Below is an unconfirmed list now circulating in the newsroom of about 100 people leaving the Los Angeles Times. The list includes both people taking a buyout and people who are being fired. If you see an error, or you want your name off, message me at inkstainedretch (at) gmail.com. I promise to quickly and anonymously remove it.
It may be controversial, but the Retch decided to post because knowledge is power; because I see no stigma in leaving Sam Zell's slash-and-burn company; because I believe the public at large needs to see the talent and resources being lost because of one man's need to pay off a damned bank note.
I've coded the names as the -30- lists to the right. If you click on a name, it will search Google news archives to pull up past stories. This method is highly imperfect. It doesn't pull up all stories and it does not show the work of the editors, copy editors and photographers at all. Please forgive in advance. It's my best effort to show the work that at least some on the list have contributed.
Kevin is also posting notable departures here.
Orlando Sentinel blogs are posting names here and here. The Sentinel is trying to keep its massacre quiet, and has not even publicly announced layoffs. How's that for a communications company?
The LAT list follows:
Bob Bayer •
Eric Boyd •
Kevin Bronson •
Tom Bronzini •
Corie Brown •
Paul Brownfield •
Jaime Cardenas •
Bob Carey •
Mike Castelvecchi •
Carlos Chavez •
Jay Christensen •
Vicky Clepper •
Marla Cone •
Dan Costello •
Richard Cromelin •
Janet Cromley •
Perry Crowe •
Nick Cuccia •
Catherine Davis •
Tricia Davis •
Donna Deane •
Casey Dolan •
Robert Durell •
Leslie Earnest •
Michael Edwards •
Karin Esterhammer •
Lisa Fong of Photo Dept. •
John Gallant •
Veronica Garcia •
Jason Gelt •
Josh Getlin •
Liam Gowing •
Joel Greenberg •
David Haldane •
Richard Hartog •
Steve Harvey •
Lynne Heffley •
Martin Henderson •
David Hiller •
Jessica Hollowell •
Joel Huerto •
Jennifer James •
Jenny Jarvie •
Carol Kaufman •
Richard Kipling •
John Kissell •
Kathy Kristof •
Steve Lacy •
Evelyn Lau •
Todd Leibensperger •
Bettijane Levine •
Paul Lieberman •
Liam Lindsay •
Sara Lippincott •
Doug List •
William Lobdell •
Ron Logsdon •
John Malnic •
Shirley Marlow •
Amy Martin •
Mark Masek •
Craig Matsuda •
Rosemary McClure •
Terry McDermott •
Gary Metzker •
Bob Mieszerski •
Paul Netter •
Scott Nordhues •
Marc Nurre •
Anne-Marie O'Connor •
Pauline O'Connor •
Chris Pasles •
Kendal Pate •
Chuck Philips •
Christina Pompa •
Enid Portuguez •
Jim Powell •
Steve Pratt •
Matt Randall •
Charley Reinken •
David Reyes •
Pam Robinson •
Julie Rogers •
Bob Rohwer •
Jesus Sanchez •
Katie Sauceda •
Deborah Schoch •
Stuart Silverstein •
Joan Springhetti •
Eric Stephens •
Larry Stewart •
Daryl Strickland •
Tom Trapnell •
Carlos Uribe •
Janet Wilson •
Brenda Wong •
Pete Yoon •
Nancy Yoshihara •
Paul Zieke
Severance Negotiations Conclusion
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Severance Negotiations Conclusion
Flare 1 • Flare 2 • Flare 3
1 week ago
42 comments:
Where's the list for the Chicago Tribune layoffs?
The Retch is an equal opportunity poster. Someone from ChiTrib sends a list, I'd post.
Painful. I see some friends of mine who are very talented journalists on that list. Whether they jumped or were pushed, it doensn't change the fact that the Times is losing some great assets, and those people are facing a very unfriendly job-seeking environment.
I work at another paper, but take no pleasure in watching what's happening at the Times. We need the major metros to push and inspire us to be better, rather than just more local.
How about boldfacing the department heads or masthead editors who are kicked to the curb? Not many, I bet.
This is depressing.
--David Crook (LAT, '81-'93)
There's about 100 or so names here. Where's the other 50?
Some of the people listed were part of the group you used to call when you couldn't figure out how to use CCI properly. They didn't produce many lines per year or win any Pulitzers, but without them, neither would the reporters.
Now who are you going to call? Maybe Lopez can give you Zell's number.
Just wondering, how many are copy editors?
Like watching the Titanic sink.
I'm not in journalism. I don't work for a newspaper or a media company. I am a long-time Los Angeles Times subscriber. I hate to think what this means.
I've been through a couple of layoffs in my working life. They are not fun. Good luck to all.
Martin Anderson is Martin henderson. Jamie Cardenes is Jaime Cardenas.
Let's get the sports people's names right, please.
ChiTrib list not completed. Probably in a few weeks.
I'm counting 14 gone today from the Orlando Sentinel.
Someone needs to ask why The Orlando Sentinel is not reporting on its own layoffs. There may be 50 people leaving from the newsroom -- don't you think the management owes it to readers to keep them informed? Has there been a conscious decision not to report on the layoffs?
I work at a competing paper but I have friends on your list and I also take no pleasure in seeing the destruction of a great newspaper. My only consolation is the knowledge that everyone I know who has gotten the axe at my publication has ended up happily on their feet.
Orlando lost people today, too.
That is a very painful list to see - so many of those folks are veterans who have contributed a great deal to the paper and to journalism - and it's heartbreaking to know that some were just called into an office and told that would be their last day. These same folks were expected to drop everything the second there was a big breaking story or rush off to harm's way to cover the interminable fires....not seeing their families for days on end, risking their lives, putting everything on hold. .but now - when profits are lower than usual in part because of the greed of Sam Zell and the previous regime, these folks are just sent to the firing range -- just thrown out on their asses like yesterday's newspaper. and corporations and newspapers wonder why their employees are startng to refuse to say 'out which window" when their bosses say jump' ....it's appalling the way people treat other 'good' people. the top brass and all the section editors could have walked out enmasse to protest -- after all, they are partners' right, sharing ownership of the paper (if everyone stood up and demanded they have representation in any sam zell decision, they'd probably get it -- but instead, they concurred to rank their people (or just cut their sections)...well, what goes around comes around, right? they'll be next.
many short-sited hatchetmen editors erroneously place more value on folks who churn out heaps of stories, no matter how dull, irrelevant or repetitive - and consider them more valuable than those who do original reporting. it's pretty easy for any journalist to churn out a routine story about an accident or a fire. it's a lot harder to write features, trend stories and break news that wouldn't come out otherwise. start counting the latter stories only and you'd have a different measure if you applied that measure when doing these lists in increasingly run-and-gun ethos prevailing a the times and in journalism today....
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I too see the names of people I've known for more than a decade who served the paper well.
Missing from this list are a few people whose names appear on the masthead and/or occupy offices who have not had the intestinal fortitude to stand up for the people who have worked hard to support the existence of their titles.
Shame on them. I'd name my top pick of the list, but won't. Eventually the ambition combined with a perverse political approach to those above and below will be her undoing.
Holy crud. So many talents!
Someone needs to ask why The Orlando Sentinel is not reporting on its own layoffs. There may be 50 people leaving from the newsroom -- don't you think the management owes it to readers to keep them informed? Has there been a conscious decision not to report on the layoffs?
Word is that the Orlando business news staff was told that not a word of they layoffs should appear in the newspaper. I guess the Sentinel only reports on other business' misfortunes.
Also, nothing regarding staff cuts has been put in writing or email (allegedly that was an order from on high). Newsroom staffers are only hearing about which colleagues got the ax via the rumor mill.
Welcome to our world.
I'm sorry and we are thinking of all of you and keep on swinging.
- Press-Telegram Journalist
I was one of the people who helped with CCI problems and taught people how to use version 6 and guess what? I did help win Pulitzers . . . 4 of them to be exact. And I was the designer for Barry Siegel's pulitzer prize winner and the Hiltzik-Phillips pulitzer winning piece and Clarence Williams photos for Orphans of Addiction.
Condolences to everyone who is still trying to do their jobs in the midst of this mess. Just know that should you find yourself unexpectedly and unceremoniously on the outside - there is life after journalism.
Maybe we can't do much, but I think beyond raising our voices here (thanks, Retch) we should all do what is suggested here and wear black Thursday. Let's see if we can organize ourselves enough to publicly(!) show our grief at the destruction of our paper and our lives.
Is there an age discrimination issue here? The vast majority of people on this list are 40+. Just a thought ...
Zell, you're running a newspaper! If you don't have reporters and support staff, circulation will only get worse. This is shameful!
As someone who started out at the Whittier Daily News, then moved on to the Press-Telegram, LA Times OC, METPRO and then The Chicago Tribune, my heart has been slowly breaking these past few years.
I'm back in LA and I am no longer a reporter but gosh, how I miss it. Journalism is a wonderful craft and, I've always believed, an honorable profession. I don't miss that fear, however. The fear of, "Will I be included in the next round?"
These folks, some of them former colleagues and friends, will hopefully be OK. Jobs are scarce but you've got grits, amazing talent and resilience. After all, isn't that what got you in this biz?
Good luck to you all.
"Word is that the Orlando business news staff was told that not a word of they layoffs should appear in the newspaper. I guess the Sentinel only reports on other business' misfortunes.
Also, nothing regarding staff cuts has been put in writing or email (allegedly that was an order from on high). Newsroom staffers are only hearing about which colleagues got the ax via the rumor mill."
Cowardly upper management.
RE: Is there an age discrimination issue here? The vast majority of people on this list are 40+. Just a thought ...
It's more about the fact that those people have been working longer, so they get paid more.
So the paper loses institutional knowledge and a depth of experience in order to save a few bucks when they bring in fresh-faced college grads.
What remains? There are still good people left, to be sure, but there are also ALL of the sychophantic, ambitious and cowardly managers left standing. Maybe the justice is that they are creating their own hell, and will have to work in it.
The list of those leaving is an honor roll.
these rounds of layoffs are starting to seem like "Survivor"for those who remain .....
How is it legal for Tribune to count the 60-day WARN notice period as part of your weeks of severance? Anyone out there know?
well, you know, the answer for all of this for is for the tribune newsrooms to go guild and fight zell as one. employee-owned, like hell. who owns a share of tribune? anyone? i sure as hell don't. unionized newsrooms could press for representation on the board and the return of an open company, rather than these knife-in-the-alley layoffs.
As a former community reporter at the LA Times Orange County, as a journalist and as a human being, it's just horrible to see all of these names of great journalists --many who I used to work with.
If anyone's still looking for a journalism gig, please shoot me an e-mail at james.meier@thedesertsun.com. The Desert Sun (in Palm Springs) is hiring for a few positions right now, including a business reporter, education reporter and photo editor. We often need photogs as well.
Sorry to hear about the layoffs and even more sorry to see these great names.
Good luck to everyone, James Meier
RE: Anonymous July 16, 2008 8:23 AM
Is there an age discrimination issue here? The vast majority of people on this list are 40+. Just a thought ...
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many folks at that paper who have yet to turn 40 ...
In all seriousness, the managers in charge of the layoffs (in the newsroom, anyway) have been through enough reductions lately that they're pretty well-versed on doing things to the letter of the law.
I'm happy to post lists from other papers. If Chicago Tribune or Allentown folks want to send in list, I'd post.
I have to be completely honest: I picked up the Sunday Business section the other day, realized what it's become and for the first time said to myself that I'll have to start getting the NY Times on weekends...
I was hired by the Times in the late 60s in the golden years. t When other publication went bust, i.e. the Herald Ex, the Washington Star, etc. the Time hired the best and the brightest from those publicatins. Sadly, there is nobody left to hire the talent the Times has let go.
and as for age discrimination, it's there in droves. This paper is hiring plenty of folks -- just look at the hires over the past few weeks -- so i do think a case could be made to the EEOC that the company is full of shit in its pretense that it's eliminating positions...it's merely shuffling the deck chairs - even if the older people are better paid, they earned it, and and their longer vacations by playing by co rules...it's illegal to fire older people and replace them with younger people. call the eeoc and state offices
Let's never forget this is all to pay the idiot's billion dollar a year leveraged interest payment. How could they let him use their own retirement funds to buy in? This is so much like Charles Hurwitz of Maxxam cutting down all of California's redwoods to pay his leveraage. But this time it's people being cut down and an ex-great newspaper. Ain't the system grand?
All Chicago Tribune managers/departments heads will be able to hand pick who gets fired. The real death watch will be now the many who were protected by Ann Marie. Maybe there is a silver lining to all of this. Ann Marie's brides maids may finally be walked out of the Tribune Tower.
For those who remain at the paper: Look around the office this week. Look at those boxes, those empty desks, those teary-eyed co-workers. And find your outrage. If you aren't outraged for yourself, for the situation that Zell and his minions have put you in, be outraged for them.
Where are comments about The Baltimore Sun? The management there has been nasty for the past several years. No concern at all for employees they are laying off. And about voluntary buyouts, that is a joke. Union is too weak to do a thing.
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