Courant To Cut 100 Jobs

About 100 jobs will be cut this week

The Hartford Courant laid down the ax on Wednesday. One hundred jobs will be cut this week. The New Haven Independent is reporting that some reporters were let go today, including half of the state capitol reporting team -- Mark Pazniokas, who has been at the newspaper for 24 years.

Environmental reporter Dave Funkhouser and D.C. Bureau reporter Jesse Hamilton were let go as well, the Independent reports. Hamilton’s departure means the end of the Courant’s D.C. Bureau. He was the last reporter left working the Nation’s capital.

The Courant made a round of cuts last year after its parent company, The Tribune Co., filed for bankruptcy.

The new wave of cuts from the Courant will include about 30 losses in the news department, cutting their staff in half since 2008, the Courant reports.

Other cuts will come in subsidiaries New Mass Media, which runs the New Haven and Hartford Advocates and Valu Mail, the direct-mail business owned by the Courant, the newspaper reports.

The Tribune Co. is in more than $13 billion of debt, but Courant publisher and CEO Stephen Carver said the new round of layoffs were forced by business conditions at the Hartford newspaper.

"I wanted to get us into an environment where we could focus on our readers and advertisers going forward, and focus on growing the business," Carver said on courant.com. "We're going to perform at the level we've been performing."

Courant columnist Stan Simpson expressed his feelings to NBC30 on Wednesday.

"What a sad day," Simpson said via e-mail.  "It's very deflating to see so many talented people let go.''
 

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