More Roanoke Times Layoffs Planned

The Roanoke Times, which has been plagued with newsroom layoffs in recent years, has announced to employees that it plans more in the near future.

Here is its letter to employees:

We're heartbroken to share the news that Lee Enterprises plans to lay off nine people at The Roanoke Times.

Corporate informed the people who could be affected this morning, and their guild stewards have been in touch with them. In the interest of transparency, the people are: Betsy Board, Jay Cook, Henri Gendreau, Christina Koomen, Claire Mitzel, Mike Niziolek, Steph Sheehan, Sam Wall and L.B. Wood.

We now enter a one-week period during which people can volunteer to be laid off. Every voluntary layoff accepted will reduce the number of involuntary layoffs. So the final outcome of this heinous move by corporate remains to be seen. Corporate told the people affected this morning that they will be paid for the next two weeks but cannot access company email and cannot do any work.

Details on the voluntary layoff process will follow below, and an email with information will be coming from HR as well. 

Following is the new union's response:

We knew our contract couldn’t indefinitely protect us from layoffs but this news is a blow and a further assault on local journalism. The guild is making plans to issue a public statement and raise awareness of corporate’s damaging decision-making.

We are the people closest to our communities and our readers. Together, we’re going to keep sounding the alarm and keep letting them know what these constant cuts really mean — less coverage, less information, less democracy.