'Providence Journal' Finally Reports Layoffs

By: Joe Strupp More than two weeks after telling staff that some 31 newsroom employees would be laid off, The Providence Journal finally reported the news to readers Friday in a story that declared the cuts were due to "a broader cost-cutting effort" by parent company, A.H. Belo.

"Overall, 25 part-time workers and 6 full-time Journal workers are to be laid off, effective today," the story said, citing Publisher Howard G. Sutton.

"They will receive severance ranging from 2 weeks pay to 35 weeks pay, depending on their years of service."

Staffers had been told on Sept. 24 about the pending reductions, according to Tim Schick, administrator of the Providence Newspaper Guild, who had complained that the paper's failure to report on its own cuts was hypocritical.

"There are a lot of questions about when they will be upfront with the public about what is going on," Schick said earlier this week. "If it were any other business in the community, the Journal would be reporting it and seeking it out."

Editor Thomas Heslin, who did not respond to calls for comment this week, referred inquiries on Friday to a company spokesperson who was not immediately available.

Although the paper had previously declined to report on the exact pending cuts, it indicated in a Sept. 5 story about cutbacks at parent company A.H. Belo that layoffs were likely soon. The union on its Web site had revealed the 30-person plan, as had the alternative weekly The Phoenix.

The layoffs followed 22 buyouts that were granted in early September.

In Friday's story, the Journal added that: "A.H. Belo announced plans in July to cut $50 million in expenses, partly by reducing the work force at its newspapers in Providence, Dallas, and Riverside, Calif. The job cuts are the result of a broad restructuring that A.H. Belo said it was implementing as it faces an 'unprecedentedly adverse business environment in the newspaper industry.'?

Belo planned to eliminate "the equivalent of about 500 full-time jobs company wide, representing about 14 percent of its overall work force of about 3,570 employees," the story included.