This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday evening thread
What are you hearing? Leave into in comments. . . .
13 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Decision day for voluntary buyouts at the S-T is tomorrow - forms have to be in by 10 a.m.
The best and brightest that weren't slated to be involuntarily released have been parading up to HR all day to hand in their forms. They see the writing on the wall about the direction and future of the paper, and the company.
Laying off managers was basically non-existent in Sacramento, so don't expect lots of middle and upper management clones to be on the street once the names come out at other papers. It's a damn shame.
Good news or PR spin? You decide: This just in from the Star-Telegram's online edition:
Holy Amon G. Carter!
Teasers for Tuesday night’s KXAS/Channel 5 news program asked, then asked again, whether the Star-Telegram will survive.
After a round of layoffs announced last week, the repeated promos likely prompted more concern than the speculative news spot itself, which cited a Time magazine item that included us on a list of 10 endangered newspapers.
Turns out Time outsourced the prognostication to a three-man Internet operation, www.247wallst.com. A sign of the times.
Douglas A. McIntyre, who wrote the item, said he based his forecast on his own financial analysis and information gleaned from unnamed "good sources."
The son of a publisher at CapCities, a now-defunct corporation that bought the paper from the founding Carter family, McIntyre predicted that the Star-Telegram would fold or become an edition of The Dallas Morning News by the end of 2010 because of monumental fixed costs unaffected by layoffs or sale of property.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of this paper’s demise is premature, said Gary Wortel, our publisher, adding: "The paper has been around for 100 years and, yes, we are going to survive — in a daily print format."
Often lost in all the bad news about the newspaper industry at large and its parent company, McClatchy in particular, is the fact that the Star-Telegram is still cash-flow positive, Wortel said. That means profitable.
With cost-cutting creating a far leaner operation, Wortel is convinced that revenue from its weekly community papers as well as from new print and online products will keep the institution steady until the general economy recovers.
"When the economy improves, you will see a more robust newspaper," he said.
While keeping the paper afloat, Wortel is also trying to sell Amon’s venerable yacht, The West Texan.
Anon 7:47 - we were told in Lexington on Monday that it would still be a "couple of weeks" before our cuts are made. So I don't know if that means by end of next week or the week after or what. Pretty vague.
When those in other media attack the newspaper industry and pronounce its imminent doom I think of jackals attacking one of their own who is sick. Once gone, there will be that much more meat for them. Think advertising revenue. It's all about the $$$.
13 comments:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Decision day for voluntary buyouts at the S-T is tomorrow - forms have to be in by 10 a.m.
The best and brightest that weren't slated to be involuntarily released have been parading up to HR all day to hand in their forms. They see the writing on the wall about the direction and future of the paper, and the company.
Sad day all around.
2+2=5
Winston
Fresno Bee to lay off 63:
http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/story/1255831.html
Watch that subversive crap, Winston. The rat cages are full.
All departments including...."news, advertising, circulation, operations and community publications."
Which of these departments does the Editorial Board and columnists fall under?
Laying off managers was basically non-existent in Sacramento, so don't expect lots of middle and upper management clones to be on the street once the names come out at other papers. It's a damn shame.
What is going on in Lexington? I haven't seen anything yet on here about layoffs.
Good news or PR spin? You decide:
This just in from the Star-Telegram's online edition:
Holy Amon G. Carter!
Teasers for Tuesday night’s KXAS/Channel 5 news program asked, then asked again, whether the Star-Telegram will survive.
After a round of layoffs announced last week, the repeated promos likely prompted more concern than the speculative news spot itself, which cited a Time magazine item that included us on a list of 10 endangered newspapers.
Turns out Time outsourced the prognostication to a three-man Internet operation, www.247wallst.com. A sign of the times.
Douglas A. McIntyre, who wrote the item, said he based his forecast on his own financial analysis and information gleaned from unnamed "good sources."
The son of a publisher at CapCities, a now-defunct corporation that bought the paper from the founding Carter family, McIntyre predicted that the Star-Telegram would fold or become an edition of The Dallas Morning News by the end of 2010 because of monumental fixed costs unaffected by layoffs or sale of property.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of this paper’s demise is premature, said Gary Wortel, our publisher, adding: "The paper has been around for 100 years and, yes, we are going to survive — in a daily print format."
Often lost in all the bad news about the newspaper industry at large and its parent company, McClatchy in particular, is the fact that the Star-Telegram is still cash-flow positive, Wortel said. That means profitable.
With cost-cutting creating a far leaner operation, Wortel is convinced that revenue from its weekly community papers as well as from new print and online products will keep the institution steady until the general economy recovers.
"When the economy improves, you will see a more robust newspaper," he said.
While keeping the paper afloat, Wortel is also trying to sell Amon’s venerable yacht, The West Texan.
"It comes with two berths," he said.
On the Channel 5 item, publisher Wartel looked lost and very unconvincing when he said the paper would still be around in 100 years.
I wish I could believe him, but I haven't believed one thing he has said and it's obviously for good reason.
He looks like the kid down the street that everyone picked on growing up and now he is getting back at everyone.
Anon 7:47 - we were told in Lexington on Monday that it would still be a "couple of weeks" before our cuts are made. So I don't know if that means by end of next week or the week after or what. Pretty vague.
When those in other media attack the newspaper industry and pronounce its imminent doom I think of jackals attacking one of their own who is sick. Once gone, there will be that much more meat for them. Think advertising revenue. It's all about the $$$.
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