We got an anonymous tip last night that succinctly read:

Globe Democrat laid off all employees because it ran out of money.

Hmm. Well the site is still up, and according to the St. Louis Beacon, the Globe Democrat has laid off three reporters and is “refocusing” on only certain sections of news. Namely sports and local politics.

The Beacon reported:

Dan Rositano, who resurrected the Globe-Democrat name and began publishing the news website on Dec. 8, said news reporters Brian Flinchpaugh, Steve Birmingham and Lisa Watson lost their jobs on Monday.

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Hey kids of Timberland High School, you remember this: You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

The staff of the school newspaper and free speech honks that live for things like this filed in to a Wentzville School Board meeting Thursday night to hear a discussion of whether the level of censorship being displayed by the Timberland High School principal was within “acceptable” levels.  Apparently the kids have been feeling a bit censored for some time now. Things like…

That “other” St. Louis newspaper that closed its doors in 1986, before newspapers closing their doors was all the rage, is back…as a website.

Things looks good so far, and I really hope they do well since we need another strong news source in this town, but I do have a few questions:

The slow march of a former media giant towards death can be sad to watch…

Our source in the Post Dispatch tells us that the latest of the series of cost cutting measures is that all reporters, and even a few other positions, are losing their company paid cell phones.  To be fair, our source did say that they will be reimbursing the staff for personal phone use, but in something that’s just too good to make up, the paper did suggest that the staff add as many business numbers to their “calling circles”.

According to The Riverfront Times [Editor’s Note: Who we are mad at them right now! Boo!] St. Louis’ only Gay/Lesbian/Transgender newspaper is shutting its doors until 2010.

Voice publisher and owner, Pam Schneider, tells Daily RFT that she decided to shutdown the paper for the rest of the year to concentrate on a redesign of the publication.

“It just made sense to take the time and money we need to focus on coming out in 2010 the way we want,” she says.

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Last Friday evening, Pam Maples, the managing editor of the Post Dispatch “resigned” and with the timing and the surrounding details, it didn’t exactly add up to us, and we weren’t the only ones that thought so.  Yesterday, the plot thickened as Maples’ goodbye memo to the Post Dispatch staff was leaked to the Riverfront Times.

As a public service to our sexy readers, we will now translate the letter for you from BS to real talk.

Pam Maples, the managing editor of the Post Dispatch is out as of August 18, ending her three year stint in that position.

Oh and they say she is “resigning”, if you want to believe that.

We don’t.

Here’s why:

1. No one…I repeat…no one…puts out a press release or an announcement on a Friday evening unless they want people to never notice it.

2. The Post Dispatch is no refilling the position.

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Add the Post-Dispatch to the list of bleeding old-media companies that are forcing everyone they can [read: non-union employees] to take a one-week unpaid furlough.

From BizJournals.com:

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has ordered all 300 of its nonunion employees to take a one-week unpaid furlough.

The newspaper also suspended all 2009 merit raises for nonunion workers and the company match for its 401(k) program.

The Post’s parent, Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE), is $1.3 billion in debt, mostly due to its acquisition of Pulitzer Inc. in June 2005.

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