News-Press Lays Off 15

I'm really sick of hearing only about those let go in the newsroom. A LOT of other good, hardworking employees were laid off yesterday. It's not only a newsroom that allows a paper to function. People who have worked 30 years, 40 years were laid off yesterday. People in their 50's who, statistically, have a much harder time finding new employment. Let's hear about some of those people.

I also disagree with the use of the term "firing". These weren't firings, that term implies that these people did something wrong or were unfit to do their jobs. These were layoffs, where no blame is assigned to the employee. Using the term firing is editorializing and inappropriate.

They just raised their rates for a paper thiner than a Girl Scouts thin mint cookie and more expensive than a box! What the hell is that?

To Marion: Absolutely, being laid off clearly is nothing to be ashamed of and quite different from being fired which implies trouble. I was laid off thirteen years ago, aged 52. My manager, ordered to do this by the powers above, was in tears . He called around town to find an opening for me in another facility and sure enough I was working again in a month and remain at that position. I hope there are angels like him still around.

There is a clear distinction between firings & layoffs. Wording is everything. But the thing here is that it's just more than newsroom people that got axed, like Marion said :) henry

Many talented and hardworking employees throughout the newspaper have quit, been illegally fired, and laid off from the News-Press since its purchase by Wendy McCaw in 2000. Some have attorneys or know attorneys who speak for them in the media. Others, I suspect, remain quiet out of fear McCaw will come after them as she has done to Jerry Roberts. I salute you all for your courage and ethics.

I echo what was said above. In this case, the layoffs were primarily not in the newsroom. While the newsroom employees have some protection for the very reason they voted in a union, there are other undeserving victims of McCaw mismanagement and callousness not in the newsroom who are no less entitled to support and respect. This must be a moment of solidarity and sympathy, not division.

Does vonWeinerburg really not know the difference between "insure" and "ensure"???

benjamin, you ought to make sure that the problem is with von Wiesenberger and not the writer/editor of the article before you go placing blame.

May Day, known the world over as "International Workers' Day," a specific date that Wendy celebrates by firing more loyal NewsPress workers. And some people accuse Ms. McCaw of having no sense of humor? If only she could foment her own version of the Haymarket Riot at De La Guerra plaza, her dreams would come true...

If I could ask Wendy McCaw one question, it would be this: "After all the people you've fired--with the attendant disruption of lives your decisions have caused-- how is your paper a better publication as a result if these decisions?"

In the 19th century frontier, a newspaper owner this universally detested would have been ridden out of town on a rail... decorated with feathers. How dare she stomp into town and ruin our newspaper with her selfishness and greed, then claim it's part of a national trend! The News Mess has been destroyed singlehandedly by a trophy divorcee.

The mess is a little easier to understand when you realize wendy is incapable of empathy for anything more evolved than earth's animals minus humans.

From on high, she imagines she still owns a newspaper and not a bird-cage liner factory.

Did she suffer a frontal lobe injury somewhere along the way?

"Gottlieb said his office is consistently concerned with the state of the News-Press, considering the current climate of the newspaper industry."

Wendy~ when you mistreat, fire, lay off, harass and slander the friends and neighbors of your subscriber base, what do you expect to happen to your business? This is a small town my dear. While the newspaper industry as a whole is in trouble, I suspect that had you not mismanaged our local paper, it would still be going strong. I cancelled my sub over a year ago because of your deplorable antics, and most people I know have done the same. Don't blame the industry honey, look in the mirror. We mourn the hijacking of our treasured local paper, you've ruined it for everyone.

My sympathy goes out to all of you who were laid off on Friday. It's the SBNP's loss for sure.