Sunday, November 7, 2010

Still no word on layoffs at MLive

Not sure if the printed newspapers are reporting the new downsizing, but Sunday's column by the Grand Rapids Press editor mentions a new "Health" section, but fails to mention the employee diet the papers have gone on.

Curious.

In checking local news sites for other reporting about the cuts I found this article from earlier this year about the Kalamazoo Gazette and its problems with the local city over tax breaks it got for a new printing facility. Nothing yet on the recent cuts, however.

The only mention I could find (and admittedly MLive is nearly impossible to search) from the Gazette about the tax issue with the City was this one, which was published two days after the television report. Wonder how they got scooped on their own story?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No worries, Jim. Earlier this year, it took three months and a TV-5 story for the gutless Saginaw News to finally cough up something on former editor and publisher Paul "I'm not worried, I've got money" Chaffee. Look for something around Groundhog Day on the west side layoffs.

Oh, and please post your findings here, because I have completely given up on MLive.

Anonymous said...

Health is a big topic for Paul Keep, he institute a "health" section at The Journal when he was there mandating a Monday feature section devoted solely to health. It became known as the "disease of the week" story" and the section was a miserable failure. It's the sign of a lack of creativity when a section has to be topic-ized.

Anonymous said...

Have you heard anything more about The GRPress layoffs?

Jim of L-Town said...

I am getting more information but I need to check a couple things before posting. I'll try and get something up by Friday.

Anonymous said...

Jim,
Definitely not good news for those still hanging on at The GRP. The word is, there was a meeting called last Friday announcing the layoffs (this was not a building-wide meeting, as in the past, but a "manager's meeting", followed by dept. meetings letting the staff know that layoffs had been issued). Not sure exactly how many people were shown the door, but I heard of at least three in Advertising (one a long-time sales manager, another a long-time rep), quite a few in Editorial (a long-time Sports writer/columnist, some reporters and most, if not all, of the photographers) and more in Accounting and Circ. The people I know were almost all 20+ year employees, and that's just in GR. Not sure how KZ, MU or the east side papers made out. Sounds like it's getting more cut throat as the demise continues. If you get any info, please let us know. We're definitely not going to be reading about it on MLive!!