In an
eerily familiar story, we heard today that the Seattle Times would layoff 150 more people. Seven months ago,
200 jobs were eliminated in a similar cutback.
A couple of weeks ago,
Crosscut reported that the Seattle Times was close to a deal on its Maine newspapers and had a buyer for its
two South Lake Union properties who was willing to pay more than the $32M in assessed value. Even so, Seattle Times management felt layoffs were warranted, and
an internal memo foreshadowed even more job cuts to come.
The company hinted there might be more cutbacks to come: "As the 2009 budgeting process continues, there will be additional expense reductions, which may include additional layoffs," the memo stated.
Company spokeswoman Corey Digiacinto [and SLUFAN boardmember] said the newsroom would lose 35 to 45 positions from a total of about 260. She said that as of Oct. 8, The Times had 1,599 employees.
Newsroom staff said they were told at an afternoon meeting that the paper would also continue to combine or eliminate sections — the daily Business section was folded into the A section in October — and reduce the total amount of space devoted to news stories.
See the full article
here.
