The Palladium-Item is reporting that ten additional staff positions, including some in the news department, have been cut:

The cuts came from several departments, including news, advertising, pre-press, financial and circulation, Palladium-Item general manager and executive editor Mickey Johnson told employees. The cuts were a part of nationwide changes made by Gannett Co. Inc.

In a related discussion thread, online editor Jason Truitt discussed the cuts:

Was I blind-sided by the layoffs announcement? No. The furloughs in the first two quarters of this year were a temporary measure in the hopes the economy would quickly turn around. When it didn't, it was obvious more permanent measures would have to be taken. The only question was if it would be in the form of layoffs or pay cuts.

There are two pieces in today's Palladium-Item where its staff reflect on various changes taking place at the daily paper.

The first, on the closing of the locally-housed print press (announced in November), is a nice piece by Bill Engle that includes interviews and retrospective on the history of the press, and the implications of the change.

The second by executive editor Mickey Johnson is a detailed inventory of other changes to the paper's format, content and production schedule. These include rearranging and combining the paper's main sections, leaving out the "Viewpoints" page on Wednesdays, plans to have "a bigger Sports section and create a Local Life section that's exclusively local" on Sunday, and various new web-based features including a new "behind the scenes" blog by Jason Truitt.

Both articles are nice bits of transparency, and genuine acknowledgements of the realities of a changing industry.

The Palladium-Item announced today that it will be moving its printing operations to Indianapolis, eliminating 60 positions from its local staff.  According to the article, the decision comes after an evaluation of the capital investment that would be required to maintain the local press equipment, and other factors resulting from the "difficult economic environment."

The local press not only prints the Palladium-Item itself, but also serves as a printing center for USA Today, The Earlham Word, and several other publications.  While the article notes that delivery times for the Pal-Item are not expected to change, it doesn't discuss the future of these other publications.

The move comes as one in a series of changes scaling back the paper's operations, including staff cuts and an increased focus on online offerings that aren't tied to local offices.  While nothing is certain, those watching the newspaper industry in general and Gannett's practices in particular know that this trend could eventually spell the end of the Palladium-Item's publication altogether.

In this episode: a roundup of recent developments in local and regional news media.  Plus, some new and updated local blogs to check out.  Enjoy!

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The Gannett Corporation has announced that it will be cutting about 1,000 positions at its newspaper properties across the U.S. The Palladium-Item noted today that four of those positions will be lost here in Richmond. It's not clear if the positions being eliminated are related to news-gathering and reporting, circulation, or other parts of the paper's operations. It's also not clear if the cuts will result in existing staff losing their jobs, or if they will come in the form of position elimination after resignations/retirements.

The cuts will be happening on a fairly short timeline after the announcement, with notification to employees happening by today and the reductions in place by August 31st. According to a Reuters story, publishers across the country continue to cite decreasing revenues with no end in sight, as readers increasingly turn to the Internet for their news and information.

Update on 9/10: The Pal-Item.com website today carries a story noting that five positions have been eliminated instead of the originally reported four.

Since the Richmond News Review is all about covering news and opinion happening in the area, we thought it would be useful to take a look at what sources of news there are for Richmond, and how they operate. We already discussed whether or not the RNR itself is a source of news, so we'll leave ourselves out of this inventory.
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