Lexington Herald-Leader
LEXINGTON, KY -- The has cut 15 percent of its workforce as 49 full-time and 4 part-time employees were laid-off Monday morning.
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"That alone is really tough to deal with, but when that's the fifth round of lay-offs or buy-outs in under a year - our first round of this started last May - to lose that many people in that short of time has just been excruciating," said Scott Sloan, a reporter and area chief steward for the Lexington Newspaper Guild, a unit of the Communications Workers of America Local 3372.
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Sloan lost 14 of his fellow newsroom guild members as a part of the cut back. Last week negotiations between the guild and management allowed for the 14 guild covered workers to be let go by accepting 5 percent wage cuts and a possible five day furlough. Had the guild not accepted those concessions, 19 of their employees would have been terminated.
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The same 5 percent wage cut has been extended to the rest of the staff making between $25,000 and $100,000. Those at or above the six-figure mark will receive 10 percent wage cuts.
On top to of the lay-off announcements Editor Linda Austin, who has been at the helm of the paper for about 24-months, announced to the staff Monday she was leaving to take a job at a university. Which university or position is yet to be announced.
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Austin was announced as editor of the in Jan. 2007 six months after former editor Marilyn Thompson had left.
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At the time Austin was announced as editor, Publisher Tim Kelly said there had been concern in the newsroom after Thompson's departure because she, like her predecessor, Amanda Bennett had a short stay. Thompson and Bennett departed the 's top job after just 25 and 21 months respectively.
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"That had been the No. 1 issue with the newsroom as I interviewed," Kelly said in an interview with at the time. "We've had a couple of editors leave in rapid fire succession for big jobs at big papers like the and and the staff wanted someone who would bring stability and who really wanted to be here and I think we've accomplished that."
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Thompson has since left her post as investigative editor for roles in the D.C. Bureau of the and is now with the . Bennett left the and is now with Bloomberg News.
Kelly called today's announcement of Austin's departure "really coincidental," in relation to the lay-offs. "This opportunity came up for her in the last couple of weeks and she accepted this university position last Friday evening and its something that she is particularly well suited for and her departure was not something that I had sought and it is not part of my work force reduction plan," he said.
Kelly said Austin will be transitioning from the position over the next week or two and deputy managing editor Peter Baniak will be running the newsroom until a new editor is named.
Kelly said the lay-offs were "arrived at through weeks of intense discussions among the executive group of the newspaper," which he said Austin played a large role in despite her process in landing a new job and spending last week with the Punch Sulzberger Executive News Media Leadership Program, a fellowship at Columbia University in New York.
Names of employees who have been laid-off have not been released, which is customary. This is the third round of lay-offs since last spring, the paper has also gone through two employee buy-out sessions.
The Herald-Leader's problems stem in larger part fom debt that must be serviced by its parent company McClatchy which bought the Herald's former parent chain Knight-Ridder in 2006. McClatchy paid $4 billion for the Knight-Ridder chain and assumed $2 billion in debt as a part of the deal.