Lee outsources California finance jobs to Illinois

A May 18 e-mail from Hanford (Calif.) Sentinel publisher Manuel Collazo announces further finance department consolidations. The Sentinel's finance department will be outsourced to The Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill. -- about 2,000 miles and two time zones away. Collazo says employees will be laid off on May 28, but does not say how many.

Collazo's announcement:

This afternoon we announced a difficult transition within our Finance department. We will begin participating in a Lee-wide finance regionalization program effective May 31st. Many of the tasks that we perform locally will be consolidated within a regional finance center housed in Bloomington, IL at The Pantagraph, a sister Lee newspaper. Unfortunately, as a result several of the current positions within the finance department will be eliminated effective next Friday, May 28th so this will directly impact the employees in these positions. More details regarding the transition will be forthcoming as they are available. As with any of the difficult situations we have dealt with as a team this year, the expectation is that we will all handle the situation with the utmost professionalism. If you have any or receive any questions regarding this announcement please direct them to me at the office number below or Peggy Chapman at 760.739.6610.

Thank you
Manuel Collazo
President & Publisher, Lee Central CA Newspapers
Director of Circulation, Lee Enterprises
Office: (559) 583-2400

Lee Enterprises also has set up a finance center at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier.

(Via e-mail. Send Lee tips and e-mails to lee.ent.watch@gmail.com.)

California paper closes

The Lemoore Advance in Lemoore, Calif., has closed. The 121-year-old weekly paper's last edition was Sept. 24.

This was part of the 2010 strategic plan announced in August by the publisher of The Sentinel in Hanford, Calif. Twice a week, the Sentinel will publish a "Focus on Lemoore" section.

(Via e-mail)

Layoffs coming to The Sentinel

In the 2010 strategic plan for The Sentinel in Hanford, Calif., publisher Manuel Collazo says positions will be cut and the Saturday and Sunday editions will be combined. Production will be moved to Selma, Calif., and newsroom and advertising resources will be "realigned" and reorganized.

The bullet points from the plan, which was released Aug. 5, include:

• Moving the Hanford production department to the Selma plant; creating a unified production facility and enabling the expansion of our commercial print business
• Aligning our home delivery and single copy resources to support a more efficient distribution system
• Reorganizing our newsroom resources for the quick development and deployment of a 24/7 newsroom positioned to drive critical content for our online audiences
• Product changes that drive target print audiences and support a more profitable advertising business model
• Elimination of the Lemoore Advance and creation of a twice a week "Lemoore Edition" of the Sentinel
  
• Development of an Entertainment product, in print and online
• Consolidation of our Saturday & Sunday Sentinel editions and development of a new Saturday weekend edition
• Realigning advertising sales resource to better focus on key areas of growth: local retail, secondary markets and online advertising
• Unifying the Sentinel and Weeklies' advertising departments under central advertising leadership
• Reinvesting in marketing -- focusing on key initiatives to drive advertising revenues, audience promotion and deepen our connection with the communities we serve

Read Callazo's memo. (PDF)

If layoffs are already planned at one paper, I have to wonder if similar announcements will soon be made at other Lee papers.

(Via e-mail)

Hanford Sentinel lays off 12

12 employees were laid off Wednesday. The memo:

To: LCCN Employees
Re: Reduction in Force & Restructure
Date: January 7, 2009

This afternoon, we are making a difficult announcement. It is difficult because for the first quarter of this year we accomplished the goals we set for ourselves - the things we control. But there are many things we can't control. Our local, state and national economies continue to struggle. Because of this, we are making necessary adjustments early in anticipation of a rough second quarter. To that end, we are reducing our workforce by 12 full time positions. None of these positions are in our newsrooms. Most of these positions revolve around our non-core production capabilities.

To accommodate this reduction, we are also restructuring some positions in Advertising and Production.

The pre-press department in Hanford & Selma will now report to Jackie Kaczmarek, press & mail operations in Selma and Hanford will be managed by Ken Horiuchi who will report to Rich Glasson. Also, we've created a position in production that will manage consumption of paper, ink and other production supplies. This position will also report to Rich Glasson.

Earlier in the week we restructured Advertising with the move of Angela Stow to Selma, Frank Carreiro to Kingsburg and Jimmy Fryar to Ad Manager in Hanford. Also, Jennifer Fawkes and the advertising artists will now report to Jimmy Fryar.

Attached you will find the new structures for Advertising and Production

These reductions and restructure will allow us to provide our current list of services, including commercial print, to a shorter list of accounts. It also allows us to grow with the economy in the future.

But it can't stop there; we need your best work. Remember that our readers and advertisers are going through a lot of the same trials we are. We need to be an important part of their day. We need to provide them with news and information that they will miss if they don't read us for one day.

We all decided to get into this business because of a passion for newspapers, don't short-change this passion because of things that are out of our control. Effort, dedication to our job and a positive influence on our work environment are all things we can control. If we focus on these things, it will make the tough times more manageable. It will also make the good times even greater when they get here.