A memo to employees sent on behalf of Publisher Gary Wortel lays out the bad news:

Some single incumbent positions will be eliminated and several positions that are currently open will not be replaced. Work groups in several operations and circulation departments will be offered a voluntary separation package today. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, the positions will be eliminated through the least-tenured employees in those work groups.

Employees will be required to take a one-week unpaid furlough between Feb. 11 and July 31, the memo says.

The Star-Telegram was one of five McClatchy-owned newspapers to introduce a paywall last fall. In an otherwise unhappy third quarter earnings report, McClatchy President and CEO Pat Talamantes said revenues from the paywalls “will begin to make a more significant impact in the fourth quarter.” In December, the company announced it received more than $38 million from equity investments in 2012.

Here's the memo... (more...)

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth police screwed up mightily during an investigation of drug dealing and drug use at Texas Christian University. Eighteen people, 15 of them students, four of them -- gasp -- members of the Horned Frogs football team got popped on various charges, and the police released photos, which were run in local media.

While the original reports were somewhat breathless, a bigger problem was that one of those photos was of the wrong man. Austin Carpenter was named as a suspect at large because one undercover officer bought drugs in a parking lot from a guy named Austin, who drove off in a vehicle registered to someone with the last name Carpenter. (more...)