GateHouse buys The Oklahoman, lays off 37 - Entrepreneur Generations

After employees of The Oklahoman Media Company sat through a 35-minute presentation yesterday about the company's sale to GateHouse Media with GateHouse CEO Kirk Davis and Oklahoman Publisher Chris Reen, staffers were told to check their emails. Thirty-seven of them had been laid off, effective immediately.

One staffer said "It was kind of pandemonium, trying to see who was safe and who was gone." Fifteen of the layoffs were in the newsroom, though two of those newsroom staffers agreed to retire, Barbara Allen reports for Poynter.

"Cuts were made across the organization, including the Oklahoman's digital marketing agency, BigWing, according to people inside the organization," Allen reports. Interim publisher Jim Hopson of GateHouse will take over at The Oklahoman, while Reen will remain employed with the paper's current owner The Anschutz Corp., Newsok.com reports. The sale will be final Oct. 1

Davis told Poynter that one of his most important goals is to quickly "stabilize the financial situation at the newspaper."

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2N4VGvP GateHouse buys The Oklahoman, lays off 37 - Entrepreneur Generations

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