Friday, March 6, 2009

Where will the McClatchy axe fall next?... The northwest? The midwest? The south? (updated)

Judging by my email and comments, anxiety levels across the McClatchy chain are rising. If you have news or info, email me or leave the info in comments.

First announcement of the day: Nine positions eliminated at McClatchy Interactive (more here).

More announcements to come? An emailer says in Boise, layoff rumors are everywhere.
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38 comments:

Anonymous said...

South. McC Interactive has a "All Hands" meeting at 9am this morning. I think our announcement will come then. We are a small organization compared to the papers, so the numbers won't be high, but they will be a big hit for us.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised Mcclatchy Interactive is still around. The Internet is just a fad. Nobody uses the Internet for *news*.

Why bother allocating limited resources to something that's going to fade away?

It's better to have to more people working on the print classifieds sections. That's where the real money is. That's the real future of the company.

Anonymous said...

Is there any word on Lexington. Understand that McC rejected their plan and sent it back for more cuts & might be as much as two weeks of being kept in the dark, but what's new about that.

Anonymous said...

Why don't day aks linda williams?

Anonymous said...

Who cares, we should be reading the Brit papers ON-LINE FOR FREE. They get it, and aren't as bias as MNI


The London Daily Mail Sees Obama For What He Is

...A victory for social democracy even after most of Europe has come to the painful conclusion that social democracy leads to mediocrity, failure, unemployment, inflation, higher taxes and economic stagnation. A victory for intrusive lawyers, banal sentimentalists, social extremists and urban snobs...

Did you see the "gifts" linda williams 0bama gave to the Brit PM?

Anonymous said...

The better question is, when MNI is an internet only “publication” will anyone even bother to go to their site?

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:58 ASNWER: Only to buy their unsold trinkets

Anonymous said...

Soon, Seattle's PI as online-only paper (Media Life)Louisa Ada Seltzer

...The paper, now with a news staff of some 150, reports that the online staff might number only 20.

The site would ramp after the print edition folded, presumably some time in the next week or so...

Anonymous said...

IT IS DONE!

Hearst makes offers to staff online-only P-I By DAN RICHMAN
P-I REPORTER

…Staffers chosen to participate in an online-only version of the Seattle P-I were notified of their selection Wednesday and Thursday.

The selections indicate The Hearst Corp.'s plan for such a Web site is advancing…

...The general assignment reporter, at the P-I for nine years, said he turned down Riddick's offer. He said the offer increased his health insurance cost, cut his salary by an unspecified amount, offered to match his 401(k) contributions, required him to forgo his P-I severance pay, reduced his vacation accrual to zero and required him to give up overtime...

Hearst plans to start the site the day after the paper quits publishing…

..He said he turned down the offer because he finds working online "too tech-oriented."...

Anonymous said...

Exit Interview: The P-I's Hector Castro (Do Do Bird Castro)on Why He Won't Go Online,

“I’m used to taking a couple of hours to work on a lead for story," he said, speaking by phone from the newsroom. "Having to come up with something for Twitter in something like five seconds, that just doesn’t sound as fun.”

“I just said no," Castro said. "I didn’t think I’d be a good fit for the team they’re trying to put together. And it’s not a personality thing.

My interests in journalism just don’t align with what they’re trying to put together in an online product.”

Anonymous said...

Wait till the news from the Sac Bee comes out. It is going to be more people then all the other Sac Bee layoffs combined!!!!

Anonymous said...

LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. daily newspaper circulation continued to fall in February, compounding months of shrinking readership as papers also battle falling advertising revenue.

Figures published Friday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that all national daily newspapers except the tabloid Daily Star saw their circulation shrink in February.

The Sun, published by News Corp.(NWS), was the hardest hit, falling 6.09% in the month. News Corp. owns Dow Jones, publisher of this newswire.

The Guardian broadsheet saw its readership shrink by 5.18%.

The Sunday newspapers fared slightly better with the Independent on Sunday, published by Independent News & Media (INM.LN), The Observer and the Sunday Times, published by News Corp., all growing circulation slightly in February.

Overall the six-month trend across the daily and Sunday national newspapers showed declines at every publication.

The fall in circulation is compounding a severe slowdown in advertising that has forced publishers to cut staff and costs in an effort to maintain profitability.

Anonymous said...

Chronicle May Cut More Than Half Its Newsroom

Owners of the San Francisco Chronicle are threatening to cut at least 225 jobs if the union that represents journalists doesn't meet its demands, sources said.

Most of the jobs cuts would come from the Chron newsroom. Company negotiators have said that if the Northern California Media Workers Guild decides to agree to their demands, then they will only slash 150 jobs, thereby saving 75 total positions, sources said.

The company demands include giving up senority rights and slashing vacation, sick time, and maternity/paternity leave. The company also wants the union to allow it to oustsource some jobs to nonunionized employees.

Senority is viewed as one of the key issues, because the company does not want to only lay off newer, lower paid employees

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:27 AM:

Hey, is that my FORMER manager writing this? I didn't know you lurked here! That's exactly what you told me back in the 90's when I asked for a connection to the internet when it was still "new"
:o)

Anonymous said...

Lexington is going on more than a MONTH without hearing anything from the head cheese. Feb. 5 is when we got the email about cuts, but they didn't have a plan in place about what they were going to do. In that time the 2nd in command was able to go to Europe on her vacation while the people who actually do the work around there were left dangling out in the wind. Still no word as of the today. Who knows when it's coming.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, the axe will fall next in Anchorage.

Anonymous said...

Greta Job MNI!

Obama to speak to 25 Ohio police recruits.

The President of the United States is flying to Ohio to trumpet the "fact" that he "saved" 25 jobs.

Anonymous said...

This is off-topic, but I had to comment.

I really enjoy Aaron Barnhart's column and blog in The Star. With limited time to watch television, he's usually reliable in steering me toward worthwhile selections.

But is anyone else noticing that he is becoming more and more political and has morphed into one of The Star's chief Obama apologists?

I'm not one of these people who wants to bash the president at every turn (although I firmly believe he IS wrong at at almost every turn), but why cannot even escape the bias in a fricin' television blog?

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/03/the-silly-issue.html#more

Anonymous said...

The incompetence of MNI is astounding. We have waited more than a month for details of cuts, and no news. And apparently we have to wait even longer.... Incompetence.

Anonymous said...

The really sad thing is we are forced to follow this right wing whacko's blog to find out about our jobs. Once we are all laid off, this kind of thing is all people will have have left. Partisan nutjobs who only ask questions to reinforce the answers in their head.

Good job though. Put some ads in here, you could buy an MCI stock share with every click. -Anon in Lex

Anonymous said...

MI lost 9 positions, 3 actual cuts and salary reduction of 2.5% under $50,000, 5% between $50,000 and $100,000 and 10% over $100,000.

Anonymous said...

But is anyone else noticing that he is becoming more and more political and has morphed into one of The Star's chief Obama apologists?

-------------

Becoming more and more? No, he jumped in head first when the Star had all their non editorial people start posting editorials and pasting them all over the front page.

He's never come up for air.

Anonymous said...

The really sad thing is we are forced to follow this right wing whacko's blog to find out about our jobs.



Poor bebe. Must be a blow for you to realize you can't find anything relative at the Daily KOS or the NY Times.

Here's what is sad. You're such a pathetic piece of work that you don't have the decency to say thank you to your host for providing the information you desire because your brand of information dissemination is a decided failure.

Then you wonder why they hate you. You're the consummate McClatchy Lackey.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:36 We have a winner! Thank you for speaking for me!

Anonymous said...

Regardless of your political leanings, the other MNI blog is easier to use. It loads much faster and you don't have to keep using the back button. And if you don't think that stuff matters, then you need to learn something about how people use the internet.

Anonymous said...

That other blog gives all vistors AIDS.

This blog rocks.

Anonymous said...

Soon-to-be-unemployed McClatchy people:
You might want to tone down the self-righteousness and name-calling. You seem to be unaware how many people feel routinely insulted and put down by your publications. You are about to have a humbling experience.

Anonymous said...

It is eerily quiet here in Anchorage at the Daily News. Everyone is expecting more layoffs -- which would have to happen by March 16 in order to give people two week's notice before the end of the first quarter...

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:00 I need a new keyboard. Thanks! LOL

Anonymous said...

apparently, lexington will be left hanging until sometime next week. that's crap.

Anonymous said...

BREAKING NEWS:

McClatchy Stock was hovering down about 4c yet in the last hour exploded to a 40% game. The volume today was in excess of 5M shares when ave volume is just under 400K?

Is anyone hearing anything?

Anonymous said...

I love how much folks are still so butt hurt over obama winning.

HAHAHAHAHHAH

If the paper goes down you think your butt will stop hurting?

there are a lot of jobs being lost right now a lot of businesses going down. All of them have only republicans to blaim for 8 years of ignorance.

Anonymous said...

All of them have only republicans to blaim for 8 years of ignorance.

Priceless.

Anonymous said...

During the trading day no time and sales accounts for the 5m shares traded which means if it isn't a mistake it was an off board trade. The activity in the last half hour looks to have been between 120 to 150,000 short covering. It is kind of hard to say, but the price jumped 7 cents on a 300 share transaction that looks to be tied to the remainder.

Before the closing bell yesterday the stock was trading at .38 cents, then a BOC order at the bell drove the price up with only 28,000 shares in the order. At this level it takes very little to make big moves in either direction, and up for MNI is not necessarily good news until their short interest is substantially reduced.

Anonymous said...

2:13 PM Midtown Leftist or San Francisco Leftist? Carry on the fight enlighten warrior.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know when Charlotte will be doing their cuts? I assume they will with the rest of the world. I don't work there and am kinda out of the loop but gotta keep tabs on the place.

Anonymous said...

Tri-City Herald announces cost-cutting measures: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/915/story/501359.html

Anonymous said...

Very sad day for the people who actually work hard for their money.

The NW group has had poor management for years and now their staffs have to pay the most. Very sad...

All the BS and propaganda just couldn't handle a declining market share and unmotivated sales force. The turnaround should have started two years ago when they had a fighting chance to succeed, but it's too little too late.

For those that did their jobs well, please reach out to your friends who were smart enough to leave a while back. Maybe you get a job.