Does Tuesday’s massive layoff of 600 in a single day at four Advance Publications newspapers in New Orleans and Alabama earn a place in newspaper-layoff history?
Sadly, no.
News organizations have announced other job reductions of even larger or similar size in recent years. Here’s a reminder of some of the biggest:
- Feb. 9, 2012: Gannett offers buyouts for up to 665 newspaper workers.
- Nov. 21, 2011:Â Booth Newspapers announced 543 layoffs (though they were eligible to re-apply for about 200 new jobs with MLive Media Group).
- June 21, 2011: Gannett lays off about 700 workers from its newspapers division.
- Feb. 23, 2010: ABC News lays off 300 to 400.
- Oct. 30, 2009: Time Inc. planned to cut about 540 jobs, after 600 the year before.
- March 9, 2009: McClatchy announces 1,600 coming layoffs, 15 percent of the workforce.
- Jan. 30, 2009: A.H. Belo announces 500 cuts at the Dallas Morning News, Providence Journal and Riverside Press-Enterprise, after 413 buyouts months earlier.
- Dec. 4, 2008: Gannett wraps up cuts totaling a reported 2,184 across many papers.
- Nov. 7, 2008: EW Scripps cuts 400 jobs.
- Aug. 14, 2008: Gannett memo announces 1,000 job cuts affecting 600 people.
- June 2008: In one bloody week, about 900 newspaper workers lost jobs.
Even these painful layoffs look puny in comparison to some of the all-time biggest corporate layoffs:
- IBM dropped 60,000 workers in July 1993, just six months after Sears/K-Mart had let go of 50,000.
- More recently, during or following the 2008 recession, there were cuts of 50,000 at Citigroup, 47,000 at GM, 30,000 at Bank of America and 24,600 at Hewlett-Packard.
Related: How the Times-Picayune & Alabama papers covered job losses on their front pages (Poynter) | What great bosses know about how to manage downsizing’s aftermath (Poynter)
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