PD lays off 50, including Brett & Rosenberg. Dawidziak & Harris survive . . . for now.

PD and former BJ television critic Mark Dawidziak sent this email to the BJ Alums blog:

You may have already heard this, but . . .  You knew this was coming, of course, and, turns out, this is the morning that the Plain Dealer is announcing the elimination of one-third of the newsroom personnel. 

We were told to wait by our phones from 8 to 10 a.m. to hear our fate. I must have got the first phone call of the morning (just seconds after 8). I'm NOT being separated from employment (to use their euphemism for fired).

Now comes the awful stretch of finding out who didn't make the cut. I'm off to Elmira tomorrow to deliver a paper at the State of Mark Twain Studies Conference and a reunion with Hal (Holbrook) and David (Bianculli).

Don Rosenberg

I'm pleased, of course, but that relief is tempered by the realization that so many good people will lose their jobs today -- including, as hard as this is to report, Don Rosenberg.

    

Rosenberg left the BJ as classical musical critic to go to the PD years ago.

David Bianculli was the BJ’s TV critic before he left for the New York Post, where he no longer works, and was replaced at the BJ by Dawidziak. Bianculli is a college instructor in journalism and contributes to National Public Radio.

Mark Dawidziak

The Save the Plain Dealer Facebook page reported that 50 – more than one-third of an already-depleted staff – were laid off. That leaves 110 Guild employees. SPD said the New Jersey-based Advanced Publications, a private Newhouse company and owners of the PD, has laid off more than 1,500 nationally in its newsrooms in a move toward digital publishing. 

The PD switches to three days a week for home delivery Aug. 5, but copies are available daily at some outlets. Northeast Ohio Media Group, a PD subsidiary, is handling the transformation.

The PD dropped former BJ artist John Backderf’s comic strip, “The City,” which has run in more than 100 newspapers. Plain Dealer president/publisher Terry Egger said another round of layoffs will come later this summer. So even today's survivors aren't out of the woods necessarily. Apparently 110 is too many Guild employees for Newhouse.

Former BJ reporter Sheryl Harris, consumer writer, also survived the cut. So did Michael Heaton and Bill Livingston, who were not BJ expatriates. Guild president Harlan Spector was among the voluntary layoffs. 

When the BJ Alums blog learns the names of the others “separated” from the PD, we will pass them along on this blog. Since two dozen BJ newsroom personnel switched to the PD, there may be more names familiar to BJ alumni on the fired list. Some of the BJ folks who went to Cleveland already are gone from the PD, too, as the situation got worse and worse.

It’s yet another sad, sad day in Northeast Ohio and national newspaper journalism. The main culprits are the Internet and newspaper managements’ unwillingness to embrace the Internet in its infancy and become a leader in it rather than continuing management strategy that was a century old.

Nationwide, the New Jersey-based company, owned by one of America’s richest families, has gotten rid of more than 1,500 journalists’ jobs since launching its ill-conceived “digital first” strategy in 2012.


Per the "Save the Plain Dealer" campaign, all employees will gather in support of one another outside the newsroom.  A news conference and rally will be held outside 1801 Superior Ave. at 6 p.m.

At 7 p.m., the newsroom crowd will congregate at Market Garden Brewery. If you happen by, do send a round their way.

Partial list:

Cynthia C Baecker   clerk

Margaret Bernstein    columnist
Sandi Boyd    clerk
Tom Breckenridge    reporter
Regina Brett   columnist

Reid Brown    artist
Dave Davis    reporter
Stan Donaldson    reporter
Bob Fortuna    reporter
Pat Galbincea    reporter

Mark Gillispie    reporter
Lisa Griffis    layout editor
John Gruner    reporter
John Horton    reporter
Felesia Jackson   graphic artist

David Jardy    library clerk
Adrian Johnson    layout editor
Ellen Jan Kleinerman   reporter
Doug Kramer    copy editor
John Kuehner   city desk editor (night)

John Luttermoser    copy editor
John Mangels    reporter

Erik Maruschak sports clerk

Carl Matzelle    sports clerk
Joe Maxse   sports  reporter

Deborah Miller    copy editor
Mike O'malley   reporter
James W Owens    graphics artist
Mike Peticca    reporter
Bill Piotrowski   layout editor

Racquel Robinson    letters editor
Timothy Rogers    reporter
Don Rosenberg    reporter
Anita Russo    clerk
Tonya Sams    reporter

Michael Scott   reporter
Scott Shaw    photographer
Harlan Spector reporter
Edith Starzyk    reporter
Peggy Turbett   photographer

Eileen Zakareckis    clerk

 Brian Zawicki library clerk

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