Colo. Newspaper Publisher Axing Staffers; Will Outsource & Consolidate

Image via CrunchBaseThe Denver Business Journal reports that Denver-based MediaNews Group, Inc.-owned Prairie Mountain Publishing Co. will layoff 17 staffers, as part of an outsourcing decision.

Prairie Mountain,  publisher of the Boulder Daily Camera and Longmont Times-Call, is largely dumping production and advertising design slots. Their function will be outsourced to Elgin, Ill.-based Affinity Express, which has operations in the Philippines and India, according to the  Journal article. MediaNews Group's managing company, Digital First Media, plans to increase outsourcing.

Two Prairie Mountain production employees were let go, as part of a consolidation by MediaNews Group at the Denver Post, which the entity also publishes.

UPDATE: Journo Majors Gone With the Wind at U. Colo.

Image via WikipediaUniversity of Colorado Regents voted 5-4 this week to shut the university's journalism school, the first college to suffer such a fate in the University's history.

College President Bruce Benson backed the move to turn off the lights at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication June 30 (see "TUOL" posts 2/22/11, 8/26/10). Henceforth, students may pursue a double major in journalism and another subject or receive a certificate or minor in journalism, but no longer will be able to receive a bachelor's degree in journalism alone, reports the Boulder Daily Camera. 

U. Colo. May Shutter J-School

Image via WikipediaThe Boulder Daily Camera reports that the Univ. of Colorado may pull the plug on its traditional School of Journalism and Mass Communication ("SJMC").

The University's j-school presently enrolls 647undergrads, 58 master's students and 26 doctoral candidates in its journalism program. The SJMC boasts 28 full-time faculty members, and approximately 30 instructors and 13 staffers. Were the regents to vote to shut down the SJMC, tenured faculty who did not retire or resign would have to be re-assigned to another academic department and retrained if necessary, but adjuncts would likely experience layoffs.

The Daily Camera reports that Chancellor Phil DiStefano has officials reviewing the school under the regents' discontinuance policy.  In any case,the school would remain open until current journalism enrollees complete their degree programs.

Under consideration is a restructuring that would better prepare students for workplace entry into digital journalism. The SJMC's external advisory committee has recommended closing the school and shifting some of its programs to the Alliance for Technology, Learning & Society Institute to further that goal. Also under study is merging the j-school with other disciplines to open a broader "school of information."