WARN notices have been sent to scores of The Dallas Morning News employees.
An entry on the Texas Workforce Commission data sheet indicates that 85 DMN employees received notice of an impending layoff.
The layoff is set to affect the Dallas Morning News North Plant in Plano. The plant is a printing facility where the broadsheet’s daily additions are printed before distribution. The affected workers are printers, not journalists.
“Within defined circumstances, the WARN Act requires that workers receive an advance notice of 60 calendar days of a plant closing or mass layoff, meant to cushion the blow of employment loss to workers, their families, and their communities,” Thomson Reuters says of the law.
The legal solutions website further explains that the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, signed into law in 1988, applies to most employers with more than 100 employees.
The public first became aware of the possibility of layoffs at this facility in the spring of 2024.
The paper reported that there would be a “transition” from the Plano printing facility to one in Carrolton that would “take about eight months to complete and will include a 60% staff [reduction.]”
This was a departure for a newspaper that had expanded the plant in 1992, the same year The Dallas Morning News reported that it was the No. 1 newspaper in the nation in total full-run advertising.
“We have continued to produce a premier print product that reflects our dedication to quality journalism. With this decision, we will be better positioned to do so profitably,” Grant Moise, DMNs’ publisher and the chief executive officer of DallasNews, reportedly told his employees at the time.
The legacy news outlet has suffered numerous reductions in its workforce.
DallasNews Corp. announced that it had voluntarily bought out 6% of its workforce, around 40 positions, in the late summer of 2023.
Before the pandemic lockdowns, the broadsheet suffered similar issues. The Wrap reported in 2019 that DMN laid off 43 employees during an attempt to rework its business model.
DMN’s struggles are not unique. Legacy newspapers and corporate broadcasters have struggled to be profitable and retain or grow leadership for years.
CNN and MSNBC plunged after the 2024 election and reached 30-year lows, Yahoo Finance reported.
This comes as The Daily Beast reports that layoffs loom at CNN.