Three More Split the N-P

Well-informed sources tell me that two more News-Press
staffers have flown the coop to greener pastures. That, along with
the departure of sports copy desk staffer Kim
Burnell, who fled Tuesday, makes a total of 19 newsroom
denizens who have resigned since early July.

The same day hard-working Kim quit on Tuesday she worked a copy
desk shift at the L.A. Daily News, I’m told. Meanwhile,
the husband-and-wife copy desk team of Paula
Pisani and George Hutti have left S.B. in
their rear-view mirror and headed for San Diego. George will be a
copy editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Paula is
looking for work in that region.

Joining the spinoffs from the News-Press going to the
Santa Maria Times, Bill Etling, who was among community
columnists fired by the N-P, has been hired by the
Times to write a weekly column for the Santa Ynez
Valley News, owned by the Times.

Sources also say that Ana Lisa Fuentes, the
N-P photog who accused business editor Michael
Todd of making threatening remarks, has left the paper.
That presumably will end the paper’s action against Todd. Todd
strenuously denied the accusation, calling it just a misfired joke.
But it led to Todd’s suspension and resignation.