LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette announced "substantially more" layoffs Monday during a 10:30 a.m. staff meeting. This is the second set of layoffs for the state's largest daily newspaper.
Executive Editor Griffin Smith announced late Monday afternoon that 16 were laid off and had been notified.
Seven employees were laid off in March from the Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas newsrooms. Layoffs or other cost saving measures outside of the newsroom were not affected by this announcement.
Smith said in the morning that the number was not being announced to keep employees from keeping track of those being called aside during the day.
"Not a single person on the list is being let go because they were bad or are being punished," Smith said after the staff announcement.
Employees who are laid off will be paid until May 18 and have the choice of working or leaving during that time.
In addition to the two rounds of layoffs, a furlough program and and optional shortened work-week program were implemented earlier this year in the newsroom.
Ad revenue for the Democrat-Gazette's print and online products were down 22.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009 and 13.2 percent in 2008.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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