The Times-Picayune laid off more than 200 people, or nearly a third of its overall staff.
It is unclear how many of these positions are going to be refilled, and by whom. Jim Amoss, the editor of The Times-Picayune, said that while about half the newsroom was let go on Tuesday — around 84 people — a coming series of hires would mean that by fall the newsroom would be smaller by only about 32 people.
The decisions about whom to lay off, he said, were made for both economic reasons and as part of a new digital approach to journalism. “We knew two things about our future,” Mr. Amoss said. “One, that it would have to be digitally focused, and the other, that we would have to reduce the overall size of the company. And both of those factors played into the decision of how to go forward.”
Mr. Amoss did not deny a concern raised by returning reporters that they would be compensated based on page views or other gauges of online popularity, emphasizing only that their base salaries would be comparable to what they earn now and “they’ll be operating in a digital world, and how they do will be evaluated.”
[Even more depressing details here, via Morris B.]
