Richmond Times-Dispatch cuts staff

The Richmond Times-Dispatch cut eight positions this month, the paper reported.

The paper cited continued declines in print advertising revenue as the reason for the cuts.

Four people in the newsroom, two in advertising and two in creative services were laid off, the paper said. No reporters or photographers were cut. All affected employees are eligible for severance benefits.

BH Media Group owns the paper.

Last summer, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises began managing BH Media papers under a deal that pays Lee $5 million plus a percentage of profits to run BH Media’s 31 daily papers.

“What’s kind of sad here is that when Warren Buffett came into Virginia and started buying up papers, there was so much optimism; people were thinking of him as a kind of savior, someone with deep pockets … who would give them some breathing room,” Jeff South, a journalism professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the Virginia Mercury.

“I guess while Mr. Buffett’s heart was in the right place, he didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be,” he said.

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