Here’s the problem with journalism – Steve Outing, Jan. 10, 2007

[Steve Outing notes new research showing that about 1/4 of reporters have blogs and about half lurk on blogs, reading them but rarely commenting. He’s shocked that the numbers are so low, though he acknowledges that some people might call this progress. I’m with Outing. What really surprised me was the lurking figure. It’s hard to believe that half of all journalists don’t use a ready-made news source like blogs to cover their beats.
What are they doing, monitoring the police band? -Ed.]

The downside of newspaper reader blogs – A shel of my former self, Jan. 9, 2008

[Social media guru Shel Holtz tells of a renegade blogger who used language of questionable taste on her LA Times blog and asks whether newspapers should edit the very community journalists they now invite into their space. -Ed.]

Wall Street Foresees Horrible Year For Newspapers: Are They Killing Themselves? – The Daily Bellwether, Jan. 10, 2008

[Imaginingg a newspaper’s call to the suicide hotline. The author is a veteran journalist who took a buyout from the Cleveland Plain Dealer and appears to be rather cynical about the whole industry. -Ed.]

The ultimate insult is to make The Simpsons

Gawker has a clip of Nelson dissing a newspaper journalist.

The
Seattle Times Cuts 86 Jobs – Associated Press, Jan. 9, 2008

[Actual layoffs total 31 people; 55 vacant positions won’t be filled. Most of the cuts are in circulation. Since the paper delivers The Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and the Financial Times to the Seattle area, we can assume this indicates broader circulation weakness. -Ed.]

Shrinking Union-Tribune: ‘Doing Less With Less’ – Voiceofsandiego.org, Jan. 7, 2008

Herald-Republic announces job cuts, expense trimming – Yakima Herald.com, Jan. 3, 2007

Quoting: Yakima Herald-Republic has laid off five employees, closed its Sunnyside bureau, and eliminated its zoned edition for the Lower Valley to trim expenses for 2008.

The Herald-Republic will leave several open positions unfilled, including one news reporter job. It will revamp its Spanish-language weekly, El Sol de Yakima, partly by outsourcing some page production to Mexico…”I don’t think it has to negatively affect the product,” [publisher] Shepard said. “Like any business, we can try and do as much or more with a few less folks.”

Sun-Times to cut costs; layoffs loom — chicagotribune.com, Dec. 15, 2007

[The Sun-Times had previously announced plans to cut $10 million in operating expenses, so this is a dramatically more ambitious goals. The CEO is quoted as saying, “We have to accept that the print advertising market may never again reach the levels of the past. We must scale our organization to meet that reality.” – Ed.]

How Garry Steckles can hang around – Chicago Reader Blogs, Jan. 9, 2008

[As the Chicago Sun-Times prepares to cut 30 editorial positions, staffers have come to focus on two employees who have recently been promoted to exempt positions and spared the threat of layoffs. Both are pals of EIC Michael Cooke, and speculation is rampant that that’s what saved them. Worse, this columnist claims, one is effectively a do-nothing consultant. -Ed.]

Cuts at Yakima, Bremerton and byline strike in Maine – Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild Blog

The end of the year was a good time for newspaper insiders and critics alike to review a pretty terrible year and wonder what come next.

$23B zapped in news stock value – Reflections of a Newsosaur, Jan. 1, 2008
[Alan Mutter runs the numbers and concludes that US newspaper companies have lost 42% of their market value in the last three years, with the majority of that decline coming in 2007. He further suggests that Wall Street’s lack of confidence in newspaper stocks is an indication that investors don’t believe that newspaper executives know how to pull out of the tailspin. As usual, his analysis is well-researched and pointed. – Ed.]

Lee CEO Junck Optimistic About Newspaper Biz – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 31, 2007

[A newspaper CEO points proudly to a year in which her company’s financial performance sucked less than that of its competitors’. -Ed.]

Enduring Values in a Time of Change – washingtonpost.com, Dec. 30, 2007

[The Washington Post’s ombudsman looks on the bright side. Deborah Howell starts by detailing the declines in circulation and revenue at the paper, but finishes by describing the shift in attitude about the Web that’s occurred among the reportorial staff. While it’s clear that some are adapting to the new online channels out of self-preservation, Howell clearly believes that most of the staff is embracing new media and trying to reinvent the paper. -Ed.]

‘Cincinnati Post’ Closes, Other Newspapers Outsource To India – MediaPost, Dec. 31, 2007

Quoting: “The Miami Herald announced Thursday that it is outsourcing some advertising production tasks to India as a cost-cutting measure, beginning in January. The New Delhi firm Mindworks will handle copy editing and design for special advertising sections, including a weekly community section covering Broward County. So far, the move hasn’t resulted in any layoffs in the paper’s Florida offices. However, Herald executives say the outsourcing is a test–implying that some jobs could go to India if it proves successful.

“The Miami Herald is actually the second newspaper owned by the McClatchy Co. to outsource to India. At the beginning of December, The Sacramento Bee also said it would experiment with outsourcing some ad production tasks.”

[This really isn’t surprising. Many functions associated with running a daily newspaper can be managed remotely, and why pay $25/hour to someone in the US when you can get the job done for $5/hour overseas? These early outsourcing experiments have sparked considerable teeth-gnashing in the newspaper industry, which is interesting, considering that creative cost-cutting initiatives like these are clearly needed. – Ed.]

Old and new clash in a struggle for dominance – The Boston Globe, Dec. 30, 2007
[A Globe columnist sums up the rough year that mainstream media has had and asks what’s next. “As old embraces new, some fear that the basic function of old media – watchdog, investigator, pillar of democracy – will be lost in a sea of microtargeting and snark,” she says. It’s an interesting observation, because blogging is, in many respects, the epitome of democracy and communities have proven to be pretty good watchdogs when they’re given a forum to talk about what they see. As for the investigator role, we’re still working out how to sustain that valuable function in the new world. Sending 2,500 reporters to cover the Iowa caucuses was not a great PR move for the newspaper industry. -Ed.]

Album Sales Plunge, Music Biz Rethinks – Media Post, Jan. 4, 2008
[The topic isn’t newspapers here, but the dynamics that are killing the music industry are meaningful to any mainstream media business. Record companies have long resisted buyers’ demands that they provide more flexible means to acquire their products. They’ve stubbornly refused, insisting that consumers buy an entire album, even if they only want to listen to one song. So customers have stopped buying, and now the recording industry is paying the price. Album sales are off a stunning 15% year-over-year, continuing a long-term decline. A desperate industry is forced to resort to desperate measures, but their reputation is so tattered that it’s questionable whether customers will give them another chance. This is a harsh lesson of the digital media age. -Ed.]

Read All About It – The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 28, 2007

[As Wall Street Journal Deputy Managing Editor Paul E. Steiger prepares to step out the door, he pens a thoughtful and dispassionate retrospective on what calls “the collapse of metro newspapers’ business model.” The 40-yet newspaper veteran chronicles the rise of the dominant media companies in the 60 and 70s that led to the post-Watergate “golden age of journalism.” He also tells of some of the spending excesses of that time that may have created too high a comfort level at the dominant dailies.

You’ll find some tidbits about the internal struggles at the Journal during the early days of the Internet. Steiger’s also right in pointing out that most newspapers’ early online efforts were half-hearted and unoriginal. This is ultimately a narrative on the industry’s decline, not an opinion piece about what should be or what should have been. In that respect, it’s frustrating to read. One would hope that a veteran with Steiger’s perspective would offer some opinon about what the industry should do, but he mainly sticks to the story line. In closing, however, he notes that he’s leaving the Journal to head up a small online investigative reporting group funded by two philanthropists. Perhaps his transition to the digital world is the most telling statement of all. – Ed.]

Switching sides – San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dec. 27, 2007
[A Bay Area alternative paper chronicles the diffusion of laid-off journalists into public relations jobs. While many are working for politicians and state agencies, some are in moving into the commercial sphere as well. Will the spinmeistering profession benefit from the addition of more seasoned journalists to the corps? – Ed.]

Seattle Times publisher hints at deep cuts – Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 27, 2007
“In his e-mail, [Seattle Times Publisher and Chief Executive Frank ] Blethen said revenue from print ads will be down by about 9 percent in 2007, with a similar decline expected in 2008. For combined 2007 and 2008, print revenue losses will be about $33 million, he said. In 2000, the paper booked $270 million in ad revenue, while in 2007, it fell below $200 million, he said. ‘Our Seattle Times newspaper losses for the decade will exceed $40 million — a staggering number,’ he wrote.”

U.S. media face troubling 2008 – Toronto Globe and Mail, Nov. 26, 2007
“Experts say advertisers need to remain competitive in a tighteningmarket while keeping costs down, making them likely to boost spending in areas more directly linked to commerce, such as Web search queries. That would benefit companies like Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. But television networks like CBS or NBC and Web companies like Yahoo Inc. that rely on brand advertising could suffer.”

November Journal Communications Revenues Plummet 13% On Political Ad Fall-Off – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 19, 2007
Retail advertising was up 1.9% — but classified advertising revenue slumped 15.5%, with bi declines in help-wanted and real estate. Help-wanted classified revenue fell 24.7%, while real estate was down 30.1%….Total interactive advertising revenue at the daily newspaper, which is included in various ad revenue categories, increased 38.8% to $1.19 million for the period.

Gannett November Revenues Fall 4.6% On Big Classifieds Drop – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 18, 2007
The fall was “propelled by huge declines in U.S. classified newspaper revenues, including a 28.4% plunge in real estate and a 23.5% collapse in help-wanted.”

Publisher Hands Sun-Sentinel News Site Over To Marketer – The Daily Pulp, Dec. 14, 2007
[The Sun-Sentinel puts a marketer in charge of the newspaper’s website, including editorial content. A lively debate takes place in the comments section, including opinions about the senior editorial manager who was laid off as a result of the changes. – Ed.]

Times Media readership increases – St. Cloud Times, Dec. 14, 2007
[The St. Cloud Times appears to be doing a few things right. Overall readership is up 9% over the last four years (presumably most of those gains are online). Aggressive investment in local coverage appears to be paying off: “Over a 30-day period, Times Media reaches 93 percent of the adults in the region, the highest of all Gannett papers’ surveys that have been measured so far.” – Ed.]

‘Cincy Post’ Shutting in 3 Weeks — How Staffers Spend Final Days – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 12, 2007
Many employees plan to get out of the journalism business.

Big Investor Tells Sun-Times Group To Cut More, Pay Execs In Stock – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 11, 2007
$1.8 billion plunge in shareholder equity has big hedge fund up in arms.

The following commentaries come from longtime foot soldiers of newspapering who speak out against the bottom-line mindset that has overtaken their industry.

MAGPIE » Killing the watchdogs. – Arthur Magazine blogs for you…

[David Carr presents an impassioned and eloquent argument for the value of investigative reporting, despite the fact that it will never be a profit-making activity. “Thousands of bloggers could type for a millennium and not come up with the kind of deeply reported story that freed innocent men — an effort that takes years of inquiry, deep sources and a touch for making unholy secrets knowable,” he writes. Layoffs and cost-cutting are threatening to kill this vital public policy role that the media plays. -Ed.]

Scholars and Rogues » Blog Archive » Journalism then; journalism now: comprehending the difference

[Denny Wilkins remembers the best editor he ever had and rues the fact that big corporations have turned news reporting into a commercial endeavor. He quotes frequently from David Carr’s piece noted above. – Ed.]

Gannett’s got a brand new (anonymous) blog!

[The Gannett Blog is all about Gannett Co., Inc. Only it’s not published by Gannett. The author describes him/herself as “Not in management. Not a union member. No ax to grind. And Gannett Blog has no formal affiliation with Gannett Co. Inc.” One thing’s for sure: the author is prolific, often posting several items a day. The blog was launched in June but has only been actively updated for the past month or so. Gannett employees are encouraged to submit tips. – Ed.]

More on Times Layoffs – New York Observer, Nov. 29, 2007

[The New York Observer publishes a memo from Times management about the layoffs along with a Newspaper Guild reaction. Apparently the Times still maintains a photo lab years after news photography went entirely digital. -Ed.]

Smithfield Herald to Shift Printing Operations to News & Observer – WRAL.com, Nov. 28, 2007

On Bad Day For Newspaper Stocks — Sun-Times Media Group Sinks 23% – Editor & Publisher, Nov. 26, 2007

[No one knows why Sun-Times stock fell 23% in one day. – Ed.]

Black October For Tribune Revenues – MediaPost, Nov. 28, 2007

[The Trib’s ad revenue was off 10.6% in October, largely because of lower real-estate advertising. Perhaps even worse is that circulation revenue was down 6.3%, meaning that the paper is losing subscribers. Speculation is that unless the FCC will let Tribune Co. own a newspaper and a TV station in the same market, buyer Sam Zell may back out of the deal. – Ed.]

Online Revenue Grew 21% In 3Q For Newspapers – MediaPost, Nov. 23, 2007

[Good news about strong growth in newspaper online ad revenue is tempered by the fact that growth is slowing and that print revenue declines are falling faster than online sales can make up the difference. – Ed.]

Deflating sales for de press – Reflections of a Newsosaur

[Alan Mutter adjusts newspaper industry financials for inflation and reports that 2007 print advertising revenues are actually about 20% below 1997 figures. What’s worse is that the decline is accelerating. Ed.]

How an electronic newspaper could become profitable – Crosscut Seattle

[A veteran journalist proposes a scenario in which print newspapers move entirely to Amazon’s Kindle reader and ditch print entirely. This article has some interesting numbers about what it costs to run a newspaper, based on averages provided by industry associations. It also presents an intriguing cost/benefit model, one which ultimately argues that ditching print may actually be a good idea. – Ed.]

L.A. Times Launches Readers’ Representative Journal – Bloggers Blog, Nov. 27, 2007

[The LA Times has been tiptoeing into the world of audience interaction. Some stories invite reader comments, although hyperlinks are almost absent within editorial content. The LA Times has badly fumbled its frachise over the last two decades, by many accounts. For example, this morning’s home page contains not a single sentence in Spanish. And this is Los Angeles. – Ed.]

Departing Sentinel editor takes job with PR firm – SantaCruzSentinel.com, Nov. 30, 2007

Quoting: “Honig acknowledged Thursday that he anticipated further cuts at the150-year-old newspaper following a round of editorial layoffs this summer…The Sentinel’s publisher, David B. Regan, confirmed that he will make an announcement in coming weeks about possible further cuts at the newspaper. He said it has not been determined if layoffs are imminent, but said, ‘Everything is on the table.'”

‘NYT’ To Axe 12 Newsroom Jobs Now, Management Cuts Next Year – Editor & Publisher, Nov. 28, 2007

[The people affected are mainly support and clerical staff, indicating that the Times is still reluctant to take strong medicine. It’s easiest to cut the people at the bottom of the food chain, but laying off executives and veteran reporters is where you get the real cost savings. This move looks more like a sop to investors. – Ed.]

USA TODAY plans to cut 45 newsroom jobs – USATODAY.com, Nov. 15, 2007

[In reporting on its own troubles, USA Today points to a copy of the memo from Editor Ken Paulson, which oddly is hosted on Poynter. – Ed.]

McClatchy’s Kansas City Star offers buyouts – Reuters, Nov, 28, 2007

[As noted in other posts, McClatchy is probably the most troubled newspaper company in the country. Ed.]

San Antonio Paper Offers Staff Buyouts – Editor & Publisher, Oct. 17, 2007

“‘Increasingly, we find ourselves to be a company in transition: one that is growing robustly on some fronts, while experiencing retrenchment on other fronts,” [Publisher Tom] Stephenson wrote. “We are, in effect, transforming ourselves from a newspaper company to a publishing company, with substantial expansion beyond our core product.'”

Houston, We Have a Program: ‘Chron’ Editor Explains Buyouts, Restructuring – Editor & Publisher, Oct. 31, 2007

In announcing plans to buy out 40 employees, Houston Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen laid out these strategic objectives:

• “Focus on scoops and enterprise in the master narratives that drive our community;
• Think Web first every day with 24/7 breaking news;
• Expand our multimedia content with video and online database initiatives;
• Develop topical Web channels that extend the reach of our Web site beyond news;
• Aggressively engage our readers with interactive journalism and community Web sites;
• Improve community coverage in our Spanish language publications in paper and online;
• Develop niche publications, as we have done with Gloss and Health, in areas with potential for building new audiences.”

Newspaper Merger Means Layoffs at ‘Daily Southtown’

“The Sun-Times Media Group is laying off 20 full-time and eleven part-time workers from the editorial staff of the Daily Southtown in Tinley Park…[T]he two publications currently have a combined full-time editorial staff of approximately 100, plus some 15 part-timers.

Newsroom Staff Cut at Vancouver’s Big Papers – thetyee.ca

“Newsroom staff at Vancouver’s two CanWest daily papers learned in the late afternoon meetings that the wave of staff reductions across the country at newsrooms and broadcast facilities owned by the media giant will now result in the loss of up to 15 editorial staff at each paper. If all of these reductions are achieved, management will have cut newsroom staff by more than 10 per cent this year…CanWest recently announced cuts of up to 200 employees at its TV stations across the country.”

Herald-Tribune cutting a section and 14 jobs

“‘The revenue declines resulting from economic challenges provoked by the real estate downturn, as well as the public’s increasing use of the Web for news and information, have led us to a point where we need to take further action,’ [Publisher Diane] McFarlin said in a memorandum to the company’s staff…Even after the cutbacks, the media company, with its print, Internet and SNN News 6 television operations, employs nearly 500 people.”