October
6 More laid off at LA Times; Playboy, too

The Los Angeles Times has had yet another horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day. Writes Kevin Roderick, "Newsroom staffers are being told today individually and in department meetings that as many as 75 editorial positions are being cut through voluntary departures and layoffs." Furthermore, HAL hears that Playboy today laid waste to 1/2 of its staff -- that's half, gone -- across LA, NY and Chicago. If that's not enough of a gut punch, try this: Roderick says some LA Times staffers have been "enticed" to volunteer with the promise/threat that, should the LAT go through this exercise again, employees won't receive this two weeks' severance pay for each year of service. This is all beginning to sound like a game show hosted by Samuel Beckett. [LA Observed, HAL]