As John Tully said, "Here it goes."

This article was published on the NPPA website. NPPA is National Press Photographers Association.

"HOUSTON, TX (March 25, 2009) – The Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle announced this morning that it's laying off 12 percent of the newspapers workers this week.

The cuts from the photography department include photographers Steve Campbell and Sharon Steinmann (both NPPA members) picture editor The Pham. And photography director and NPPA member Steve Gonzales will take on the additional role of the department's assignment editor after the layoffs are done. Losing six positions in photo will be about a 32 percent reduction in the department's workforce.

The Chronicle's layoffs include about 90 positions from the newsroom, the newspaper said today.

Editor Jeff Cohen told readers in this morning's paper that the newsroom will be restructured to fill the paper's core mission of "providing strong watchdog journalism, aggressive online coverage, and reflect the diversity of the Houston area."

Cut employees will be offered a severance package that includes two weeks pay for each year of work, up to a year's pay, and "career transition services."

Hearst is cost-cutting across the company at newspapers such as Houston's and at the San Francisco Chronicle, where the company just won concessions from unions so that they can lay off workers without having to consider seniority. Last week Hearst shut down another of their newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, making it a Web-only operation."


My thoughts? Not surprised. The Ann Arbor paper, owned by Booth, also was shut down. And Booth made cuts to pay and benefits at other papers. IF Hearst decides to take that approach, we'll be gone in a heart beat considering this isn't anything left to cut. We've talking about 'what if' but with this weeks happenings, I think we need to have a more serious conversation about it. Obviously we'll leave Midland. No reason to stay in Michigan. Most likely, we'd move back to BG/Nashville and have Nathan finish his last semester while we figure out what to do next. Nathan may find himself back in school for a new career path! We'll see what the future holds, but I won't be surprised by much.