The ax just fell. Mrs. Grizz has been laid off.

Sorry to hear it Grizz

Road trip?

Damn, sorry Griz

Crap.

Griz, what is your wife's area of work, skills, etc...? Perhaps someone on the board will have a job lead.

Woody wrote:Griz, what is your wife's area of work, skills, etc...? Perhaps someone on the board will have a job lead.

General wordsmith. She was an editor for 14 years in the features department, but she also worked as a reporter back in the day. So if anyone knows of any writing/editing/PR gigs, let me know. Thanks for your thoughts.

Griz, I'm sorry about your news. When you didn't know yesterday morning, I was hoping your wife's job had been spared.

As I told you before, if I hear about anything, I will let you know. My employer has a big office in Philadelphia - I may even look into transferring there someday. But I haven't gotten a job openings email in weeks - I suspect there's a hiring freeze, at least thru the end of the year.

GrizzledVeteran wrote:Thanks for your thoughts.

How about a blog with first-person layoff stories and insight on what's happening to the newspaper industry?

Or some short fiction about newsroom staffers going postal on management?

Anyway. Really sorry to hear about that.

BuddyGroom wrote:Griz, I'm sorry about your news. When you didn't know yesterday morning, I was hoping your wife's job had been spared.

As I told you before, if I hear about anything, I will let you know. My employer has a big office in Philadelphia - I may even look into transferring there someday. But I haven't gotten a job openings email in weeks - I suspect there's a hiring freeze, at least thru the end of the year.

Both you guys and my place have hiring freezes. Although the one here has been going on for two years, and doesn't include hiring 8 billion new VP's

Same here. I've been essentially laid off from two different publishers in the past two years. Both times because of poor ad sales, and both times in the midst of the hiring of more salespersons.

I'm glad to see the disdain for the business division never goes away. The Daily Collegian's news division despises the business division.

Barry Jive wrote:I'm glad to see the disdain for the business division never goes away. The Daily Collegian's news division despises the business division.

I can only speak for myself, but my frustration was when I had to answer directly to the sales side of the organization.

When ad sales slow down, who do you think they're gonna blame -- the editor, whose functions and talent they only understand in the abstract, or themselves? And when ad sales go up, who do you think is gonna reap that reward?

I'd advise applicants to make sure they'll have a strong editorial boss who would go to bat for them in these situations.

Grotewold wrote:How about a blog with first-person layoff stories and insight on what's happening to the newspaper industry?

Or some short fiction about newsroom staffers going postal on management?

Anyway. Really sorry to hear about that.

Follow the carnage with updates at gannettblog.blogspot.com

My brother n law who had been with a paper as a pop culture and theater writer for 7-9 years was axed right before Thanksgiving... they have 2 kids a 1 year old and my sister has been back in school, just bought a house... newspapers are tough times...

Phillies beat writer Mike Radano has also been laid off in today's bloodletting at the Courier-Post.

Sports columnist Kevin Roberts is another layoff victim at the Courier. This is unbelievable.

At GV's request, I've moved this thread to the main board in light of the news about Mike Radano. If the other mods think it's still outside the realm of topicality, okay by me.

I'll add that I thought Mike was a really exceptional baseball beat writer who combined the advantages of that type--following the team every day, building relationships with players and management, and "watching the games" in the best sense of the phrase--with an openness to performance analysis insights and the sort of humility lacking in so many of our higher-profile sportswriter types. It's sad to see someone like that, a guy who really embodied the best of both worlds, forced out for reasons that had nothing at all to do with the quality of his work.

GrizzledVeteran wrote:Sports columnist Kevin Roberts is another layoff victim at the Courier. This is unbelievable.

he's immortalized in the WS video, so there's that.

Roberts and Radano? What the heck are they gonna do? Use AP copy?

dajafi wrote:At GV's request, I've moved this thread to the main board in light of the news about Mike Radano. If the other mods think it's still outside the realm of topicality, okay by me.

I'll add that I thought Mike was a really exceptional baseball beat writer who combined the advantages of that type--following the team every day, building relationships with players and management, and "watching the games" in the best sense of the phrase--with an openness to performance analysis insights and the sort of humility lacking in so many of our higher-profile sportswriter types. It's sad to see someone like that, a guy who really embodied the best of both worlds, forced out for reasons that had nothing at all to do with the quality of his work.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I tended to think that Radano, Zolecki and probably Lauber were the beat guys who understood the whole thing the best. Salisbury was the top columnist in my view.