Jackson Free Press

Update: Associated Press is reporting that Orley Hood is among 11 employees laid off today at The Clarion-Ledger, joining 20 unfilled jobs that were eliminated. The Clarion-Ledger has dropped from 470 employees this summer to 367 now, a 25 percent reduction in positions.

Keep Clarion-Ledger staff members in your thoughts as another round of company-wide layoffs kick in as daily newspapers face a major less in revenue and readership. Word from the inside says the Ledger actually plans to tell the public itself about this layoffs by later this morning unlike its recents layoffs, which were reported here and elsewhere before the paper got around to it.

Previous Commentsshow

The Gannett Blog is tracking the layoffs around the country today, calling it a "bloodbath."

DonnaLadd

Dec 3 2008

Gannett Blog saying 33 layoffs so far of 400 at the Ledger. Nearing 10 percent, but not there, yet. Don't know who, yet. Anyone?

DonnaLadd

Dec 3 2008

Ledger is now reporting their layoffs, and blaming the economy, not their crappy reporting and shrinking relevance, of course, while claiming to be Jackson's "hometown newspaper." Right. Whitaker said job reductions were designed to minimize the effect on readers and advertisers. The reductions, Whitaker said, will not affect the quality of the daily and weekly newspapers and Web sites produced by The Clarion-Ledger. Managers, however, will have to change their operations. Ronnie Agnew, the newspaper's executive editor, said it is his goal to make the changes as transparent to readers as possible. "We have a core staff here that will never back off the commitment of producing top quality First Amendment journalism while also giving readers stories that give them a sense of community. "This is our hometown. This is our hometown newspaper. The connection that we feel towards our range of newspapers and Web sites mandates that we do all that we can to preserve the integrity of what we produce," Agnew said.

DonnaLadd

Dec 3 2008

Interestingly, Gannett Blog reported that The Clarion-Ledger laid off 20 of 490 employees in the first round of layoffs in August. Now they're losing 33 of 400 jobs. What happened to those other 70 between then and now? I've heard they're just eliminating jobs as they go vacant. If Gannett Blog's and my math is correct, that seems like The Clarion-Ledger has shrunk their jobs nearly 25 percent in the last quarter of 2008.

DonnaLadd

Dec 3 2008

Maybe they will use the money they save from the layoffs to begin using a better (thicker) paper stock. Forget about taking a sip of coffee with one hand while holding their tissue-like paper with the other. It ain't gonna happen. You can barely crease and fold the damned thing without it flopping and withering in your hands. Don't know if anybody else has a beef about it, but it just chaps my a$$ to see them being so cheap and chintzy.

Kacy

Dec 3 2008

Does anybody know who's leaving yet?

kudzuking

Dec 3 2008

Orley Hood was laid off, per Associated Press.

DonnaLadd

Dec 3 2008

Mr. Hood was one of the few things that paper had going for it. He added some much needed personality. I've met him a couple of time and he's also a hell of a nice guy. They'll regret losing him.

kudzuking

Dec 3 2008

Orley Hood????? Really??????

LatashaWillis

Dec 3 2008

"While we have done better in Jackson than many markets, we are experiencing the same downward trend as other media companies," [C-L publisher Larry Whitaker] said in the memo. Jackson is a city, Larry, not a market. That's your first problem.

Todd Stauffer

Dec 3 2008

Jackson *is* just another "market" for Gannett, and it shows. I can't tell you the last time I saw a Ledger poobah at a community event.

DonnaLadd

Dec 4 2008

I'm sorry to hear about Orley Hood's layoff. He was one of the few that I enjoyed reading from time to time. He did an article of "SOCKS" many years back that I still laugh about. I worked with his wife MA for several years. Layoffs always have such a profound effect on families - even if the financial picture is not wrecked. Why do employers lay people off a few week BEFORE Christmas? Why not wait until the 1st of the yr.? Just asking.

justjess

Dec 4 2008