Oregon Media Insiders

I'd been told to expect news on the O buyouts/layoffs by the end of the week, and sure enough, here it is Friday and the shoe has dropped:

Citing a deteriorating financial picture, [O publisher Fred] Stickel said the work force must be reduced by a minimum of 100 full-time positions and an unspecified number of part-time positions. ...

That gleeful shrieking you heard last night? It was me.

What's up?

System-wide, the Gannett papers are facing layoffs and closing open positions, and the Statesman-Journal will be among the affected. This morning I got a copy of an email from SJ publisher Steve Silberman:

Here in Salem, we will not fill some open positions and we will also lay off three employees, or about 1.5% of our full-time workforce. In some areas, we have more employees than budgeted, which I have taken into account. Working with the Operating Committee, we have focused on strategically aligning our resources for future growth. We will make these reductions and notify the three affected employees on Monday.

It pains me to lay off people because I know the financial and emotional toll this will have. I have not made this decision lightly or rashly. As we realign our business, you have my assurance that we will treat employees fairly. The three impacted employees will receive one week's severance for each year of service with a minimum two-week severance benefit. Medical benefits will continue for the length of the severance period.

I don't know who the three people are.

I really hate layoff days.

Update: I hear two of the people laid off were a photographer and a librarian. I don't know names.

As reported here in the comments and at PDXRadio, the CBS Radio stations here in town have begun layoffs in advance of the expected sale of most if not all of the Portland cluster. Reports so far are that KUFO MD and midday guy Dan Bozyk is gone as of yesterday, along with KHits morning show team Dave Hood and Carol Batchelor.

The layoff list is assumed to be larger, though. Anyone have the full scoop?

I am stuck some place without internet for a few days, so if you've been waiting for your comments etc to be approved, you'll have to be patient. If I'm lucky I'll be able to hop on once a day. Things will be back to normal, or as normal as they ever are around here, by Monday.

Here's your open thread.

Over at the Forest Grove News Times, longtime KATU reporter Grant McOmie says he's in negotiations with other stations:

“Fortunately, the competition in town disagrees with (KATU’s) decision, so I’ve been in discussion and negotiations with other channels,” said McOmie, who added that he is hoping to begin work again in September or October, reporting on the great outdoors like he has for the last 25 years of his life. ...
“I’ve had hundreds of e-mails and phone calls and letters from viewers, who wished me the very best,” said McOmie, admitting he was surprised at the outpouring of encouragement and praise he has received since he was let go.

“It was, honestly, one of the most humbling experiences I’ve ever gone through in my life. When you work in television, you never get to really sense the experience of the audience – you can’t see them or hear them or know what they think. We never really get a chance to get feedback, and I got a lot of feedback this time.

“It was all so positive and so humbling.”

Trolls wander into every website now and again, including here at OMI. Please don't feed them. That means not responding to their posts. Some trolls respond to their own posts anonymously to make it look as if people are talking to them; this is referred to as sock puppetry. It has happened here quite recently, and quite a bit.

Trolls want attention. That's why they're trolls. Don't give it to them. Thank you.

Spring Arbitrons are in for Portland. As usual I don't have the demo, but I do have the 12+. And the market leader, for the first time, is a Spanish language station, El Rey 93.1. The top ten stations:

KRYP-FM Regional Mexican 6.4
KWJJ-FM Country 5.5
KKCW-FM AC 5
KGON-FM Classic Rock 4.7
KUPL-FM Country 4.7
KEX-AM News/Talk 4.1
KINK-FM Triple A 3.6
KKRZ-FM CHR/Top 40 3.6
KPOJ-AM Talk 3.5
KUFO-FM Rock 3.4

Who saw this coming? I sure didn't!

KEZI and the Oregon Sports Network have split:

The decision is the first local fallout from the UO’s recently signed deal with IMG Communications. IMG agreed to pay the UO $67.1 million over 10 years for advertising, promotion and local broadcast rights for UO sports. KEZI’s decision leaves the university without a local broadcaster just a month before its first football game of the season.

Eugene-based Chambers Communications, KEZI’s parent company, issued a statement Thursday saying the deal offered by IMG left it little choice but to walk away from the contract. ...

Tim Roberts, IMG’s Eugene-based representative, said Chambers’ decision to drop out of negotiations was a surprise. He said talks were centered on how to handle competing programming, when Chambers pulled out Thursday. ...

In an interview Thursday, Scott Chambers said his company paid about $1 million a year for rights to UO sports programming before the UO brought in IMG. Chambers said his company earned a modest profit selling advertising on the shows. Without naming a figure, he said the new deal with IMG would have been a loss for his company.

Wow. I thought OSN was the primary local draw for the station. I continue to hear all kinds of rumblings from down there. What's going on?

I hear this morning that Dwight Jaynes is no longer editor of the Trib as of yesterday. He's not on the masthead at the website. Anyone got the sitch?

Update: WWeek has it.

Update 2: Jaynes Speaks. Blazersedge.com interviews him in email. He implies he wasn't pushed; he jumped.