Tulsa World lays off designer after only four months
Marin Devine of the Tulsa World was one of the 25 employees let go last week by the Tulsa, Okla., World, she reports in her blog.
Marin writes:
I was only there for four months, so I don’t have the exact tally of what positions were all eliminated and I’m not sure if or how many were laid off from other parts of the company.
I do know that the graphics department has been eliminated, I was the only designer, there were two photographers (one of whom was the main videographer), the advisor of the high school section, at least two copy editors, a sports designer/editor, administrative assistants were eliminated and several reporters.
Many of us had only been there a short time (from four months to a year or two), but there were also several people who had been at that paper for a number of years.
While at the World, Marin worked on advance Sunday A1 packages and features and also dealt with a section produced by area high school students.
A 2007 graduate of the University of Missouri, Marin spent one summer as a Dow Jones copy editing intern at the Amarillo Globe-News and another on the copy desk of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. She was a designer and copy editor at The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun for a year before moving to Tulsa in September.
A few samples of her work:
Find more in her NewsPageDesigner gallery.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:03 am
You know, you would think a company would know when layoffs are imminent and when they are not. To hire someone and turn right around and lay them off four months later is a travesty. It also helps solidify my gut feeling that it’s flat-out time to find another career.
My condolences, Marin. So sorry you were treated that way. Hang in there.
January 14th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
We shouldn’t be so hard on the newspaper. They really needed a $90,000 country club membership.
http://www.batesline.com/archives/2009/01/whirled-update.html
January 14th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
A couple of years ago, students were being paired with alumni in a kind of mentorship for Missouri’s news design class; I was lucky enough to get to work with Marin. Clearly talented beyond her years, Marin showed a mastery of publication design that I knew would take her far.
This news is disappointing, but from what I can tell Marin is keeping a positive attitude. Consider this my endorsement (for what it’s worth) of someone you should keep your eye on should her name cross your desk.