Free Republic

The San Antonio Express-News laid off 14 newsroom employees Wednesday and Thursday as parent company Hearst Corp. coordinates the operations of its newspapers throughout Texas. Publisher Susan Pape attributed the layoffs to “economic factors” and a desire to combine the company’s resources across the state. She said the paper remains profitable. The layoffs were spread across the newsroom affecting writers, editors and photographers on the sports, metro, features and photo teams.

Robert Rivard, who has received criticism by many as leading the San Antonio Express-News (EN) toward a liberal bias, resigned today as editor. According to sources inside the newspaper, Rivard’s resignation was announced to them at a surprise meeting this afternoon. Rumors ran rampant throughout the Alamo City while officially, publisher Tom Stephenson indicated Rivard was going to pursue other endeavors. Readership circulation for the EN has been declining for years during Rivard’s tenure. NEWSPAPER READERSHIP DECLINING Recent EN circulation counts for Monday-Thursday readership was 133,480. This is down from 225,233 in 2007 and 239,000 in 2000, according to the...

For a long time, the San Antonio Express News was unique, not in its predictably liberal editorial page or in its port-skewing news coverage. No, instead, it was one of the few American newspapers to have two editorial cartoonists, one liberal and one conservative.That is no longer the case. Under pressure to cut jobs and staff in the midst of the overall decline of print media, Express-News editorial page editor Bruce Davidson decided that the paper should drop conservative cartoonist Leo Garza, a fixture at the paper for over 20 years. Liberal cartoonist John Branch will remain on the staff.You'd...

Topic: Miscellaneous items Date/Time: 8/16/2007 1:57:51 PM Title: Three Express-News AMEs lose jobs in downsizing Posted By: Jim Romenesko On Thursday, Romenesko was forwarded this e-mail written by a San Antonio Express-News staffer: We had a round of layoffs yesterday, which followed some early retirements. Twenty managers throughout the paper got the ax. Three were assistant managing editors in editorial: news resource (there are four or five people who do nothing but research for reporters and graphics); the graphics art and photo AME and the projects/Sunday AME. I asked the paper for confirmation. Editor Bob Rivard is off taking his...

Newspapers are touchy about censorship - and that's a good thing. Most have rightly opposed blocking sleazy Howard Stern from the airwaves because they understand that freedom of speech is precisely that - freedom of speech. So we were stunned last week when San Antonio Express-News Editorial Page Editor Lynnell Burkett reported she was censoring dozens of letters to the editor from Texas Republicans because she believes they were written by individuals who were "mindless" and "whipped into a frenzy." See Burkett: Why These Letters Won't See Print Huh? Texas Republicans were angry that the Express-News had published a news...

San Antonio's most comical liars do not hang out at the Bexar County Courthouse or jail. No, that distinction belongs to the gang that can't shoot straight over at Avenue E and Third St.-- publisher W. Lawrence Walker's San Antonio Express-News. And those clowns actually are swagger-strutting proud of their transparent lying. Two of their pet year-to-year lies have been spectacularly disproved to the point of hold-your-sides hilarity. But before enjoying a good laugh at the rickety prevarications, first give a good up-and-down look at the quiet-spoken but pompous little creeps who write them. Walker pays some of them more...

New York Times Reporter Resigns By TARA BURGHARTAssociated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP)--A New York Times reporter resigned Thursday after he was accused of appropriating without attribution material from another newspaper's story about a Texas woman whose son was killed in combat in Iraq, the Times said. A Times review of the story by Jayson Blair has ``been unable to determine what original reporting he did to produce it,'' Times Executive Editor Howell Raines said in a statement Thursday night. The review began after San Antonio Express-News Editor Robert Rivard sent an e-mail Tuesday to Times editors asking them to...