Reporter shot in 2008, laid off in 2009
Last year Todd Smith was shot while covering a city council meeting for a newspaper in suburban St. Louis, Mo. Of the six people who were shot, he was the only one to survive.
Last week, the newspaper laid him off.
“My family is obviously really not happy that I took a bullet for a business. But I guess in these economic times that isn’t enough to save you,” said Smith, 37, a reporter and online editor for the Suburban Journals since September 2006.
The newspaper is owned by Lee Enterprises, one of the big U.S. newspaper chains that is, to put it mildly, going down the tubes. The company’s CEO, Mary Junck, earned $1,089,506 in compensation in 2008, according to analysis by Photo District News.
Read more about the laid off reporter, and more on media company executive compensation.
