Subject: Layoffs and Downsizing

• Thank You and Here's My Distress: Sinclair Pulls Advertising From Post-Dispatch

  September 25, 2008

• Eighteen to be Laid Off Today at Post-Dispatch

  September 26, 2008

• Post-Dispatch Lays Off Seventeen, Including its Primary Crime Reporter

  September 26, 2008

• Memo: Post-Dispatch Editors Announce Layoffs

  September 29, 2008

• Post Food Critic Still Eating Heartily

  September 29, 2008

• Joe Bonwich Still on the Menu

  September 29, 2008

• Suburban Journals Also Shedding Employees, 45 Fired Friday

  September 29, 2008

• Why Oh Why Don't They Call it "The Lee EnterPrizes"?

  October 10, 2008

• AB InBev To Lay Off 1,000 in St. Louis

  Anheuser-Busch InBev employees are buzzing about imminent job cuts in the wake of InBev's recent acquisition of St. Louis' corporate crown jewel. The company today announced that it would cut 1,400 jobs in the United States, about 75 percent of them (1,050 jobs) in St. Louis. According to the Associated Press:Anheuser-Busch-InBev says it will cut 1,400 U.S. jobs -- or 6 percent of its U.S. work force -- as part of plans to streamline the beer company.It said three quarters of the jobs

  December 8, 2008

• Post-Dispatch Lays Off 39 More Employees

  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today let go of 39 people across four departments -- newsroom, finance, operations and advertising. As far as the newsroom goes, so far I know of two online employees and one copy editor who were fired. The cuts apparently came as the night shift began arriving for work about 4 p.m.

  January 8, 2009

• Post-Dispatch Layoffs Include 14 From Newsroom

  Columnist and commentary page editor Eric Mink and prep/college sports editor Cameron Hollway were among the slew of folks who got pink-slipped at the local daily yesterday.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid off 39 employees across four departments, including fourteen from the newsroom. The paper did not fire any reporters or photographers, but did let go a number of copy editors, news clerks and online editors. Although the sports department had been largely spared in the two previ

  January 9, 2009

• The Morning Brew: Thursday, 2.19

  Pork mega-producer Smithfield Foods is cutting jobs, closing factories and losing stock value. (AP)Guilty pleas in a big food-safety and graft case involving California's tomato-processing industry. (San Francisco Chronicle)A new study suggests eating apples might fight breast cancer. (Daily Telegraph)

  February 19, 2009

• The Post-Dispatch is shedding news pages and slashing editorial staff – and there's no end in sight

  September 10, 2008

• Best Local Politician

  George R. "Buzz" Westfall (1944-2003)

  September 29, 2004

• Best Villain

  Vince Schoemehl

  September 24, 2003

• Sol Brothers

  August 20, 2003

• Short Cuts

  May 19, 1999

• Write or wrong: Readers debate the firing of reporter Todd Smith, who was shot at Kirkwood City Hall

  April 29, 2009

• Unreal: Post-Dispatch Lays Off More Peeps -- and Scoops Daily RFT

  Unreal has learned that the local daily laid off 39 people today. And actually reported (an apparent press release) on it!According to the un-bylined brief, the P-D let go of 36 people in circulation and 3 people in classifieds. Most of the jobs are being outsourced to Indiana. (Dave Sinclair ain't gonna be happy about that one. But maybe he'll buy some air time somewhere else to gripe about it.) The Daily RFT is the usual source for news about goings-down over at 900 North Tucker Boulevard, esp

  May 22, 2009

• The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 6.23

  The recall of Nestlé Toll House cookie dough for E. coli contamination could lead to as many as 200 layoffs. (CNN)A Chicago-area company has recalled ground beef contaminated with E. coli. (Chicago Breaking News)The Chinese love Bordeaux, apparently. (AP)

  June 23, 2009

• The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 6.24

  Creve Coeur-based Monsanto faces lower profits and imminent layoffs. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)The FDA warns that pistachios from the salmonella outbreak earlier this year are being repackaged and sold. (Reuters)Will the recession-busting deals at T.G.I. Friday's and other mid-level chain restaurants help or hurt the companies? (New York Times)

  June 24, 2009

• Yet Another Round of Layoffs at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newsroom last night lost another four people: three news researchers (who compile material for reporters) and a photo assistant.Executive editor Arnie Robbins announced the cuts in a memo to staff this morning, saying, "We left a handful of positions unfilled over the course of the summer, and reduced some of our fixed costs (wire services, travel, etc.) to keep the job losses to a minimum. Still, it hurts and we are sorry to have to give you this news."According to a

  August 21, 2009

• Suburban Journals Announces Layoffs and Restructuring

  Several former Suburban Journals staffers tell Daily RFT that the regional chain of free weeklies laid off an undetermined number of sports and news reporters yesterday. ​At the same time, the Journals managers told staff that the chain is restructuring its editions, and going from sixteen to ten. The South County Journal and the South Side Journal, for instance, have been condensed into one paper called the South Journal. Similarly, readers will no longer see a West County Journal and Mid-Cou

  August 27, 2009

• Post-Dispatch Art Critic David Bonetti Saying Adieu

  David Bonetti, art critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will be punching the clock at 900 North Tucker for the last time this Friday. stltoday.comShrinking, and shrinking, and shrinking​Bonetti tells Daily RFT he's taking a "voluntary layoff," an option the local daily has given to some staffers which allows them to leave with benefits -- and which makes it possible for a P-D employee who's been involuntarily laid off to get his/her job back.Not clear yet if the newspaper will hire another

  September 2, 2009

• Kevin Renick's Song "Up in the Air" Makes It into Up in the Air

  A few weeks ago, we reported that Kevin Renick's song "Up in the Air" was set for inclusion in the George Clooney movie Up In the Air. My colleague in LA, Randy Roberts, saw a screening of the movie, and confirmed its inclusion. Says the Daily RFT: And then there's the closing song, "Up In the Air," which runs during the credits and was written by former Riverfront Times proofreader Kevin Renick (!). It's a soft acoustic song composed by the St. Louis-based writer and musician. As the credits r

  October 9, 2009

• Wounded, Laid-Off Lee Enterprises Reporter Gets Hired & Hitched

  Todd Smith was the only person wounded in the Kirkwood shootings to survive. ​In case you missed Deb Peterson's schmooze on Todd Smith, the former Suburban Journals reporter who was wounded in the Kirkwood City Hall shooting a year before being laid off by the employer he took a bullet for: Smith has been hired by The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois.Smith is now an editor and writer for the newspaper's medical website, BeHealthySpringfield.com. After being shot in the hand by C

  October 23, 2009