Forty-four more cut at the Sacramento Bee

Scoopy survived, but other Sacramento Bee employees were not so lucky. The McClatchy Co.-owned paper axed 44 employees this week. Nine of the cuts were in the newsroom, and included photographer Andy Alfaro and reporters Bill Enfield and Dixie Reed.

“As for the reasons for the layoffs, the advertising slump and the bad economy in general are the reasons for the action,” The Sacramento Bee’s Pam Dinsmore told SN&R in an email.

According to McClatchy, this year’s first-quarter revenue for its paper was down by almost by almost 10 percent compared to the first quarter of last year. As part of that, advertising revenue was down by 14 percent for McClatchy’s California papers, about 3 percent above the national decline. Nationally, McClatchy’s circulation revenue was down by 5 percent.

The Bee also laid off 32 employees in January of this year, including several in the newsroom. Since 2008, the paper has eliminated about half its staff, from a high of about 1,700 employees. This year, several other McClatchy newspapers, including those in Charlotte, North Carolina; Forth Worth, Texas; Lexington, Kentucky; and Raleigh, North Carolina also let go staff. The newspaper chain had been hard hit by an advertising market that has increasingly migrated online, the down real-estate market and an economy that continues to struggle from the recession. (Hugh Biggar)

New digs for food bank

After a shaky permit process and objections from neighbors, the River City Food Bank, which was destroyed in an as-yet-to-be solved fire last October, will close escrow this week on a permanent home at 28th and R streets.

The RCFB had been operating out of a considerably small two-story house at N and 26th streets in Midtown, owned by the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. All food, along with computers, donated appliances and eight years of memories, was gone overnight in the fire.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in monetary and food donations have poured in, and even the Sacramento Metro Chamber has assisted with in-kind services. “All of us at RCFB are grateful for the community support,” says executive director Eileen Thomas. “[It] has enabled us to move from the tragedy of the fire into our own building. Having our own ‘home’ in the Midtown neighborhood will help us to better serve the growing need in our community for healthy, nutritious food.”

The new location is described as more spacious and accessible, allowing the food bank to serve more people with their signature “healthy and substantial food only,” three-day emergency meal packages and food-stamp outreach program. The future home is currently being renovated and, if all goes well, will be up and operating by the end of summer. (Alia Cruz)