UPDATED INFORMATION:
Those laid off include:
George Campbell, copy desk chief
Pat Benton, copy editor
Carrie Ord, accent news assistant
Lupe Ortiz, accent news assistant
Tiana Velez, business news assistant
Dave Castelan, graphics designer
Jane See White, copy editor
Jeff Commings, neighbors reporter
Jon Hassen, network administrator
Seth Mauzy, position unknown

CHISMES: I understand from sources familiar with the situation that the decision to lay off the 11 employees was taken last night or early this morning because of the sudden drop in advertising from Tucson automobile magnate Jim Click. But these are only rumors right now.

Sources have also confirmed that those laid off are being offered three weeks’ severance pay as long as they don’t speak about their lay off to the press.

At a meeting this afternoon, Arizona Daily Star publisher John Humenik announced 11 layoffs at the newspaper, some employees with more than 30 years of loyal service to this newspaper and this community.

This move was completely unexpected by my sources as the newspaper only yesterday announced cutbacks in the newspaper itself.

However, and let’s just call this a rumor for the moment, I understand that automobile magnate Jim Click just this week cut advertising at the newspaper by 50 percent. If this rumor is correct, that would certainly explain Lee Enterprises, Inc., decision to cut back staff. (Read about the problems at the Arizona Republic at Espresso Pundit where Greg Patterson has calculated a two percent drop in circulation at the state’s largest paper starting Dec. 31)

In the 12:30 p.m. meeting, Humenik told employees that advertising sales have dropped dramatically, though he did not give specifics as to how much. He also referenced the drop in home-building as the bottom has dropped out nationally in the loan business for the decline in ad revenue.

Kudos to Metro Columnist Bonnie Henry who, in the meeting, observed that in all her years at this newspaper, through good and bad, she’s never seen such a devastating blow delivered to the Star.

Those laid off include long-time employees who have not been confirmed as of yet so I’ve deleted their names.

The move comes on the heels of an internal e-mail sent out yesterday that announced the cutbacks in the newspaper.

As you can probably ascertain for yourselves, the workload they carried will now be done by less staff, which leads to more administrative work by reporters. This translates into less time spent reporting and that translates into less news being reported.

Full disclosure, I worked at the Arizona Daily Star for about 2-1/2 years. In many ways, it was the best gig I ever had. I find this decision unfortunate and a little depressing. I don’t know what the profit margin for Lee Enterprises is, but the industry standard seems to be about 20-25 percent. I wonder if their profit margin will also suffer a blow? I ask because it seems most publishing companies don’t seem to be hurt much even as they lay off employees.

I’ll direct you to one BorderReporter.com reader who noted: “Let’s not forget the plummeting stock price of the Star’s parent corporation, which is now at exactly $14. In March it was nearly $36. But if the Click rumor is true, that’s the ultimate blow.”

Here is the memo that was released yesterday:

“Team, There were a few things at Thursday’s Managers Meeting that I wanted to pass along to you. Most of it does not affect Metro. I apologize for taking so long getting this to you, but please pass it on to your team Monday.

* The online sites for zoned publications have been eliminated.

* On Mondays the Business and Accent sections will be combined.

Accent will be at the front and Biz on the back page.

* There will be no Op-Ed Page on Saturdays (there will still be a regular editorial page).

* Some wire services are being cut as well as some wire columnists.

No more McClatchey or Scripps.

* There will be no more high school web casts.

* TV Week and At Home are shrinking. Mapping The News is going away as is BYO Brain.

* Student Achievers and Star 200 will be smaller.

* We will still support 110 Degrees mag. However, any staffers who want to work on the project must do so on their own time rather than on the clock.

I’m going to try to make the rounds next week to talk to all the teams, but it’ll be tough because of vacations. This is an effort for the Star to eliminate stuff that is not getting a lot of reader reaction so we can do things that will.

Also, John Humenik got a promotion. He’s a Group Publisher now. That means he is still is our publisher but now will have the publisher in Flagstaff and Lee’s Hawaii paper reporting to him. We shouldn’t notice much of a change, though we might work more often with the Flagstaff folks.”

– Michael Marizco