Newark newsmen reassigned to mailroom

Joe Strupp reports in Editor & Publisher that Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger reporter Jason Jett and Assistant Deputy Photo Editor Mitchell Seidel have been reassigned to the mail room and have been filing, sorting, and delivering mail for more than a week.

Jett and Seidel, who could not be reached for comment, apparently declined to take one of the buyouts offered this fall as part of a company-wide move to cut costs.

Publisher George Arwady threatened to sell or close the Advance Publications daily last summer if at least 200 buyouts were not taken and new deals forged with two unions.

In the end, the buyouts were met, with 151 of the newsroom's 330 staffers taking them, along with other non-newsroom employees. In recent weeks, news folks have been leaving little by little, with all of those taking buyouts expected to depart by the end of the year.

Editor Jim Willse declined to comment on the mailroom assignment, while other staffers confirmed the move and revealed their surprise but requested anonymity.