Advance Publications Still in Retreat

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After slashing 20 jobs last January, the Advance Publications-owned (Easton, Pa.) Express-Times has eliminated another dozen full-time slots, the Associated Press reports.

The daily's Publisher and President, Lou Stancampiano, relayed the discouraging news comes as the paper eliminates its production department, shifting the printing duties to the Staten Island Advance, which will truck the daily to the Express-Times facility. The paper will continue to publish daily for now, Stancampiano confirmed.

The Newhouse family-owned Advance Publications newspapers, including the (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger, went through a round of massive layoffs in January in the face of withering circulation and shrinking ad revenues (see "TUOL" post 1/18/13).

'Bought Out' Journalist Sues Paper for Fraud

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Advance Publications-owned The Star-Ledger has been sued by former deputy business editor and Essex County (N.J.) Bureau Chief Philip Read for fraud, breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing concerning his 2010 buyout, Romanesko.com reports.

Read, who joined the daily as deputy business editor in 1997, alleges that he was misled into accepting the voluntary buyout by purportedly being told editorial staffers would be pink-slipped if the paper didn't realize $10 million in savings, according to his complaint. As Bureau Chief, he was earning $109,000 in 2008 when he purportedly received memoranda from the Star-Ledger citing declining advertising revenues as the impetus for the daily needing 200 employees to accept buyouts.

According to his complaint, Read was told he would likely be laid off if he didn't take the buyout. He alleges the Star-Ledger did not achieve the $10 million cost reduction goal, yet did not layoff staff. (Disclosure: the tireless staff of "TUOL" grew up reading The Star Ledger once The Newark Evening News figuratively and literally folded.)