At least nine newsroom employees were laid off today at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, and I'm told the number could be higher. Here are the names I have so far:
David Keck, night city editor
Julia Glick, county reporter
Matt Schoenmann, web producer
Sonja Bjellend, cops reporter
Melissa Eiselein, city reporter
Erica Shen, news assistant/city reporter
Peter Erikson, copy desk
Sheryl Manalang, copy desk
Katie Jones, copy desk
Ed Crisostomo, photographer
Marlene Toscano, news assistant
Andre Vergara, sports copy desk
Brian Johnson, news designer
(Note: This list will be updated when I can confirm additional names. Four names added 10/15.)
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Anyone have any idea how many people still work in the PE newsroom?
Add Ed Crisostomo, photo and Andre Vergara, copy editor, sports
Like most newspapers they are on their way to automating the entire operation so there will be zero payroll expense. Brilliant!
Not many at all. Looks very empty and sad in there.
rumor mill says the following have also been let go:
Marlene Toscano: news assistant
Sean Nealon: reporter
Chris Richard: reporter
Melanie Johnson: reporter
Brian Johnson: designer
Ed Crisostomo: photographer
Andre Vergara: sport copy editor
What about the other departments? Anyone know the total number of folks let go?
Press room: 2
Pre Press: 1
So Cal Printing: 2
Offset: 1
Maintenance: 2
Security: 2
Interactive: 1
Advertising: 2
La Prensa: 2
Circulation: 1
Packaging: 3
News: 16
Obviously, this company is trying to take the "news" out of newspaper.
I forgot:
Finance: 3
other departments too? and we were told those hits would come Friday....lets hope this blood bath is over this time
I fear for the top-heavy newsroom management team. Someday some efficiency expert will notice a lot of bosses not doing much but stare at empty desks while assignment editors are assigning stories to themselves. Think of all the money that is being saved by paying them all salaries instead of making them hourly. State of California: Don't you have to supervise to be paid a salary?
How many were let go that were part of that notorious clique were let go? I've read something about a clique ...
Gryka, Mahi, Vilchyse (sp?)
Does Tony Borders still work there?
Tony's still there I think and he's a good guy, don't pick on him....
No, no. Not picking on Tony. No one should be picked on today. My stomach is in knots. I have friends who work there.
Ugh... sad day.
How many reporters could have been saved by getting rid of just one of Maria's yes-men?
But the managers will continue to keep themselves busy and justify their existence, spying on reporters so they can plan the next layoffs.
Gryka and Bray are the two big yes men of Maria's clique. Especially since they were spared while their equals (Tarshes and Fisher) were sent packing this past spring. It wouldn't be a surprise to not see any missing cars in the reserved spots this week, but less in the general spaces. Just disgusting.
Do they even need reserved spots any more? Pretty soon they can have the whole parking lot to themselves.
Parking spots. Makes more sense than any other reason.
I'll bet Maria's photog husband is still there. Maybe he'll be the one to hang the "For Sale" sign on the presses? Oh yeah, they'll just post it on Craigs List.
Another wonderful day for newspapers. As long as revenue falls and then fails to return, the staff will be reduced. It is sad for me to read, not to mention how difficult it is for those people and families impacted.
My heart goes out to all of them as they were hard workers, kept their heads down and stayed focus.
Keck plugged many holes at night when others missed them.
Ed was great to work with but didn't have ties to the top to keep his job.
Very sad day
Ed is a good guy, hope he lands on his feet somewhere, hope everyone does.
I heard Jen Dean, family reporter, was let go, or will be? Any knowledge on this?
How terrible to post that someone "will be" let go....besides, might as well list everyone's name who's still there...as they ALL "will be" let go at some point at the rate this paper is going....
I agree!
If you've been out looking for the past six months,you don't want to speculate who is next.
So where is this going? Is this downsizing to make it look leaner to a Singleton purchase?
It's hard to run a web or print publication without bodies? Even if your just covering Riverside.
Lay this in the publisher's lap as he didn't have a clue where to take this paper with or without ad revenue.
I also agree that people should not list the names of people who have not yet been notified that they're being laid off or to speculate as to whether someone might be fired.
I'm surprised some of these newsroom managers don't need security to escort them to their cars. There are a couple people I might have trouble braking for if they stepped in front of my car.
I know a lot of people don't like Maria, but I really don't see her as the problem. I bet she's worried about how she'll put out a quality news product without reporters or copy editors.
I think the problem is one step up, the publisher from Belo hell who sees the paper as a marketing machine rather than a conveyor of news. It's also Dallas, who sees the Press-Enterprise as a money machine that is no longer cranking out the big bucks that it did when Belo first bought it.
I cannot fathom why they let go of ANY web people. Elizabeth Han, one of the web content folks, was given her walking papers as well. It just goes to show that the PE still has not come to terms with the fact that the future of news is on the web. At this rate, they're never going to have the chance.
Only when the web can pay the bills will a web person be safe, especially with a management team that has so little experience with the web. Being in newspapers for 20 years is arguably the worst preparation for managing a web enterprise.
My thoughts are with those who still have their jobs and those that have lost their jobs.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was let go. And we should all dig a little deep before we start naming names and taking guesses, educated or not, about who else will be let go.
These were all hard-working people who did not deserve this.
Dave Keck is a true professional and someone I admired. I know the PE is going to struggle without him.
I didn't know the others. My husband knew Julia Glick a bit. Described her as smart and funny as well as a good journalist.
My heart also goes out to those who are left. The business as a whole is getting scarier and scarier by the minute.
Hang in there guys. You do good work.
Sad, sad news, and best of luck to all involved (including those who remain). Working at the PE was one of my best newspaper experiences, and I appreciated the opportunity to work with a great bunch of talented and caring professionals.
I heard La Prensa let go Gabriela Gonzalez, reporter and Carlos Vargas, translator too.
i was most surprised by sonja and sean being let go. both are amazingly experienced journalists, especially for people who are in the under-40 crowd. sonja had a great rapport with the area law enforcement, and sean had his finger on the higher education pulse. it's not like their beats were expendable, too, so i don't know what could have gone into that decision making. i'm very sad for the newsroom and what the future might hold for the PE.
Jen's still there.
Is Redfern still there?
I think Redfern is still here.
Who's Redfern?
Ron Redfern is the Press-Enterprise publisher. He was sent from the corporate office in Dallas. It's my understanding that although he's a publisher, he has no experience in journalism. His background is marketing. He's a highly-paid salesman.
Since he took over the helm, the line of ethics in the newsroom has become a blur. A few stories were obviously written because they were good for business. I guess in this economy it's not about ethics. It's about making money for the Belo stockholders.
Reminds me of Gannett's final day at the San Bernardino Sun when Sue Clark Jackson said it was going into a partnership with Singleton. The truth turned out to be that the last publisher (not her husband) had two years to turn the paper around or close it down...he went on to a nice job in Hawaii. Aloha P-E.
I cannot fucking believe this. Pretty soon, the PE's going to be about as necessary as the hootchie papers the hawkers hand out in Vegas.
there are a number of solid publishers that didn't grow up in the newsroom or have experience in journalism. sadly, he is not one of them.
profit is not a dirty word...had you manage your team is critical.
A s a journalist down at the Press-Telegram we feel for you all. It's not just losing a co-worker its a family member.
Good luck to all let go.
The night side maintenance dept was butchered. There's only one guy left to maintain everything the press runs at night.
Good lord. How many night maintenance people did they let go?
Ron Redfern is the CEO at The Press-Enterprise and formerly was President, Florida Communications Group at Media General Broadcasting, according to his Linked-In profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ron-redfern/11/a47/594
There isn't much the press runs at night...maybe not much at all down the road if anything.
Just curious, how long before they shut the PE down?
When you look at the buy-out and the three seperate reductions in workforce over a year. It does not make much sense?
It is possible it could go to a web only platform but revenue is still a problem.
It really looks ripe for a sale given Dallas has a new product out and is adding staff in moderation.
Without its revenue, it really has less value to Belo other than a nice office building.
fyi, since the buyouts of last fall there have now been 4 "workforce reductions" aka "Your job has been eliminated"
and another funny thing: so these particular 4 copyeditor jobs have been "eliminated"--so why did they move people over to do those jobs? if the jobs were still needed, why did they get rid of the people in the first place?
I think now what I've thought for awhile: if these managers were actually smart, they wouldn't be managers!
I'm no expert but isn't there some law or something that dictates when a job is eliminated that it cannot be filled unless the title is changed and the duties clearly redefined? And if said job is filled, it also must be advertised for a specific amount of time before the position is filled within the company?
It's pretty much a shell game in the newsroom. There are so many combinations of husbands and wives; parents and children; and colleagues left over from the SB Sun. It's littered with mines if your not a member of the family.
Very sad situation at the P-E. The rest may very well be gone soon as A.H. Belo deconstructs...
Nightside maintenance originaly had 3 technicians to maintain the equipment. They laid off 2 so you could say it was a 66% reduction in the workforce.
I wanted to sing the praises of David Keck; he's an outstanding editor with a really great eye who never failed to make my copy better.
It's really sad. People I've worked with for over 20 years gone in an instant. No good bye, no words of encouragement for their new careers...just gone.
We spend as much time with felow workers as we do with our own families. While doing or jobs, we talk about family and take our fellow workers into confidence about our personal lives.
In a way, they are like family to us and losing them is like losing a member of the family.
Best
Employees
Laid
Off
Best
Employees
Laid
Off
-and-
Bad
Executives
Left
On
Do your best to stay in touch.
What seems to happen when you're jobless, is past colleagues don't know how to react to you once you're not defined by your job.
Just an email with a "how is going?" can make a week for one of our colleagues who is out looking for a new opportunity.
It breaks my heart to see what is becoming of the PE. Lots of quality people gone. I hope they do well.
I agree with your first two sentences.
ouch!!!!! karma is a bitch!
I read the "they" in the comment as referring to the PE itself, guess I read it wrong.
I also do hope those who were laid off do well but cannot find it in myself to wish the same for the paper.
the P-E isn't going through anything other papers are not or have not or will not go through. This just feels more personal because it hits so close to home.
good luck to all of the people who were included in this latest round.
I am so sorry to those of you who are gone. Losing good, talented people doesn't just hurt the paper and your co-workers, but it does long-term damage to Riverside's self-concept when there are too few honest, overworked people to put the soul and guts of this place in print.
All of us who have known your work through the morning paper will miss your effort. Your dedication was never expendable. Good luck to each of you.
The PE building has been quietly offered for sale to RCC and RUSD. Both passed because the price was set to top of market level.
Also, I have heard reports that proof reading services have been out sourced off shore. Maybe India.
I don't want the PE to fail. We need a local paper. As bad as the PE has become, we need a paper to report what our city is doing. If elected officals see no one is watching, we will suffer.
Who are the clowns that picked out a top editor who counted the PE as the biggest newspaper where she had ever worked? I don't blame her for what's wrong with the news industry but she drove morale into the ground and has the people skills of Godzilla.
The only people she spares fro her arbitrary rules and arrogant demands are her husband, a photographer, her best friend-- a reporter and her yes-men goons who wouldn't know a good story if it smacked them in the face.
Ron? Are you reading?
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