One week into the new year, the Dallas Morning News has laid off another round of employees, as part of what it called a "restructuring."
According to posts from staffers, 43 people were laid off, with approximately half of those from the newsroom, including the editor of the weekend Guide, a longtime film critic, a writer for the Business section, an entertainment editor, and a part-time music writer.
Arts and entertainment sustained the heaviest cuts, among them Chris Vognar, who'd been a critic at the paper for 23 years; Dawn Burkes, a longtime entertainment writer and editor; Sara Frederick Burgos, editor for Guide; and Kelly Dearmore, who was hired as a part-time music critic in 2016.
Features writer Brendan Meyer was also let go, as well as theater writer Nancy Churnin, writer-editor Mike Merschel, health writer Leslie Barker Garcia, and writer Brentney Hamilton.
News staffers include Jeff Mosier, an environment & energy writer; Tasha Tsiaperas, a sharp metro reporter; and Dianne Solis, who wrote about immigration. Longtime photographer Louis deLuca was also let go.
Other layoffs occurred in the commercial printing department.
"It seems as though my time at the Dallas Morning News has come to an end after a large round of layoffs was announced this morning," Dearmore said on his Facebook post. "So many great talents and cool people will be looking for a new gig today, and I hope they find one sooner than later."
According to the newspaper, the reduction represents about 4 percent of the 978 employees working for A. H. Belo Corporation, the newspaper's parent company, which blamed a decline in revenue.
One employee tweeted that the layoffs come "after a hedge fund named Minerva gobbled up stock," before deleting the tweet, stating that it was unclear whether that was a factor and that "Nothing's been announced … we're hoping to hear more later today."
Like many newspapers, the Dallas Morning News has executed numerous layoffs, beginning in 2004, most recently in 2017 when they outsourced the design of their print edition and cut 25 jobs, cutting the staff at that time from 260 to 235.
