Reports are filtering in that the long-anticipated layoffs happened today at the Chronicle. Once again, the reporters who are exiting the building on Fifth and Mission Streets in San Francisco are seasoned journalists who have done fine work. The 15 who were let go include:
Update: I have removed the names of those laid off by request. However, I want to note that those who were laid off should not regard it as a dark mark against their reputations. They were fine reporters, merely caught in a changing industry and a declining economy.
The article continued...
A few of these reporters were sent home today; a few were told they had jobs until August. This latter group also learned that they if they left before then, they would not get a severance payment.
There has been a substantial change in the Chronicle in the last month with the exit of more than 100 reporters and editors. The paper is very thin and most articles are short. The paper is still managing to do some good reporting, but those articles are piled onto the front page . When you open the Bay Area section, there is barely anything there.
2 comments:
Thanks for the update, Frances. There are many talented writers/reporters in there.
You could put out a fantastic publication with just those people, never mind adding all the folks who left in the last month or so with the buyouts. Many of them dig hard for information, write gracefully, have fantastic rolodexes of sources - all the tools that you want a good journalist to possess.
I'll miss reading their stuff in the Chronicle, but I'm confident it will turn up elsewhere, as with those whose books are out or on the way.
PS, you gave a good rundown of many on that list, I'll just add that John Koopman has a fantastic writing style and turned in some incredible dispatches from the early days of the Iraq War, when he was embedded with a Marine unit. (He's a former Marine himself.)
Post a Comment