Folks, there's a lot of chatter taking place over the social airwaves about heads rolling at the Orlando Sentinel this week. One source put the figure at 20 job cuts affecting the copy desk. Frankly, I didn't know there were more than 20 people on the copy desk left. Seems very high, but also somewhat plausible. The Chicago Tribune is cutting about 20 percent of its staff.
Definitely a red letter day for many people at the Sentinel. Best of luck to all.
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it's going to be 25% of the newsroom. then more in 3rd Q.
those most vulnerable are those saying they will hope to "ride it out."
there is no "out." metro papers like this one are over and will be run mostly digitally with skeleton staffs, 'citizen' journos working for peanuts and free interns and other suckers.
run for the nearest exit.
don't get stuck with loser-taint. the good people went elsewhere and the hangers-on are looking lamer by the month.
law school. grad school, real estate license, etc. start thinking hard folks. don't waste a buyout or unemployment on anything but retraining.
over and out.
It's happening now. The Orlando Sentinel has been oh so quietly laying off employees in all departments. Editorial is currently taking their lumps this week, but other areas have seen one here, five here exit "quietly" from Orange Ave in the last month to avoid any mention in the media- and don't expect to read much about it in the Orlando Weekly either- now that the Weekly is printed on the Sentinel presses- Best of luck and positive thoughts to all of those who are getting the ax- at least now you won't have to be associated with a sinking ship led by a clueless coterie of fools, yes men and buffoons.
I have the count at 14 copy editors, 5 designers, 5 sports editors plus two columnists and the AME of sports, and 5 reporters in the newsroom. I think there's more somewhere in there.
how many copy editors does that leave?
which columnists?
details please
I am told the final number will be between 37 and 45 people gone from a newsroom that, before this bloodletting, stood at 192. That's down from 384 in 2000 and 330 in 2005.
Copy desk all but gone. Designers mostly gone. Assigning editors will have to make a story fit a template and then write their own headlines. Very little "second reads" -- the kind that have saved all our a$$es at one time or another.
Just a tragedy what has been done to a newspaper that once was pretty damned terrific. And the Ice Queen Charlotte presiding over it all.
All of the other Tribune papers report to the public when they have layoffs so why don't the Florida papers? What are you trying to hide Greenberg? You and Avido and true cowards.
the Sentinel headcount (news) was once over 400. within the last decade.
sorry, the paper had some high moments but was never "terrific" - that is true of St. Pete but not Sentinel. let's not exaggerate while we mourn.
it is over now anyway, and that is sad.
check out the draft memos leaked on MNI blogs about contingency plans for the next round of cuts, in Q3.
folks, they are talking fewer than 100 people - could go down to 85 or even lower in bankruptcy. a holding agency will just slash it to bits, maybe go all online and outsource most of the work to central hub, freelancers & interns or part-timers, no benefits. career folks prepare parachute NOW. by Christmas the current staff could be gutted, as Zell hopes. news staff to him are expendable overhead.
read for yourself online. this is no rumor.
go month to month on a lease. test the market in selling your house - maybe a lease purchase while someone saves up a down payment.
do not renew an auto lease and don't prepay any vacations or other optional purchases. see if there is a college kid or foreclosure victim in your 'hood who would like to rent a spare room. find a solid moonlighting gig - like UPS.
we are going to hit and hit hard. brace yourself.
The lack of coverage proves what a piss-poor media town Orlando really is. The Orlando Weakly is too busy party hunting, while OBJ is pretty much on its own last legs.
Agreed. It is pathetic that not one media organization in town has reported this story, with the exception of the sanitized orlandosentinel.com brief buried in their maze of a website and blessed with the standard non-sequiter from the "editor". I guess it is just "old news" by now.
It was so wonderful of the cruise director at the Sentinel to turn the Friday paper into a scavenger hunt. Just when you think Bonita's mind couldn't come up with another devious design, she crosses the line and astonishes again.
The threat of poverty has surprisingly odd effects on some humans. Word is, however, Cameron Kuhn is waiting to swoop on an empty Sentinel building and turn it into an arts center.
Bonita is not a journalist and should not be judged as one.
the real issue is why was she inserted that high?
just a dreadful decision.
"Bonita is not a journalist."
I am not a surgeon. If someone wanted me to do a heart transplant and I attempted it, the only person dumber than the one who made the offer would be me for agreeing to do it.
And were I insane enough to try any surgery, I certainly should be judged as a surgeon--among other things--by a jury of my peers.
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