When I wrote about the plight of the newspapers in South Florida back in December, I asked Miami Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal if there would be more layoffs.
"I just don't see that happening," he told me.
Well, he's seeing it happen today.
The Miami Herald is reporting the much-anticipated job cuts today and it seems to align almost exactly with the information reported here. All told, 175 employees will lost their jobs, 19 percent of the total, and about 50 of them are journalists.
Those who survive the cuts will have their pay reduced by five or ten percent and have a week-long unpaid furlough. John Dorschner reports that most of the job losses will come in the form of involuntary layoffs, though some will get severance packages.
So, as has been customary during these times, I'm going to start a list of the latest casualties of the destruction of the newspaper business. What follows are names that have been given by sources, most of them confirmed. Names are trickling out; most inside the newsroom aren't sure who is being forced out yet.
I have been told that 35-40 newsroomers are losing their jobs while about 15 are being reduced to part-time (and losing their benefits and most of their pay in the process). Most want to see at least one or two assistant managing editors go, but so far no word on that. "The anger is a little more acute now," one Herald reporter told me. "The gangrene has set in and we're now chopping off extremities. We're going to have to wait and see how much of the rotten fruit on the top branches is cut off as opposed to trimming the roots."
The work-in-progress list:
-- Broward County reporter Dan Christensen
-- Business Dept. Head Lisa Gibbs (who has reportedly been rehired by a major financial magazine)
-- Airline writer Ina Paiva Cordle
-- Online Dept. Head Shelley Acoca
-- Broward Editor Carol Jertson
-- Broward reporter Diana Moskovitz
-- Multimedia Coordinator/staff writer Susannah Nesmith
-- Foreign Editor Michael Ottey
-- Feature writer Nick Spangler
-- Feature writer Georgia Tasker
-- Feature writer Mike Hammersly
-- Business Editor Daisey Harris
-- Photo Editor Suzy Mast
-- Photo Director Luis Rios
-- Photographer John Van Beekum
-- Photographer Lilly Echeverria
-- Photographer Candace West
-- Paginator Tonii Kelly
-- Sportswriter Mike Phillips
-- Cindy Krischer Goodman (who will be freelancing)
-- Reporter Jose Pagliery (who also will be freelancing)
-- Fashion/Style reporter Kathryn Wexler
-- Copy Editor David Nickell
-- Copy Editor Heidi Wilson
-- Paginator Brenda Muncy
-- Sportswriter Jeff Shain
-- Sportswriter Sarah Rothschild
-- "Action Line" reporter Penny McCrea
Those forced to go part-time:
-- Reporter Nirvi Shah
-- Business reporter Bea Garcia
-- Foreign Desk Web Editor Juan Tamayo
-- Photographer Marsha Halper
(Thanks to Random Pixels for a couple of these names).
