Job losses continue to mount including in the Buckeye state with four Ohio employers in staff reduction mode.
The Toledo Blade has announced plans to layoff 23 employees. The Toledo Newspaper Guild wants the same buyout offer for its members that is being offered to workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where 18 positions are being cut. Both papers are owned by Block Communications.
City Beat in Cincinnati is reporting that as many as 30 employees, including 13 in the newsroom, were laid off as part of Gannett’s nationwide layoff that has cut over 1,900 jobs since last week. The paper also is cutting its newshole by 36 pages per week according to City Beat.
Staffers at the Record-Courier in Ravenna are bracing for layoffs this Friday. No numbers have been released as of yet. The paper recently closed its operations office in Kent. The Ohio Media Watch blog reports that it is the first time since the mid 1880s that the city of Kent was not home to a daily newspaper office.
Television stations are also jumping on the layoff bandwagon. The Plain Dealer has reported that 13 employees did not have contracts renewed at sister stations WOIO/WUAB-TV in Cleveland. The stations’ owner Raycom is cutting 200 jobs across the country.
Former ONPA member Michael King found himself on the outside looking in, a victim of the Gannett layoffs. King had been working at the Post Crescent in Appleton, WI. since graduating from Ohio University. King is also vice president of the Wisconsin News Photographers Association and shared his thoughts about leaving the paper with a post on the WNPA Web site.
King was one of the most active ONPA student members we have ever had while he was student at OU. He actually joined the organization while he was in high school. We obviously wish nothing but the best for King.
Elsewhere in layoff land seven photographers, three photo editors and two lab technicians will be shown the door at the Philadelphia Inquirer. They are among 35 positions being eliminated at the Inquirer and Daily News.
A story on NPPA’s Web site reports that Newsday’s 20 photographers have been told their jobs have been elminated, but they can apply for new positions with the title of visual journalist or assistant photo editor.