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A.H. Belo to lay off 100 more at Providence Journal

11:49 PM Tue, Feb 24, 2009 |
By Sheila Lennon    Email this author |   Email this entry

02.27.09 - Update: After an interview with Journal publisher Howard Sutton, Journal reporter Neil Downing reports today (Journal Co. laying off 74 to cut expenses) that

At the Journal, about 100 positions will have been eliminated after the reduction in force, Sutton said. The figure includes 74 people to be laid off, as well as positions that have not been filled, and a reduction in the number of shifts for people who insert advertising supplements into the newspaper, he said.

An additional 100 Providence Journal workers are to be laid off by March 6 by A.H. Belo, the Dallas company that bought the newspaper in 1996. The Journal reported the impending layoffs Jan. 31 (A.H. Belo, owner of the The Providence Journal, plans to cut 500 jobs) but today we learned how many of those lost jobs would be in Providence. (A.H. Belo's other newspapers are the Dallas Morning News, Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise and the Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle.)

guild0224.gifIn the newsroom we learned exactly which jobs would be cut from the Providence Newspaper Guild, the union that represents reporters, editors and advertising staffers, and slightly more than half of the jobs to be eliminated. Printed as always on bright yellow paper, the bulletin detailing the cuts was hand-delivered by Guild representatives this afternoon to each desk: 100 jobs to be cut at ProJo.

The Journal will cut all 26 part-time positions and eight full-time positions in the Advertising Department. The News Department will lose 18 full-time positions.

The remaining job cuts are to come from management, production and other non-Guild positions.

This time, no reporters were eliminated; photographers, artists, designers, visual techs, editors and editorial assistants bear the brunt of the News department cuts. On Oct. 10, 31 news staffers were laid off; 12 others had earlier taken voluntary buyouts.

Ian Donnis used to cover the Journal for the Providence Phoenix, but he's still settling into his new political reporting job at WRNI and not yet blogging there. The public-radio station reported the layoffs on the air today, but the job of breaking the news on the Web fell to Providence Business News: Newspaper Guild: Journal to cut 100 jobs.

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