Dodging the Pink Slip Club in the Star-Ledger Mailroom

Buyout-Depleted ‘Star-Ledger’ Reassigns Two Journos — To Mailroom 
By Joe Strupp 
Published: November 19, 2008 10:55 AM ET 

NEW YORK When a newspaper cuts its staff, those who remain in the depleted newsroom become valuable. But as The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. slowly says farewell to 151 newsroom folks who took buyouts last month, at least two longtime journalists have been reassigned to the mailroom.

Reporter Jason Jett and Assistant Deputy Photo Editor Mitchell Seidel have been filing, sorting, and delivering mail for more than a week, according to sources.

Jett and Seidel, who could not be reached for comment, apparently declined to take one of the buyouts offered this fall as part of a companywide move to cut costs.

Read more here. On the one hand, the mailroom’s a job. With benefits. On the other hand, the mailroom’s the entry point to a company, when, in days long gone, one could get a foot in the door and then move up.

Pink Slip Club Nissan

Nissan moves to buyout Tennessee workers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nissan North America Inc. said Wednesday it will offer buyouts to about 6,000 employees at the company’s two Tennessee plants and eliminate a night shift at one plant because rising fuel prices and the economic downturn have slowed sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

[...]

About 775 employees at the two plants took a buyout offered last year. That package included a $45,000 lump sum payment and $500 for every year of service.

Um, I’d work for that $45,000 lump sum buyout. And that’s the worse “voluntary severance offer” — seems the current one’s even sweeter.

Lousy newsprint

My friend, former colleague and father of three teeny children is “too young” to be part of this first phase of buyouts in Atlanta. Yuck. Makes me want to get to the bottom of the cost of newsprint.

Atlanta newspaper cutting staff by 200

By DORIE TURNER –
ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is cutting its staff by nearly 200 jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force, and eliminating some targeted news sections.

In a news release Wednesday, Publisher John Mellott said the moves are aimed at cutting expenses amid dwindling advertising revenues and steadily increasing fuel and newsprint costs. Mellott said the job cuts will be mainly in the news and advertising departments between August and October through voluntary buyouts and layoffs.

The newspaper will cut 85 positions from its newsroom, 27 of which are vacant, said Journal-Constitution spokeswoman Jennifer Morrow.

The company has a staff of 2,300 people, according to a news release. [...]
Total online and print readership is up 7 percent over last year, but the cost of newsprint has risen 35 percent in that time, Mellott said.

It’s the second downsizing in two years at Georgia’s largest newspaper. In February 2007, the newspaper announced it was offering contract buyouts and reducing its circulation area. About 40 newsroom employees took those buyout offers, Morrow said.