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Bay Area News Group cuts 34 newsroom positions

avatar by Published Nov. 2, 2011 11:00 am Updated Nov. 2, 2011 11:31 am

Walnut Creek Patch
MediaNews’ Bay Area News Group, which includes the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, The Oakland Tribune and other papers, cut 34 positions on Tuesday. Walnut Creek Patch reports that 10 of the cuts were voluntary; that matches the expectations of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which said on its website last week that about 25 people would be laid off after “several workers quit or stepped forward for a voluntary layoff” and the company reduced its freelance expenses. || Related: Such cutbacks increase the importance of independent sites like Oakland Local (CJR) || Earlier: Oakland Tribune, other BANG papers to retain mastheads; end Monday home delivery (Poynter.org)

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MA3JFTBS3REATMVKFIFNVOJBTM Political Centrist

    I used to subscribe to some of these but it is the same liberal slant as all the other papers.  I got tired of having everything I read being a liberal talking point.  I am not going to pay for that.  Apparently a lot of others aren’t either. But they will go out of business before giving up their liberal advocacy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mary-Urech-Stallings/1754630632 Mary Urech Stallings

    I’m using my journalism degree to make buggy whips in my barn and anyone who works for Dean Singleton is doomed.

  • Anonymous

    gotta agree with Lee on this one.  Anyone else struck by the “Reinventing Journalism” and the CUNY and USC school of journalism banner ads that pop up with this story?  I can’t imagine anyone going to grad school for journalism these days.  Might as well learn how to be a travel agent or a lumberjack while you’re at it.

  • Anonymous

    gotta agree with Lee on this one.  Anyone else struck by the “Reinventing Journalism” and the CUNY and USC school of journalism banner ads that pop up with this story?  I can’t imagine anyone going to grad school for journalism these days.  Might as well learn how to be a travel agent or a lumberjack while you’re at it.

  • Anonymous

    Sorry, must have been my browser that wasn’t showing my original comment. I tried to delete this one, but can’t.

  • Anonymous

    Check the stats for Bay Area News Group’s web sites. They are way, way down year to year. I believe the decline in “hits” began when the company instituted a policy requiring users to have Facebook accounts to comment on stories. Newspapers are dying because they are technologically obsolete. Bay Area News Group is dying because it has a bunch of clueless hacks running it. Allow anonymous comments on stories. Sure, a lot of the comments are worthless and even childish, but there is occasionally some good, solid information in them that people wouldn’t otherwise post without the cloak of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs — or worse. A local news blog called Claycord is going gangbusters and it allows anonymous, moderated comments. If I want to know what’s going on in my neighborhood — and I live just down the street from the Contra Costa Times — I turn to Claycord first. Bay Area News Group’s “solution” of having a separate anonymous message board has been a spectacular failure. These layoffs are just further proof that I am correct.