Saturday, January 31, 2009

Orlando Sentinel Job Cuts Likely

Based on an Orlando Sentinel staff meeting held Friday, it looks like:
  • Jobs will be cut in stages. How many people will be affected is unclear. Bankruptcy court will have to weigh in on whether next set of ex-staffers get severance payments, as others have.
  • Earlier deadlines will be established for Sunday paper so it can be printed in two press runs, instead of three.
  • No more movie listings in the tv guide.
  • Lots more content sharing to take place with other Tribune papers. Lots more templating of pages and ads.
  • News will be written and assembled for the Web and then plopped into the next day's paper.
  • Redesign of the Web site may be in the works; professional design team may be involved.

According to Editor Charlotte Hall, all of these changes will happen on "steroids," meaning very quickly.

Sounds like the digital newsroom will arrive sooner rather than later. The paper product will be an afterthought.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those of us who pay for the Sentinel's (increasingly small amount of) news and informtion would have little concrete evidence of how these providers are giving us less for our expenditure if if weren't for posts such as these.
Thanks.