Goodbye, daily newspapers in Detroit

[classicman]

It isn't just in Detroit. All of them are having major problems. Its just a dying industry. This is one of my former employers:

Gannett to Furlough Workers for Week

The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, said on Wednesday that it would force thousands of its employees to take a week off without pay in an effort to avoid layoffs.
Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers across the United States including its flagship USA Today, said it could not say exactly how many people would be required to take time off, or how much money the company would save. But it said it would require unpaid leave for most of its 31,000 employees in this country.

Also on Wednesday, USA Today notified its staff of a one-year pay freeze for all employees.

“Most of our U.S. employees — including myself and all other top executives — will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter,” Craig A. Dubow, the chairman, president and chief executive, wrote in a memorandum to employees.

“We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward,” he added.

The company cannot impose the measure unilaterally on employees covered by a union contract, but Mr. Dubow said Gannett was asking unions to participate voluntarily. Tara Connell, a company spokeswoman, said about 12 percent of Gannett’s domestic employees were unionized.

With the newspaper industry in increasingly dire financial straits, Gannett’s mandatory week off takes its place in a growing list of grave moves. Layoffs have been widespread, the newspapers in Detroit halted home delivery four days of the week, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection and owners of The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer warned that those papers could shut down.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, pretty amazing. I think the worst part about it is that there are and will still be times when you can't link up to the web and a really good newspaper is a great way to pass the time.

[Undertoad]

That's what the Kindle is for, when you're off the net!

I put the Philly Inquirer Front Page into my Google Reader for the last week. None of the stories caused me to click through to read the whole thing. I was hoping for more of a local angle, since the net delivers much better national and international news. But 60% of their stories are still natl/internatl, and the rest are just not all that interesting.

And much of it is "non-news". Big front page story today? There are a lot of Philadelphia Eagles fans in Phoenix. No shit? What hard-working reporter worked that story? It had to be a tough assignment.

[TheMercenary]

Well it was a great idea to go down there and get the story and not be where it was cold and snowing.

"No, sir Mr. Editor, I still need a few more weeks in Phoenix to wrap this up for you. And it is going to be a good one." :

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

And much of it is "non-news". Big front page story today? There are a lot of Philadelphia Eagles fans in Phoenix. No shit? What hard-working reporter worked that story? It had to be a tough assignment.

FWIW - staff writer Peter Mucha. Don't know the guy and really don't care. I agree UT - thats part of the reason why they are dinosaurs and soon to be extinct.

[classicman]

Mexican mogul Slim sees opportunity in NY Times

New York Times offers prestige to Mexican billionaire looking to expand into US market

MEXICO CITY (AP) --

A Latin American billionaire looks to expand his empire in the United States in a deal that could make him the largest shareholder of The New York Times Co.

The $250 million investment by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim could provide some synergies with his telecommunications holdings in Latin America, analysts say.

The Times announced late Monday the financing agreement with Slim's companies Banco Inbursa and Inmobiliaria Carso for $125 million each. Times President Janet L. Robinson said the cash infusion will be used to refinance existing debt and will provide the company with increased financial flexibility.

New York Times shares slipped 8 cents to $6.33 in morning trading Tuesday, the first trading day after the company announced the deal.

The Times, which also publishes The Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune, has been trying to conserve cash as advertising revenues continue to slide. Newspaper publishers across the country are hurting amid the economic downturn and as advertisers shift spending online. The Times slashed its quarterly dividend by 74 percent in November and plans to raise $225 million from its new, 52-story Manhattan headquarters, either by selling the building and leasing it back or borrowing against it. It also put its stake in the Boston Red Sox up for sale.

[classicman]

Clear Channel cuts 1,850 jobs, 9 pct of work force

The parent of Clear Channel Communications Inc. told workers on Tuesday that it is cutting 1,850 jobs as the nation's largest owner of radio stations grapples with the economic meltdown.

The cuts represent about 9 percent of the company's total work force and affect staff throughout the company, in radio, outdoor advertising and corporate offices.

In a company-wide email, Chief Executive Mark Mays told employees that the company is facing an "unprecedented time of distress." He also said, though, that "Everyone in our investor group, on the board, and in the executive leadership team remains bullish about the long-term growth prospects for Clear Channel."

In the third quarter, company lost $86.1 million before discontinued operations compared to a profit of $253.4 million. The quarter included $148.8 million in merger-related expenses and other one-time items. Revenue fell by 4 percent to $1.7 billion.

The steepest drop was in radio advertising, down 7 percent to $844 million.

Does anyone even listen to commercials on the radio anymore? How bullish can they really be a bout this market?

[HungLikeJesus]

Carlos Slim owns one of the Mexican telephone companies - Taco Bell.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Naughty HLJ.

[classicman]

L.A. Times to cut 300 jobs

Editor Russ Stanton said in a second memo that the cuts will include a 70-position reduction across the editorial department, or 11 percent, in the coming weeks.

Hartenstein said the paper will reduce the number of sections on March 2, folding the California section into the front section, which includes local, national and international news, while keeping Business, Sports and Calendar as daily fixtures.

Other papers have also moved to trim sections in order to save money amid a rapidly worsening advertising market.

The New York Times in October folded the metro section in the paper's main news section from Monday to Saturday, and combined the business and sports sections on Tuesday to Friday.

Earlier Friday, A.H. Belo Corp., which owns the The Dallas Morning News and three other newspapers, said it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14 percent of its work force, and take other cash-saving measures to cope with falling ad revenue.

I don't see these jobs ever coming back. With severe competition from the electronic competitors and rapidly dying/declining readership, I think this is a permanent change.

[classicman]

Newspaper convention canceled amid industry woes

An annual convention of newspaper editors has been canceled for the first time since World War II, undone by the worst economic crisis since that harrowing era.

The American Society of Newspapers Editors' decision to skip this year's meeting was announced Friday, coinciding with the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News—the largest daily U.S. newspaper to shut down so far during a steep two-year slide in advertising revenue that's draining the life out of the industry.

"The industry is in crisis," said Charlotte Hall, president of the trade group and editor of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel. "This is a time when editors need to be in their own news rooms doing everything they can," to help their publications survive.

Until now, 1945 had been the only year that the American Society of Newspaper Editors didn't meet since the group's first convention in 1923. The newspaper industry weathered through 10 U.S. recessions since the last cancellation.

If it hadn't been canceled, this year's convention—scheduled from April 26-29 in Chicago—probably would have attracted a sparse crowd because so many newspapers are pinching pennies to ease their financial pain.

Newspaper staffs have been gutted, stock dividends have been suspended and, in the most extreme circumstances, bankruptcy petitions have been filed as more readers get their news for free from the Internet and advertisers curtail their spending on the print medium amid the recession.

Canceling the convention will likely result in some penalties to compensate the host hotel, the Fairmont in Chicago. The newspaper group is still negotiating with the hotel, Hall said.

The adverse economic conditions also prompted Magazine Publishers of America to cancel its convention this year. That decision was announced earlier this week.

Save some trees - shut 'em all down.

[classicman]

San Francisco May Be Largest City to Lose Main Paper


By Greg Bensinger

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- San Francisco may become the largest U.S. city to lose its main daily newspaper after Hearst Corp. threatened to sell or close the Chronicle unless it can push through more job cuts.

The publisher, already trying to sell the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, said yesterday that it would seek voluntary buyouts for a “significant” number of its 1,500 employees after the San Francisco Chronicle lost $50 million last year. The announcement follows two newspaper owners filing for bankruptcy protection since Feb. 21.

“The Chronicle plays an important role in our civic life and we don’t want to see this treasured institution close its doors,” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said yesterday in a statement. The California city is the nation’s 14th largest, with an estimated 744,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Publishers including New York Times Co. and Gannett Co. are cutting costs and seeking to sell assets after forecasting further declines in print advertising sales. Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, publisher of the Inquirer, and Journal Register Co. filed for bankruptcy protection to reorganize their debt.

Industrywide print advertising sales suffered their worst plunge in at least 37 years in the third quarter, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Newspapers haven’t managed a gain since the first three months of 2006.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Philadelphia Inquirer claims it's still a profitable operation, however. The filing is to protect them from past debts until they can get them restructured.

[classicman]

Journalism evolving, not dying: science author

"I am not bullish on what is happening in the newspaper industry; it is ugly and it is going to get uglier. Great journalists are going to lose their jobs and cities are going to lose their newspapers."

The shift was foreseeable but ignored, resulting in changes that should have happened gradually over a decade being crammed into a year or two with some pressure from the global economic meltdown, according to Johnson.

"There is panic that newspapers are going to disappear as businesses," Johnson said.

"Then there is panic that crucial information is going to disappear along with them. We spend so much time figuring out how to keep the old model on life support that we don't figure out how to build the new one."

News organizations should stop wasting resources on information freely available online, he added. And, they should stop killing trees.

"The business model sure seems easier to support if the printing goes away," Johnson said. "They don't have the print costs."

The global technology media, events and research company learned the benefits of delivering its publications, such as PC World and InfoWorld, exclusively on the internet, IDG chairman Patrick McGovern told AFP in a recent interview.

"The overall move to online has been big," McGovern said. "Print editions are yesterday's news. If it is news, people want to hear it as soon as they can."

IDG operates in 95 countries and says it is growing by double digits in China, India, and Eastern Europe.

Newspaper publishers would be wise to drop print and delivery costs and then focus on digging out the hot local topics that their readerships crave, according to McGovern.

"Find out the scandal in the mayor's office; what the police are up to, and those other things that people love to talk about," McGovern said. "It is easier and much less costly to put it online."

While internet users have grown accustomed to getting news, pictures, videos and other content for free, McGovern believes people will pay monthly subscriptions for online newspapers solidly tapped into their communities.

"I think people realize that if they are not paying for the information there will not be much investment in the information," McGovern said.

Johnson sees the future of news weaving together talents of professional journalists, bloggers, and people using social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter to instantly tell what is happening around them.

The information mix will, of course, include direct online streams such as webcasts from high-profile people such as US President Barack Obama.

"Let's say it is impossible to separate fact finding from rumor mongering," Johnson hypothesized.

"If only there were some institution that had a reputation for integrity and a staff of trained journalists that had thousands of people visiting their websites every day."

Those institutions are newspapers, Johnson noted, adding that an Internet-age motto of newspapers should be "All the news that fit to link."

Johnson is co-founder of a series of websites, his latest being Outside.in, and his books include "Everything Bad is Good For You" and "The Invention of Air."

Something related to this thread and the conversation in a few others. I think he has some good insight into the issue. Especially this line -
"We spend so much time figuring out how to keep the old model on life support that we don't figure out how to build the new one."

[Undertoad]

Clay Shirky understands this stuff better than anyone else. He just uncorked one on newspapers and the Internet. Sample:

That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen. Agreements on all sides that core institutions must be protected are rendered meaningless by the very people doing the agreeing. (Luther and the Church both insisted, for years, that whatever else happened, no one was talking about a schism.) Ancient social bargains, once disrupted, can neither be mended nor quickly replaced, since any such bargain takes decades to solidify.

And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.