Comments on: A reluctant farewell to valued colleagues

By: Advice for editors: You’re a role model; be a good one, like Dave Witke | The Buttry Diary

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:04:47 +0000

[…] My desk was one of the closest to Dave’s office, with a clear view of him when he worked at his desk. He was the first (perhaps the only) top editor to return to the newsroom that evening, looking weary. (Twenty-seven years later I would understand just how weary that day made him when I had to cut my own staff in Cedar Rapids.) […]

By: I ‘lost’ a newsroom once, too | The Buttry Diary

I ‘lost’ a newsroom once, too | The Buttry Diary — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:36:43 +0000

[...] such as liveblogging, Twitter, databases and multimedia storytelling. It also involved some newsroom job cuts (I opposed them but carried them out) and some structural changes that were not my idea but that I [...]

By: Lessons from the life and death (30 years ago) of the Des Moines Tribune « The Buttry Diary

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:02:04 +0000

[...] editors handled that process from people who left as well as people who stayed. And I remembered 27 years later when the Gazette cut its staff. I personally told each of the journalists who lost their [...]

By: Bitterness is like wreaking revenge on yourself « The Buttry Diary

Bitterness is like wreaking revenge on yourself « The Buttry Diary — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 12:35:13 +0000

[...] thank you, Mr. Scrooge). I’ve seen more colleagues lose their jobs than I can count. And I had to deliver that unpleasant news to some colleagues after losing a fight to save their jobs (I was gone myself within a [...]

By: Enduring lessons from being fired 20 years ago « The Buttry Diary

Enduring lessons from being fired 20 years ago « The Buttry Diary — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:53:22 +0000

[...] Lots of journalists have had that unpleasant experience recently. Most of my colleagues at TBD were dismissed last year. The firings at the New Orleans Times-Picayune have drawn the most attention recently, but Paper Cuts confirms more than 1,171 newspaper job cuts this year. As editor, I had to deliver the unpleasant news that people no longer had jobs to one colleague in Minot and many years later to 14 colleagues in Cedar Rapids. [...]

By: The Gazette lays off 13 | Nick Bergus

The Gazette lays off 13 | Nick Bergus — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:13:17 +0000

[...] are the obligatory pieces from Mr. Buttry, Mr. Muller and the paper’s own business reporter. Chuck Peters, the company’s CEO and [...]

By: 40 years in the news biz: I’ve seen a lot of change « The Buttry Diary

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:22:02 +0000

[...] in this time of upheaval. But at least three times the newsrooms I was in cut their staffs. Once, when I was editor in Cedar Rapids, I had to decide who stayed and who got cut. And I had to tell 14 good, hard-working journalists [...]

By: Editor of the Year? Who, me? « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection

Editor of the Year? Who, me? « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:35:22 +0000

[...] failed, though, to shield the newsroom from severe companywide cutbacks. A year ago this week, I told 14 colleagues we no longer had jobs for them. The Gazette newsroom [...]

By: Reviewing a year’s blogging « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:25:48 +0000

[...] Gazette Communications and I wrote frequently about the changes we were making and considering. We cut the staff and reorganized the newsroom. My title changed twice, starting the year as editor and ending as C3 [...]

By: No Pulitzer, but still high honor for Gazette staff « Transforming the Gaz

No Pulitzer, but still high honor for Gazette staff « Transforming the Gaz — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:33:03 +0000

[...] world, that was appropriate. In fact, if we had won, I would have made sure to salute our colleagues who lost their jobs in February for their [...]