Another few bite the dust

People Newspapers in the Dallas area yesterday closed three of its six newspapers and laid off a bunch of people -- including two friends with whom I had previously worked. This group is owned by D Magazine (the local city magazine), which also experienced its own reduction in force, and remaining staffers took a pay cut.

One of those laid-off friends had the right attitude. She said this was a good thing for her, and she walked out feeling confident. She was re-thinking her desire to be in the newspaper industry, anyway.

Though these few layoffs don't approach what Citigroup said it would do yesterday -- 53,000 more job cuts -- or the carnage expected at NASCAR this week -- possibly 1,500 losing their jobs because of sponsorship woes, team mergers, etc. -- the People Newspapers cuts are more slices in the industry that I've been a part of since high school.

I know that People publisher Jason Heid, with whom I worked and whose rise makes me very proud, must be heartbroken about having to lay off these people and close newspapers that he helped build. His papers were well-reported and well-written, beautifully designed and had excellent photography. They also paid a lot more than the average community newspaper, which is one reason they attracted many reporters from my old company.

Multiple sources said, however, that the layoffs might not have been handled so well. One account was that people were packing up and leaving last week, without remaining staff being told what was going on. The Dallas Morning News reported that the D/People blogs were taken down through late Monday because comments were posted about who was getting the boot before the staff was even told.

It's getting bad out there folks. A former TV reporter told me yesterday that news directors are looking only for people who look presentable on television and will work on the cheap -- journalism experience be damned.

But, as I said in a previous post, we're not dead yet. My wife's boss, the great John Salustri, real estate editorial director for Incisive Media, told her that newspapers will be greatly changed when they find their new footing. Whether that's for the good or the bad remains to be seen.

Amen, John.