By: Lucia Moses Newspaper Employees Protest Staff Cuts
More than three dozen newsroom employees of the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal weren't merely trying to be fashionable when they donned black T-shirts recently. They were protesting the paper's plan to cut 10 staffers in response to the slowing economy - believed to be the first layoff of news staff in the paper's 160-year history.
Most of the newsroom's unionized staff, plus some managers, wore the shirts to show executives of parent Knight Ridder who were visiting that day that they felt cuts would hurt the quality of the paper, winner of four Pulitzers. Black balloons also decorated news desks.
"It was kind of sad," said Art Krummel, new-technology manager and a nearly 40-year veteran of the paper. "It wasn't rah-rah. Really, to me, it was very much like a wake."
It's hard to say if the gesture made a difference, but it's possible the ultimate number of layoffs will be fewer now that some employees have volunteered to resign.
Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering business for E&P.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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