemployment line that’s seen more than 1,000 journalists so far this year alone, not including staff in the mailroom, classifieds, sales, circulation, etc.
Good luck to everyone who have lost their jobs and to those of us who are still fortunate enough to have ours.
Object away, Matthew.
The bottom line is there are still lots of people pretending to be journalists in newsrooms. They continue to claim that what they are doing works. It doesn’t.
When real editors and writers were being laid off a few years ago, the “new media” folks and designers were cheering this as progress. Now that they are on the firing line, they pretend this didn’t happen. But it did.
People can make the claims they like. But don’t expect me to be sympathetic when designers and young journos who can’t back up their claims are sent packing.
Wenalway,
Is wanting to participate in providing our readers breaking new online, videos and interactive reports that dig deeper and help tell the story not make someone a journalist? The Internet is a tool we use to tell readers a story. Design is a tool for packaging and helping readers digest information.
I don’t disagree that there are designers who design for design sake. But how a newspaper is designed, how it packages information for readers is as important as the information. A journalist can write the best A1 story of the year but if it doesn’t get the presentation both in print and online it deserves, fewer people will read it. A good designer works with editors, writers, photographers and copyeditors to provide the best presentation for those stories. The same goes for online.
I’m curious to know what you define as a journalist. How do you define a real editor and writer? You mention people “pretending.” Who are they? Designers? Every newspaper I’ve worked at hires designers with journalism degrees.
Times change and we have to change with them. If an editor has a choice to hire a reporter who knows only how to write for print – or a reporter who can not only write a good story, but take basic photos and videos and be able to package it together – they’re gonna choose the second one because they can produce a more complete report.
Online media makes us better journalists because we can go deeper into the story, tell a better story. I don’t see a problem with that. I don’t think that weakens us or makes us any less a journalist. Refusing to accept that makes us less valuable to our employers and in this market, every skill helps. It doesn’t guarantee us employment, but when it comes down to who an editor can get more productivity out of, who do you think they are going to pick?
I can tell you that I think copyeditors are still one of the most important members of the newsroom. Web copy, print copy, photo cutlines for print and online slideshows all need the critical eye of copyeditors. With newsrooms, when possible, producing more copy to feed the newspaper, niche products and online, more copyeditors are needed to ensure the quality of our products.
Matthew:
Sorry, dude, but I just skim over your posts. They simply regurgitate the same, tired claims I’ve heard for years. You say something does something else, or that something is as important as something else. But you have no proof, no facts, no information, and sadly, no clue. You are simply chanting what you’re heard others say and what weak editors have failed to weed out of their dysfunctional, underperforming newsrooms. The idea that NO ONE will read something without the proper presentation is a comically naive and ignorant claim that drooling dolts have seized upon to justify their roles, which in reality are rarely above the level of barely relevant.
Tell you what: You come back to me with something more than recycled chants and redefining of terms. If you can make a post where you offer facts and analysis, then I’ll read it.
Until then, though, I’m not really interested in the empty claims of someone who posts with just a first name and tries to assume what editors should and will do.