San Diego newspaper lays off 1/3rd of workforce after sale
Source: Associated Press
San Diego newspaper lays off 1/3rd of workforce after sale
| May 26, 2015 | Updated: May 26, 2015 8:56pm
SAN DIEGO (AP) San Diego's dominant newspaper on Tuesday announced the layoffs of nearly a third of its 600 employees after it was acquired last week for $85 million by Los Angeles Times owner Tribune Publishing.
The San Diego Union-Tribune said 178 employees most in its printing and delivery divisions would be laid off and their jobs done in Los Angeles.
"When the two companies announced that they were coming together, we said at the time there were going to be some synergies, and unfortunately for a lot of people today we're realizing those synergies," said Union-Tribune president and CEO Russ Newton.
A total of 100 people were laid off from operations, including truck drivers, machinists, electricians and pressroom workers. Twenty-nine were cut from circulation and 36 from advertising sales and finance. Only nine of the 173 newsroom staffers were laid off, nearly all from the paper's video department.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/San-Diego-newspaper-lays-off-1-3rd-of-workforce-6287903.php
msongs
(67,347 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,437 posts)C Moon
(12,208 posts)both with the same results: heavy layoffs.
C Moon
(12,208 posts)if you stop letting the big guys buy out the small guys, we'd have a better economy.
The only people who get rich in a buyout are the owners. They get millions.
Then the corporation either does huge layoffs, or they crush the company they bought. Either way, the outcome is the same: the competition is gone, and the jobs are gone.
jmowreader
(50,528 posts)...the Times had some open press time in Los Angeles, and decided to fill it by purchasing another paper. Assholes.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)And it's barely a shadow of it's former self.
stuffmatters
(2,574 posts)Poppa Manchester created a near monopoly for Repub info pollution in SD City and County. I enjoyed the LA Times when I lived in LA in the 70's & 80's and am optimistic that the LA Times will "liberate" mainstream journalism in San Diego. Currently I enjoy LA Times reporters like Michael Hilzik when his column is reprinted here & other sites.
I seriously doubt the sale of the UT brought any tears from Dems in San Diego. I hope LATimes replaces the UT shills with
fact based journalists.
I also doubt our ocean bound storm drains will miss the millions of unwelcome, plastic bagged missives the UT Corp dumped on our driveways each and every week .
brachism
(82 posts)Must be smug believing all those employees that lost their jobs in the printing and delivery divisions were right-wingers. Sadly, most of them are not.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)People losing their jobs is not something in which any of us should find any joy. I can only hope that those doing so will find something suitable to replace their lost income.
seabeckind
(1,957 posts)"A total of 100 people were laid off from operations, including truck drivers, machinists, electricians and pressroom workers. Twenty-nine were cut from circulation and 36 from advertising sales and finance. Only nine of the 173 newsroom staffers were laid off, nearly all from the paper's video department."
I doubt if the content will change. There will most likely be no change to anything other than adding to the workload of some people in LA.
Oh, and the loss of jobs in SD.
Based on the category of jobs, they're probably contracting out to cheaper labor.
Oh, and keeping the "important" people.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)But let's face it, mergers always reduce jobs and competition. It's a lose - lose for a vibrant economy.
I've been reading some really piss poor writing lately and I think it is due to these newsbots.
UpInArms
(51,279 posts)that word is more properly "redundancies" and that means "terminations"
I hate hate hate lying with semantics
fucktards
stuffmatters
(2,574 posts)And that is what Poppa Manchester and his SD Union Tribune created. Manchester's selling to the Los Angeles Times marks an hopeful end to the media domination of this rightwing zealot in a City starved for fact based journalism. To be a credible source of information, the "new" SD Union Tribune will inevitably lay off Manchester's mouthpieces and replace them with real reporters and editors, maybe even some of the sharp minds who contribute from San Diego to Dem Underground.
Yes, the layoffs so far have not been the Fox News level journalists of The Union Tribune but the printing & distribution workers. I'm not celebrating that fact. But I am excited for the powerful suppression of our Democratic point of view in San Diego might be coming to an end.
We are a City that is demographically Democratic and our major media should represent our views and proposals fairly. The Union Tribune's anti labor, anti Democratic media dominance polluted far into the major media in San Diego from tv stations to internet (ex yahoo) feeds. Hopefully The Los Angeles Times will churn less Fox Newsish propaganda to and about San Diego.
You know the San Diego City Council passed by a landslide a raise to the minimum wage in San Diego (beyond the State Of Ca increase.) Manchester (& his UT megaphone) and his rightwing cronies created a petition drive to halt the increase by forcing a voter referendum. This nefarious crap was wildly backed by SDUT propaganda. The workers' raise has been delayed until after this vote, denying thousands of workers much needed wages and also our City jobs that would have been created by the increased $ into our economy. Keep in mind that SD has an enormous economy based upon tourism and its dependence upon low paid service sector.
As a local hotel magnate, Manchester was also pivotal in creating a hotel tax upon tourists that siphoned off many millions to him & other hotel owners instead of the City or even paying hotel employees more. Imagine how many jobs or wage increases to low wage workers might have been created with those extra millions. It became a "cause celebre" in the SD Union Tribune, vehemently defending Manchester & his cronies right to levy & privately appropriate this tax.
I don't think Dem Underground sports a big Darryl Issa fan club. For good, fact based reasons. I've never read anything but blanket praise for Issa in the SD Union Tribune. And that goes for every Repub candidate who's ever run in the 20+ years I've lived in San Diego. It's been a Repub rag forever, but under Manchester's mainstream media monopoly it became increasingly hyperbolic & suffocating to a City demographically turning Democratic and longing to have their voices fairly represented on a daily basis.
I think any Democratic "air" that The Los Angeles Times brings into the San Diego mediascape will be a good change. Under Manchester's hermetic "vanity press" reign, the newspaper was increasingly losing circulation (and those printing/circulation jobs) I'm not a big fan of mergers, but in this case our city benefits from a more inclusive, representative daily newspaper that might, in fact, attract more readers and create more jobs. San Diego will, at least... and its a big deal, have a freer press.
And millions less of Manchester's plastic bags making their way into the ocean.
MichMan
(11,864 posts)Very compassionate. A lot of union workers losing their jobs, but some want to cheer because their employer is a RW media outlet.