- January 2009: 9,779,000 unique visitors
- December 2008: 10,994,000 unique visitors
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Friday, February 20, 2009
Online traffic at McClatchy Newspapers falls by 1.2 million visitors
Yikes! The latest Nielsen Online study, which ranks the top 30 online current events and global news destinations, shows McClatchy Newspapers had 1.2 million fewer unique visitors in January than in December. Check this out:
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28 comments:
Maybe all of the laid off former employees decided to stop visiting their papers' websites. Sounds like about the right amount of people, don't ya think?
Don't worry McClatchy. Keeping Rhonda Three Leg's arrest secret for a month will bring next month's numbers back up. Watching the Scar be shamed into writing the story after the fact is good for a few million look sees.
Just remember guys, half or more of those clicks were because people hate you and wanted you to know it.
Firing the last hires is basically going to cut Mcclatchy's throat completely. Most of the last hires are the innovators and content producers. The tired worn out mid management types who make all the money are the ones who should be feeling the sharp blade. But before them cut Gary Pruitt's head off and put it on a pointed stick. That would free up about 4 million dollars.
There has never been a standard of firing the last hired in Lexington. They're all over the board - sometimes FT workers, sometimes PT, sometimes the newest in a group, sometimes the guy that's been here 40 yrs. You never can tell what logic they will use. Last round of cuts they actually turned down someone for a voluntary buyout and then laid him off 2 weeks later after they announced we didn't get enough people in the voluntary buyouts! How crazy is that?! And it definitely doesn't matter if you're busting your butt and doing a great job - they say all the time "it's not personal, you're a great employee, this is just what looked right on paper." Can someone please explain what the heck that even means?
It's one person's opinion (disclosure: I work for a TV station web site), but with as much bad weather as January saw in many parts of the country, I think a lot of people hit TV sites in January as opposed to newspaper sites. I wouldn't read a lot into a one-month drop off for McClatchy or any other newspaper group.
McClatchy's still in deep doo-doo, mind you.
Just my 2 cents. This is a great blog (another disclosure: I used to work for McClatchy and don't mind seeing them go belly up.)
Gary Pruitt's talk about McClatchy becoming a "hybrid news organization" is going up in smoke.
4:22 yeah a lot of your bigger papers have a lot of dead weight in middle management. Folks do not even know how to fill in for folks that they manage.
however there are a lot of papers that have good management,i have seen it first hand where management is on the floor in production working with the crew, in prepress working with the crew and so on.
Folks need to be more specific its like saying yeah all blacks are blah blah or all women can only do so so, yeah what im saying is its a very ignorant comment and one that i see all the time on this blog. Much like the anti liberal group who want to see the papers burn no matter the cost even though the majority of employees do not even work in the news department.
Its sad.
I have worked for both mcclatchy and gannett and though i feel mcclatchy is worse in the way it is being managed, it would fail regardless. Gannett has traditionally been very good at reducing cost and they did not make the large purchase that Mcclatchy did with KR. But here they are right behind Mcclatchy in the stock market dropping fast and making huge cuts.
Papers need to focus on local news and less on AP, not becuase they are liberal but because thats what people really cant get on national publications and websites.
I blame upper managment for not listening to their employees and not going to their customers,(advertisers & readers) for more feedback to improve circulation.
It is circulation that drives revenue.
As I said last night I really think it has to do with not allowing anonymous posters. Nothing like cutting your own throat.
I wouldn't read a lot into a one-month drop off for McClatchy or any other newspaper group.
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Actually the biggest part of the country had a relatively mild winter, that had nothing to do with it.
What caused it was several of McClatchy's largest papers had to suddenly quit allowing anonymous comments and made people re-register to post. At the same time there was disclosed McClatchy's tracking software and data collection list that sold people's information. They had a hard time getting people to sign up afterward.
TV websites benefited from McClatchy decision.
McClatchy still features biased news reporting. I think quite a few people already vetoed liberal selected news. Why would anyone visit their online site? Take away their employee hits, and yikes, who goes there? Shhhhhhhh! Pru thinks we don’t know that.
Good post, Anonymous 4:42 (I'm Anonymous 4:29 PM). Didn't know about the re-register issue. Good point
Whatever the reason, with all the above posts, taint good. Taint good at all.
I wonder what management thinks when the read the truth on this blog?
I wonder what management thinks when the read the truth on this blog?
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I can tell you. "These people don't have a clue what they are talking about."
You see, they are in complete denial. You have to remember that in newspaper management you don't get promoted by doing a good job, being efficient, honest or upstanding, they are none of that.
You get there at the expense of your friends by climbing over the backs of your peers. You then spend your every waking moment knifing others in the back while constantly convincing others that you are so much more intelligent than the average bear.
It is a really f$%^ed up existence. Especially if you are at least sharp enough to realize that if you dropped dead in the middle of the news room, a muffled cheer could be heard down the line.
Once you take the anonymity away from online forums, you kill the golden goose. It's based on avatars and the shroud of secrecy so people can be honest. People will just go elsewhere. Dumb move.
Once you take the anonymity away from online forums, you kill the golden goose.
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Well in the case of McClatchy forums they didn't really have a choice. They were getting 10 to 20 pages of comments full of almost nothing but McClatchy sucks and exactly why. I think the final straw was when the KC Star publisher put his, "thank you, please stay with us" letter on the front page. They got 18 pages full of suggestions for what he could do with his letter and only 3 positive comments out of hundreds. It was so bad Derrick Donovan was calling commenter's on the phone telling them how mad he was and chastising them for the damage they had done to the Star. One account even said that he cussed them out. Within a few days all but ADN had done away with anonymous comments.
Nothing like freedom of expression, eh?
At the Sacbee the comments were caustic against the database of state workers salary information. The information started a little community war; no uniting going on there. What a doofus Sill is, in the capital overrun with state workers, offend half your readers. The anonymous comments might have stopped soon after that fiasco. Oh yeah, offending your customers works, overpaid, Miss Melly!
Anon 5:28 We have a winner!!!
5:53 I was one that Derrick Dovovon
screem and yelled at. In my opinion he is the biggest asshole they have at the KC Star. I won't ever take it again because of Derrick.
@Angry Journalist
"Journalism is dead and the fact that it is makes us all necrophiliacs."
I admit I had to look up that big word.
Angry Journalist is doing just fine and even has a link to this little gem of a site. http://www.journalism-is-dead.com/ Just hit refresh for a new witticism about the dinosaur industry going out in total shame.
Use local TV Stations they have great web sites.
the nasty hateful one-sided journalists are going bye-bye!
they wrote their own pink slip during the last campaign. good bye sickos.
Barry Soetoro aka Joe Blow
What difference does it make if you use Anonymous or a moniker? NONE!
One blog I read says you cannot post as Anonymous, so they post as
JOE BLOW FROM COCAMO.
Some of us former McClatchy journalists are continuing to cover our beats on our own, on-line. It's completely doable. There IS life after McClatchy.
It's because the sites are horrible. Too many pop-ups, too hard to find what you want, too damn ugly. And if you don't have all the latest and greatest software, you're screwed. Half of the Star-Telegram doesn't have the correct version of Flash on their PCs, so we can't even check our OWN website.
Journal Register files for bankruptcy
The Journal Register Co., owner of 20 daily newspapers, filed today for bankruptcy protection from its creditors. The Yardley-based company blamed a slump in advertising.
The company operates primarily in the Philadelphia and Cleveland areas, as well as throughout Michigan. Its newspapers include the Delaware County Times and the Trentonian near Philadelphia.
The company would cancel its stock and become a closely held company, owned by its lenders under a proposed reorganization plan filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
It listed debt of as much as $1 billion and assets of between $100 million and $500 million in Chapter 11 documents.
"With the increased competition from other forms of media and slumping advertising revenues, the downward pressure on newspaper earnings will likely remain intense in the near term," company chief executive officer James Hall said in court papers.
Since 2006, the company's revenue has dropped by more than 20 percent, Hall said.
In the fall of 2007, the company started cutting costs by selling its corporate jet, eliminating management bonuses and country club memberships, closing 34 publications and cutting at least 112 workers.
Under a proposal filed as part of the bankruptcy case, the company has asked for permission to pay as much as $1.7 million in bonuses to 30 top officers and key employees, should the Journal Register meet certain reorganization goals, including closing more papers and eliminating more employees.
Those officers have already been paid $450,000 for a previous round of cuts, according to court papers.
The Journal Register employs about 3,500 people and also owns 159 non-daily newspapers.
McClatchy centralized a lot of their online resources and laidoff a lot of online talent late last year. Their websites took on a homogeneous look with the centralization which also eliminated a lot of local control. As a former McClatchy employee the sacbee has not grown in years and had the same demo as the aging newspaper readers. McClatchy attempting to gain a younger and more targeted audience with their failed attempt saclights.
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