New Orleans Times-Picayune employees to learn their fates next week

[marmar]

Individual meetings with Times-Picayune employees, at which they will learn whether they have lost their jobs or will be offered new positions with the new NOLA Media Group, are set to begin in about a week — probably starting Monday, June 4 or Tuesday, June 5, according to sources with knowledge of Advance Publications' plans.

Many newsroom employees spent their Memorial Day weekend updating resumes, obtaining copies of their clips, networking by telephone and social media and following job leads in New Orleans and elsewhere.

At the meetings, Advance, which owns The Times-Picayune, will reportedly offer severance packages to some employees, while tendering job offers to others. Job descriptions will likely be revised, and those who receive offers to stay will likely have to reapply for the new positions within the newly created NOLA Media Group.

Sources also say a number of entirely new people may be hired to contribute content to the company’s online operation, particularly in the fields of sports and entertainment, which are a big part of the plan. Sports editor Doug Tatum and features editor Mark Lorando were among those included in the off-campus meetings held in the middle of the month, when the company’s new publisher, Ricky Mathews, came in to speak to senior officials. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2012/05/27/times-picayune-employees-to-learn-their-fates-next-week

[pacalo]

1. This is shocking. They're only going to publish the newspaper 3 days a week!

It's terrible the way the new publisher is handling the turnover:

(btw, Gambit is a locally-owned, weekly newspaper in New Orleans)

Gambit spoke to more than a dozen T-P employees — reporters, senior writers, columnists and editors — all of whom said they learned of their fates from The New York Times report.

"My supervisor didn't even fucking know," said one reporter. "My supervisor."

"I had to find this out by Twitter," said another. "Do I go in to the office tomorrow? Do I even have a job to go in to tomorrow? I don't know. No one has called me. No one has said anything."

On Twitter, crime reporter Brendan McCarthy wrote, “Just learned in the NY Times that my newspaper, my employer, my morning routine may cease to exist.”

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2012/05/24/after-the-news-today-at-the-times-picayune

[snot]

2. Why was it sold?

[localroger]

4. The TP has been bleeding money for some time

While it's a bit shocking how crassly the new management is handling this, it's not shocking at all that it's happening; the TP has a fairly small market and no place to expand to. More and more people get the content online and don't bother with the paper paper. It reaches a point where they can't afford to support the distribution network necessary to cover a metro area of ~2 million people on the revenues they're getting.

[WillyT]

3. Man... These People Were Indispensable During Katrina And The BP Disaster...

[EFerrari]

9. I remember practically living at NOLA.com during Katrina.

What a shame.

[DefenseLawyer]

5. Sounds like they need to see The Special Man. n/t

[eowyn_of_rohan]

6. this is so sad and terrible... nt

[FarCenter]

7. I'm not sure how going to 3 days/week saves a lot of money

A story to be printed about the changeover in tomorrow’s Ad Age, by reporter Nat Ives, quotes Kantar Media estimates as saying The Times-Picayune made $64.7 million in print revenue in 2011, while earning only $5.7 million in Web advertising. Publishing newspapers on three ad-heavy days of the week, while expanding online presence around the clock and eliminating staff positions eems to be the company’s formula for pushing those two numbers closer together.

I guess they can't simply shift to web only and eliminate the print edition setup and editing, printing, distribuition.

[EFerrari]

8. If they got rid of all that stuff, it could have negative tax consequences.

Maybe that's part of it.