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Layoffs.

Most of us newspaper folk are facing layoffs in our newsrooms.
I'm sure that most of us are (fairly) safe from these layoffs, but who can be sure?
Please share what you are doing to avoid being laid off, what it's like in your newsroom, and how you are coping with shrinking staffs and lowering spirits?
In my newsroom, we're all trying to keep each other spirited by talking about ideas for the web, newspaper and beyond. This keeps us moving forward, rather than focusing on lost buddies.
Published Tuesday, July 24, 2007 7:08 PM by SonyaSmith
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Comments

# re: Layoffs.

Thursday, July 26, 2007 4:28 PM by Brea Jones
10 people were laid off in my company (not all newsroom positions) to create my position.

That's a rough way to enter your first job.

I work in the growing part of the industry, so I don't fear for my position being closed or frozen, but it's still hard to be in that environment.

# re: Layoffs.

Saturday, July 28, 2007 12:47 PM by John Asbury
We've actually had an interesting turn with jobs. After about 80 layoffs last year (only one reporter), We're finally hiring again. We probably staved off layoffs after about 40 people left for better jobs. Sadly, we lost some of our best reporters to PR positions due to dire predictions, long hours and little pay.
Since then we've had to scale back our coverage and all nearly kill ourselves picking up the slack. Finally management and the publisher has freed up some funds to hire a few positions now and ideally 20 positions in the next year. The paper's going through a reoginization to focus on future web content and redefining our print covereage.

# re: Layoffs.

Saturday, July 28, 2007 8:20 PM by ElysseJames
Wow Brea, that must have been tough.

One of the sections I work on was eliminated (this is its last week), and my other two sections are losing pages... it's hard but I'm thankful to still have a job.

People have been laid off here all year, but so far no one from the newsroom has been cut.

I'm doing as many different things at the job as I can, both to learn and to show them I can do all different things if need be. I hope that gives me an advantage. Also, I've only been here a year, so I don't have the padded salaries people who've been here have acquired.
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