Layoffs

As The Washington Post continues its merger of the main newsroom and web newsroom, some Web employees have been laid off, the Washington City Paper reports.

Though WaPo says these aren't actually layoffs: instead, they're "dismissals ... "targeted" at duplication of work between the Web site and the newsroom."

A spokesperson for the paper called the number of people affected "small."

Keith Jenkins, formerly of the Post (until June 08), now of NPR, tweeted earlier today: "heard on the grapevine that The Washington Post is laying off members of its web team in advance of "the merger". Is anyone left to merge?"

With this week's 90 layoffs, the AP has achieved its goal of a 10 percent reduction in payroll costs.

That's 90 cuts, not 400, the previous estimate of the number of jobs that would be cut. AP staffers are probably breathing a sigh of relief right now.

The Newspaper Guild printed a partial list of those jettisoned, which we've reprinted after the jump.

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Remember when we said AOL would be cutting 1,000 people from its ranks? That number is more like 2,500, reports Peter Kafka at MediaMemo. The company is aiming to reduce its staff by a third, to drop its operating expenses by $300 million.

To that end, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is asking for volunteers to accept a buyout; employees have between Dec. 4 and Dec. 11 (post-spinoff) to decide if they want to accept. If the company doesn't get enough volunteers, it's layoff time.

This is terrible news for employees who will be getting an early "Christmas present" from AOL, but may be crucial for the company's long term financial health.

The Associated Press let go 57 guild-covered employees yesterday, including 33 newspersons, 19 editorial assistants, and five photographers, according to a statement on the News Media Guild's web site.

"This is a very sad day for our AP colleagues and the public who relies on their important news work," said Tony Winton, News Media Guild president, in the statement.

Gawker has an exhaustive list going of the layoffs; according to them, the photogs who lost their jobs are Harry Cabluck in Austin Texas, Donna McWilliams in Dallas, Al Grillo in Anchorage, Mary Ann Chastain in Columbia SC, and Winslow Townsend and Lisa Poole both of Boston. Writer Todd Lewan was also named as a victim.

If you know more, email us. Obviously, anonymity is guaranteed if you ask for it.

Several sources are reporting today that the Associated Press has begun to lay off a number of staffers; up to 80, the or so it's rumored.

The AP has been trying to reduce its global payroll by 10 percent, and has offered buyouts (which 100 staffers accepted) and has generally slowly been eking away at staff in a way that some employees find maddening.

Now another 80 staff, across departments and including some managers, are supposedly getting the axe.

Estimates put the 10 percent payroll cut at 400 staffers, which would imply that the AP has a way to go before it's done.

The New York Times News Service is laying off at least 25 editorial employees, moving those employees' duties to the NYT Co.-owned Gainesville Sun, the newspaper said yesterday. This will save money, as the Sun's newsroom isn't unionized and pays lower salaries than the New York-based office does; new jobs will be created at the Sun to handle the work, a Times spokeswoman said.

These layoffs don't count toward the 100 jobs in the main newsroom that the Times hopes to eliminate by the end of the year.

The News Service edits NYT articles for wire distribution. It also produces inserts for newspapers around the world with New York Times articles translated into other languages.

Via Webnewser: CNN.com Live is shutting down its anchor-driven newscasts as of today.

What this means: "Reggie Aqui, Nicole Lapin, Naamua Delaney and Melissa Long, the four primary anchors of CNN.com Live, are being let go as are several production staffers."

The site will shift resources into streaming major events and producing video packages exclusively for CNN.com. The company will be hiring seven positions "focused on original video production" between now and the end of the year. The person you want to contact? Mike Toppo, leader of the video unit.

Read the full memo at WebNewser.

Ruth Teichroeb, formerly an investigative reporter with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, surveyed her colleagues to see what's happened to them since Hearst closed the print edition in March and turned it into an online operation employing 85 percent fewer people.

Out of the 140 who lost their jobs, 71 responded to the informal survey:

• 23 have new full-time jobs, half in journalism.
• Three are working part-time
• Six have started their own businesses
• 18 are freelancing or working on a journalism startup while collecting unemployment
• 14 are in school, studying education, web design, marketing, art, and paralegal
• Two retired; four are spending time with their kids while jobhunting, and one received a journalism fellowship

For more survey findings—who's happier? Who's financially solvent?—read the original post.

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham informed staff yesterday that the magazine was cutting about a dozen staffers.

"As much as we would like it to be otherwise, market conditions mean that we are going to have to do our work with fewer people....I have no spin to offer," read the internal memo, obtained by Politico.

PaidContent adds that the cuts were mainly in "areas that support editorial," as well as two cuts on the digital side.

Revenue at the magazine was down 33 percent in owner Washington Post Company's Q3 earnings report: the mag brought in $40.2 million in revenue but lost $4.3 million in the quarter.

Newsweek has spent more than $35 million in the past two years buying out 161 employees.

The Toronto Star announced last week that it was planning to outsource over 100 in-house editing jobs. In response to this news, a Star editor did the only thing he/she could: edit.

Torontoist got their hands on publisher John Cruickshank's internal memo announcing the changes, as marked up by the disgruntled editor, as if to say, "Hey, you need us."

Will it help? Not likely, but it sure was a cool move of defiance.