Many familiar names at the paper have confirmed to NBC 7 that they have taken buyouts, with Friday set as their last day.
I used to cover a school district. And then I covered a region of school districts. And then I covered half the school districts in North County. And then I covered all the school districts in North County. And then I covered all the school districts in San Diego County. Plus the colleges.Many long-time employees of the San Diego Union-Tribune have opted to leave the paper, which was sold last week to a hedge fund, NBC 7 has learned.
The U-T was owned for decades by the Copley family, which, to be sure, profited heavily from the paper and slapped their name all over institutions around town with a portion of the proceeds. While the publication has changed hands many times since then, what has transpired in the past week or so feels more dire for the local media landscape.
"They have a reputation which is pretty well-earned of going into papers, looking at what staffing is and reducing it fairly dramatically, not just the news side – that’s the whole of the operation," said Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute, a self-described"a global leader in journalism excellence."
A longtime employee of the paper's told NBC 7 that the same day the staff was told about the sale, buyout offers were sent out, with workers given a week to make a decision about the rest of their lives. Multiple staff members confirmed to NBC 7 that workers who agreed to the buyouts were offered two weeks of pay for their first year of service, and a week of pay for each subsequent year they worked at the U-T, capping at a total of 40 weeks.
Among Alden's targets in California: The Orange County Register, the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the Long Beach Press-Telegram and San Bernardino Sun. Sixteen papers in Northern California were snatched up by the Alden,, and where once stood 1,000 journalists between their readers and scores of city halls, now there were 150.
“It’s no secret that our industry faces substantial revenue pressures brought on by big tech aggregators who redistribute our original content for their own profit, at the expense of our staff, diminishing our readership and causing declining advertising and circulation revenues,” Ryan wrote. “Despite impressive news reporting and a hardworking staff, the U-T has not been immune to these pressures.
"If you look around, you know, the papers that they have still do, you know, they have journalists that do very good stories and, you know, I think — not that it’s the only measure — but if you look at, sort of, awards competitions … there are: The San Jose paper wins stuff, the [OC] Register does stuff," Moran said.
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