Blog Launched to Help Departing SF Chronicle Employees

Posted on June 8, 2007

Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle announced plans to cut 100 editorial positions -- about 1/4 of the newspaper's editorial staff -- by summer's end. A blog called Chronicle Colleagues Who Care has been launched to help employees transition to new jobs. The blog is edited by Marcus Chan, SF Chron multimedia editor.

Losing your job can be devastating. But we, your colleagues at The Chronicle, hope to make it a little less devastating.
The goal of this blog is to share information that will help your transition. For those who lost their job, you might want to provide your contact info so we can reach you (either by posting a comment or sending us an e-mail). This also could be the place for you to ask for help, be it on a personal or professional level.
For those still at The Chronicle, maybe there's something you want to offer, be it job leads, career resources, or simply a friendly voice.
For starters, we in multimedia want to offer you whatever help we can. If you plan to seek a job in journalism, chances are that you're going to be asked about your multimedia expertise. Whether you're a veteran multimedia journalist or someone who still isn't clear on what a podcast is, please feel free to contact us by email or cell. Think of us as your multimedia consultants (minus, of course, any fee).

Editor and Publisher notes that there is also a warning on the website about ex-employees leaving critical comments.

The blog also warns angry current or ex-employees to leave their critical comments off the site, noting "...the tone of this blog...is to support one another. No doubt there are plenty of people who are angry about this situation -- we ask that you choose another venue to express those feelings. Thanks in advance."

The blog contains links to job openings and job websites as well as new contact information for former colleagues so they can stay connected. A blog certainly can't make up for the loss of a person's job but it does look like a helpful tool that would be a good idea for other companies planning layoffs.