top
Santa Cruz IMC
Santa Cruz IMC
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

List of Santa Cruz Sentinel Layoffs

by Thomas Leavitt (thomas [at] thomasleavitt.org)
... apparently, the Sentinel doesn't want to reveal who has been laid off. Here is the list.
Reporters: Matt King, Roger Sideman, Soraya Gutierrez, Daniel Lopez and Isiah Guzman
Photographer: Kate Falconer
Copy deskers: Max DeNike and Jonathan Whitaker

Source: now deleted posting by Matt King to his blog on the night of June 26th, 2007. Preserved in its entirety at the URL below.
§more info
by Bratton Online (repost)
From BrattonOnline.com:

"SENTINEL SACKING. One Sentinel employee (who wants to remain nameless) believed I thought it was funny about Sentinel employees being canned...I don't. I thought I'd made that clear. I think it's sad, even tragic that print newspapers have to lay off so many people. BUT as long as our daily newspaper is firing them, and if the Sentinel really does listen to their readers, we should have a voice or vote in it, and the votes are really coming in, and thanks. I can't print many of the Sack The Sentinel 8 entries but here's an excerpt that's worth reading (I'm keeping all senders anonymous) "Let's add Jondi Gumz to the list of who to fire at the Sentinel. She went from being the University reporter, to being 'at large' with the Business section. Last year, she ran as a Republican for Scotts Valley School Board... and won. You'd think a politician and terrible reporter would be the first to be fired? From what I hear about the Sentinel: Soraya Gutierrez is already leaving to go somewhere else... so that cuts the number of positions that need to be cut. Now here's the question I've been wondering: whose going to report on it? With the Mercury owned by the same company as the Sentinel, they don't cover Santa Cruz news anymore. The Chronicle had their own cut back and can barely cover the City. So who is going to be the Sentinel's watchdog? Word on the street is that Peter Koht from the Good Times may be working up an article", end of email.

ONE MORE SENTINEL SACKING EMAIL. Well here's one more that came in from Boston!!! ..."As far as who should be sacked, I'm with you on Shana McCord. But I feel most concerned about Matt King, the education reporter. He's relatively new (no seniority) but he's clearly the best reporter they have. Also, education news tends not to be all that "sexy" so the suits might feel they can cut that position easily. Knowing the mediocrity at the Sentinel, though, they'll probably keep all the untalented reporters there." end of email. And yes, Don Miller still leads the list.

LATE BREAKING NEWS. SENTINEL LAYOFFS, THE FINAL WORD. Not knowing how the Sentinel will announce the seven layoffs here's the word I got Wednesday 6/27 at noon. If the Sentinel was any kind of paper this list will have appeared on their front page in Thursday's edition...we'll just see. Four reporters are out the door; Roger Sideman, Soraya Gutierrez, Daniel Lopez, and Isiah Guzman. One photographer Kate Falconer. Two from the copy desk Max DeNike and Jonathan Whitaker. Yes, that's only seven, maybe they'll announce Don Miller's name on a special day. Keep on sending those wish lists for Sentinel Sackees they'll be sacking more very soon, you can bet on it. "

http://brattononline.com/index.php?p=228
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by cp
so they have about two reporters left?
OFten their website is just repeating AP topics anyway. I find that there is a lot going on in Santa Cruz that goes uncommented upon in the Sentinel
by Steven Argue
I find it interesting how little respect the Sentinel has for its workers. No farewell, thanks for service, and apologies on their front page. And the one fired reporter that says something about it has their blog deleted.

I doubt that this just about printed “news” loosing its popularity. It may have more to do with the fact that the Sentinel doesn't actually report the “news”, at least not in an honest way that most Santa Cruzens can stomach. They are a poorly done rightwing corporate paper in a town that, by and large, despises them.
by ike
The Sentinel is was previously owned by Dow Jones Co., who also own the Wall Street Journal (though they may also be taken over by Murdoch of FOX fame).

See http://penpressclub.org/2007/05/santa-cruz-sentinel-was-sold-for-45

"In October, Dow Jones & Co. sold the Sentinel and five other dailies in other parts of the country to Alabama-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. for $282.5 million. At the time, MediaNews had bid on the Sentinel, but Dow Jones wanted to sell the five papers as a package, not individually to different owners. The Sentinel was Community Newspaper's only asset west of Texas, however, and soon the firm agreed to sell it to MediaNews, which owns 11 dailies in the Bay Area."

"After taking over, MediaNews has voided the contract with the paper's unionized press operators, shut down the paper's presses and started printing the Sentinel in San Jose. MediaNews is also planning to sell the paper's 54,000-square-foot downtown building and move the staff into leased space."

The Sentinel's editorial policy has always been the same as the Wall Street Journal, but one must feel some sympathy for many of the reporters who were simply trying to do a good job of reporting the local news - even if they were not allowed to cover many topics.

Obviously, the editor of the Sentinel is serving the interests of the current owners, not the interests of the employees or of the region.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04/26/18182441.php

"Media News Group wants to merge and acquire. So much so that they started buying up properties before the laws changed because they were so sure they would change. They buy up multiple properties in the same market and have shown a growing tendency towards secrecy in their holdings. Media News Group influences legislation so that they can continue to merge and acquire. They have the son of the Bush Administration's former Secretary of State to thank for changes in laws that allow them to grow. Continued mergers and acquisitions give Media News Group control over advertising rates and public opinion/dissemination of information in major markets. Their continued long term growth depends on continued relaxation of laws regarding cross ownership of media properties. Media News Group supported George W. Bush for President."

"Media news group has initiated a near total blackout on coverage of the election fraud issue, an issue that could potentially remove the republicans from office, thereby resulting in the election of a government less friendly to loosening of FCC cross ownership law, severely hampering their ability to merge, acquire and thus grow. This could force them to divest themselves of properties, limit their ability to control advertising rates and information, destroy their growth potential. That is, if fraud where proven and the elections invalidated."

Looks like all the local papers will be sinking to even lower lows in their news reporting.
by Sent
there often aren't many stories in the Sentinel except for crime reporting, which was half delivered to them by staff getting paid more. It's hard to even be biased if you don't really write anything.

-------------------------------
As We See It: Oh, that slanted media
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/June/26/edit/stories/01edit.htm
The following is my response to the Sentinel’s recent editorial:

As We See It: Oh, that slanted media
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/June/26/edit/stories/01edit.htm

Like just about everything else from the Sentinel this article ignores the most important facts. While there are many rightist talk shows that promote an agenda of sexism, racism, capitalism, and imperialism, there are no leftist talk shows in the corporate media. The few liberal talk shows that exist, liberal that is and not leftist, support the Democrat Party, the same party that voted for the war in Iraq and the so-called "Patriot Act" while at the same time in its majority opposing single payer healthcare. Likewise, the so-called evidence of bias by the corporate media from the rightists is of reporters giving money to that same pro-war capitalist Democrat Party. There is bias in reporting indeed, but there is no left-wing bias. The left, and with it the truth of what is really going on, is completely excluded from the corporate media both in talk radio and in print.
by Sent
this is also a weird editorial.

What they're saying isn't particularly interesting or unreasonable, yet why make such a point of supporting the institution of the grand jury system.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/July/01/edit/stories/01edit.htm
by via GT
Brittle Broadsheet
Even though he was technically unemployed Tuesday night June 26, Matt King was still a reporter. Getting laid off the previous evening by the Santa Cruz Sentinel didn’t stop King from breaking one of the biggest stories to hit local media in years.
http://www.gtweekly.com/7-5-07/brittle-broadsheet
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$55.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network