Newspaper staffing model

Here’s our current staffing model:

• 2 news reporters, one of whom also leads our print page layout work each week
• 1 sports reporter
• 4-5 contract photographers
• 1 receptionist and customer service rep
• 1 publisher/owner/editor 👋
• 1 legal ad / public notice coordinator
• 1 contract advertising sales coordinator
• 1 contract digital editor
• 1 print page layout contractor
• 1 contract editor
• 1 contract designer
• 1 contract proofreader
• 1 contract podcast host
• 1 contract video producer
• 2 delivery and retail sales logistics contractors
• 1 facilities and janitorial contractor

This is an oversimplification of role descriptions in some cases; most of us do a little bit of a lot of different things.

Many of the contract roles and a few of the staff roles are part-time. Several of them are remote roles.

We occasionally use additional contractors for one-off special projects.

In some cases it would be more cost-effective and efficient to combine roles in to staff positions that are full time. But with challenges finding and retaining folks to fill those combined roles, it’s worked out okay for now to spread things out over more part-time/contract roles.

For me personally, managing 20 different employment/contract relationships can be a lot. There’s some delegation — reporters often manage photographer assignments, for example — but we probably need more and perhaps another person focused on team management and administration. And we always need more reporters.