Washington Times Set To Enact Significant Layoffs

So, here's your update of what's going on at the increasingly chaotic Washington Times.

A few hours ago, the entire staff of the Washington Times was sent an email by Vice President of Human Resources Sonya R. Jenkins, alerting them that an "all staff meeting" was being called at the order of Publisher Jonathan Slevin. That meeting went down at 3:30pm today. The early word, via Politico's Michael Calderone, was that serious staff reductions were in the offing to the tune of 40 percent.

Calderone also reported that the paper would refocus on "exclusive reporting and in-depth national political coverage, enterprise and investigative reporting, geo-strategic and national security news, and cultural coverage based on traditional values," and that the paper would embrace a new circulation model:

There will be "controlled-market local circulation," with the local print edition free in certain areas of Washington with a premium price for home-delivery. "No-cost distribution will focus on targeted audiences in branches of the federal government as well as at other key institutions," the release said, although there will be single-copy sales in newspaper boxes and select retailers.

DCist's Sommer Mathis has more:

Times employees tell us they were required to sign that they had received a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act letter, which is required before mass layoffs at a company of more than 100 employees. So that means that no employees can legally be laid off until 60 days have passed from today, under the WARN Act.

Looks like Times staff is set to endure a very wary Christmas, and, potentially, a crappy New Year.

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