Layoffs at CL
December 10, 2007 at 11:58 am by Ken Edelstein in NewsFriday was a rough day at the Loaf, perhaps even rougher at our new brethren papers in Washington and Chicago.
In Atlanta, we laid off four sales people, a marketing assistant, a sales assistant and our wonderful assistant distribution manager — seven employees total. No Edit staff member was among those cuts, but that’s partly because we have a couple of open positions right now.
The edit departments at the Chicago Reader and the Washington City Paper – altweeklies that Creative Loafing Inc. bought last August — were hit a bit harder. Reader Editor Alison True had to lay off John Conroy and three other highly respected, longtime staff writers on Friday. City Paper editor Erik Wemple laid off four writers and an editorial assistant. (Even though he mocked us as “unfortunately named,” NYT media columnist David Carr, who happens to be a former City Paper editor, had an interesting take on the Chicago and D.C. layoffs.)
Why is this happening? Did CL overextend when it purchased City Paper and the Reader?
Not according to CL CEO Ben Eason. Eason’s always argued that small players such as Creative Loafing Inc., which he runs out of our Tampa headquarters, will only be able to compete in today’s highly competitive media environment by becoming effective platforms for national advertisers, in addition to the local advertisers who traditionally provide the bulk of the revenue for altweeklies. In his view, he had little choice but to seek out the financing to expand. And the merger gave CL a presence in three of the country’s top 10 markets.
It’s no secret that City Paper and the Reader already were struggling before the purchase. Neither is it a mystery that our existing papers — Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Sarasota — face a lot more competition than we have in the past both in print and online.
We’re not alone. CL’s going through the same sort of difficult transition that’s hitting other media companies. For the last few years, ad dollars have been moving at an accelerated pace to the Web. Classified ads, which must now compete with free online sites such as Craigslist, are in the toilet. Now the economy’s soft (to put it politely), which has particularly hit real-estate advertising.
You hear a lot more about such struggles at the dailies — because, well, they’re much, much bigger, so they make bigger news. The AJC’s print circ keeps dropping and despite pretty strong online numbers, it’s been forced to undergo some drastic restructuring. As CL’s Scott Henry reported, AJC Editor Julia Wallace cut her staff by around 80 people last spring.
The real question for me, and I suspect for most readers, is how we can do as good or better a job under such circumstances at giving Atlanta the great journalism it deserves — whether that’s in the form of investigative stories, local news coverage, great criticism or basic listings. And tied to that: Will all the effort we’re putting into blogs, podcasts, reader-submitted columns and other Web-only content help us serve our readers even better?
From an audience-building perspective, I’ve seen some encouraging numbers recently: Our October page views jumped 58.6 percent over last October’s numbers, and November’s year-over-year growth topped 90 percent. How that audience growth translates into ad dollars is the business question that Ben and the folks on the sales side of our business are going to have to grapple with for a long time — and continuously.
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December 10th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Ken, a lot of what you write sounds like what Wallace and folks said at the AJC when they cut positions. Yet they got mocked for their words. However, the truth is, you’re right and Wallace was right. It’s a new world in Journalism and you have to figure out how to do good journalism with less staff. These won’t be the last layoffs ya’ll do, I’m quite sure. I know it’s hard and I’m not kicking the grave here. But you have treat the reasons for these layoffs with the same suspicion as the AJC layoffs.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Please boot Andisheh. He often wins arguments with me and makes me learn things and I really don’t like that about him. Plus, he is funny and that makes it even harder to take.
December 10th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
CL’s news coverage is getting smaller & smaller each week, while smaller community papers like the various Neighbor papers, The Champion, GoDeKalb.com, are doing moe and more news, as is the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Ben Eason is in way over his head.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:55 am
That’s a surprise to hear the Atlanta Business Chronicle is doing more news. But, then again, one useful article a year is more than zero.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:48 am
You guys fired on eof the best investigative reporters at The Reader. Your PR drivel about the firings is hardly convincing. As an ex-Chicagoan, an ex/returning DCer and an ex-Atlantan, I can say that there is no comparison between CL and the papers that you bought, at least up until now. CL is almost as vapid as the AJC and reflective of a shallow, boosterish sensibility that is one reason why Atlanta probably will never live up to its often ludicrous hype. Unfortunately, what works in ATL won’t necessarily work in DC or Chicago and, esp. in DC you may find plenty of competition.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
For another version of this story, without the self-serving drivel, read about the layoffs in the Dec. 10 New York Times.
The Chicago Reader was a good newspaper. Creative Loafing is running it into the ground just as fast as it can.
December 15th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
“Why is this happening? Did CL overextend when it purchased City Paper and the Reader?” Wow, I’m really shocked you concluded thea nswer was “no.” Nice bit of objective reporting!
December 17th, 2007 at 10:09 am
How about some investigative reporting about BIA Digital Partners and their role in axing editorial positions in DC and Chicago, or at least necessitating them? They enter the picture and two respected alt-weeklies are in danger of becoming as vacuous and content-free as BIA’s radio and lifestyle-magazine investments. Coincidence?