Belo is closing the Austin bureau for its flagship television station, WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, according to The Associated Press. The WFAA Austin office was the last full-time bureau operated in Austin by a Texas television station outside the capital city.
The AP said Austin bureau chief Shelley Kofler and photographer/editor Paula McCarter, a 20-year Belo veteran, were notified Tuesday about their layoffs. Kofler has been chief of the two-person bureau since December 2000.
Belo announced last month that it would cut 250 jobs, more than half of them at the Belo-owned Dallas Morning News newspaper, which has been charged with circulation overstatements. The layoffs at the newspaper were expected by Nov. 1, according to The AP.
