News In language so clear it requires no MBA to understand, The Oregonian posted a story on its website today that says the paper hopes enough people take the latest buyout offer under consideration by employees. The daily is hoping that because the more employees take the newest buyout offer, the better the chance there won't have to be layoffs, according to excerpts from a letter written to staff ...   More

News Perhaps it was only a matter of time before The Oregonian got sued over which employees were allowed to take last year's buyout offers. It was generous of the paper's New Jersey-based owners to offer two years' salary and benefits to most employees who had worked at the paper more than 10 years and agreed to walk away. Employees who had between five and 10 years' tenure were offered one year's ...   More

News Some dispiriting news from Oregonian Editor Sandy Rowe to staff during new publisher N. Christian Anderson III's first week on the job. In an email that went out yesterday afternoon, Rowe told the newsroom that it appears not enough staffers have accepted the daily's most recent buyout offer to employees. As a consequence, she warns a "layoff is inevitable despite our determination to avoid ...   More

News The Oregonian's daily circulation numbers fell 12.06 percent in the most recent six-month period measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The O was one of 15 daily papers in the top 25 to suffer double-digit declines, joining sister papers in the Newhouse chain that also had steep circulation falls such as The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer (down 11.24 percent) and The (Newark) Star-Ledger (down ...   More

News Below is the latest unofficial list of people who are planning to take the most recent buyout offer from The Oregonian. Staffers at the daily have until Monday to change their mind and take their name off the list. But that of course exposes them to an involuntary layoff on less generous terms. Some of the more prominent names departing the paper have already been reported. But this is the first ...   More

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News The Oregonian is unrepentant enough about the criticism it got for running a front page wrap-around ad (known as a "spadea") on Sunday opposed to Measures 66 and 67 that it did it again in today's paper. One distinction in today's spadea is that the words "PAID ADVERTISEMENT" are bolder and larger than in Sunday's version (a concession that new O publisher N. Christian Anderson III said in the ...   More

News Two weeks ago, The Oregonian published an informative article about Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign. The redesign has been in the making for two years but has yet to produce any definitive answers about the future of Portland's schools. Taking PPS' own public statements at face value, Oregonian education reporter Kimberly Melton conducted an analysis to show which of the district's ...   More

News As promised last fall, layoffs at The Oregonian have started. Here's the release from The Oregonian, which says most of the 37 layoffs have taken place in the newsroom with "smaller numbers in advertising, circulation and accounting. We're working to confirm the names of people we've heard so far who got notified, and will update this post when that happens. UPDATE: Among the veteran reporters ...   More

News In light of yesterday's news of 37 layoffs at The Oregonian, we were surprised this morning to find no InPortland section in the Thursday edition of the daily. Was that section part of a budget cutting? For non-Oregonian readers, InPortland is the weekly tabloid of 8-12 pages tucked into the Thursday paper. It features a cover story and smaller bits of community news. It hasn't been cut. ...   More