Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The Gannett Blog has been all over the latest news that’s been roiling the troubled newspaper industry — Gannett’s plan to slash 1,000 jobs from its newspaper division. The company, the corporate parent of the Asheville Citizen-Times, says it will actually lay off 600 workers.
Gannett Blog also blogged the layoff memo from Citizen-Times publisher Randy Hammer. Here’s some of it:
TO: Asheville staff
FROM: Randy Hammer
RE: Staff reductions
We’ve had many successes these past several months. But despite our readership gains and Web site growth, the nation’s economic downturn has hurt many of our businesses in Asheville and throughout the nation.
We’ve been affected and so has Gannett. The company announced today it is eliminating approximately 1,000 jobs in the Community Publishing division.
About 400 jobs that were open throughout the division have already been eliminated. That means about 600 people across all of Gannett’s newspapers and magazines will be laid off in the next week or two.
For the Citizen-Times, our number is still being finalized, but it appears that six of our more than 250 employees will be laid off. I expect to receive word about our final number next week and will do my best to keep everyone informed.
I realize how difficult this news is, especially in light of the excellent work everyone has been doing. But the economy doesn’t appear as if it will turn around anytime soon.
I have yet to see the story of the Gannett cutbacks reported in the pages of the Citizen-Times, but I’ll continue to watch for it. Meantime, we’ll have to see how the local cuts impact the paper. Will any be felt in the newsroom?
And what happens when a corporation announces major cost-cutting? Wall Street cheers.
