But as news broke of the team’s departure, the paper’s Twitter feed took on a life of its own. In between prescheduled tweets linking to Daily News stories was a gif of a Pulp Fiction-era John Travolta looking lost:

Image for article titled What happens when you downsize an organization you don’t understand, New York Daily News edition

Charlton Heston screaming “It’s a mad house!” in Planet of the Apes:

Image for article titled What happens when you downsize an organization you don’t understand, New York Daily News edition

And a cheeky reminder of how to reset passwords on Twitter.

Image for article titled What happens when you downsize an organization you don’t understand, New York Daily News edition

All the gems have since been deleted. Regaining control of the account, though, isn’t as simple as resetting the password. A corporate social-media presence is a sprawling digital beast fueled by multiple plug-ins and automation services, all of which need to be reset or switched to different managing accounts when there’s a staffing change. Any social media professional can tell you that—unless you fire them all first.

The Daily News cuts are a loss for local journalism, as well as for the individuals now out of work. New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio and New York governor Andrew Cuomo have both urged Tronc to reconsider the layoffs.

Indeed, the social media chaos following the announcement underscores the hazard of making cuts to an organization without fully understanding how it works. It’s impossible to make smart, responsible decisions about resource deployment if you don’t actually know what it takes to do a job correctly.

Understaffing—or in Tronc’s case, eliminating—a crucial role can hobble an organization.  The Travolta and Heston gifs are entirely a self-inflicted injury.

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