R-J Cutting Staff

The Review-Journal's reporting staff was already too small and is basically the same size as it was when I arrived there in 1996 even as the city's population doubled. But now they're about to cut 100 employees via buyouts to reduce payroll costs. A piece in the Las Vegas Sun reported this, along with the claim by publisher Sherman Frederick that this is necessary "despite the newspaper's circulation gains."

Of course, as I've shown before, there were no actual circulation gains of any value. The paper, which saw its circulation rise 1.2 percent in 2007, is still 7.2 percent behind its daily figures for 2006. The paper's Sunday circulation is the same as it was a decade ago as the valley added 1 million more residents. Indeed, even as he's failed to gain anything from one of the biggest and fastest population influxes in U.S. history, Sherm clucks about his success and he calls me an idiot. Hmm.