Deborah Hartz-Seely

After 30 years in the business, Deborah Hartz-Seely decided to leave while the section was at its prime.

Since Hartz didn’t do a goodbye column, and [...]]]> Food editors are a dying breed at newspapers – be very glad if you’ve still got one person dedicated to the dining scene in your area.

Deborah Hartz-Seely

After 30 years in the business, Deborah Hartz-Seely decided to leave while the section was at its prime.

Since Hartz didn’t do a goodbye column, and there was no announcement from the Sentinel regarding her leaving, her readers may be perplexed.

But her former colleague and friend Jan Norris interviewed her. Read Norris’ Q&A with Deb here.  She had quite an interesting career.

Its 2009 report is grim.

During one month – December 2008 — nearly 7400 jobs were lost in the journalism field.

Final edition

 210 media [...]]]> The Unity Journalists, an alliance of journalists who work to keep newsrooms and the news representative of the national diversity, began tracking news industry layoffs in January 2008.

No light reading

Its 2009 report is grim.

During one month – December 2008 — nearly 7400 jobs were lost in the journalism field.

Final edition

 210 media outlets have completely disappeared since January ’08.

Since the Layoff Tracker began, 46,599 people in the news industry have been bought out or were terminated.

Read the article, which links to a .pdf of the report, on the Unity web site.

Rab interviews several journalists who took the “voluntary” buyouts.

You can read it through this link.

 Those in the business – and now out of it – will recognize most [...]]]> Lisa Rab, reporter for the New Times – Broward-Palm Beach edition – has a media story this week titled The Rise and Fall of South Florida’s Daily Newspapers.

Rab interviews several journalists who took the “voluntary” buyouts.

You can read it through this link.

 Those in the business – and now out of it – will recognize most of the names, and recall most of the facts in the fairly detailed article.

By Henry Frederick

DAYTONA BEACH — Forty-three employees of the Daytona Beach News-Journal lost their jobs earlier today, according to several sources.

Of the 43 [...]]]> 43 Daytona Beach News-Journal employees lose their jobs as newspaper continues looking for a buyer

The story posted today by Henry Frederick, on NSBnews.net – an online community newspaper in New Smyrna Beach:

By Henry Frederick

DAYTONA BEACH — Forty-three employees of the Daytona Beach News-Journal lost their jobs earlier today, according to several sources.

Of the 43 cuts, 16 were in the newsroom and nine were unionized pressmen. The others were from various other departments.

Executive Editor Don Lindley informed the terminated employees in an e-mail and then left for the day at 4 p.m. without facing any of those whose jobs were cut, according to an inside source.

Buyouts offered

One of two terminated newsroom reporters is a single mother with a baby, whose recent beat was the city of Deltona. A sports columnist who has written a popular column for more than a decade was terminated as was a longtime photographer, a librarian, a longtime regional editor a page designer in Accent and a page designer on the news desk. Several others in the newsroom were offered and took buyouts, including the senior managing editor Troy Moore, whose last day was Saturday.

Just four years ago, the News-Journal employed more than 800 people and had a daily circulation that hovered around 100,000, but after losing a series of appeals of the $129 million federal court judgment awarded to minority owner Cox Enterprises, the News-Journal’s circulation has plummeted and so has its staff by almost two thirds. The suit was spurred by the late Tippen Davidson’s decision to spend $13 million on naming rights without Cox’s permission for the $29 million News-Journal Center, a cultural arts Center on Beach Street that is now owned by Daytona State College

No buyers for newspaper

The News-Journal has had trouble finding a buyer in this national recession that has wreaked havoc on newspapers across the country, with some offers hovering around $20 million.

The Pennysavers were consolidated earlier this summer and last year the News-Journal closed its bureaus in New Smyrna Beach, DeLand, Deltona and Bunnell.

The former Pennysaver/News-Journal bureau on Canal Street is now the headquarters for the re-election of Mayor Sally Mackay.

Talent from the paper is now scattered across the globe and marks its passing in comments on Bob Norman’s blog, The Daily Pulp. Norman [...]]]> Today’s edition is the last for the Boca News, a Knight-Ridder satellite. Management announced Friday they were shutting down the print operation and will take a very small staff to go digital only.

Talent from the paper is now scattered across the globe and marks its passing in comments on Bob Norman’s blog, The Daily Pulp. Norman gives a pretty good history of the paper on the site as well.

Alums across the state – and around the world

Many who worked at The Palm Beach Post, Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald and the west-coasters Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times started their careers or or made a stop at the Boca News. Others of us in bureaus nearby competed with them and hoisted many a pint with them off-hours.

For them, we raise a toast, remembering when:

– 30 –

In all, about 300 employees left The Post before [...]]]> The Voluntary Separation Program at The Palm Beach Post hit the Treasure Coast Bureaus (Stuart and Pt. St. Lucie) particularly hard. Virtually all of the long-time employees took advantage of buy-out offers, leaving only about two staffers to cover the two-county area.

In all, about 300 employees left The Post before the end of August 2008. Close to that same number would leave at the end of the year, leaving the newspaper’s staffing about half of what it once was. Another layoff, expected by Sept. 15, was recently announced.

When I was shooting record pictures of the Hurricane Frances damage that peeled the roof off the PSL bureau in 2004, I never dreamed how prescient this picture would become.

T-Coasters held own reunion

The T-Coasters tried as much as possible to stay north of the Palm Beach County line, so, with the exception of former bureau chief Glenn Henderson, none of them showed up at the West Palm Beach staff reunion Wednesday night.

Glenn came south because (A) he was used to interacting with the West Palm Beach office as part of his former job and (B) there was a rumor that Eliot Kleinberg was buying. The latter turned out to be false.

We heard Glenn was buying

Jan Norris and I thought we’d go north to crash the T-Coast party. (A) It would be fun to touch base with folks we’d worked with and (B) there was a rumor that Glenn was buying. The latter turned out to be false.

Our arrangement was that I’d take pictures and she’d do the writing. She was also responsible for getting the names of all the staffers who hadn’t won their 30-year watches.

(Actually, the company gave us a Rolex or equivalent when we were inducted into the 20 Year Club. Click the 20 Year Club picture to enlarge it. Sally Swartz is Class of ’79 on the lower right.)

Never trust a photographer with an admin login

As promised, here’s the gallery. Jan tapped Glenn Henderson to fill in names of a few she didn’t know; captions follow the images.

Click on an image to enlarge it

Captions:

1st row, left to right:

1 – No News Tomorrow! memo

2 – 20-Year Club from Palm Beach Newspapers Inc.

3 – Treasure Coast staffers gather for 1-year layoff reunion at Jensen Beach Ale House

2nd row:

1- Eve Samples, former business writer and now Scripps Martin County columnist.

2- Scott Samples (Eve’s husband), and their boy, Heath

3- Sarah Prohaska, former St. Lucie courts reporter

3rd row:

4– Cara Fitzpatrick, current T-coast reporter for The Post

5- Glenn Henderson, T-coast bureau chief

6- Jill Taylor, former Martin cops reporter

4th row:

7 – Jim Reeder, former St. Lucie government reporter

8 – Teresa Lane, former Port St. Lucie bureau chief and PSL city reporter, and her husband, David, former T-coast photo chief

9 – Pat Moore, former Martin courts reporter

5th row:

10 – Paul Milette, former T-coast photo chief

11 & 12 – Sally Swartz, T-coast Opinion columnist (still freelancing for The Post)

Not shown: Daphne Duret, current T-coast reporter for The Post

Institutional memory shot

As it was in the main office, you’re looking at hundreds – we repeat: hundreds — of years combined of institutional memory of the area – gone from the local media. That long-term knowledge of a region and its news and newsmakers is one of the biggest victims of media layoffs across the country. 

[Editor's note: the "I" is Ken Steinhoff, former Palm Beach Post and Evening Times staff photographer, director of photography, editorial operations manager, telecommunications manager and a member of the Class of '72 in the 20 Year Club. He's usually busy keeping his own blog updated.]

Alex Taylor, The Palm Beach Post Publisher, announced today that 11 full-time employees were losing their jobs. That means there are 32 employees left at the paper. Says Mr. Taylor:

To put this into a little perspective [...]]]> Not even The Shiny Sheet on the ultra wealthy island of Palm Beach is immune to Cox layoffs.

Alex Taylor, The Palm Beach Post Publisher, announced today that 11 full-time employees were losing their jobs. That means there are 32 employees left at the paper. Says Mr. Taylor:

To put this into a little perspective it’s important to point out that last year’s layoffs did not touch the Shiny Sheet because business on the island appeared relatively unaffected during the 2008 downturn. However, things changed on the island after the turn of the year. Business dropped sharply in what many think is the sharpest retail downturn the island has ever seen in modern times. Real Estate, Madoff, plummeting tourism, a Worth Ave. jewelry heist, a general reluctance to spend on luxury goods and numerous other factors have created a storm on the island that has shut down much of its economic activity.

With All That Going On, You’d Think They’d Need Journalists

It has been a great news year for Palm Beach. A $50-billion pyramid scheme in our own back yard, and an old-school jewelry heist are a couple of my favorites.

Thanks to the economic downturn and Bernie Madoff, there have been some amazing turns of fortune on the island to the tune of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. After years of boring society balls and minor social standing drama, something interesting is happening on the island and it is a shame there aren’t going to be as many people left to records the stories.

If you are a journalist who is moving from a full-time print job into the world of blogging, it is important to recognize that they too have a brand to protect and promote. Don’t make the same mistakes [...]]]>
Seth Godin tells us how the New York Times is Wasting its Brand and losing influence.

If you are a journalist who is moving from a full-time print job into the world of blogging, it is important to recognize that they too have a brand to protect and promote. Don’t make the same mistakes the New York Times is making.

Want to pimp your blog? Throw a comment below with a link to your own blog and short description as to why we should click over.

So far, she sees 6,000 fewer people working at newspapers.

(Thanks to the wmhartnett who brought this [...]]]> From the files of ‘People Who Do Stuff Better Than Us’, Erica Smith (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) has an interactive and up to date map showing newspaper buytous and layoffs across the United States of these here Americas.

So far, she sees 6,000 fewer people working at newspapers.

(Thanks to the wmhartnett who brought this to our attention.)