Wednesday, May 9, 2012
No Words Were Minced: Tribune Restructuring
Posted By Jerre Wroble on May 9, 2012, 8:11 PM
The Salt Lake Tribune continues in its grim march toward newsroom efficiency, today laying off nine newsroom employees --- , with A&E reporter and 30-year news veteran Glen Warchol tweeting this morning that he was among them.
The Tribune's own article, by Paul Beebe, rather vaguely noted that "Five of those laid off were assigned to the paper’s copy desk. Four worked at other duties in the newsroom." When a commenter on the article asked who was laid off (so that he or she could send story ideas and tips to the appropriate reporters), the site administrator simply said, "We've updated the staff contact list online. Most cuts were on the production side, not news gathering."
So, if you happen to have a copy of the Trib's previous staff roster, you might deduce who the unlucky souls are.
“No sense mincing words in this message to you,” Salt Lake Tribune editor Nancy Conway wrote in a memo to the staff, posted in a blog on JimRomenesko.com. "Today nine people in our newsroom have lost their jobs because we need to cut costs."
Beebe's article said the layoffs represented a 7.5 percent cut of the newsroom staff, reducing the number of journalists to 119 employees. The layoffs will make way for a restructuring in the news room. Conway said that copy editing and page design tasks "will be integrated with existing news teams to create independent news hubs."
It sounds like they aspire to the City Weekly "hub," where our editors, reporters and copy editors collectively write articles, blogs, and listings and then post updates about them on social media. Nimble beings we must be in this brave new age.
To those sent home with a pink slip, our condolences. In August 2010, before shifting to his current A&E reporting duties, Warchol was asked by his editors to cease writing for The Salt Lake Crawler, the biting blog he maintained for more than two years. His final entry for that blog seems sadly apropos for today's news. He ends with, "I see the escape slide is deployed and inflated, so it's time to say, adios, amigos!"
More by Jerre Wroble
-
Donate to City Weekly and keep Salt Lake's local news free, independent and punchy
Opinion
- Dec 20, 2023
-
Utah Shakespeare: So Much Drama
Recapping a visit to Cedar City
- Sep 4, 2023
-
City Guide 2023
City Weekly’s 19th annual celebration of all things SLC
- May 4, 2023
- More »
Latest in Buzz Blog
