Saturday, March 1, 2008

Behind the byline

This article ran in Saturday's P-T.

It was rejected at least once, as staffers on Friday remained angry over the lay-off and the tactless closing note provided by LANG's VP of human resources and labor relations. This MNG suit, besieged by more questions than he could tolerate from an upset newspaper staff, said that if the Q&A were an Oscar's speech it would have been cut off by the exit music. Classy.

Overheard and observed in the newsroom as the reporter who wrote this story, were several editors supervising the way it was covered. They wanted the focus on the P-T's new publisher - who will be based out of Torrance - instead of the dismantlement of our copy and design desks. Nine employees were listed as laid off, but that's looking at the best-case scenario that 12 of 21 former copy editors and designers are hired at the Breeze. That number also did not figure in employees outside the newsroom who were also laid off, one of them an individual who's been with the company since 1981. Counting two reporters that resigned last week, the P-T's loss is greater than nine.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From the Daily Breeze Story
by By Muhammed El-Hasan, Staff Writer

"The Press-Telegram's copy desk, which performs the paper's final editing and design work, will be eliminated, a loss of about 20 jobs. Those duties will be transferred to the Breeze, whose 12-person copy desk will double in size as Press-Telegram staff members are hired for those new positions. "
" "We're in the midst of the worst year for the newspaper business ever," Sanfield told his staff.
Yet Sanfield added that the Breeze went from losing money to being profitable since MediaNews bought the paper from Copley Press Inc. in December 2006. "

Its 20