We ride herd pretty tough on Denver Post reporters on a regular basis, but they’re having a rough time of it lately so today we’re wearing wrinkled khaki clothing in solidarity with those ink-stained wretches as they struggle through yet another round of buyouts.
About 20 percent of the newsroom is targeted for elimination, specifically older folks who have a lot of experience, we believe the term is age discrimination, who will likely see only one week’s pay for every year they have dedicated to their newspaper.
That’s about 10 to 20 weeks of pay. So long, and thanks for all the fish wrapping.
Like most sharp paper cuts, this one drew blood with reporters tweeting out some of the details through social media. It’s what they’ve been trained to do with the advent of the internet, and we are proud of them for not faltering in their jobs, even as they risk losing it.
The @denverpost newsroom journalists are grilling publisher Mac Tulley about the paper’s long-term strategy.
— Noelle Phillips (@Noelle_Phillips) April 28, 2016
Upshot: if buyout target of 26 is hit, then cut of @DenverPost newsroom staff would be roughly 19-20%.
— Jon Murray (@JonMurray) April 28, 2016
This isn’t the first slap in the face reporters have suffered recently. Editor Greg Moore unexpectedly stepped down a few months ago after 14 years running the show, and Lynn Bartels was one of many reporters who took the buyout last summer. In-house editorials have been cut back, and reporters were told earlier this month that their work load is increasing and bylines will be counted on an abacus.
Those who are left behind after the buyout are expected to meet new quotas, one to two stories a day, which includes blog posts, briefs, or contributing to another writer’s work.
This will not affect the quality of the stories, reporters were told with a straight face.
No word on whether the tweets announcing buyouts will be included in this new byline count.
