When it comes to news about the news, you often cannot find it in the newspaper.

McClatchy Watch, a blog that tracks the company, has posted an email from Orage Quarles III, publisher of the N&O, that announced a “voluntary” staff reduction program:

Today, The News & Observer is announcing a voluntary reduction program for several areas of our operation. As in the past, we have reviewed all positions in workgroups throughout the company and identified positions that may not need to be replaced if vacated, or where work can be consolidated, reorganized or streamlined. This selection is not a reflection of the value of anyone’s work or personal contribution; it is a measure of changing technology, consolidation, and necessity.

Are these buyouts the beginning of further drastic staff cuts in the N&O newsroom? You won’t find the answer to that in today’s N&O, nor will you find even a mention of the internal memo.

Newspapers, it seems, are not very good at presenting their own bad news. Bless the blogs. Posted by Leroy Towns

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 9:11 am and is filed under Media, New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.