Philly Paper Lays Off 17% of Newsroom Staff
Diversity took a significant hit at the Philadelphia Inquirer Wednesday, reporters there said, as the parent company laid off up to 71 newsroom employees, or about 17 percent of the editorial staff.
“The paper has lost talented, young black journalists. There weren’t enough, or that many to begin with,” suburban reporter Keith Herbert, who ended a term Dec. 31 as president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms.
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Herbert was among those laid off, as was NBA beat writer and columnist David Aldridge and business writer Akweli Parker, all black journalists.
In addition, Tanya Barrientos was on the list to voluntarily leave the paper, the Associated Press reported. “After 20 years, I think it’s time for me to go,” the 46-year-old features writer said.
There was no official list of those let go, and other names on unofficial lists could not be confirmed. But as many as 19 or 20 were said to be journalists of color, including a number of Asian American journalists.
[On Thursday, the National Association of Black Journalists said it was “dismayed that black journalists at The Philadelphia Inquirer were twice as likely to be laid off as their white counterparts, according to reports today.”]
“We had a feeling this was coming,” said Herbert, 40, still grieving over the Dec. 7 death of his mother. He was advised last week to start looking for another job, he said, but with family matters, a job search wasn’t his top priority, he said. However, he said, “I’m going to be knocking on some doors.”
On his Inquirer blog, “Blinq,” reporter Daniel Rubin wrote that Aldridge was in Denver covering the Philadelphia 76ers when he got the news.
“Yes, it’s true,” Aldridge told Journal-isms. “And sad. But there are 67 other people in the same boat.” He came to the Inquirer in 2004 after having worked at the Washington Post and ESPN. Aldridge also works as a sports analyst for the TNT cable network.
[On Thursday, Rubin additionally listed journalists of color Ben Lowe, Stephanie Arnold, Julie Shaw, Kera Ritter, Dwayne Campbell and Gaiutra Bahadur.]
Parker said the cost to diversity was significant.
At a meeting Wednesday with Managing Editor Anne Gordon and Editor William Marimow the top editors “said the hit to diversity was a point of personal dismay to them both. The layoffs were mostly based on seniority, and as the saying goes, we’re the ‘last-hired, first-fired.’ Asked how they’d address it, they said they hoped to continue covering diverse topics by having former staffers freelance, and by making diversity a top priority in future hiring decisions,” Parker told Journal-isms.
“To me it seemed like a ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’-type showdown between the Guild and management. They both knew how critical diversity is to newspapers and sought to use it as one pressure point— among many — during the bargaining. Today everyone lost, most of all I think, the readers.”
[A veteran black reporter, Vernon Clark, who was not laid off, told Journal-isms Thursday, “I’m reluctant to blame the Guild. They had a certain number of people they had to get rid of; they had to select somebody,” he said, speaking of management. “Even if they hadn’t used that criteria, we’d be disproportionately affected because we’re always disproportionately affected, I believe.”
[The NABJ statement said, “Early reports indicate that as many as 14-16 black journalists were among those laid off, or as much as 22.5 percent of the overall layoffs. According to the 2006 ASNE newsroom census, approximately 11.3 percent of the Inquirerâ??s newsroom staff is African American.”]
Parker said he was “dealing with survivor’s guilt and a sense of what is this place going to become, sending these journalists out the door.”
Although he was laid off from the Inquirer, he said, he was offered a job with the company’s Web site, philly.com.
“We managed to build up a good reputation over the past few decades. The Pulitzer days are gone. We’re not going to be the paper of record any more,” Parker, 34, said. He has been at the paper six years.
Bob Fernandez reported in the Inquirer Wednesday that the Philadelphia Media Holdings, parent company of the Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, “said the cutbacks would save about $6.8 million a year in salaries and benefits and would lead to more restructuring of beats and coverage areas as the slimmed-down news staff regroups to report the region’s news.
“The Inquirer newsroom will have 325 employees after the cutbacks. As the cuts approached, a handful of reporters and editors left. The Daily News will have 106 newsroom employees,” he wrote.
Rubin quoted Marimow as describing this as “the worst day in the history of the Philadelphia Inquirer.”
The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia said in a note Wednesday night, “By now you know the very sad news that the Company laid off 71 of our colleagues from the Philadelphia Inquirer newsroom earlier today.
“The Company met with most of the victims of its layoff. Those who were laid off also met with consultants who described their pension and health benefits as well as a job counseling service hired by the company.
“In the immediate future the Guild is seeking more people who will volunteer to be laid off. Volunteers who are accepted by the Company are entitled to full severance, accrued vacation and personal and holiday time. Their health coverage remains in effect until the end of the month.
“A handful of volunteers have come forward, but if youâ??re thinking about it — please contact the Guild office . . . Volunteers should come forward as quickly as possible. You will be given some time to change your minds.
As Fernandez wrote in the Inquirer, a former Knight Ridder paper, “PMH, a group of local businesspeople, led by public relations and advertising executive Brian Tierney, bought The Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com and other publications for $562 million in June. The company has since struggled with declining national advertising and slumping circulation.”
