The Chron ax falls

In keeping up with the nationwide trend of laying off and/or buying out personnel to protect its historically high profit margins, the Houston Chronicle, the only daily paper in the city's fourth largest city, joined other newspapers by whacking people today.

The news biz, of course, is virtually the only industry where such matters get covered in mediums such as this and elsewhere but that's just the way it is, the "media" being so self-obsessed and all like that.

Anyhow, based on our own sources, as well as the afore-linked "Houstoned" blog posting by Rich Connelly, here's the lineup of the recently departed.

Taking buyouts: Louis B. Parks, features; Fred Faour, sports editor; Steve Rassenfoss, a business editor, Salatheia Bryant and Melanie Markley, on the city desk news side ...

Given the unvoluntary boot are: Lee Cearnel, Steve McVicker, Thomas Korosec on the news side.

That's all we know for now.

Good luck to all.

Like a reader told us today, " the old saying about baseball managers....if you don't own the club, sooner or later you quit or get fired" applies here.

Maybe Chron Publisher Jack Sweeney will develop a case of the hemmies for this unfortunate act of publisherhood.