Recent news we haven’t had a chance to report.
Journal Register Co., its stock sitting at under a penny, took a machete to scores of local newspapers, putting them up for sale and threatening to close them if buyers aren’t found. The lost include eight holdings in upstate New York: the Millbrook Round Table, Pleasant Valley Voice Ledger, Rhinebeck Gazette-Advertiser, Pawling News Chronicle, Harlem Valley Times, Hyde Park Townsman, Pine Bluffs Register Herald and Putnam County Courier. Non-news titles Weekend, Dutchess Magazine and the Hudson Valley Guide are also set to close.
In Connecticut, the condemned include the Bloomfield Journal, the Shoreline Times, Pictorial Gazette, Branford Review, Clinton Recorder and East Haven Advertiser. Michiganders will no longer have the Elk Rapids Town Meeting, the Petoskey Citizen-Journal and the Northern Star. MediaPost also reports that the Grand Traverse Insider, the Leader and Kalkaskian , the Antrim County News and the Petoskey-Charlevoix Star are closing.
The city of brotherly love lost the Northeast Philadelphia Breeze, the News Gleaner, the Olney Times, the Germantown Courier, and the Mount Airy Times Express. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Hershey lost its Chronicle.
Journal Register hasn’t yet declared bankruptcy, but it has already missed debt payments and is considered the next was likely candidate for Chapter 11.
Two Idaho newspapers are scaling back their production schedules to save money. The eastern Idaho Post Register will eliminate its Monday edition and publish six days a week. The publisher said the move will help the company avoid layoffs. Also, earlier this month the Rexburg (Id.) Standard Journal said it would scale back to three days a week from five.
Layoff announcements at the Los Angeles Times have reportedly been delayed until tomorrow. Rumors are that about 70 newsroom staffers will be let go.
The Los Angeles Daily News has reportedly laid off eight copy desk staffers . The paper is also reportedly considering moving the entire copy desk to MediaNews offices in the San Gabriel Valley.
The Kansas City Star writes about the growing crisis in the broadcast industry, where the advertising slump is expected to hit hard this year. Television outlets, in particular, depend heavily upon automotive advertising. The crisis in the automobile industry may reduce revenues as much as 30% this year, according to some estimates. The problems don’t strike at the public’s right to know as badly as newspaper layoffs do because TV and radio stations generally employ a much smaller news staffs.
If you’re considering a career shift, read about the experience of Michael Precker: Columbia J-School grad, foreign correspondent, Dallas Morning News feature writer, Pulitzer Prize nominee and now strip club manager. Three years ago, Precker found he was losing interest in his journalism job and a chance meeting with the owner of a local strip club gave him an opportunity to jump. Now he runs all operations at the Lodge, an upscale topless establishment. Check out the clever video ads on the site.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Facebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Seems to me Journal Register might be just shutting any papers that are not making money, no questions asked. Then they will try to rebuild with the papers that are making some money. I actually think this is a good plan, and the only way they can survive.
Precker scored bigtime! On my visit to The Lodge, there was a Russian goddess…
Good to hear one of ours landed in a growth industry.
[…] are finding they have to reinvent themselves, because there are so few jobs available. Courtesy of Newspaperdeathwatch here’s a prime example: Michale Precker, a Columbia grad and Pulitzer Prize nominee who now […]
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Breaking News: The Journal Register filed Bankruptcy sometime Saturday afternoon, 2/21/09. The filing revelealed TJR had~$500M in assets and ~$700M in Liabilities.
As an example of typical MMedia cowardness, TJR did not announce the BK, they confirmed it after it was found on a BK Attorney site….scooped by the Blog, my, how surreal is that, LOLs, LMAO!
well i have been in the paper biz for 30 yrs the reasons why i believe the papers in this country are having problems is because when the internet became a tool for the world. newspapers started putting them online for pretty much FREE!!! stupid move WHY WOULD ANYONE PAY FOR A HOME DELIVERY IF THEY CAN OBTAIN IT ON THE NET FOR FREE ?where did all the advertisers go? to the net yes!!!but there are still people out there in the world that likes to sit down w/ there cup of coffee and read a daily paper at the table not on a computer screen come on America get back into reading a NEWSPAPER just like john elway said at 1 time parents you need to ENCOURAGE your children to read a DAILY NEWSPAPER everyday to get the info they need to understand the world..NEWSPAPERS are an institution just like the banks the mortgage companies and there getting bailouts from the government why don’t the newspapers fight for some of that money to stay around they have been around for 100″s of years and they are just shutting down left and right!!!!
[…] local newsweekly closures because the volume was overwhelming. Back in 2009, Journal Register Co. closed scores of weekly holdings in one fell swoop, and Gannett and others have followed. Weeklies were some of the hardest-hit properties in Media […]