Wednesday, September 07, 2011

31 Employees Let Go in Operations at the LAT


It was a Labor Day we will not soon forget as thirty-one employees in Operations at the Los Angeles Times Olympic Facility were informed their services were no longer needed.

The pressroom employees were aware of the end several weeks ago as September 2nd and 3rd approached. Five employees in newsprint handling and sixteen in Packaging and Distribution were notified last Friday that their last workday would be this Friday September 9th.

The Editorial Department has also been shedding employees and at this time I have no hard numbers as to how many have been let go?

From what I have heard the downsizing will continue until the end of September, or the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter is shaping up to be one of the worst in the history of the newspaper, which may bring additional downsizing in time for Christmas.

With the price increase on Labor Day to $1.00 for the daily Los Angeles Times and $2.00 for the Sunday Edition, there could be a drop in street sales.

I heard a rumor that street sales (news racks) will be filled with the Bulldog Edition on Saturday, and they will not be exchanged on Sunday with updated Sunday newspapers? If this turns out to be true circulation will definitely take a tumble.

If anyone would like to supply the names of the men and women about to be let go in Newsprint Handling and Packaging and Distribution I will publish the list here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me

Lou Nicosia said...

Ed, I understand the Bulldog Editions count as Sunday circulation. What I see here on Long Island is they are reducing street sales deliberately to get people to subscribe on line or get home delivery. This is a cost reducing effort so that they wont need as many truck drivers and they can have people delivering out of station wagons, through depots. How you can not want to sell what you produce is beyond me. Stay well.

Anonymous said...

The Times will not exist online.
When you are limited to your choice of papers offline and you can go anywhere online. Why would you choose a paper that has been butchered down to a scrawny bone?
Also there are many sources for
the real news that hasn't been Adulterated by the Corporate Watch Dogs.