So says the Star itself.
The daily newspaper biz continues its downward death spiral. Sigh.
UPDATE: The Weekly has learned that the laid-off employees include a lot of news assistants and lower-level newsroom types–including some people who have been with the Star for decades.
The list of people let go–which, it needs to be noted, is unconfirmed and based on only one source, so take this with a massive grain of salt–includes:
- George Campbell
- David Castellan
- Lupe Ortiz
- Carrie Ord
- Tiana Velez
- Jon Hassen
- Someone named Julie
- Jeff Commings
UPDATE: Former Star reporter (and current Weekly contributor) Michael Marizco has more info here.
UPDATE: Jane See White is also reportedly among the laid off, according to a source. Also, the severance package, as we’ve heard from several sources: three weeks’ pay, as long as they keep their mouths shut. That’s pitiful.
UPDATE (8:45 P.M.): Michael Marizco informs us that Rutha Brundidge, who was on this list, was apparently NOT laid off. Thus, we have removed her. However, we’re adding Jeff Commings, an education reporter. After hearing a rumor that he was one of the unfortunate, I contacted him via his Facebook page, and he had this to say: “I never thought I’d be one of the people to say this: I can’t confirm or deny your information.” So, take that for what it’s worth.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2007.
The Star started killing individual comments and after this list was posted on StarNet, killed not only that comment but cut off the ability to post any comments.
Thanks for pointing that out, Scarlett. You’re absolutely correct.
No names I recognize, but that’s not the point.
The paper seems to be getting smaller & smaller as far as content goes.
The ‘Food’ section is now part of the ‘Accent’ and this morning had only 3 food related articles, one of which was from “Chicago Tribune”. The sports section often doesn’t have the scores from previous days in it. The book section is in Thursdays rather than Sundays like you find in big city papers and the coverage there has been scaled back.
It is a sorry state of affairs. Fewer articles equals fewer readers equals fewer ads equals less revenue equals the death of a newspaper.
It’s called the Death Spiral, Rita.
Less workers = Lesser product = less buyers = less money to pay workers = layoffs = lesser product = ….
Sez the memo on Marzico’s blog:
“* We will still support 110 Degrees mag. However, any staffers who want to work on the project must do so on their own time rather than on the clock.”
Got a good laugh out of that. Poor staffers who get stuck on that volunteer project, that.
Thanks to the Weekly for doing this important journalism.
Too bad you can’t/won’t break the “what’s up with Lute” story.
The majority of the layoffs are affecting people who have been with the paper 25-30 years. No exaggeration. They include:
-George Campbell, a veteran copy editor who started with AP and moved to the Star around…1980?
– John Hassen, who began as a long-haired freak in the Library and taught himself how to be a computer programmer. Smart, nice and extremely undeserving of this.
– Lupe Ortiz, a sweet, gentle woman who raised a bunch of kids as a single mom and was a mainstay of the newsroom, capably handling countless clerical tasks.
– Rutha, who has been with the Star so long she probably worked at the downtown office, which they vacated in the mid-70s.
Shame on Lee newspapers for cutting senior people, presumably because they worked their way up to decent salaries. Shame on them for doing it just before Christmas, for God’s sake.
And shame on the bozos in the Star management, starting with Ms. Buel, whose meanness and stupidity is only exceeded by her short-sightedness.
Ah, there you go. Fire the loyal “senior” worker. Hey, they’ll go out and get jobs in a snap!.
“We’ll give you a good recommndation”. uh-huh
If The Star were a remarkable newspaper this would be a remarkable tragedy in a newsmedia way. But The Star has always been a cynical cash register, regardless of ownership and management. The wrong people were fired. Red Star extends sympathy to those who, for whatever reason, were not able to fire The Man before The Man fired them. Not to be facile or cold: this is your chance…
It is a shame that these 11 folks are now unemployed. The fact that they had devoted so much of their time to that rag and got the axe anyway is heartbreaking.
The Star is showing just how petty and childish they are by closing comments on that article
Since they laid off mostly long timers……it’s obvious they are letting go of those who have earned higher salaries, and also remember when the Star was once a good, investigative newspaper, not just a mouth piece for for big business interests and Hein and Huckelberry……also mouth pieces for big business, and givers of our tax payer coffers to big business interests.
Wonder how opinion writer Debbie Kornmiller’s opinions will be effected, now that her husband George Campbell has been unceremoniously laid off. Debbie has been at the Star for decades, and I think the same was true for her husband.
I hope they all find new, enjoyable work soon. They could have given them till after Christmas. The three week severance pay gets them to December 26, 2007…..ho, ho, ho not.
Red Star — the staff had a chance to stand up for themselves a few years back but they were scared to death that … they’d lose their jobs!! How sadly ironic.
Really Scarlett Letter? How did they have a chance to stand up for themselves? Do tell!
I worked with George Campbell, Rutha, Lupe and Jon Hassen at the Star in the ’80s. They are top-quality, very nice people who always worked hard. They were extremely loyal to the paper under Pulitzer and, I assume, under Lee.
Scarlett Letter — so it seems “connecting the dots” only gets one so far, yes of course it is sad that “scared to death” (probably prehistoric parental head noise) kicks in and no action is taken by the individuals. Sometimes folks need to stand up to themselves before they can fire The Man, off The Man, etc. If they didn’t do that then, this is their great big chance…
The organization in question has moved on. Bigger fish to fry.
I wonder if there is some ageism here? How old were these people who got laid off? Does their health insurance cost more than someone who is 20-something?
I don’t know how health insurance works for a big company but since I know how it works for me as being self employed and getting older but well before I get to Medicare, I won’t be able to afford health insurance.
Does a big employer pay more for a 50-something employee than a 20-something employee?
This is just awful. I know many of those “on the list” and they were wonderful colleagues.
I hope this “it’s just business” attitude comes back to bite the Star upper-management someday.
Newspapers need to go the way of say The Economist. The guise of being “neutral” is a joke and an impossibility. People trust The Economist at least I do because you know where they are coming from, while yet OPENLY biased, they are always well reasoned articles. Facts say People want this as their subscription base in the US has doubled over the last decade.
So Longer local stories and say run the phsycial paper every other or every third day. For fast breaking news just update the website.
From the linked blog: “CHISMES: I understand from sources familiar with the situation that the decision to lay off the 11 employees was taken last night or early this morning because of the sudden drop in advertising from Tucson automobile magnate Jim Click. But these are only rumors right now.
Sources have also confirmed that those laid off are being offered three weeks’ severance pay as long as they don’t speak about their lay off to the press.”
Hey, that sounds familiar! Wasn’t that the deal for the laid-off morning-radio guy, which was reported in the Media Watch section about 3 or 4 weeks ago? “Don’t talk or you won’t get a severance.”
So the Star is blaming Jim Click? Jim Click is probably blaming consumers for not buying cars because they don’t have jobs. D’oh!
1) whoa it’s 3 a.m.
2) Just so we’re all clear:
“Q: Is there a law that requires employers to provide severance pay?
“A: No. An employer has no obligation to provide severance pay. The only benefit that employers must by law provide is unemployment compensation.” — http://www.fklaborlaw.com/employment-severance-agreements.html – Ohio
There are only a handful of states that require severance packages. Arizona may or may not be one of them. (If AZ is one, kick me for spreading misinformation).
Severance is something that exists, but it little more than a friendly gesture added to an employment contract. It also appears that they can pop in these “silencing” rules that basically are chilling effects.
I know personally that I have some of those in the contracts I’ve signed — “you will not discuss the company internals until x years after contract termination,” etc. etc.
Heck, even World Champions have these types of rules in effect:
Read http://www.planet-f1.co.za/story/0,18954,3213_2926897,00.html
(to explain: Alonso the racecar driver got into a three-year contract, hated the team, and to get a mutual early contract termination he had to agree to not backtalk on the team)
Yes, the victims of this bloodbath who were at the Star when I worked there (1988-1999, RIP) were long-time employees, creeping toward retirement age (although Jon Hassen, for one, still has a long way to creep), and they weren’t the sorts of non-team players that Bobbie Jo Buel and her hack AMEs (since departed) were purging around 2000. The names I don’t recognize are comparatively recent hires, probably younger folks, so I don’t think it’s really a case of age discrimination, nor of retribution for malcontents. The victims are “background” workers essential to the smooth operation of the newsroom, but nobody the readers would ever miss. I have more to say about this at my own li’l blog, which you can reach by clicking the link on my name (too lazy to insert the link here myself). All I’ll add here is that there’s a good reason the Tucson Weekly has had so many contributors who fled the Star years ago, of their own volition. It’s an odd situation when the alt-weekly is the city’s more intelligent news source, attracting more serious writers than the dailies.
LankyLinda-Oh so true. Not only do we not get any kind of critical reporting on the goings on on the 10th and 11th floors of City Hall and the County Administration building respectively, the articles and editorials are love letters to Hein and Hucks or gussied up rewrites of press releases from their PIO’s. Newspaper circ’s are down nationwide, so the same is true here. But the once proud Star is now basically wire service publisher and press release reproducer.
Wow! Before I left Tucson, the Star was giving sabbaticals to anyone who would take them.
It’s not easy to sit in a newsroom like a herd of cattle in a slaughter house waiting to see who’s next.
My heart goes out to them.
Three weeks’ pay is a slap in the face. And not worth keeping quiet to preserve, either.
too bad portillo and bolton arent let go!
Supposedly, the list also includes Levi Long, who was literally caught with his pants down in someone else’s house recently.