evt_logoA bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved the sale of the East Valley Tribune to Randy Miller’s Thirteenth Street Media. Yesterday, in anticipation of the takeover, the paper nearly flatlined the staff that remained.

From Nick Martin at Heat City:

When they arrived at work today, employees were told they would be summoned via email to one of two meetings.

At the first meeting at 10 a.m., the sources said, dozens of employees were brought into a room on the ground floor where outgoing publisher Julie Moreno told them they were being let go. One source said the mood was exactly what you’d expect: grim. There was nervous laughter, a few tears and a lot of sad faces.

A half hour later, another group of staffers met with Miller in a room on the second floor, where he handed them letters with job offers under the new regime. There, the sources said, Miller also outlined his plan for the reorganized Tribune.

According to Martin, who used to work there and has good sources, the EVT’s newsroom staff, already downsized to about three dozen people, will now have as few as fourteen.

The number is apparently about a quarter the newsroom personnel the paper had a year or two ago. The paper is publishing only three days a week, so the impact of such cuts isn’t as bad as it might be. At the same time, the effect on the paper’s web site has been palpable and embarrassing, as I’ve noted here and elsewhere.