How many jobs did The Oregonian shed after it announced staff and home-delivery reductions last week? Willamette Week’s Aaron Mesh reports “about 95 employees” lost their jobs.
University of Oregon professor Suzi Steffen was more exact:
From a newsroom source – 98 people laid off on all floors of the Oregonian. Photogs, designers, editors, reporters – even interns.
— Suzi Steffen (@SuziSteffen) June 22, 2013
Asked about layoff numbers, Oregonian editor Peter Bhatia referred me to publisher N. Christian Anderson III, who told me in an email: “I am not commenting on the number of layoffs, either company-wide or in the newsroom. At any rate, not everyone who was offered a severance package may end up leaving.”
In an email, Bhatia told me the organization will hire more people. “Our goal is to keep reporter numbers where they are today — about 90,” he writes.
The Oregonian is owned by Advance. Steven Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net, told me last year that at his company’s New Orleans Times-Picayune, “the overall newsroom reduction [was] about 20 percent” following initial reductions. “[W]hen we’re fully staffed we’re gonna have a very significant content team,” Newhouse said last August.
Related: The Oregonian: Going the way of all newspapers? (Crosscut)
Comments