The Cleveland Plain Dealer – A Once Great Newspaper – Fires 50 Staffers Via a Phone Call

Not Exactly Plain Dealing

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Yes the newspaper business is tough these days, partly due to competition from on line services and partly due to the ineptitude of those people who own and operate newspapers.  Newspaper management has long felt that they were doing the community a service, and that resident were required to read their newspapers just because they resided in the community.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer was once a great newspaper.  Now it has taken to firing people in the worst way possible.

As some unlucky characters learned in Scream: Don’t answer the phone. Yesterday, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., 50 editorial staffers at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland got the ax—not face to face but by phone, at home. They were then asked to collect their severance materials the next day, not at the office but at the paper’s production center, which is about 10 miles away. Ouch. Hopefully, they didn’t leave anything valuable (or perishable) at their desks.

In honor of the occasion we would like to send the Plain Dealer the following letter.

Dear Cleveland Plain Dealer:

We would like to cancel our subscription.  The parrot (a beautiful Norwegian Blue) has died and we no longer need to line his cage with your daily journal.  If it makes you feel any better the parrot continually expressed his delight at being able to crap on your product.

Sincerely,

David Ricardo