The Jeff Beckham Weblog

You can be sure that newspapers folks around the state are keeping a watchful eye on the situation at the Dallas Morning News, where voluntary severance is currently being offered to almost all newsroom employees. If there isn’t enough attrition via voluntary severance, layoffs are possible, the paper says.

The News is the second-largest paper in Texas, with a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff and solid reputation. Their products, both the traditional paper and their website, are among the best in the country. But even that hasn’t spared the company from the sagging economics of the newspaper business these days.

Writing at DallasBlog.com, former News staffer Carolyn Barta reports that:

Sources say they hope to keep metro, business and sports at present strength but reduce lifestyles, arts and entertainment (including critics, as previously reported), some tabloids (excepting Taste and House & Garden) and bureaus. Older employees in non-critical jobs in those areas are therefore expected to take the buyout. If too few respond, layoffs will follow. Employees have until Sept. 15 to aceept the buyout.

If one of the standard-bearers among Texas newspapers is going through serious hard times, papers around the state with fewer resources likely also will feel the crunch.

On a similar note: Jeff Jarvis reports that some analysts believe the newspaper industry faces a $20 billion revenue shortfall over the next five years, while AOL’s Jason Calacanis considers buying one and turning it around.