Asheville News

AC-T news brief: Nation’s largest newspaper publisher to cut 3 % of workforce

Jason Sandford August 17, 2008

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

In an earlier post about Gannett cutting 1,000 jobs, I said I hadn’t seen the Asheville Citizen-Times report the story. Now I know why — because it was a news brief buried on page C7 of Friday’s newspaper. I had searched online, but couldn’t find it.

The cuts break down like this: some 600 layoffs, and the rest reached through attrition. In Asheville, it looks like six people will lose their jobs. Publisher Randy Hammer has told his employees he’ll know more on Wednesday.

The newspaper recently hired a new night-side editor and at least one new copy editor, so it would suck for Hammer to have to make cuts in the newsroom. The newspaper’s top editor’s job, meanwhile, remains vacant months after Executive Editor Susan Ihne was let go. I’m assuming that Managing Editor Phil Fernandez is taking over those duties, but the newspaper has never publicly acknowledged Ihne’s departure or who has taken over those duties.

Here’s how it looked in the newspaper on Friday (clickable photo):

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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6 Comments

Bmac August 18, 2008

How long ago was it that Walmart made the headlines when they decide to drop the hyphen in its name? I’d say maybe a month ago.

And yet the Citizen-Times still continues to print "Wal-Mart."

Way to stay on top of things.

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Jim August 18, 2008

To back up what beautiful monster said, the guy is on a huge ego trip and seems to enjoy intimidation. He ran two sharp people off who were smarter than him and I think that bothers him. That email he sent was cold, and I wish everyone at the AC-T would realize that they are on a fast, sinking, rusty ship.

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beautifulmonster August 18, 2008

I would like to know who makes the decision as to who goes. I work for the AC-T, and have been biting my nails ever since reading that damned e-mail – but I am sure that is just how RH wanted it. He likes to keep his people walking on eggshells…

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Jim August 18, 2008

They are going to have to keep cutting because basically they are clueless. When the advertisers realize that the age of the average paper reader is about 65 they’ll smarten up and either move online or go with the alt weeklies, which people actually read. The current publisher has a personality and leadership skills of a billy goat from what I understand so that doesn’t help either.

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Ash August 18, 2008

Soni, i’ve got an artifact for a scanner…

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Soni August 18, 2008

Was your Friday paper all ink-splotched, too, or is that a scanner artifact? Irony at it’s best to be announcing layoffs at the paper that’s impossible to read through crappy printing.

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