The Providence Journal
Karen A. Bordeleau is the new executive editor of The Providence Journal, the paper announced Thursday. She succeeds Thomas E. Heslin, who the announcement says "is retiring for health reasons."

Bordeleau is the first woman to edit the 183-year-old paper. She began at the paper in 1996 and is also an adjunct professor at Emerson College, where she teaches ethics. She's been the paper's acting executive editor since June.

The Journal sought staff members to take buyouts last fall. Eleven did. The paper reportedly laid off 23 staffers in November. When I called to verify some of those layoffs, Bordeleau took the call.

Here's the memo to employees from Publisher Howard Sutton: (more...)

WRNI | The Providence Journal | Jim Romenesko
Three photographers were among the 23 employees let go by The Providence Journal in layoffs Wednesday, Ian Donnis reports.

Connie Grosch, John Freidah and Ruben W. Perez lost their jobs in the purge. Grosch, Donnis writes,

is well known for her coverage of the Statehouse. She’s been a mainstay of the Smith Hill media for many years, offering insight into the human quality of politics through her photography.

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WPRI | Rhode Island Public Radio
Staffers at the A.H. Belo-owned Providence (R.I.) Journal have until Monday at 5 p.m. ET to volunteer to take buyouts, which the paper said it would seek on Sept. 7. Belo hasn't said how many buyouts it's looking for, but Ted Nesi reports that the Providence Newspaper Guild sent management a letter Friday asking "for a chance to discuss other ways of saving money before the company moves forward with layoffs."

Guild President John Hill told Nesi that “we want to see if there’s something we can do,” even though the paper and the Guild have a contract in force.

Hill noted that the Journal’s union is the only Newspaper Guild local in New England where workers haven’t taken a pay cut since 2008. “We dodged that then,” he said, though other cuts were made. Furloughs and temporary pay cuts “are the obvious places where you can get the most bang for your buck, but again, that will be up to the membership.”

The Guild says it'll discuss possible concessions with members before it makes any offers. Ian Donnis excerpts a letter the Guild sent to members, which contains a slight tinge of optimism:

It’s easy to think the depression-like conditions we’ve been living under for the past four years will be permanent, but they won’t be. The national economy has slowly, excruciatingly slowly, been climbing out of the hole dug in 2008. In another year it may well have produced a tide high enough to float this boat. Our mission, as the people who work here, the people who make this newspaper a humane institution, is to make sure that when that day comes, we have a boat worth floating.

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WPRI | Providence Newspaper Guild
The Providence Journal will offer buyouts to employees and impose layoffs if it doesn't get enough takers, Ted Nesi reports. Employees have until Sept. 17 to volunteer; their last day at work will be Sept. 30.

The Guild doesn't know how many employees A.H. Belo, which owns The Journal, is targeting. Anyone accepting the buyout will receive "1.25 weeks of base pay for each continuous year of service at The Journal, capped at 10 weeks," Nesi writes, citing a Guild report. The paper offered buyouts last December; the company "needs 'significantly more' " employees to leave, the Guild says.

The Guild also warns against morbid newsroom behavior:

No one wants this. Pressuring friends to make certain decisions or openly speculating about whose job you might try to move into are only going to make it worse. We can’t control the economy, but we can control how we treat each other during this time. A little compassion can go a long way.

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The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News will launch new iPad and iPhone apps this month in conjunction with plans to move to a paid content model in February.

Brendan Case reports that the new initiative will launch on … Read more