The Oklahoman had another round of layoffs…

"The State's Most Trusted News" is still struggling to remain relevant and profitable in the 21st-century.

Earlier this week, The Oklahoman quietly laid off over a dozen employees. Sadly, everyone on the paper's editorial board survived the cuts.

According to The Ogle Mole Network, 16 combined positions were eliminated. A few notable employees to go include sports reporter James Poling, photographer Steve Gooch and office manager Michelle Geries – a longtime employee who was described by one Ogle Mole "as the person who kept the place running." When you can't afford to keep that person on your staff, the whole business may be in trouble.

(Editor's Note: Usually this is the part where I cut to a screenshot of an internal company announcement explaining the cuts, but The Oklahoman is being hush hush on this one. So far, they haven't addressed the rif with remaining employees.)

From what I've gathered, I don't believe any executives, upper management or other members of the paper's top-heavy good old boy network were lost in the rif. Considering they're the ones who have overseen the paper's slow, plodding demise, that makes total sense. I guess they do need people on staff to soak up remaining salaries, sabotage the paper's printing and distribution system, pander to the GOP establishment, and send angry emails to Jezebel.

Not related to layoffs, we have also heard that reporter Graham Brewer is no longer employed with the paper. Graham – a light-hearted, jovial man who loves a good joke and never takes himself too seriously – covered criminal justice reform, hipster food foraging and ponytail management techniques for the paper. Apparently Graham wasn't comfortable writing trivial clickbait and slide shows for NewsOK.com and wanted to focus more on actual journalism that matters. According to Moles, The Oklahoman promptly showed him the door.

Anyway, this is like the 800th or 900th time I've written about Oklahoman layoffs since the smart phone / social media era began burning the final pages of the newspaper industry's bloated, antiquated business model. You have to wonder how many more layoffs and cost-cutting measures The Oklahoman has left before they do something drastic like cut the print edition or move Nolan Clay to the basement and take away his red stapler.

Also, I've been laid off in the past and know how much it can suck. I'd encourage the employees who lost their jobs to stay positive. We wish them the best of luck in finding new work in either the public relations or communications field. Fortunately for them, writing press releases is a lot more profitable than reading them.