Times Free Press makes staff cuts
The Chattanooga Times Free Press on Tuesday eliminated about 35 jobs as part of changes that newspaper President Jeff DeLoach said better align staff with today’s technology and help respond to consumer demands for how news is received and consumed.
“While every job loss is a difficult decision, we believe these changes prepare us for continued future growth,” DeLoach said. “With improvements in technology and changes in the way we now interact with readers and advertising clients, we want to make sure we have the best resources to effectively and efficiently serve our community today and tomorrow.”
The paper’s goal is to continue providing award-winning journalism and advertising for the community, DeLoach said. Seventy percent of the personnel reductions are in support service areas that are being absorbed by advances in technology as well as centralization of activity within the company.
“We believe today’s changes allow us to be more efficient while causing no disruptions to the quality or delivery of the content that our readers and advertisers have come to trust,” DeLoach said. “It is our intention to continuously evolve, as all businesses do, ensuring that we continue to meet the expectations of our readers and our advertising partners for years to come.”
Food City reopens in East Brainerd
Food City has reopened its East Brainerd grocery store after nearly four months of upgrades to the 44-year-old supermarket location.
The Abington, Va.,-based grocery chain remodeled the 49,292-square-foot store at 7804 East Brainerd Road, adding a six-pump Gas N Go station in an outparcel of the shopping center, along with a new entrance, bakery and deli area, more fresh meat selections, a new pharmacy and more space for specialty cheeses, beer and wine.
Food City showed off the remodeled store Tuesday night during a Business After Hours reception for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce.
The new store is similar to the St. Elmo and Harrison stores, which Food City remodeled over the past couple of years since buying into the Chattanooga market.
The upgrade is the 13th by Food City in Chattanooga since the privately held grocery chain bought the former Bi-Lo stores in Chattanooga in 2015. Food City also is building a 54,000-square-foot new store in Athens, Tenn.
Twitter to tell more about its advertising
Twitter says it will provide more information about political ads on its service, including who is funding them and how they are targeted.
The move follows similar steps by Facebook and the introduction of a bill that seeks to bring more transparency to online political ads in an attempt to lessen the influence of Russia and other foreign entities on U.S. elections. The bill would require social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to keep public records on election ads and meet the same disclaimer requirements as political broadcast and print advertising.
Twitter says it will require ads that refer to a candidate or party to be clearly identified as election ads. For non-political ads, Twitter will provide limited information such as how long they’ve been running.