Baker and Taylor layoffs

In an article from Publisher's Weekly (Daily edition) B&T are laying off 80 employees, mainly in their Charlotte,N.C. headquarters.

They are not disclosing if it is part of a restructuring effort.

The short article can be read here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6615826.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=1609285953

Maybe they just decided to join the party. Laying people off seems popular today. Newspapers are really being hit hard so I'm glad that part of my life is in the past.

Layoffs are going strong in this part of the country, but I haven't heard of any media being cut, not even newspapers. (Not that we have a big media force)

Oh, newspaper jobs are going down the tubes all over the country. I know a couple of people personally who lost jobs at daily papers recently.

Christian Science Monitor, no less, completely suspeneded their print operation, going to online-only.

There have been failures, mergers, JOA's. Kids would be out of their minds to enter print journalism as a career field at present. Every failure spreads a pool of experienced newspaper people around an area, making it almost impossible for a newcomer to get a job.

What you see a lot of is sections being dropped. Or consolidated into one section. Book sections are usually the first to go. The San Diego Union Tribune axed theirs (about a week before I started trying to promote a book of strong local interest to that area) and fired their books editor--probably the only decent writer on the entire paper. This after the JOA and the LA times killing their local edition.

Up in your neck of the woods, the Everett Herald (who I used to write for) has been reduced to practically nothing and is probably hanging on because it's part of the Washington Post chain.
(http://soundpolitics.com/public/2008/05/washington_posts_tiny_sister_e.html)

Note the last line in that article: "Bleak to say the least coming on the heels of major cutbacks at the Seattle Times two months ago."

This website (the title "NEWSPAPER DEATH WATCH" says it all) http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/2008/05/26/more-layoffs-sweep-newspaper-industry/ has a lot about this.

If you're feeling ghoulish, these pictures in mother jones of the empty newsrooms at the San Jose Mercury have a ghost town feel about them.

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/2008/05/26/more-layoffs-sweep-newspaper-industry/

For a graphic view of it, this MAP shows where and how many layoffs have occured so far in 2008...over 13.000 so far. That trend will probably slow for awhile because even media barons feel a little bad about ending people's careers during the holiday season, but watch out in January and February.

Wow! I had no idea. I guess that type of news doesn't make the news! I never heard of the Everett Herald, I'm only familiar with The Seattle papers. Of course I moved to the country 18 years ago to get away from the madness that Seattle had become (it's worse now!) and I think I have totally lost touch with what is going on there, other than Boeing which is always a news maker! In my case, perhaps ignorance truly is bliss!

Hey, Southcenter Mall is a newsmaker today!

No idea what led to the shooting there, but if it was a snotty return clerk, I've been tempted myself.

Hey, amazon is in Seattle and they make news Last I heard the Washington State Attourney General was who busted up their "Print with us or take a hike" scheme.

By the way, JOA's don't have to be evil. When the PI and Times hooked up David Brewster (lying cheato ex-publisher of the Weekly) went ballistic about the theat to the common good, but look: there are still two daily papers in Seattle. Unlike San Deigo, where there is only one paper and it completely, utterly sucks and has no impetus to improve.

That's why competitiion works! They seem to think The southcenter shootout was due to two rival gang members. I guess there is security personnel everywhere you look today. Tomorrow will be another story, though, because folks will relax and go to shopping again.

I keep trying to imagine gangs so wussy they hang out at South Center.

The Mall Rats vs The Anchor Store Vatos?

Actually, though, I remember there was a gang killing there a long time ago when I lived up there. A guy chased his victim down the mall, into a woman's clothing store, back into the dressing rooms and shot him there.

I've always said gangbangers have a lot in common with teenaged girls

You never know how the public will react to events like the mall shooting. About ten years ago a similar incident occurred at the best of three malls in Akron. People quit going there and last month it shut down for good.

We lost one of our daily papers early this year, leaving us with one really delapidated one, with short sections and a lot of crap except for one section that comes out on Sundays. It's a sad sign of the times and one that freaks me out a bit, especially with a daughter in university that wants to be a writer (though not a journalist, except that I do note that she is writing for the university paper already!!).

Our county has one paper (only one for the whole county!) that comes out once a week. It recently sold, and I am seeing some good changes in the layout and the columns it offers. I am hoping they are successful--think I will go buy Thursday's paper this afternoon (It only comes out on Thrusday).

That's Skagit Herald? Do you know who bought them?

Everyone is expecting recession getting over soon. I have a very close friend, who graduated from Harvard. Worked for ML for over 8 years, recently he’s been “right sized” too, despite of his outstanding performance and the increasing revenue he generated. OMG, now the banking industry is badly hurt, how long it would take for those financial background guys like him get back to the job market. are not there as much as before

"Right sized"... new euphemism for "downsized"? Unbelievable. I alwasy say you can tell people are evil when they start rewriting the language to excuse themselves.

Have you noticed the size of newspapers lately? They barely cover my bird cage floor; takes two pieces these days.

I heard one of the majors in our area has stopped home delivery.

Is everything moving to the Internet? That' gets pretty complicated. I can't keep up with the blogs and social networking pages as it is.

My guess is the future will see news off the internet with printouts available of some features, and terminals in urban locations to print out selected hard copy for people who don't have internet services.

Most people will probably be getting there news from TV and anything beyond that from read screens while the get their coffee or hamburgers are use the restroom.

I used to frequent a couple of places that pinned the pages of the front section of the local daily up over the row of urinals so guys could read meanwhilst.

A TV station in Tijuana (and I think this is really interesting) has a morning show in which a camera scans local papers, feeding them to the viewing audience while a voice over reads the headlines and gives quick recaps on the stories, occasionally lingering over a photograph.


Mexican newspapers, btw, are by and large barely fit for parrot cages.

lin wrote:

That's Skagit Herald? Do you know who bought them?

Sorry Lin, I didn't mean to ignore you. No, it is the Shelton Urinal, Mason County's only paper. I don't know who bought them, but I have been hearing bad things about the Seattle P.I. going under. I wonder if they will close or be bailed out somehow.

Oh, right... the Mason County Journal. Dan Mancuso, right?

Yeah, I hear Hearst is trying to sell off the PI (lots of luck selling a newspaper these days)

Trouble is, with the JOA in place, the PI hitting the silk would also provide a very sudden drain on the Times, as well.

Even if the Times makes it, that would kind of suck because they are a really stodgy paper, unlike the offbeat scrappy PI. Almost everybody I know in daily papers in Seattle are with the PI. Except Dave Horsey.

The Bellevue American is already gone, the Weekly is now owned by the Village Voice (which is good, Brewster is a crooked moron), the Herald is shaking out... wow.


On the other hand, the Spokane Speechless Review and Wenatchee Wipe are holding strong, and the Yakima Watchamacallit. Washington is weird: you drop below the 3 cities with half a million and suddenly there are no towns of more than about 30.000. Which seem to support papers better than the big cities do.

C'mon, Zada, I refuse to believe the name of you county newspaper is the Shelton Urinal. I know times are tough, but not that tough.

And watch it, Lin, when you say a paper is stodgy. All my life people have called me Stodgy.

Sorry Dick, let's make it "turgid". Hope Turkel doesn't drop by and take exception to that one.

Actually I have lived two places where I read the front section of the daily newspaper tacked on a wall over the urinals.

Word has it the Urinal will be purchased by the French daily, The Paris Pissoir