Another round of layoffs has brought dramatic cuts to a city\u2019s local newspaper.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Hornets beat reporter Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer shared on social media that the paper eliminated his position, along with seven colleagues, in the latest round of McClatchy cuts.<\/p>\n
Boone said that the news came \u201cless than 48 hours after being told corporate had given the green light to bring back my podcast they whacked two years earlier.\u201d He also noted that the cuts meant that the paper will no longer have a writer dedicated to covering the Hornets, a first since the team\u2019s inception in 1987.<\/p>\n
Last week, exactly 10 days before my 5-year anniversary at The Charlotte Observer, my position was eliminated by McClatchy along with 7 of my colleagues.<\/p>\n
And it happened less than 48 hours after being told corporate had given the green light to bring back my podcast they whacked\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Y0oyO9ZPOI<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rod Boone (@rodboone) September 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The cuts are just the latest in a series of layoffs made at papers controlled by McClatchy. The Miami Herald also laid off staffers this week<\/a>, including sportswriter Greg Cote, who went back five decades with the paper. The Sacramento Bee was also caught in the wreckage, losing its sports department entirely<\/a>.<\/p>\n Media layoffs have only become more common in recent years, and local newspapers are especially suffering. They have also often come with a shocking lack of respect from those in charge of deciding who stays and who goes. As Boone says, he got the news of his release just days before his fifth anniversary at the paper, and just days after he was assured that he was clear to bring his podcast back on the air. Similarly, Cote\u2019s dismissal from the Herald came after 54 years of service, and he got the news on his birthday.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m owed the next year,\u201d Cote said when discussing the string of layoffs affecting ESPN<\/a> before suffering the same fate himself. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m another year in that company. What I do think I\u2019m owed is the respect for me to fashion an exit on my terms, whether they\u2019re \u2018allowing\u2019 me to retire or they\u2019re offering me a buyout I can\u2019t refuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the past few weeks, the McClatchy layoffs have not made such dignified exits possible for those affected.<\/p>\n \t