La Palma Lays Off Three People, Leaving Skeleton Staff

​La Palma, the weekly Spanish-language spinoff of the Palm Beach Post, quietly laid off three people yesterday, leaving a skeleton staff at the paper.

Insiders say the three employees -- page designer Sergio Patrucco, copyeditor Claudia Moscoso, and reporter/copyeditor Jonathan Muñoz -- were called in to a meeting after the paper's deadline Thursday and told their jobs were ending.

Just four or five people remain on staff, according to the staff listing on La
Palma's website. Editor Emily Méndez could not immediately be reached for comment.

Palm Beach Post Newspapers Inc. launched La Palma in 2004, when the real estate market was booming and South Florida dailies began dedicating more resources to covering the local Hispanic population.

But in the past two years, the Post, Sun-Sentinel, and Miami Herald have seen their ad revenue plummet and lost hundreds of employees to buyouts and layoffs. Their Spanish-language publications have also suffered -- albeit with less public fanfare. When the Herald announced it was cutting 24 jobs earlier this month, the number included "one-and-a-half" editing positions at El Herald.

La Palma's layoffs came unexpectedly, insiders say, and just in time for Christmas.