SAN ANTONIO, TX (February 25, 2009) – Every department in the newsroom at the Hearst-owned San Antonio Express-News was slashed today as at least 75 staffers were cut from the ranks.
The photography department was hard hit: new director of photography Marc Kawanishi, along with two picture editors and three photographers, were told their jobs are ending.
Kawanishi had only been in his post since September of last year, moving to San Antonio from North Carolina where he was the East Carolina University chief photographer.
The cuts amount to losing 15 percent of the photography department, including a picture editor who had led the newspaper's efforts in online Web video.
The move at the Hearst newspaper came just a day after the company announced that they might shut down the San Francisco Chronicle unless unions allow them to cut enough jobs from the ranks to save money, or unless a buyer comes forward.
At the Hearst newspaper just down the road from San Antonio, employees at the Houston Chronicle are waiting for the other shoe to drop. They've been told that within 60 days at least 10 percent of their employees must be cut in all departments.
"While it's not going to be just in the newsroom, it's in all departmetns, we're speculating – the rumor is – that in the newsroom it could be as high as 25 percent," a Chronicle journalist said today. "Everybody here knows that in this environment, anything goes."
Back in San Antonio today, editor Robert Rivard told the staff in a memo, "Incremental staff and budget cuts, we are sorry to say, have proven inadequate amid changing social and market forces now compounded by this deepening recession."
"As a first step to securing our future and continuing to serve the community, we are undergoing a fundamental and painful restructuring of the newsroom staff. We will have fewer departments and fewer managers, and yes, fewer of every class of journalist," Rivard wrote.
"After we reorganize and consolidate additional operations with the Houston Chronicle, we will then turn to finding new ways to create and present the journalism we know is vital to the city and the region. There is every indication the community we serve recognizes our importance and wants the Express-News to succeed."
The memo then told staffers that individual employee meetings would shortly begin with those whose jobs were being cut, in place of the morning news meeting which was cancelled.
"No one is being asked to leave the Express-News today unless you so choose. March 20 will be the final day for those whose jobs are being cut, at which time they will then receive involuntary separation packages that include two weeks' pay for each year of service up to one year's pay, along with other benefits," Rivard said.
Also in today's news came word of 100 positions being cut from the Tribune-owned Hartford Courant, where about 30 additional newsroom jobs are being trimmed. The Courant says that will bring the news staff to about 135 people, or about half the number of newsroom employees who worked there in January 2008.
In a story to Courant readers the newspaper said the reason for the additional cuts were "the longtime slide in advertising revenues gaining speed in 2009."
