Okie(s) in Florida

I know it’s been a while since I last posted. Things have been a little, shall we say, stressful at work.

You see, layoffs are coming at the Sun-Sentinel. And it’s not just a problem at our newspaper. The whole Tribune Co., which owns the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, our sister paper up in Orlando, Allentown Morning Call, etc. In other words, we’re a big f-ing company.

With a big f-ing debt problem.

So my question is this: Let’s say I survive this round of layoffs…if we can’t pay our bills come December, what does that mean? More layoffs? Bankruptcy?

And it sucks here at my paper, which was traditionally the cash cow for Tribune. Now the real estate bust in Florida has left us high and dry for the time being. This is a paper that has assembled quite a group of reporters and editors, numbering somewhere around 300.

Just since 2000, we’ve been a Pulitzer finalist three times that I can think of, most notably for some kickass FEMA coverage that exposed the fraud, waste and mismanagement there before the Katrina debacle ever became an issue.

And now we’re going to slice and dice.

So that’s where we’re at these days.

On a happier note, Firefox 3 is out. Firefox 3 is out. Firefox 3 is out. And while I use lots of their add-ons for practical purposes, such as FireFTP and some tools that help me inspect the HTML of pages, I think this one is particularly cool. Check. It. Out.

That’s all for now. I’ll try and post more often. Or at least as long as I have a job and can afford the cable/electricity bill.