St. Louis Post Journos Dispatched

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Thirteen proved an unlucky number for the Lee Enterprises-owned St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as four editors and nine newsroom staffers were pink-slipped last week, media Web site JimRomanesko.com reported.

Daily circulation at the Post-Dispatch, one of the region's largest dailies, declined from 213,472 to 191,631 last year. Lee purchased the paper from Pulitzer, Inc. seven years ago in a cash deal reportedly totaling $1.46 billion. According to Romanesko, the layoffs occurred in the same week as Lee CEO Mary Junck acquired 500,000 shares of Lee stock for zero dollars.

Economic conditions were blamed for the job reductions. Another 10 employees in the production and advertising departments, also lost their jobs last week, bringing the layoff total to 23.