What happened in Westchester?

Chris Roush reports that the "entire business news staff at The Journal News in Westchester County, New York, a Gannett newspaper, is gone this week in the round of 50 cutbacks at the paper."

Westchester Biz News Staff Gone

Since Gannett Blog closed down in July, there's no quick way to find comments from the staff in Westchester. Anyone know what happened?

Roush, director of the Carolina Business News Initiative at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, reports from his Talking Biz News blog.

Detroit Free Press cuts 22 staffers

The Detroit Free Press cut 22 staffers from its newsroom yesterday, according to Richard Prince's recent column.
Price covers minority issues for the Maynard Institute and said, "by one count, the Free Press eliminated 22 people in its newsroom, 18 of them journalists. Fifteen of them are women, six African American, two Hispanic and two are Asian American."
For more click here.

Times Union employees reject outsourcing

According to the Albany Newspaper Guild blog, Time Union employees voted down a contract offer that would have allowed the company to outsource any job and layoff employees regardless of their time and seniority at the newspaper by a vote of 125 to 35.
View the blog release here.

What do you think of the employees' vote? How do you feel about outsourcing in the newsroom? Comment and tell us.

Pinching Forbes

The New York Times reported today that even Forbes is feeling the squeeze of the economy.
While Forbes magazine has 920,000 subscribers, its average issue price has steadily decreased and its ad pages are down 15 percent in the first quarter compared to last year.
The article reports Forbes has stopped matching contributions to its 401k program, laid off roughly 100 of its 1,000 employees since November and started five-day unpaid furloughs for its staff.
In the story, Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners asserts Forbes isn't worth half the $75 million its worth has been estimated in the past.
Yet the Times reports that Forbes' misery isn't without company, with the Publishers Information Bureau listing revenue of over $338 million for Forbes, $276 million for Fortune and $236 million for BusinessWeek.
The story shows the recession is impacting both people's demand for Forbes' economic content and its employees' desire to cover it. From the story:

“Everyone here likes the magazine, the people who run it, and most of us believe in the mission,” said one editorial employee who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with a reporter. “But that sense of mission is sort of hard to sustain when most of the news is bad. Capitalism is a less sexy topic for everyone, including us.”

View the story here.

Is covering capitalism less sexy for you? What do you think about the struggling of Forbes and its competitors? Comment and let use know.

Daniel Hertzberg leaves WSJ after 32 years

According to Editor & Publisher, The Wall Street Journal's deputy managing editor Daniel Hertzberg is leaving the news organization June 30 after 32 years at the paper. In an email to the newsroom, Hertzberg expressed gratitude for his time at WSJ:

As a reporter and later an editor, I have been lucky enough to participate in the growth of one of the world’s finest journalistic institutions, which values breaking news, lucid analysis and top-notch investigative and narrative journalism, delivered with fairness and balance.

A replacement for Hertzberg has yet to be named.
View the story here.

GM plant closures

The Wall Street Journal has a short, straightforward story on the 17 factories and part centers General Motors Corp. will be closing as part of its Chapter 11. The story lists the plants by their town and state locations. WSJ states that G.M. plans to cut roughly 20,000 factory jobs (more than 1/3 of G.M.'s U.S. workforce).
According to the story, 3 plants may "reopen if market demand rebounds." The story also mentions G.M.'s plans to convert a factory currently unused into a place to construct small cars.
View the story here.

GM overview

Portfolio.com has a great overview of General Motors Corp. including:

• Its chief executive officer and contact information
• Recent news on the company
• The number of employees at G.M. and revenue per employee
• Quarterly and annual financial information
• Stock information

View the overview here.

San Diego Union Tribune makes employees sign confidentiality agreement with non-solicitation clause

The San Diego Union Tribune is reportedly making employees sign a confidentiality agreement with a non-solicitation clause.
The agreement inhibits employees from joining rival organizations and from bringing their Tribune colleagues with them (whether currently employed or unemployed at the paper). Part of the agreement states:

"I shall not solicit directly or indirectly, any person who is a SDUT employee or who has been employed by SDUT within the prior six (6) months for employment by, or any business relationship with, a competitor."

This restriction reportedly lasts two years after a staff member's employment is ended.
View the story here.

BizSense adds to their team

RichmondBizSense.com founder and editor, Aaron Kremer announced the addition of new writer, David Larter, to their staff today.
Larter, who will graduate from the University of Richmond in December, will cover some new beats for the Virginia-based Web site including local universities, health care, technology and nonprofits.
Larter is working full time for the site through the summer. In the fall, he will continue on as a stringer prior to graduation.
See the full story here.

Dow Jones adds financial journalists to global team

Dow Jones, parent company of The Wall Street Journal, announced the addition of two business journalists to their editorial staff for the Dow Jones Newswires this week.
Jamie Miyazaki, a former Tokyo Dow Jones Newswires correspondent, joins the Hong Kong team as a senior writer covering Asia.
Syndicated international loan market writer and former contributor to Loan Radar news service, Alessandro Pasetti, will also join the Dow Jones as a senior writer in their London office.
View the full story here.

Huff Post hires former biz editor

Former Washington Post business editor, Lawrence Roberts, was named as the head of a new Investigative Fund for the Huffington Post today.
The fund, which launched in March with an initial budget of $1.75 million, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative with the goal of producing multimedia investigations.
Read the story here.

Associated Press buys out veteran staff

Word that the Associated Press is offering buyouts got out Monday. The buyouts were offered three weeks ago with little publicity. The News Media Guild said the move was part of AP's attempt to reduce its labor costs by 10 percent.
The news organization is offering $500 for each year of service and pension benefits increased 14 to 16 percent.
The offers target hundreds of veteran staff. Employees who take the buyout must be at least 55 years of age, have worked at the AP at least 10 years, and their age and years of service must total up to 75.
View the full story here.

Tucson Citizen ceases its print publication Saturday

Arizona's oldest paper, the Tucson Citizen, will cease it's print publication after Saturday's edition.
The paper reports that the Citizen's Web site will continue, but will be modified as an opinion site, eliminating news and sports reporting.
Gannett, the company which owns the Citizen, searched for a buyer for the paper and for the last month employees waited for the results of negotiations.
Ultimately, no buyers were found.
Employees will be informed today if they will be laid off, kept on staff for a transitional basis or hired full time.
To read the full story click here.

New biz writers for TheAtlantic.com

Mediabistro reports that TheAtlantic.com has added a new line-up of writers on its site.
The new staff includes some key business reporters:
* Author and business journalist Daniel Akst
* Scientist, biotech entrepreneur and investor William Haseltine
* Writer on energy and environment Lisa Margonelli
* Historian of technology and culture Edward Tenner
For the full list click here.

Sun cuts include Kohn

The Baltimore Sun layoffs include Bernie Kohn, investigations editor and former president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
Kohn was previously the assistant managing editor for business before The Sun shuttered its business section last year.
The cuts equal about a quarter of the paper's editorial staff.
To learn more about who is gone from the paper click here.

Baltimore Sun cuts 61 from newsroom

The Baltimore Sun this week laid off 61 newsroom employees, or nearly a third of the total newsroom, according to an article on the paper's website.

The reductions hit nearly every type of job in the 205-person newsroom, including top editors, news photographers, critics, columnists, sports reporters, copy editors, page designers and graphic artists, according to The Newspaper Guild, which was notified of the union-represented layoffs. One news reporter was laid off as well, after leaving voluntarily. Most employees were notified Wednesday, with others laid off late Tuesday.

According to Poynter's Rick Edmonds, Ted Venetoulis, who has been trying to buy the Sun for years, thought that a deal was close at hand. However:

[...] by ditching so many experienced print editors, Tribune Co. could be signaling that it plans to continue running the operation itself rather than selling it.

A Baltimore Sun Media Group representative said the cuts were part of the paper's transition to a 24-hour multimedia news operation.
Click here for the article on the cuts, and here for the Poynter article.

Former Star-Ledger employees start news site

Last year, New Jersey's The Star-Ledger bought out nearly half of its 330 newsroom employees in an effort to avoid shutting down or exploring a sale if costs could not be cut.
According to Editor & Publisher, 40 of those former employees have now started up their own news site, NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

The site, which so far has only Google ads but virtually no overhead, claims about 10,000 page views per week. It is mixing original reporting about the Garden State -- ranging form statehouse issues to sports -- along with links to other sites, including the Star-Ledger. An arrangement with Voice of America also allows the site to use that outlet's content.

No one working for the site is being paid yet, since they each have several months worth of salary payments remaining from their buyouts. This helps the new site keep costs low while it tries to attract readers, advertising dollars and funding.
To read more, click here.

Cuts on the Trib biz desk

Michael Miner of the Chicago Reader has a partial list of the staffers that were cut in the latest reductions at the Chicago Tribune.
On the business side he has listed four reporters staffers so far. The total number of employees cut will be about 53, so more names might be added in the following days.
Here's a partial list. For the full list click here.
* Susan Diesenhouse, Real Estate Feature Writer
* Eric Benderoff, Technology Reporter, Financial News
* James P. Miller, Corporate Strategy and Manufacturing Reporter, Financial News
* Joshua Boak, Business Reporter

NYT ad revenue way down

Bloomberg reports that The New York Times Co. listed a 27 percent drop in first-quarter advertising revenue, expanding its net loss to $74.5 million.
From the story:

Times Co. cut jobs, slashed pay, halted its dividend and sold assets to help preserve cash after ad revenue slipped 13 percent last year. It’s seeking to sell its minority stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team and is negotiating additional pay and job cuts with unions. “It’s clear from these results that it’s a very, very bad environment for newspapers,” Edward Atorino, a New York-based analyst at Benchmark Co., said in an interview. “There’s no sign of relief.

Prosper Out of Print

California-based Propser, a monthly magazine for the greater Sacramento market focusing on capturing "the entrepreneurial spirit of the people and organizations who are flourishing," is taking what seems to have become the path of choice in today's startup publishing market. The company is halting its print publication, laying off employees and taking time to ponder...can you guess what? Yes, they are considering online initiatives as a way to continue the Prosper brand.
Get more details on the changes in a video message here.

BusinessWeek: layoffs and staff shuffle

As many as a dozen BusinessWeek employees will be laid off as magazine combines it print and digital staff into a one editorial operation, according to a report from Folio.
An internal memo was given to staff on Wednesday by editor Stephen Adler.
Folio points out that the layoffs come as BusinessWeek experiences success. It's readership is up 3 percent and newsstand sales up 25 percent.
To read the full report click here.