Times-Picayune Lays Off Half of Newsroom Staff

200 workers get the ax, plus 400 at sister papers
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2012 3:52 AM CDT
Updated Jun 13, 2012 4:05 AM CDT
Times-Picayune Lays Off Half of Newsroom Staff
A fan of the Times-Picayune marches attends a support rally for the paper.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans' venerable Times-Picayune has laid off nearly half of its newsroom staff—and a third of its total workforce—just weeks after the paper announced it's cutting print publication to three days a week. More than 200 staffers—including 84 of 173 newsroom workers—were given notice yesterday at the newspaper founded in 1837, reports BusinessWeek. Award-winning restaurant critic Brett Anderson, longtime sports columnist Peter Finney and religion writer Bruce Nolan were among those axed. The layoffs take effect Sept. 30.

The "mood started out at melancholy and quickly plunged from there," noted a blogger. "The decline was chronicled in adjectives: Depressing. Heartbreaking. Devastating." In Alabama, three major dailies also owned by the Times-Picayune parent company, Advance Publications, laid off close to 400 employees, many of them in the newsrooms at the Birmingham News, the Press-Register in Mobile and the Huntsville Times, AP reports. (More Times-Picayune stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X