ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010025
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
The new publisher of The Southwest Times is laying off employees as part of a plan, he said, to bring the size of the staff into line with the newspaper's requirements.
``Very overstaffed,'' Syd Kibodeaux said of the six-day-a-week paper. ``Have been for years.''
Kibodeaux said federal law would prohibit him from giving the names of those who were laid off, but he said there were ``very few.'' He emphasized that these were layoffs, not firings, and some of the employees might return when ``we get everything back to the way it should be'' economically.
``There's always a possibility,'' he said. ``I don't think some will be coming back, because they'll be finding other jobs.''
One of those laid off is known to be Dan Callahan, who had recently become the paper's advertising manager but who was best known for his sports columns. The paper had carried them for years.
Kibodeaux said this general reduction in the work force is not unusual, with the region's economy often in flux.
``I mean, they do it in Pulaski County all the time,'' he said. ``That's the way things are in the county.''
Asked if further reductions are likely, he said, ``Not at this time.''
``There'll certainly be changes. I mean, there'll have to be. We all have to change,'' he said. For The Southwest Times, he said, changes will include more emphasis on community features and less material from wire services.
Kibodeaux became publisher a few months ago when The Southwest Times was purchased from Wayne Brockenbrough of Christiansburg by a corporation based in Florida.
Brockenbrough had bought the newspaper, and two others in Radford and Christiansburg, from Worrell Newspapers about a year earlier.
Regardless of ownership, Kibodeaux said, ``The newspaper belongs to the community ... and we forget that. We forget what we're here for.''
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB