St. Louis, Mo.
Owner: Lee Enterprises
Effective: May 22, 2012

Post-Dispatch lays off 6 newsroom employees

Four copy editors, one photographer and an editor were laid off Tuesday.

Storified by Erica Smith · Thu, Jul 26 2012 21:19:29

Clute, Texas
Owner: Southern Newspapers Inc.
Effective: May 3, 2012

Two newsroom and three advertising employees were laid off. Vacant positions also were eliminated. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

Salt Lake City, Utah
Owner: MediaNews Group
Effective: May 9, 2012

Five copy editors and four other newsroom employees were laid off. In a story on the paper’s website, Editor Nancy Conway said the “convergence of social, economic and business forces made it necessary to reduce the size of the newsroom.”
Sources: Paper Cuts tips; Salt Lake Tribune via Paper Cuts tip

Visalia, Calif.
Owner: Gannett Co. Inc.
Effective: May 4, 2012

Accounting and advertising layout jobs are being outsourced. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

Hartford, Conn.
Owner: Tribune Co.
Announced: May 11, 2012

Nine newsroom employees accepted a buyout offer. Buyouts also were offered to finance, advertising, circulation and press employees. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com.
Source: CJR via Paper Cuts tip

Topeka, Kansas
Owner: Morris Communications
Effective: May 14, 2012

Printing and some post-press operations were outsourced to the Kansas City Star. “Our industry is changing rapidly,” Capital-Journal Publisher Gregg Ireland said in a story on the paper’s website. “This move is historic and, in some ways, very difficult. This move is in no way a move away from the printed product, which remains a large and extremely important part of what we do. But it is a move away from printing. We’re not in the printing business. We’re in the information business.” Kansas City is 65 miles from Topeka. The paper reports “as many as 34″ employees will be laid off.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal via Paper Cuts tip

Update: All 34 press employees were laid off. (06.28.12)
Source: Paper Cuts tip

Washington, D.C.
Owner: Washington Post Co.
Effective: May 31, 2012

Buyouts are being offered to newsroom employees. Ombudsman Patrick Pexton tweeted that buyouts will be limited to 48.

Post buyout: so out of newsroom of roughly 600, 48 departures would be 8% if they hit that many, which they may not.

— Patrick Pexton (@WaPoOmbudsman) February 8, 2012

A memo from Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli blamed the economy, and said the buyouts “won’t affect the quality, ambition or authority of our journalism.”

“The Post’s newsroom remains formidable, and we will continue making tactical hires so that even as we get smaller, we get stronger.”
Sources: Paper Cuts tips; MediaWire