Posted on 03/16/2009 1:40:24 PM PDT by Mike Fieschko
The News & Observer will lay off dozens of workers and subject remaining workers to furloughs and salary cuts in the Raleigh newspaper's latest efforts to save money.
The newspaper says it will eliminate 78 positions, or about 11 percent of its work force, through a round of voluntary buyouts as well as layoffs. The equivalent of 27 full-time workers in The N&O newsroom are included in the plans, Publisher Orage Quarles III confirmed Monday.
Remaining workers will need to take a week off without pay between May 1 and Oct. 31, Quarles says. Workers making more than $25,000 per year also will see their salaries cut. The cuts will range from 2.5 percent for lower-paid employees to 10 percent for the highest paid.
"I've had better days," Quarles says of the cuts.
The moves are the latest round of cost-cutting at The N&O, which is owned by California's McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI). McClatchy said earlier this month that it would slash 1,600 jobs and cut salaries to deal with the continuing impact of a downturn in business.
The company, like just about every major chain of daily newspapers, faces a precipitous drop in revenue. The economic downturn and online competition have cut heavily into advertising sales.
In McClatchy's case, those problems are exacerbated because the company took on billions of debt when it bought newspaper chain Knight Ridder in 2006.
Since last May, The N&O has cut hundreds of jobs, shut offices, eliminated content that included the freestanding business section, and consolidated its sports and feature staffs with those of The Charlotte Observer. The Charlotte paper is also a McClatchy property.
TBJ Staff Writer James Gallagher contributed to this report.
ping
Woo-hoo. It was one of my greatest pleasures when moving from Oregon after having cancelled my subscription to the Oregonian in about 1998 because it was such a liberal wacko rag, to NOT subscribe to the liberal wacko News and Observer when we moved to Raleigh.
NC is becoming NJ south. I flew into Raleigh less than 2 years ago and the airport announcements were also in Spanish! I guess it figures because Opie and Andy were for Obama. Mount Pilot will turn into Camden, NJ at this rate.
Great news Friday on Monday this week.
The USA PRAVDA media must die for America to live free.
It was absolutely pathetic; giving the headlines each Sunday to Edward's latest travels [except to his girlfriend's motel room of course].
The loser Christensen actually defended to me the fact that N&O would not cover Edward's sexual excapades as it was not 'relevant' to the news cycle. What a lying sack of s**t,
I’ve watched the decline of the Blues & Disturber for 30 years after moving to Raleigh for college (from NJ).
Good riddance to bad rubbish. It was always a liberal rag......
Nearly a year later, Obamas still looking for a church home mcclatchydc.com ^ | March 13 2009 | Margaret Talev
WASHINGTON — Nearly a year after a painful break from his Chicago church, President Barack Obama and his family are considering joining several churches of various denominations in the nation's capital but have yet to settle on one, and aides said that they're unlikely to decide before Easter.
The delay reflects how the economic crisis has crowded out some personal considerations since Obama's inauguration in January, but it also underscores the complexities of this personal decision by a public man.
Past presidents have grappled with how and where to worship, but Obama's pick is especially guaranteed to provoke interest and scrutiny.
His former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial sermons on institutional racism and American foreign policy imperiled Obama's presidential campaign last year and finally forced Obama's break with Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Even as the church controversy roiled, a small percentage of Americans continued to believe falsely that Obama was Muslim because of his late, estranged Kenyan father and his childhood in Indonesia.
As America's first black president, Obama faces another unique conundrum: whether to join a historically black church.
Then there are standard logistical concerns: What churches could accommodate frequent presidential visits without seriously disrupting the existing congregation's ability to attend services? Which can the Secret Service best secure? Which routes work well for a motorcade?
Of those churches that best fit the Obamas culturally — ideologically and in terms of community service — which have the best youth programs for children Sasha and Malia?
"The Obamas are committed Christians, and they are certainly looking forward to a place to worship in their time in Washington," said Joshua DuBois, the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and one of a handful of aides assisting the family's search....
MEANWHILE, THIS MINOR LEAGUE PROPAGANDIST IS BUSY WORSHIPING HER EBONY UNICORN
6 months ago: Margaret Talev, a reporter with McClatchy Newspapers, holds a display of keychains as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., looks at them, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008, at Virginia Favorites, Ltd., in Emporia, Va
BYE BYE MCCLATCHY
From 11.21 to .35 cents in a year.
Propagandists apparently don't remember how Goebbels ended up.
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