Saturday, November 8, 2008
Saturday open thread
In comments, feel free to vent about McClatchy, or weigh in on any McClatchy issue... If you currently work at McClatchy, what is morale like? How much longer do you think Gary Pruitt will last? When will we know McClatchy is really insolvent? When will McClatchy stop funding employee 401k plans? What news are you hearing?
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9 comments:
Lee Communications (smaller publishing company) stopped making 401k contributions to certain employee retirement accounts. I wouldn't be surprized if McClatchy mankes a move like that before the end of 2008.
EW Scripps (SSP) suspended it's dividend yesterday, 11/7/08. But the biggest news in the publishing world is the difficulty Sam Zell is having with his sale of the Chicago Cubs. See the WSJ story. MLB has told him Mark Cuban won't be allowed to buy the team, and he was the leading prospect to buy the team.
Zell has a big principal payment due early next year and has NO cash in the till. If he can't sell the team to raise cash, Tribune will be in default.
Tribune Company, along with its newspapers, (LA Times, Chicago Tribune, et al) is not long for this world.
Walter Abbott
Good point, Walter -- if nobody will buy a newspaper company, maybe that is the market's way of saying the company is worthless.
Also, this from late yesterday.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/11/07/ny-times-co-slashes-retirement-benefits?tid=true
NY Times Co. Slashes Retirement Benefits
If you're thinking about retiring from your job at The New York Times Co., you should probably do it soon.
Tucked inside its latest 10-Q are the Times Co.'s plans to shave tens of millions of dollars from its budget by hacking away at pension and medical benefits for non-union employees. Those who retire on or after March 1, 2009, will no longer receive medical coverage after they turn 65, when they become eligible for Medicare. The Times Co. also said it has decreased the formula for pension benefits.
The changes, adopted Oct. 22, will yield estimated savings of $24 million in 2009.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811071523DOWJONESDJONLINE000708_FORTUNE5.htm
Scripps' Dividend Cut May Be Blueprint For Other Media Cos
There is a web site that says it is a place for angry journalists to vent. Every now and then I read their remarks. One thing, most of them are probably leftist loons. Some of them still blame President Bush for everything wrong in their sorry lives.
Here is a good comment concerning the recent election: “I’m ashamed that the guy who runs the blog from his basement did better than us.”
http://angryjournalist.com/
So does Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (wife) of Publisher Mark Zieman have any say as to who
Should stay or goes in the newsroom?
When Mark Zieman became the publisher of the Kansas City Star it was clear that his wife would
Have to leave the company to avoid a conflict of interest. As a member of Creators Syndicate, Miss Lokeman can still pull a freelance salary (from the Star) by contributing the same articles on the opinion page in the Sunday paper as if she were still employed there. How many “former” Star news writers can say the same?
So how much say behind the scene does she have in deciding who stays or goes in the newsroom as more editorial staff are shown the door in buyout after buyout this year?
Below are a few confusing examples that gives the impression that Miss Lokeman may have some pull with you know who
From Kansascity.com
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/rhonda_chriss_lokeman/
Rhonda Chriss Lokeman is a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. You can read her Creators columns on national affairs in this space on Sundays
From creators.com:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/rhonda-lokeman.html
Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (RCLCreators@kc.rr.com) is a contributing editor to The Kansas City Star. To find out more about Rhonda Chriss Lokeman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
The word contributing editor to The Kansas City Star gives the impression a freelance writer has some say to the content
Finally from creators.com
http://www.creators.com/opinion/rhonda-lokeman.html
Rhonda Chriss Lokeman
Home > Opinion Columns > Rhonda Chriss Lokeman
Please contact your local newspaper editor if you want to read Rhonda Chriss Lokeman's column in your hometown paper.
Its like Bill & Hillary Clinton over health care all over again. So does the KC Star have one or two publishers?
Just so you know there is a local KC blog that has an open-post policy; he/they let anyone post...whatever, within reason.
It looks to my eye that at least 1 ex KC Star staffer took the opportunity to say farewell on the site last month.
Otherwise, the site seems to deal mostly with natioanl news/opinion and satire.
If you're interested, here's the link.
http://willnotbetelevised.com/tv/ted-koppel/
Please sell sell sell or just close down and let people get on withtheir lives. There is no future none. Take a BO and move on. I did it is great.
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