It was another rough day for the folks who toil at the morning daily.

Sources tell the Weekly that another half-dozen or so Arizona Daily Star employees were laid off or otherwise given their walking papers today. We're hearing that those employees include much of the library staff, online dude Eric Hess and metro team leader Ignacio Ibarra (who took a late buyout).

If anyone else out there has additions or clarifications, let us know!

The morning daily proclaims in a hard-hitting editorial, "Facebook Group is shortsighted, destructive":

We're distressed and baffled by a destructive Facebook group that is opposing the planned 7,000-square-foot restaurant and bar at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and East Congress Street, across from the Rialto Theatre block.

Former state lawmaker Tom Prezelski's response on Facebook:

After years of slanted reporting about Downtown, the Star comes out with an editorial characterizing criticism of redevelopment as destructive.

Rumors are starting to bubble up regarding the list of people who agreed to take the Arizona Daily Star's buyout offer—and the biggest name on that list so far is Opinion page editor Ann Brown.

Those taking the buyout will celebrate their last day of employment at the Star tomorrow, Nov. 6

John Schuster and I are trying to confirm this rumor—and that's all it is at this point—as well as confirm other names.

Got any info? Let us know?

UPDATE (9:30 p.m. 11/5): Thanks for the comments and tips, everyone.

UPDATE (11 a.m. 11/6): We've fixed the last name of Rutha.

Names we've heard from sources and the rumor mill (please let us know if anyone sees any errors):

Mary Cooney
Margo Hernandez
Nick Pintozzi
Mark Stewart
Enric Volante
Bill Betterton
Ann Brown
Jim Davis
Rutha Grigsby (corrected last name)

Also, we've heard from several sources that folks at the Star are concerned about the possibility of layoffs—something which publisher John Humenik said would happen if not enough employees took the buyout. Those layoffs could come as soon as tomorrow, if they are to happen.

What's behind these cuts? Well, one need only to look at the Star to know ad counts remain down. Also, some Southern Arizona newspapers as of late (including some of the Weekly's sister papers in Wick Communications) have taken a financial hit after losing some grocery-store inserts to a direct-mail outfit. That could be a culprit in all of this.

It seems like we're playing a game of Survivor: Arizona Newspaper edition. Today the East Valley Tribune, which won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting earlier this year, announced it will be closing its doors by the end of the year. From the Tribune's Web site:

The Tribune Newspapers will cease operations on Dec. 31, the parent company Freedom Communications said Monday.

Freedom officials made the announcement to Tribune employees Monday morning, citing the economic recession and changes in the newspaper industry that have caused many publications to close and others to file for bankruptcy protection.

Freedom, which is based in Irvine, Calif., operating under Chapter 11 reorganization, had been attempting to sell the Tribune, but no acceptable offers have come forward, said interim Chief Executive Burl Osborne.

“We have received a number of inquiries, but none at a level we would remotely consider,” he said, adding that, “This is a terrible day for the company, a terrible day for the Tribune.”

Severance packages will be provided to employees and some jobs may be available in other parts of the company, said Publisher Julie Moreno.

Two other Freedom newspapers in the Valley, the Sun City Daily News-Sun and the Ahwatukee Foothills News, will continue to publish, as will Freedom Interactive in Chandler, which publishes the Clipper coupon book.

The Onion reports:

According to a report published this week in American Journalism Review, 93 percent of all newspaper sales can now be attributed to kidnappers seeking to prove the day's date in filmed ransom demands.

"Although the vast majority of Americans now get their news from the Internet or television, a small but loyal criminal element still purchases newspapers at a steady rate," study author and Columbia journalism professor Linus Ridell said. "The sober authority of the printed word continues to hold value for those attempting to extort large sums of money from wealthy people who wish to see their loved ones alive again, and not chopped into pieces and left in steamer trunks on their doorsteps."

"These are sick, sick individuals," Ridell added. "God bless them for saving our industry."

The Tucson Weekly won 13 awards in the Arizona Newspapers Association’s annual contest, covering work done from May 1, 2008, through April 30, 2009. The awards were announced on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix.

The Weekly competed in among the state’s non-daily newspapers with a circulation of more than 10,000, and the haul included five newspaper-wide awards—including second-place honors for General Excellence. The Weekly won first place for Departmental News and Copy Editing Excellence, second place for Best Newspaper Web Site and third place for Page Design Excellence, as well as Editorial Page Excellence.

The Mississippi Press Association judged the entries. Regarding the Weekly’s first-place win for Departmental News and Copy Editing Excellence, the judge noted: “Terrific mix of news, features and attitude. We love how the calendar is segmented. Something here for everyone in (a) well-designed package.”

In the individual writing awards categories, Tom Danehy earned both first and second place for Best Sports Column, for “Soccer Sends Kids Like Brianna Caceres to College, So It Can’t Be All Bad (Oct. 9, 2008), and “Even on Their Way to the Super Bowl, the Cardinals Don’t Deserve Tom’s Love” (Jan. 29).

Dave Devine took first place for Best Sports Story for “Less Than Accommodating” (Feb. 12), a story on the role that race played in bringing spring training to Tucson.

Margaret Regan also took home a first-place award, in the Best Column: Feature or Criticism category, for “Urban Tales” (Aug. 7, 2008), a review of MOCA’s Invisible City exhibit.

Jim Nintzel nabbed three awards in the contest. He nabbed second place in the Best Column: Analysis or Commentary category for The Skinny. He won third place for Best News Story for “Bloodbath at City Hall” (April 16), his story on the firing of Tucson City Manager Mike Hein, and second place in the Best Multimedia Storytelling category for spearheading the Weekly’s ScrambleWatch ’08 political/election Web site.

Jon Shumaker earned second place in the Best News Feature category for “State of the Desert,” his March 5 cover story on the future of the Sonoran Desert.

The East Valley Tribune and the Payson Roundup were named the Newspapers of the Year, for their combined excellence in both the editorial and advertising contests.

The Arizona Daily Star ran an op-ed by George F. Will that suggests that Obama is some kind of narcissist because he uses the first-person pronoun too much in his speeches. Naturally, the marching morons who comment on the Star's Web site jumped on the bandwagon, saying this is proof that Obama is all about self-aggrandizement.

This is a popular meme on the right these days, but like so many others, it's not really true. Blogger Mark Liberman ran the numbers on Bush, Obama and Clinton—and guess what? Bush and Clinton use the first-person pronoun more than Obama does:

…since I'm one of those narrow-minded fundamentalists who believe that statements can be true or false, and that we should care about the difference, I decided to check. …

I took the transcript of Obama's first press conference (from 2/9/2009), and found that he used 'I' 163 times in 7,775 total words, for a rate of 2.10%. He also used 'me' 8 times and 'my' 35 times, for a total first-person singular pronoun count of 206 in 7,775 words, or a rate of 2.65%.

For comparison, I took George W. Bush's first two solo press conferences as president (from 2/22/2001 and 3/29/2001), and found that W used 'I' 239 times in 6,681 total words, for a rate of 3.58% — a rate 72% higher than Obama's rate. President Bush also used 'me' 26 times, 'my' 31 times, and 'myself' 4 times, for a total first-person singular pronoun count of 300 in 6,681 words, or a rate of 4.49% (59% higher than Obama).

For a third data point, I took William J. Clinton's first two solo press conferences as president (from 1/29/1993 and 3/23/1993), and found that he used 'I' 218 times, 'me' 34 times, 'my' 22 times, and 'myself' once, in 6,935 total words. That's a total of 275 first-person singular pronouns, and a rate of 3.14% for 'I' (51% higher than Obama), and 3.87% for first-person singular pronouns overall (50% higher than Obama).

As a result of this previous experience, I had a first-person-counting script all ready to go, and it took only a few seconds to check the new transcripts. This time around, Barack Obama's Olympic remarks included 26 first-person-singular words out of 1130, for a rate of 2.3%. This is slightly below his typical rate for presidential press conferences, and a bit more than half the rate of the George W. Bush pressers that I measured earlier (2.3/4.49 = 51%, to be precise).

Glenn Beck makes up more bullshit.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports that just 29 percent of Americans believe the media generally get the facts straight.

Note: An earlier version of this post reported that a new Pew Research Center poll showed that 92 percent of the public believe the media always get the facts straight.