By: E&P Staff It has taken only one month for the Paxton Media Group to start shaking up its newest purchase, The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C., firing 80 employees and top management.
Industry analyst John Morton told E&P that it's generally not a good business decision to restructure so quickly, though other factors may have been at work. At the very least, he said, it's not "sending a pleasant message to the community and that may have some consequences for [the new management] running the place."
Paxton, a family-held company based in Paducah, Ky., fired 80 of the Herald-Sun's 350 employees today, including Publisher and President David Hughey and Executive Editor William E.N. Hawkins, according to The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. As of late morning, neither Hughey nor E.T. Rollins, Jr. could be reached for comment.
On Dec. 2, Paxton Media Group acquired The Durham Herald Co. from the Rollins family. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Other top executives axed by Paxton included James G. Alexander, vice president and treasurer, and W. Toland Barfield, vice president of sales and marketing.
The News & Observer reported that at 5 p.m. yesterday, several Herald-Sun employees were "huddled outside the parking lot, some of them crying." The paper also said that employees who were let go were "escorted to the door" without time to gather their belongings.
Executives at Paxton Media, including newly appointed Publisher of the Herald-Sun, Bob Childress, could not be reached for comment by late morning.
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