Jasiri

I was talking to my mom today and she asked if I heard about the 41 employees laid off at the Greensboro News and Record. No I had not heard…not on the TV, and not on the radio. But, when I researched online, I found a short article as well as a brief blog post about the matter. In the article, the N&R posits the layoffs were the result of a “business reorganization.” It goes on to describe the “changing media environment” and the resulting effect on the newspaper industry:

The expanding use of the Internet for news, information and advertising has placed traditional news companies in an increasingly competitive environment. Many newspaper companies, including the News & Record, are in the process of reinventing themselves to serve customers in new and different ways.

The blog post, written by N&R editor, John Robinson, laid out facts but gave no specifics. In an update post, Robinson states:

Next week we’ll begin reinventing the paper…The reinvention will center on:

• Public service journalism, including enterprise, investigative and community.
• Being audience-centric, not format-centric. A faster movement into online and mobile.
• Innovation and experimentation. We can create better cool, useful stuff.

This new focus not only sounds good, it is a necessity in an age where citizen journalism and the Internet are becoming integral parts of our lives. As Robinson is N&R editor, I decided to check what the other folks were talking about. Ed Cone did his research and reported a source as saying:

Some newsroom reporters learned about the layoffs when they got calls from other newsrooms. I’m so angry. There are a lot of really good people that I’m not going to see in this office again.

A friend who works at the N&R informed me that employees were not given notice of the layoffs until the day of. There was anger, as well as tears and security guard escorts–a description backed by comments on Robinson’s blog. One commenter informed us:

One of the victims started work on Monday and was laid off on Thursday. Surely, the N&R knew in advance of these layoffs. Why was this reporter allowed to quit her previous job and come to Greensboro for a job you knew didn’t exist?

Some of the individuals boasted 20+ years with the company. These tenured employees have every right to be angry, as they’ve dedicated many years, and when it’s all said and done N&R did not deem it necessary to give the laid off employees sufficient notice of their impending dismissals.

There is a bigger picture here. What I’m doing at this very moment…what others discussing the layoffs, as well as what thousands of people are doing worldwide, is crucial in this world of new media. There is a conversation occurring that traditional news reporting will miss out on unless it can effectively transition to the online community and take part in the conversation. People want news as it happens and the means to conduct an ongoing conversation about news as it is happening. Newspapers cannot give us that. I like the direction N&R says it is moving–I don’t know if 41 people had to be laid off to move in that direction–but it’s good that they are attempting to reinvent themselves.