WILKES-BARRE - The Times Leader is moving jobs from downtown Wilkes-Barre to another state, the newspaper's executive editor confirmed Thursday.
Page designers, who lay out stories and photos using software, will move to another location owned by the paper's parent company, Civitas Media LLC, Executive Editor Joe Butkiewicz said.
He said he didn't know when the change will start and that current employees will be the first offered the jobs.
A Times Leader employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said management announced Thursday that five jobs will be moved to Ohio beginning in June.
Philadelphia-based private equity firm Versa Capital Management LLC created Civitas in 2012 in a consolidation of about 100 publications the firm owns, according to the Wall Street Journal. Versa acquired Impressions Media, the previous owner of The Times Leader and a chain of local weekly newspapers, in February 2012 for $5 million and assumed an unspecified amount of the company's debt.
An advertisement for Civitas Media posted last month on journalismjobs.com, a popular job board website, said the company was looking for an experienced paginator with an editing background to work at its hub locations in Lumberton, N.C., and Miamisburg, Ohio.
"I think it's part of a plan to consolidate talent of staff," Mr. Butkiewicz said in a phone interview Thursday. "They'll provide their skills to lots of properties. They'll still be designing our paper."
Contact the writer: bwellock@citizensvoice.com, @CVBillW on Twitter