• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 6 hours ago

It didn’t take long. Hearst completed its purchase of the Dallas Morning News in September, and now it is laying people off—26, to be precise.  

The news broke on Wednesday morning in D Magazine. 

The Dallas News Guild had been notified that its new owner is cutting the entire copy desk, sports included, D reports.  

“In one of its first official moves, Hearst has chosen to blatantly violate our contract, notifying valued employees of the loss of their jobs days before the holidays,” the union says. “On the day of the company Thanksgiving potluck, no less. We are devastated for our colleagues."

In addition, the News will outsource its print page production, which previously was done inhouse by copy editors.

As for violating the collective bargaining agreement, the Guild adds that the “employer may not seek to eliminate more than 20 employees as a result of outsourcing for the duration of this agreement,” it states.  

This news gave MediaNews Group, an Alden Global Capital company, a chance to crow that the paper should have been sold to them. 

“It's unfortunate that Hearst duped Dallas Morning News controlling shareholder Robert Decherd into handing over control of this storied newspaper, his legacy now tarnished forever,” MediaNews Group said in a statement. “MediaNews Group was obviously the superior operator bidding to buy the newspaper. These newsroom cuts should be a stark warning to anyone who considers selling to Hearst and, even worse, at a massive discount."

Let’s be fair: There are some obvious counter-arguments to these claims. 

It is true that the paper was sold to Hearst at a share price of $16.50, compared to the $20 offered by MediaNews. But we bet the layoffs would have come even if MediaNews prevailed in the bidding war that went on all summer.  

Parent Alden Global Capital has long been accused of gutting newsrooms, through buyouts or layoffs, and centralizing operations wherever it could.  

If the reports about Hearst are true as written, it is following the standard playbook for post-merger actions.