Indianapolis Newspaper Guild: Newsroom Of The Future Means More Beats Covering Beverages, Party Crasher And Holiday Observances

The Indianapolis Star announced another 15% cut in its newsroom staff from 124 to 106 employees, marking the sixth round of layoffs in six years. Star editor Jeff Taylor says the cuts are part of the newspaper's strategy for building the Newsroom of the Future. Former Star columnist Ruth Holladay says the Indianapolis Newspaper Guild is not impressed by the new strategy. The Guild released the following statement:

"The Indianapolis Star today announced today its "newsroom of the future." It involves 15% fewer journalists than the newsroom of the present. The copy desk, those folks who make sure stories are readable, who catch a tremendous amount of mistakes and who generally make everything of higher quality, is being "dissolved." We're going to lose 5 of 11 photographers and other support staff. Some good middle managers who guide journalists young and old will be out of a job soon, too. What the paper is telling the public is that there will be 6 more reporters. And there will be. With beats like beverages, party crasher and holidays and observances. No, we are not making this up. Welcome to the future."

Ouch!

With CBS' decision yesterday to drop its affiliation with WISH-TV and align with WTTV, we assume the current newsroom at WISH-TV will disappear unless the TV station's owners can come up with a novel approach for new, regularly-scheduled programming that will keep viewers tuning into Channel 3. Colts games will now be aired on WTTV's Channel 4 beginning next year when the change takes effect.