By Michael Hartwell
David Harry, editor of the Lakes Region Weekly newspaper, was one of six employees let go last week in what the parent company is calling a “restructuring.”
“We didn’t have any layoffs, we did eliminate some positions,” said Lee Hews, publisher of the Maine-based newspaper company Current Publishing, which owns six weekly papers in Southern Maine. Hews said the company has moved around people and responsibilities within the office because of tough economic times.
David Harry declined comment to The Independent.
Hews said there were two positions
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eliminated from the editorial and administration departments, another two from the graphics department, and a fifth from Internet-based advertising. She said two employees were offered different jobs within the company, one of them took the offer and the other didn’t.
Some employees were promoted and given more responsibilities, according to Hews, such as one reporter who is in charge of arts and entertainment news in addition to the towns she already covered.
“David’s not there,” said Hews, “But we’ll still have the same coverage in the area.” She said Harry’s workload will be handled by other editors and the amount of pages in each issue will depend on the amount of advertising received.
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The difference between a layoff and the elimination of a filled position is “essentially nothing,” according to Katherine Arno, Director of Training and Communications for the Maine Small Business Development Centers which is part of the University of Southern Maine School of Business.
“You still suffer a job loss. Both to the individual, and the economy, it is a job lost,” said Arno. She said jobs will need to be retained and created to pull the country out of the current economic recession.
One former Current Publishing employee said he knew some employees would lose their jobs at some point, but didn’t think he’d be one of them.
“I thought that it would be on a
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smaller scale,” said Jason Rathbun, who until last Thursday was the production manager for the editorial department. He had been with the company for three and a half years.
Rathbun, a resident of Lewiston, said there’s a lot of competition for the limited supply of graphic design jobs available right now, and is planning to find a job in another field.
The Lakes Region Weekly covers nine towns in the Sebago Lake area, including Windham, Gray and New Gloucester.
Hews said the company has two open job vacancies: One reporter and one sales position.
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