Less than two weeks after TBD announced that it would undergo "internal changes" instituted by owner Allbritton Communications, the future of the much-hyped hyperlocal Washington, D.C. site is very much in doubt.
According to several reports, Allbritton is laying off as much as half of TBD's staff — and perhaps more — as the company reorganizes it under Bill Lord, the station manager of Allbritton-owned WJLA-TV.
According to the Washington Business Journal, "all but a handful of the two dozen or so current positions will be eliminated within the next four to six weeks, with TBD.com employees eligible to apply for eight available jobs."
That is different than what the six-month-old TBD said two weeks ago. "We have some internal changes," the site announced on its Twitter feed on Feb. 9. "We’ll continue as local news site — with no staff cuts — soon joined by WJLA.com."
The "internal changes" came three months after Jim Brady, the site's founding editor and former executive editor of the Washington Post, left TBD over "stylistic differences" he had with publisher Robert Allbritton.
Lord told the Journal that the station will "continue producing TBD as well as a new website, WJLA.com, and that the integrated newsroom will actually feature expanded online resources."
