Mercury News Staffers Await the Dreaded Call

Where's Bob Dylan when you need him? In his 115th Dream, we heard: "this foot came through the line." Monday night, as many as 41 Mercury News newsroom staffers will get the literal meaning of that line. The Merc's been reeling for years now.

At its pre-bubble, recruitment classifieds-fueled height, it had put together a newsroom staff of more than 400. The Newspaper of Silicon Valley -- upended by craigslist, depressed by declining print circ, battered by an overall ad slump, and left orphaned in the Knight Ridder sale -- is now in for still another round of budget cuts that will leave it down in the mid-200s in staffing. That's right, what was once one of the top 10 papers in the country in many estimations, has lost more than 30% of its staff.

And newsrooms staffers have been told: Wait by your phone Monday night, and those going into 2007 jobless will be getting the calls. No buyouts this time. Just be prepared to leave on short notice -- belongings easy to pack -- and sit by the phone. Journalistic careers weren't supposed to end this way.