Wednesday, March 11, 2009
News AJC layoffs: this week or next
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 9:26 PM
Ever since their new publisher told them in mid-January that the paper was losing $1 million a week, AJC employees have been bracing for a payroll bloodletting. And those who weren't worried then got up to speed a month later when newspaper brass held meetings to warn staffers that “substantial” cuts were on the way.
Well, the rumor now going around Marietta Street is that the paper is poised to execute layoffs on an unprecedented scale, if not this week then early next week. The number being bandied about is that at least 25 percent of the newsroom could be let go. That's what you'd call a Holy shit! number.
To put this in perspective, the paper shed about 70 of its most experienced writers and editors in its first round of buyouts back in July 2007, then unloaded another 73 last August in a second round that wasn't restricted to old-timers. Combined with still others who've been lost through attrition, the AJC newsroom currently numbers somewhere around 325.
If the 25-percent figure proves to be accurate, that could mean upwards of 80 editorial staffers stand to get axed – in addition to layoffs in other, non-editorial, departments.
And nearly everyone expects layoffs this time rather than another round buyouts, for reasons I'd explained previously.
As I said, this is all rumor, but so far most of the AJC-related rumors have turned out to be pretty close to the mark. That's what happens when the people spreading the rumors are professional information-gatherers.
As an aside, I wanted to address some of the folks who've previously characterized my AJC coverage as "gleeful" or "piling on," to quote some commentors. Fact is, that criticism is off-base. It's certainly true that former columnist John Sugg, an ex-AJC editor himself, took obvious delight in bashing his old employer with regularity. But reporting on the travails of the daily newspaper is certainly justified because it's news – and because the AJC typically doesn't report on its own downsizing.
And if it somehow seems mean-spirited to report rumors of immiment catastrophe at another company, keep in mind that this speculation is coming from AJC staffers themselves. I have a number of friends, former co-workers and friendly acquaintances who work at the AJC. I don't want to see them lose their jobs, and Atlanta would be greatly diminished by the gutting of its daily newspaper.
And now I've got to get back to worrying about the outcome of our own bankruptcy hearing.
like
dislike
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
5 things today: Willie Nelson, Twyla Tharp
The whiskey river runs to Tabernacle, dance at Cobb Energy, and more
-
Most popular damn posts o' the week 4
A bad week in Pittsburgh
-
5 things today: A$AP Rocky, Art Papers
Rap at the Masquerade, an annual art auction and party, and more
- More »
Author Archives
-
Top stories of 2011 — APS scandal, cont'd
The Atlanta school cheating scandal morphed into a constitutional crisis involving the school board
-
"A Separation" shows, um, downsides of living in Iran 1
Iran's A Separation proves a fascinating window into a deeply dysfunctional society
- More »
