As part of a career seminar at the University of Richmond Tuesday, Richmond Times-Dispatch Executive Editor Glenn Proctor answered questions from young journalism students about how to break into the news business.
Perhaps the students should have been asking how to stay in the newspaper business.
Back in his fourth-floor executive suite at 300 E. Franklin St. today, Proctor’s helping a sizable percentage of his newsroom staff make sudden exits.
Possibly more than 20 reporters, editors, copy desk editors, layout and design artists, and other support staff -- among them some of the paper’s top winners at the Virginia Press Association awards banquet in Norfolk two weeks ago -- were told yesterday that they were scheduled for a meeting with Proctor today.
Though there was nothing in their notifications related to layoffs, reporters were taking no chances. They headed out for a final beer to commiserate with colleagues or scrambled to put together lists of the potential fallen. One former reporter described it as a newsroom "bloodbath."
That list totals as many as 28 newsroom or editorial page staffers, according to sources. They provided names of people who confirmed receiving notice of meetings with Proctor. Among the well-known bylines facing the top editor today are Rex Bowman, Bill Geroux and Carlos Santos, all of whom are longtime state desk reporters.
Veteran reporter Robin Farmer, whose husband is columnist Michael Paul Williams, packed the contents of her desk last night, according to sources.
Longtime movie reviewer Daniel Neman, who was also covering Richmond's arts and culture scene,confirmed to friends that he was laid off at 9 a.m.
Gary Brookins, the paper’s award-winning editorial cartoonist whose comic strip Pluggers is syndicated nationally, also received notice, according to sources.
So sweeping are the layoffs in areas such as layout that one former staffer speculated that there will no longer be enough artists to cover the hours needed to produce a daily newspaper. By eliminating Santos, Farmer, Geroux and Bowman, the paper also eliminates most of the remaining veteran reporting staff.
Sources also say the newsroom was recently informed of changes that largely do away with the food section and real estate pages. Times-Dispatch spokeswoman Frazier Millner clarifies with Style that Wednesday food coverage will stay with a "change in format," including going to black and white, and that real estate information from Sunday's front page will move to other sections of the paper.
"Flexibility and repackaging give us new options for advertising and readership growth," Millner writes in an e-mail. "These changes are designed to make maximum use of resources and space while continuing to offer our readers content they tell us is important to them … and advertisers as well."
As for the newsroom’s union, sources say heads of the Richmond Newspapers Professional Association were scrambling yesterday to determine whether layoffs were planned. Union leaders have been summoned to speak with Andrew Rome, a Media General corporate attorney.
This round of layoffs marks the latest in a series, the most recent of which occurred near the Christmas holiday and saw the departure of five newsroom staffers. During the past three or more years, readers of the paper have watched the departure -- either through attrition or layoff -- of such high-profile writers and columnists as Randy Fitzgerald, Douglas Durden, Ray McAllister and Betty Booker. Pulitzer finalist Mark Holmberg left on his own, disgusted with the direction of the paper and assuming a new career in television news reporting.
Media General, the Times-Dispatch’s parent company, announced a reorganization of its corporate business structure last week, described by company officials as a move to a “Web First strategy.” Divisions between the company’s television, print and Internet holdings were broken down and replaced with five geographic markets.
That strategy is in line with remarks made by T-D Publisher Tom Silvestri in recent years, in which he’s speculated on a merging of the company’s mediums, with the daily print newspaper ideally scaled back to three times a week or fewer, in favor of an online presence. But "there are no plans to eliminate days of [newspaper] production," the Times-Dispatch says in a press release today announcing the layoffs and eliminated positions.
The paper, which recently acquired Richmond.com, also recently announced it would end its inrich.com online presence and replace it with Richmond.com. Inrich, over recent months, has undergone an evolution toward an online news aggregator, providing links to headlines for other online publications, including local bloggers and Style Weekly.
The Times-Dispatch has announced that company wide, 31 open positions have been eliminated and 59 employees laid off. "This is not a day I ever wanted to see come," President and Publisher Thomas A. Silvestri says in the release. "I thank each and every departing employee for their years of valued service that helped publish Richmond's daily newspapers."
The paper started to die the day Proctor arrived. Amazingly, it looks like they're going to keep him around to call the official time of death.
Saturday, May 02, 2009 9:37:18 PM by nostatic
I'm very sorry to see Dan Neman go. He was a fine film critic. The T-D fails on so many levels to be a first-class paper. It's wrongheaded conservatism and parochial perspective is an embarrassment. The quality of journalism at the paper has been on a downhill slide for years.
Proctor, Silvestri and Bryan should be ashamed of themselves.
Saturday, April 11, 2009 11:19:40 AM by NASKARma
Dan's wife still works there. The wife of a BRILLIANT IT guy who was axed still works there. Minority-interest columnist Michael Paul Williams' wife was laid off but he still works there. As a movie reviewer, Dan Neman was an accomplished autobiographer. You learned a lot more about him and his wide knowledge and wry wit than you did the movie. If you read the music critic, you find that edge of edgy edginess there as well. When they want you to have an opinion, they'll issue you one. You're lucky to have access to an industry insider. There was always a copy of Style Weekly around different departments of the paper. Sometimes employees learned more from it than from their "superiors." I wonder if Proctor will "have Style readers in his office" if they are discovered.
Friday, April 10, 2009 4:32:11 PM by Mel
Can't say I'll miss Neman. He could never review a foreign film worth beans. Just didn't seem to "get" anything without a third-grade-level plotline.
Friday, April 10, 2009 7:50:23 AM by Karma Rocks!
This is not a day I ever wanted to see come," President and Publisher Thomas A. Silvestri says in the release. "I thank each and every departing employee for their years of valued service that helped publish Richmond's daily newspapers." But we plan to do it again in June.
Almost forgot. Lindy Keast Rodman's famous photo of the collapsed Frank Sinatra on a stretched at the Richmond Mosque performance made the company $30,000 after sales to tabloids and TV. She got maybe a high-five out of it. But she still has her job, she should be grateful, right?
Friday, April 10, 2009 7:44:23 AM by Karma Rocks!
Media General stock price has rebounded from 62 cents last Friday to $2.46 yesterday. Apparently the market approves of management's philosophy that empty desks are more valuable to the company than the Virginia Press Award winners who used to occupy them. Isn't that why the country the entire global economy is in this state in the first place? Newspapers are using non-news content written in the Philippines and Asia. Fashion, decorating, ....hm. Investing? It is embarrassingly reported that the big-screen TVs with self-back-patting announcements about the TD and MG still shows the names of the "valued VPA prize winners" who were taken in the April Fool's Day Massacre. There's no one left with the time to edit new looping video. No definite timeline, but several months after Glenwood Proctor was made EXECUTivE Editor ("That word you keep using. I do not think it means what you think it means." "The Princess Bride"), 35-year copy editor and then managing editor Louise Seals was met at the door on such a day and told to go home and stay there. She herself had just cooperated willingly or unwillingly in the forced resignation of politicial reporter Micharl Hardy for sending 50 bucks to a friend's political campaign in RHODE ISLAND, a "violatino of company policy due to conflict of interest." Managing Editor Peggy Bellows, keep your back to a wall. The long knives have no eyes and no heart.
Thursday, April 09, 2009 11:34:50 PM by kcn1229@comcast.net
How do I get in touch with Randy Fitzgerald? I would like to line him up as as speaker at the 175 member Brandermill Woman's Club in Chesterfield.
Thursday, April 09, 2009 4:51:16 AM by Anonymous
Wow.. Neman's one! It took them this long to dump someone I really won't miss!
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 9:24:50 PM by Sic semper Proctorius
A share of MG stock is now worth less than a copy of the paper I mean COSTS less. 62 cents. A year ago they were anxious about it possibly dipping below $35. The January layoffs were obviously very effective.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 1:58:55 PM by Anonymous
MG has never been gracious at saying goodbye.
During the 10 years I was there, I can't remember how many people I saw this happen to, wondering who would be next. That's a great work environment!
I'm grateful for the opportunity I had there, and more grateful I got out of there.
I've never met a former TD employee who wishes he/she was still there.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 11:22:01 AM by Instant Karma
Like foreign travel, sunny beaches and palmtrees? When you call 644-4181 to cancel your subscription your call will be routed to the circulation department in the exotic Phillipines. Think about that when the Happy 4th of July edition comes out. The money your neighbor used to get now goes to someone who thinks the name of our country is "USA go home!" A Proctorism heard at a staff meeting: "If you dont subscribe to the paper, get OUT NOW!" Even if you write, edit, lay out, print the d- thing and have it memorized. See, ads are the real money, and ad prices are based on the number of readers. When there were 1000 MG employees in Richmond it might have made a difference. A man named Boycott had an idea about that.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10:29:29 AM by Worse Karma
Dear remaining soon-to-be-former-employees of Mediocre General:
Dont say anything that might get you fired. Or Dont say anything. THAT might get you fired.
Doing the same thing over and over again while expecting better results and blaming everyone else and hurting them is called sociopathy. People like Casey Anthony who have no conscience. (first initiallastname@timesdispatch,com)
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10:07:45 AM by Baaad Karma
It's the Borrowed Time Dispatch now.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10:03:54 AM by Baaad Karma
Proctor is proud of his time in the Marine Corps. Ambush is a perfectly valid battlefield tactic. He's Media General's general.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 7:31:24 AM by Ben Dover (say it fast)
People whose desks are now empty are said to have been "Proctored." The problem with the newsroom union the only bargaining unit in Media General that hasn't been busted is that they care too much. Consummate pros. They need to have a contagious flu empty the newsroom for a week. No content, no paper, no web site. What are they gonna do, fire everyone who's left? Lawsuits and whining to the Federal Labor Commission have never worked.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 7:01:24 AM by Ben Dover
Silvestri was seen entering the building Monday morning bounding up the steps two at a time like a man after a job well done and pleased with himself. The professional association received notice entire hours (two of them) before the month-planned layoffs began at 9 a.m. On the day the association and the company were to negotiate wage and benefit concessions, That is, employees giving up stuff for the good of the company, as they had been doing for a few years. Weeks of vacation time. Days off. It's never enough. Anyone heard about MG executives giving back even a little of thelr $100k bonuses? Stockholder meeting is April 23. If the TD says the sky is blue, look up and check for yourself.
As a journalism student at VCU graduating this year and looking to break into the industry, it's sad to see these lay offs and know what I'm getting into. My thoughts go out to everyone at the TD who got laid-off (even Dan Neman...).
Friday, April 03, 2009 10:09:52 AM by Mary Ellin
Thank you, Style. Solid reporting. My heart goes out to all the good people who passed through the revolving door for the last time yesterday.
Friday, April 03, 2009 7:53:58 AM by Anonymous
Gary Brookins' cartoons are the very BEST thing in the RT-D. If he's been laid off, there's no reason to buy the newspaper anymore. He's is a true talent. A legend in cartooning.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 8:48:41 PM by PAT
What about non-newsroom employees? Other depts. were affected. They didn't meet with Glenn Proctor - they were met at the door as they came to work and told they no longer had a job. That's cold.
If this company keeps getting so top heavy, that crash sound downtown will be the RTD and MG buildings crumbling onto the street from all the bow-ties at the top. The people making the decisions rarely sit foot in a newsroom and have no idea what's happening in there, nor do they listen to the public.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 8:01:27 PM by Anonymous
Too bad J. Stewart Bryan and Tom Silvestri evidently thought they were so smart they didn't need to listen to: a) The community b) The reporters c) Consumers d) all of the above
And, too bad Bryan, Silvestri and Glenn Proctor kept such a choke-hold on their reporters and failed to listen to their editors and staff reporters. No one could ever tell this most unholy triumvirate a damned thing.
I'm glad Style scooped Bryan/Silvestri/Proctor on the story and I am very sorry that these reporters and staff members have been treated so abysmally by Media General.
Interestingly, Bryan/Silvestri/Proctor displayed the same arrogance and callous disregard for the citizens of this city that their hand-picked mayor, L. Douglas Wilder, demonstrated for the past four years.
They even called Hizzoner a "true Renaissance Man." While Wilder was wacking out and hurting people in City Hall and throughout the city, the RT-D was equally dysfunctional treating good people, talented people as merely "the hired help." Too bad, there was no way that the "hired help" could have orchestrated a "palace coup" and sent these jokers to a galaxy far, far away.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 7:29:25 PM by Rex Bowman
Hey I enjoy seeing my name in bold.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 6:55:42 PM by Anon
I think part of what got the RTD into this mess is not reporting news that was uncomfortable to certain people. So they lost relevance and readership. Maybe the'll run another Elliott Yamin cover tomorrow...
Thursday, April 02, 2009 5:12:23 PM by Anonymous
You guys are really missing the point. While you point fingers at "Style" for being "snarky," the bloated management of the Times Dispatch remains in place and the people who have seriously damaged the T-D's reputation with bad decisions in recent years are all still there. Some very talented and respected people lost their jobs today (following other well-known community voices and hard workers who were laid off or forced out) while there are overpaid management people who can't even spell who are staying simply because they are loyal to Glenn Proctor. It's like a low-rent version of "The Caine Mutiny." You can talk about streamlining operations all you want, but if you think that getting rid of your best and most productive people and keeping dead weight is a good way to run a company, look at the results so far. Abysmal.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:14:26 PM by Anonymous
Please don't compare Style to RTD. It's like apples to oranges. Style doesn't even touch RTD as far as reach and importance in the community.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 3:43:11 PM by C
Sorry if I submit this twice... I don't mean to.
Anyway, I'm very sorry to see Carlos Santos go. I liked his stories and will miss them. The RTD might as well be gone.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:53:00 PM by Anon
If it is true that the leaders of RNPA were "scrambling" to determine if layoffs were coming, then that is a true commentary on the effectiveness of that leadership. Anyone reading the MG news releasesand the company balance sheetsshould have seen layoffs of this magnitude coming like a speeding freight train. Perhaps when the company began serious hemorrhaging the union had stepped up and been a partner, things might be different. But we will never know.
My heart goes out to the people who lost their jobs, and those who yet may still lose them. This article doesn't mention the five who were laid off at the Daily Progress in Charlottesville as well. This is a very, very sad day for journalism, for newspapers and, frankly, for this community.
Who will cover the news?
Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:46:39 PM by Anonymous
It is a sad day for Virginia's residents to lose these dedicated journalists and newsroom employees. Tomorrow, we will all be a little less informed, a little less entertained and far more vulnerable to the kinds of abuses from which only a free press can defend us.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:38:26 PM by Pete Humes
I'm no pilot, but there must be a term for that point you reach in a nose dive when it is simply impossible to pull up. It's hard not to believe that the RTD has reached that point. I'm definitely one of those people who wanted to know names. Even having been through the shredder myself, I'm shocked to see who has been let go. Many of these people WERE the Richmond Times-Dispatch. They worked harder than anyone else (myself included) and practically bled ink. They were the people I always assumed would "take a bullet" in defense of Richmond's daily newspaper. Too bad it was the paper itself that pulled the trigger.
I think you guys are being a little overly sensitive.
People in our business are tough - you have to be. Look at all of your comments for example. Growing a thick skin is essential when working in the media.
Yes, being let go SUCKS (I know having been formerly ped during the RDC - MG take over myself) but coming up with an eye-catching headline (that does in fact tell the truth) is also a part of the business. It's not maliciously at the expense of everyone who was laid off, it's part of the business.
The hatchet DID fall deep. Look at some of those names - it's important to label them individually because some of them have been there for YEARS. Take a look at Brookins Pluggers is ALL OVER the place.
It's a sad day for creatives when an asinine company like MG gets in the way of EVERYTHING.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:24:01 PM by Media Guy
I don't think the snarkyness is aimed at the folks who lost their jobs, but rather the [censored]-poor management. It's sad when talented, hard working people lose their jobs. It's more sad when they lose their job due to corporate good-ol' boys who are way out of touch.
"Really/Disgusting": We are naming several of the folks because readers (ours and the T-D's) are interested in knowing which reporters, and what they cover, will be missing from their daily newspaper. For everyone interested in this story, including Times-Dispatch staffers, the No. 1 question has been "Who." Who are we losing? As we note in the story, many of these people are veterans and award-winning writers. Their names are familiar to readers.
We can empathize with our media colleagues and indeed our own company is going through many of these painful layoffs and financial decisions, and we understand it is a difficult time for all.
We'll all be watching to see how this changes the Times-Dispatch's coverage of the Richmond area. We all have been forced to make adjustments in this incredibly shifting media landscape.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:03:22 PM by Really?
@thayer marks:
http://tinyurl.com/cauvbx
Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:01:41 PM by thayer marks
Ask not for whom the bell tolls - Style Weekly is able to stay relevant because of its weekly-ness. Daily papers struggle to maintain both eye-ball share and revenue stream against a rising tide of virtual ink. Hell, if the NY Times is in trouble, who's safe in the daily paper marketplace?
I don't sense so much a gleeful tone in Roop+Dovi's post as a whistling-past-the-graveyard one. Style's not up to covering the daily rough-and-tumble...but who is?
----------------------------- Helping you tell the remarkable stories that communicate your value - are you telling a remarkable story?
Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:55:16 PM by Really?
I don't recall "Jason Roop" and "Chris Dovi" being bolded throughout the RTD article discussing Style's current libel lawsuit. There's no need to call people out by name with specific details such as when they packed up their desks.
If you "do have compassion for [y]our colleagues," how can you not see the wry snarkiness you woven between the lines of this story?
Sure, you don't want to get called into a meeting with Mr. Proctor. But I'd wager to guess those that weren't (Mr. Gilligan whom you previously stated had) don't want to get called out in an article hastily thrown online before specifics were checked.
Oh, wait, that's that whole libel thing again, isn't it?
Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:52:48 PM by Anonymous
I'm one of the guys who lost his T-D job in the December layoffs. And I agree your language was insensitive and smarmy. Show a little class.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:25:47 PM by fasttrack121
This could have been a simple "T-D lays off more employees" with the facts of what's going on, but instead we get "Hatchet falls" and "students should have been asking how to stay in the business." Show a little class, Roop and Dovi. These people lost their jobs and you're making jokes. Hopefully, the TD will show a little compassion if this happens to Style.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:18:43 PM by Disgusting
I'm sure these people love being called out individually. Way to go Style.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:58:33 AM by Jason Roop
We do have compassion for our colleagues, and have spoken with many of them. It's important for a community like Richmond to have a strong daily newspaper. And no, if you work at the Times-Dispatch, you do not want to get called into a meeting with Mr. Proctor today.
Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:51:44 AM by Really?
Why is this story written with such a s**t-eating grin? RTD vs. Style. Who cares right now?
People's livelihoods have been destroyed, and Roop goes and gets cocky on Twitter with "Another round of newsroom layoffs happening today at Richmond Times-Dispatch. You don't want to get called to a meeting with Glenn Proctor"??
Have a little compassion for a second. Resume beating up on the big guy tomorrow.
