Jim Johnson is the founder of The State of Sunshine blog and joins PoHo as a regular contributor with this post:
One of the interesting changes happening to media will be how news is brought to the rest of us.
I’m sure many were watching televsion coverage of yesterday’s crash of USAir Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in New York City. But even TV was not the fastest coverage.
Watching this video, for a journalist, is akin to sitting in on a doctor telling a patient he/she has terminal cancer. (click for link, since the video didn’t embed.)
If the paper doesn’t sell in 60 days, it will stop publishing the print edition and either close shop entirely or do an online-only news outlet.
And the newspaper war continues.
The Tampa Tribune has “suspended” its summer internship program in a cost-saving move. Managing Editor Duke Maas told internship seekers in this e-mail (obtained by Romenekso):
This just in from the NewsCenter over on the Hillsborough River, from Media General’s top manager for its Florida Communications Group:
From: Schueler, John R.
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Subject: Standard Annual Merit IncreasesDear Colleagues;
As you know, our national and state economies are still deeply troubled and that dramatically impacts many of our key advertisers including automotive, real estate and employment services. Although we continue to serve more readers, viewers and users than any media company in Tampa Bay, we have to continue our actions to manage through this economic downturn.
Therefore, as of January 1, 2009, employees of The Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV, TBO.com, Centro and Associate Publications who normally qualify for the merit cycles for January 2009 and July 2009 will not receive a merit increase.
We all know that these are very difficult times. Thank you for your hard work, dedication and understanding.
Our alt-newspaper chain has filed its Chapter 11 reorganization plan, making its case for continuing ownership and management by Ben Eason:
The Debtor believes retention of existing senior management and existing publishers, editors, directors of shared services and key online personnel are vital to successful implementation of this strategy as the markets are shifting very quickly at this time.
The reorganization plan values the company, post-bankruptcy, at being worth $8 million to $15 million. It also appears to ask creditors, especially the largest creditor, Atalaya, to accept as little as half of what they are owed as the company tries to readjust its debt load. The filing says under the reorganization plan, there would be a 100 percent chance that Atalaya would recover its $5 million-$15 million in secured debt (out of a total in excess of $30 million). The chances of getting its investment back beyond that? “Undetermined” is how the plan puts it, as it would have to split an unknown pool of money that would be left over the next three years of operations.
You can download the Disclosure Statement portion of the Reorganization Plan here. The filings include a 10-year financial forecast and an analysis of how much the company would bring if it were liquidated.
A hearing on the adequacy of the plan is set for Jan. 26 in Tampa.
I was on vacation last week when I got an e-mail from a former Tampa Tribune reporter, pointing out that the Tallahassee Democrat had reported that our former print journalism home (I was a staff writer there from 1988-1992) was going to soon cease publishing on newsprint in favor of an online-only presence in tbo.com:
The Christian Science Monitor quit being a newspaper: It will publish online only. Reportedly, the Tampa Tribune will follow suit in January.
I was flabbergasted. Not because of the idea of something drastic happening to the print product (which just about everyone in the business that I speak with expects) but because I thought I had missed it being verified. Sticks of Fire even picked it up. So I e-mailed the writer of the piece, the Democrat’s Gerald Ensley, about where this story had been reported, and he replied:
No, it hasn’t been reported. I had heard it from several people in the business and originally wrote it as “Rumor has it that the Tampa Tribune . . . ” For brevity, it got shortened to “Reportedly.” I wish it hadn’t.
Sorry.
Gerald Ensley
I was out of the office last week but was in town and heard all about the latest round of layoffs at Media General in Tampa (including some high profile folks at the Tampa Tribune). I had a few vodkas with Phil Morgan, a three-decades features reporter, after he got the axe last week, And in the past day, a few of the ex-Tribsters even won a mention in a New York Times article on the failing media biz:
Last week, Media General, a company that owns newspapers, television stations and Web sites in the Southeast, eliminated 80 positions in Florida, including a prominent columnist and the editorial page editor at The Tampa Tribune. “The Book of Ruth,” a long-running wiseacre feature by the longtime columnist Dan Ruth, will be missed, now and then. He and the editorial page editor, Rosemary Goudreau, follow a political columnist, Joe Brown, the movie critic Bob Ross and the classical music critic Kurt Loft to the exit.
Readers, especially the ones cranky and serious enough to still be buying newspapers, have not missed the trend.
“Fire your best employees and watch your business go out of business, just like Circuit City is finding out right now. Who wants to read old news when one can find quality articles outside of the TampaTribe. Bye Bye TampaTrib, you have fired one too many of your excellent personnel and now I am firing you!” said a reader, Bob, in a comment posted to The Feed blog at TampaBay.com, a media blog by Eric Deggans, a media and television reporter at The St. Petersburg Times.
The verdict at StopBigMedia.com is that greed and profit-motive is blame, in an article titled “Bloodletting in the Newsroom”:
Greed and Profit
The Internet has transformed the media industry and how the public consumes news. More people are reading their local newspapers online than ever before. Online ad revenue grew for 17 straight quarters until its recent decline. Nevertheless, the NAA expects online ad revenue to continue its growth next year.Despite the changing industry, newspapers remain extremely profitable. The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) reported that the average pre-tax profit margin for newspapers was 18.5 percent in 2007. Some newspaper profits remained above 20 percent. “The industry remains profitable, but it has come time to take the ‘obscenely’ out of that commonplace observation,” PEJ said in its annual State of the News Media report.
But the majority of newspapers are publicly traded companies for which any decline in profits is unacceptable. As a result, newspapers are trying to please Wall Street by axing jobs and scaling back coverage.
With fewer reporters on the beat — and less quality local coverage — it’s no wonder people aren’t subscribing to the paper. While these cuts may please stock analysts, they harm the public. There are fewer journalists covering the business of government at city halls and state capitals across the country. Media companies are closing their Washington and foreign bureaus, while the number of lobbyists pushing the legislation agendas of their corporate clients at the local, state and national levels has increased under the diminishing watchdog eye of the Fourth Estate.
I take no glee in any of the layoffs. With Creative Loafing working to reorganize its finances in Chapter 11 bankruptcy court, the view from here is nothing but sadness about this industry and our clear failure now to provide the information that people will need to make good decisions in a democracy. You can blame Wall Street, but there is plenty of blame to bring home to this industry, which spent almost nothing on R&D for technology and new products until it was too late, did little training of its employees to give them digital skills and continues to wander mindlessly from technofad to technofad in search of eyeballs.
Our colleagues at the Washington City Paper have posted a hilarious and insightful parody of our bankruptcy filings. Here’s an excerpt:
6. The journalism/content of City Paper has also undergone a significant upheaval in the age of the Internet. Even before City Paper began placing its stories online, its journalists suspected that perhaps not a great multitude of readers were reading their work. Specific concerns clustered over the paper’s cover story, often a long piece of narrative journalism exceeding 5,000 words. Other questions about reader popularity attached to smaller news stories as well, which often related to landlord-tenant disputes, police misconduct, and, once, the rise of chai.
7. Web traffic numbers have confirmed the editorial department’s concerns. In early 2006, for instance, a City Paper staff writer began a written correspondence with a federal inmate named Thomas Sweatt, who was serving a life sentence for setting a series of fires in the Washington area. The letters continued for more than a year, as did a parallel investigation into the damage done by Sweatt’s fire-setting. The investigation turned up two deaths from Sweatt’s rampage that the public did not know about. The story would later win the Livingston Award. The paper posted the story, titled “Letters from an Arsonist,” on washingtoncitypaper.com on June 1, 2007, since which point it has attracted 5,748 pageviews. Meanwhile, an item on the paper’s blog titled “Obama, You’ve Got Something….” has attracted 10,128 pageviews in the past five weeks alone. The blog item was a commentary, written in a ranting style, on the appearance of a fragment of saliva on the face of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama during his 2008 convention speech.
You can read the entire pseudo-court document online.
Filed under Ch. 86 for news reorganization
After the jump I’ve got latest internal memo from Trib news chief Janet Coats on the reorganization of the daily’s newsroom in a combined newgathering operation with the broadcast folks at Newschannel 8 and the digital workers at tbo.com.
Lots of talk about platforms and finishing and such, but the hottest news for you info consumers isn’t in here: On Monday, multiple sources have told me, the Tribune will launch its reconfigured daily newspaper into one section of news/sports/whatever and a second section of classifieds/comics. The first tip about the changes to come in the daily print product came in Jeff Houck’s Food section column this morning:
SO LONG, FAREWELL, SEE YOU SUNDAY
One of my favorite ads on TV right now is the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial that starts with one of the characters singing the line, “You neglected to mention the sleeper sofa,” before breaking into an Egyptian slavelike moan. “I forgot all about the air hockey table,” the second character replies. More painful moaning, followed by images of possessions tumbling down an apartment staircase. The first character then finishes by singing, “Re-LUC-tant-LY hel-PING my friend MOVE!”
What does all this have to do with The Stew? Well, like George, Weezie and Lionel Jefferson, it’s time for us to move to that deluxe apartment in the sky-y-y, so to say.
On Sunday, this column and many of the features you read each week in the Flavor section will join with stories from the At Home section as well as fashion, parenting and pet columns, and articles each week in a new journalism condo we’re calling BayLife Magazine.
Not everything will be the same, unfortunately. As with all moves, (Gosh, this relocation metaphor is getting tiresome), Orlando-based columnists Pam Brandon and Anne-Marie Hodges, better known as The Divas of Dish, end their 20-month run with us. Their playful recipes were like a vacation for the taste buds. Their helping of sass and fun-loving attitude helped us remake the Flavor section earlier this year with a much more lighthearted tone.
We also say goodbye to Tony “Fatso” Siciliano, our king of barbecue and grilling, who joined after the Flavor section switched in March to a tab format. Thanks to his column, I’ve stolen more grilling tips than I’ll ever admit. We thank him for his work and wish him well with his “On the Grill” radio show each Saturday on WFLA 970 AM.
Jaden Hair’s Steamy Kitchen column will continue to appear weekly in BayLife Magazine, but Greg and Michelle Baker’s Culinary Sherpas column will run every other week.
“Recipes Lost & Found”? It’s making the move. “Consumers Ask”? Same. “Greasy Remote, “Cravings” and “Eat Their Words” will still run with the same regularity, too, just on Sunday instead of Wednesday.
All of which means – if I haven’t been clear – that the Flavor section will end its publication with the section you have in your hands today.
We at the Tribune all know it will be hard for you. Routines are always difficult to change, and the Flavor section has run on Wednesdays like clockwork since John McCain was a toddler. Flavor was a section you held on to, read during the week, shopped with on Saturdays and cooked with on Sundays. You and other readers have a relationship with Flavor. Recipes you clipped in 1968 are still in your files, just in case someone needs one they can’t find. As I wrote in March when we changed formats, I’ve always been honored to be a part of a section readers deeply cared about. To that end, we’ve tried to cover your life with food, not just about what was in the pan, on the plate or in your glass.
But this change is not only inevitable, it’s necessary.
While we’re all up in this change thing, feel free to drop into my food blog, The Stew. I’ll be posting items there more often – especially on Wednesdays when you want them the most. And the food channel on TBO.com with the catchy address – www2.tbo.com/static/sections/ tbo-life-food/ – will feature more stories, podcasts and videos as well.
If you want to chat about the changes, I’ll be glad to talk or e-mail with you. I’d also love to hear your ideas about what food stories you’d like me to write.
The Tribune made some cuts this week, four editorial employees that I’ve been able to sniff out so far with the biggest name being editorial page columnist Joe Brown. Embedded in the Coats memo that follows are the names of others who made the latest cut and still have news jobs:
Our parent company filed a Chapter 11 reorganization case in federal bankruptcy court this morning, the result of a slowing economy exacerbated by debts it took on in May 2007 in buying the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper alt-newspapers.
CEO Ben Eason
“I don’t see this as bad news,” CL’s CEO Ben Eason said at a noon staff meeting in Tampa. Many other media companies have been hurt in this economy, and others are successfully reorganizing their finances or changing the terms of their debt to cope, he added.
Eason addressed staff in Tampa this morning to announce the legal action after the media company’s board voted early this morning to file in bankrtupcy court in Tampa. He was upbeat about Chapter 11’s ability to ease the debt crunch the newspaper chain is facing as it tries to increase its online presence while at the same time dealing with falling print revenues because of the housing crisis and resulting slower economy.
“This company has got cash,” he said. “This is not a cash issue. This is not a management issue. It’s strictly the economy tanking.”
Eason continued: “This company is not a sinking ship. We have an excellent shot at coming out of this with a fresh start” and redrawn debt repayment terms.
Eason added that employees and vendors would continue to be paid and the newspapers in six U.S. markets would continue to publish weekly. No layoffs or other changes are anticipated as part of the Chapter 11 case, he said.
Ironically, CL was poised across all its newspapers to make cuts in its editorial budgets by the end of October in an attempt to free up more cash to make debt payments. With the debt issue on hold because of the bankruptcy court action, Eason said he has told editors those cuts now do not have to be made. The cuts had not been revealed here in Tampa, but in Washington they had been the focus of stories in the press for about a month.
The bankruptcy filing was caused by an inability to generate enough revenues in the current advertising sales slump nationally to satisfy the debt payments and terms of the debt taken on in the purchase of the Chicago and Washington papers last year.
Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code shields a company from its creditors while it puts together a reorganization plan that must be approved by the court. While it is possible that the court could take many different actions — from dissolving the company to forcing its sale or breakup — Eason said those actions are highly unlikely in CL’s case. “We’re going full steam ahead” in growing the newspapers’ online presence, he said. “Just watch us.”
Among the largest unsecured creditors is Fayetteville Publishing Co., which prints the Tampa Bay edition and some of the other papers in the group. The Georgia Department of Labor, the Georgia Department of Revenue and the IRS are also among the creditors. The listing of creditors on a bankruptcy filing doesn’t indicate, as some news accounts suggested, that Creative Loafing was not paying its vendors or taxes, Eason said; it is merely a court-required list of those companies that do business with CL.
Creative Loafing was founded in 1972 by Debby Eason in Atlanta and later opened several other papers in the Southeast. Ben, who owned the Tampa paper, acquired the rest of the family newspapers in 2000.
Fully 40 percent of the locally experienced work force there over the age of 50, reports the Times media critic Eric Deggans:
In a memo to staffers this morning, St. Petersburg Times editor, CEO and [c]hairman Paul Tash tells staffers that strong response to the company’s early retirement incentives means “we can avoid the general layoffs I warned might be coming” when the voluntary retirement offer was closed.
Tash says 200 staffers across the company, 150 full time and 50 part time, accepted the enhanced retirement benefit, or 40 percent of all staff aged 50 and up with five years’ service or more.
Here’s a sneak peak of the movie everyone (especially angry conservatives looking to score political points) will be talking about this fall. Presenting the first trailer for Oliver Stone’s W.
As I wrote about last week, former Tampa Tribune foreign correspondent Tim Collie was laid off from his job at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a victim of the industry and new Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell’s plans to remake newspapers in his own image. Here’s a shot smuggled out to me of Collie’s desk after he was shown the door, a makeshift shrine to his work and awards:
The hammer is dropping at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and one name on the list sticks out for me, my former colleague at the Tampa Tribune, Tim Collie. (h/t to The Daily Pulp)
My story in the print edition of CL this week details the personnel changes and newsroom reconfigurations going on at the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times. It focuses on intern Jessie DaSilva, who blogged about Coats newsroom explanation of how she hopes to combat the tough times that led her to lay off 11 editorial staffers two weeks ago. The full story is here.
Bonus cut: DaSilva would agree only to an e-mail interview, and here is her entire exchange with me about the reaction to her blog, which supported Coats’ plan and was seen by some as either naive or uncaring about the reporters who lost their jobs. My questions were, Did you have any hesitation about posting your thoughts on the layoffs and realignments?
Any regrets?
Has management at the paper had any reaction to your blog? In the past, I know from some reporters they have told folks not to discuss newspaper business in personal blogs.
What is your reaction to all the comments and reaction your post attracted?
Are you the incoming Alligator editor? If so, what lessons do you take back to that paper from this realignment?
And DaSilva’s e-mail back to me: Read the rest of this entry »
Inside the layoffs at the Trib, as reported by intern Jessica DaSilva. Commenters praise her passion (admirable) while criticizing her spelling (lamentable). As for Editor Janet Coats’ quote that the Tampa Tribune is an “add-on” to TBO.com, not vice versa: Is this a bravely candid acknowledgment of the reality of today’s media, or (like Jessica’s spelling) the death knell for journalism as we know it? Or both? Opinions vary, but to newspaper editors everywhere, the debate is familiar.
Wait a second, didn’t Sam Zell say that the news-ad mix was going to have to change to about 50-50?!? So how in the world is the new O-Sentinel going to achieve that AND keep its standalone business and feature sections? Not to mention sports, which rarely has any ads to speak of?
Here’s a multimedia explanation by the Orlando editors about the new design that launches Monday.
I have to say, for all the talk about change and inventing a new newspaper, the Orlando redesign is very old school. Same sections, A-section, Metro, Biz, Sports, Features. When is somebody going to try something truly different, really revolutionary?
(h/t to Journerdism)
From Daily Pulp:
What New Times reported last week is now official: The Herald is cutting 17 percent of its workforce, or 250 positions, which is actually 2 percent more than we expected.
“These next few weeks will be some of the most difficult and emotional we have faced,” Editor Anders Gyllenhaal wrote to staff in an email this morning. “We will do our best to work through these changes at the same time as we try to keep our focus on our work.”
Some will be laid off, other will be offered buyouts. Buyouts were in fact extended this morning to numerous reporters, according to sources, which Gyllenhaal wrote will “first be made on a voluntary basis and then an involuntary basis.”
It is part of a 10 percent across-the-board staff cuts at McClatchy newspapers, as the AP is reporting this morning:
McClatchy Co. said Monday it will cut 10 percent of its work force in a move to save $70 million a year as the newspaper publisher continues to struggle to attract advertising dollars.
McClatchy, which publishes The Kansas City Star and The Miami Herald, will trim about 1,400 employees. The staff reductions are part of a plan to reduce overall expenses by $95 million to $100 million over the next four quarters.
“The effects of the current national economic downturn — particularly in real estate, auto and employment advertising — make it essential that we move faster now to realign our workforce and make our operations more efficient,” said McClatchy Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a statement.
McClatchy said in April that it swung to a loss in the first quarter as a weakening economy and competition from online rivals led to a 15 percent plunge in advertising revenues at its newspapers.
In related bad news, some staffers at the Tampa Tribune expect the hammer to drop this week as involuntary layoffs follow a voluntary buyout that saw a handful of newsers leave last Friday. One source told me late last week: “The end is near.”
Shocking news from the New York Post, which is reporting that NBC News icon and Meet The Press host Tim Russert died today of an apparent heart attack.
We’ll have more on this as we digest the news.
(Photo Credit: Hyku)
Media General’s top Florida honcho didn’t return CL’s calls for comments after our blog post yesterday, but the Tribune did publish an acknowledgement of the layoffs and buyouts there this week in this morning’s news:
An estimated 250 to 260 jobs are being eliminated as part of a reduction in force by the Florida Communications Group, which oversees The Tampa Tribune, WFLA, Channel 8, and other local media properties, group President John Schueler said Wednesday.
Of the cuts, about 200 have already taken place or are pending the completion of the company’s voluntary buyout program, Schueler said.
…
On Wednesday, Schueler said about 120 positions were cut earlier this year or last year through attrition or involuntary layoffs. An additional 21 positions were eliminated Tuesday in advertising operations.
(My sources had put the advertising layoffs this week at a higher number, so I stand corrected on that figure.)
Part of the other shoe has dropped over on Parker Street; sources tell me that 75 employees in the Tampa Tribune’s advertising department were let go earlier this week. (UPDATE: the official word from Media General was that it was 21, according to a story published by the Trib on Thursday after this blog post was written.) No editorial cuts were announced, but today, the head of Media General’s combined operations in Tampa (the Trib, Newschannel 8, tbo.com and other properties) wrote to the staff that more layoffs are coming in the next few weeks. Here is a copy that was supplied to me by a source who requested anonymity. (I left a message to speak with Schueler about the cuts and will let you know when/if I get to interview him.):
From: FCG_Communication
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Subject: A message from John SchuelerOver the next couple of weeks, we will be wrapping up the voluntary buyout program we offered. Out of the 650 eligible for the buyout, as of today 54 will be leaving us. There may be a few more as individuals make their personal decisions. We appreciate all of their many contributions and wish them well. They will be missed.
As we stated before, if the voluntary buyout program does not produce the necessary reduction to align our expenses with our current revenue expectation, we will need to follow up with an involuntary program. These plans are being announced within departments and to individual employees as they are finalized. Some are happening now and others will occur over the next few weeks.
We realize how difficult and uncomfortable this is for everyone. We have an obligation to review our processes, products and services and then align our resources with revenue. As a result, we have to make tough decisions and develop priorities. We must continue doing the things that are most important to us and to the communities we serve. By taking this approach, we expect to retain our market position, support our journalistic mission and be capable of leveraging a rebounding economy.
William Dean Singleton, whose media company owns such papers as the Denver Post, recently gave a brutally frank assessment of the current state of print journalism and its failed business model in a speech in Sweden. (Yes, the same Dean Singleton who referred to Barack Obama as “Obama bin Laden.” Yes, the same Dean Singleton who is a Friend O’ Bush. And yes, the same man the NYT once called “the industry’s leading skinflint” who is now viewed in a more favorable light and is chairman of the AP.)
The upshot: 19 of top 50 newspapers are losing money, and in the future, there will be only two types of newspapers in the U.S. — the quick and the dead.
From his speech (as reported in BusinessWeek):
Too many whining editors, reporters and newspaper unions continue to bark at the dark, thinking their barks will make the night go away. They fondly remember the past as if it will suddenly re-appear and the staffing in newsrooms will suddenly begin to grow again.
Well, as a former journalist, I also wish for the past, but it’s not coming back. The printed space allocated to news and newsroom staffing levels will continue to decline, so it’s time to get over it and move to a print model that matches the reality of a changing business.
OK, the closing of the Tampa Tribune’s South Tampa office on Bay-to-Bay Boulevard had been planned for some time; I recall hearing whisper about it before the latest announcement about the latest round of buyouts and the like. But still, this is not a good symbol of a healthy MSM in town:
Word is that the office actually stayed open a bit longer than anticipated. Its reporters, who write for the daily and the South Tampa News weekly, have been transferred to the nearby downtown headquarters on Parker Street.
(Since I live in that ‘hood, I’m sorta hoping something cool goes in that space. We could use a good restaurant on Bay-to-Bay; right now only Pappas and take-out from Cappy’s does the trick on that stretch. But since this space isn’t already tricked out for restaurant use, I’m betting that a mortgage or real estate brokerage will go in there once the market improves a bit.)
The LAT is handing over its monthly news magazine to its biz department! (Unlike the Tampa Tribune’s high-end lifestyle slick cover product, Flair, which has always been an advertising department product.) This from NYT:
The Los Angeles Times has made plans to transfer control of its monthly magazine from its newsroom to its business operations and to replace the magazine’s entire editorial staff, according to two executives at the newspaper.
The arrangement would flout the tradition at most newspapers, which keep business operations, like advertising and circulation, completely separate from the editorial department, which controls decisions about the contents of news and feature pages.
The plan for the magazine was set in motion months ago. A new editor and others were hired, future issues were planned, and mock-up covers were made — all without the knowledge of anyone in the newsroom, including the top editor, Russ Stanton, the executives said. Mr. Stanton and other high-ranking editors learned of the plan last week, they said.
That on the heels of the latest memo from Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell, which is both biz-brilliant and journo-terrifying. Here it is in full on the jump:
From our sister publication, the Washington City Paper, comes the tale of Watergate hero Bob Woodward’s decision to take a buyout from the Washington Post, along with about 100 other Posties:
The buyout gives the most senior Post staffers an exit payment of two times their final salary. On that basis, Woodward would get a check for $20,000, or enough for a 2008 Chrysler Sebring. He is 65 and started at the Post in 1971.
Yet there’s an interesting wrinkle in Woodward’s package: That $10,000 salary? It represents a voluntary pay cut that took effect in mid-2006. Prior to that, Woodward earned a salary commensurate with his title as a Post assistant managing editor, about $180,000. If his exit payment is calculated on that basis, he’d get $360,000 via the buyout.
The biz people at the paper are now trying to figure out whether to give Woodward the small payout or the large payout.
It all makes for a compelling case study in corporate ethics. Here’s why: The current round of Post buyouts is the third that Woodward has evaluated this decade. He was tempted by the previous offer, which offered similar inducements and came across his desk in 2006.
But he was convinced by Post management to stick around, and so passed up the big payday. And what a payday it would have been. First, Woodward would have gotten a $360,000 lump-sum payment, and over the past two years he would have raked in $160,000 in retirement payouts.
But instead of taking that early retirement plan, Woodward insisted on a pay cut.
Two years later, along comes a brand new buyout package, which may well be the last such opportunity for Post veterans. If the company goes with a strict calculation of his salary, he’ll go home with the $20,000 and will have lost about a half-million dollars.
The other shoe has dropped over on 1st Street South in St. Petersburg; the Times today revealed that it is offering an enhanced early retirement deal to unspecified staffers and could be forced to lay off employees if not enough volunteers come forward:
In a letter to staff, Times editor and chairman Paul Tash said the measures were a response to a “difficult economic climate” that has been especially hard on advertising, the largest source of newspaper revenue. Over the last two years, the Times’ fulltime staff has dropped from more than 1,500 to fewer than 1,300, mostly by attrition.
“We are navigating a period of historic change and challenge,” Tash said. “Getting through this stretch will not be easy, and it will take everyone’s best efforts, but I remain fully confident about our prospects.”
Last week we published a story in which Times Managing Editor Stephen Buckley acknowledged that downsizing was in the future. “It will clearly take a smaller staff to produce a smaller newspaper, across the entire organization,” he told CL, “and we’ve been very open about that within the organization. We will do that as gracefully and carefully as we can.”
Bonus cut: E&P’s “No more fun in the sun,” on the slump at all Florida newspapers.
Michael Hinman over at The Business Journal reports that Tampa Tribune parent Media General is cutting 750 jobs companywide and expects 60 of those losses to come in the Tampa newsroom.
The result of months of work and consumer testing, the St. Petersburg Times today launched its new, slimmed down version, and it looks suspiciously like its cross-bay competitor, the Tampa Tribune.
Gone is Floridian and the standalone Business section. Tampa Bay, the old Metro news section, now hosts Biz, which, along with a full stable of paid obits, should make the news hole way too damned tight. I already dislike it, even though I understand the reality of why it has to exist. But then again, I am not the normal reader, who gives not a tinker’s cuss for local government news.
Here’s today’s 1A from both papers:
Any thoughts about the changes in today’s Times? Love ‘em or hate ‘em?
OBAMA IN OREGON: Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of 65,000 on Sunday in Portland; another 15,000 couldn’t get in. How well will he pack the St. Pete Times Forum Wednesday?
(photo by Ryan Harvey)
So, among the items in the shrunken section formerly known as ‘Metro’ in the St. Pete Times was this tidbit: “Obamania, or Obamaybe Not?” — in which the writer raises the specter that “snubbed Floridians” might “stay home and sulk” rather than attend the Obama event in Tampa on Wednesday. Really? Biggest political celebrity in years, who attracted 2,000 without hardly trying last time he was in town, and now arrives with nomination in reach? Who are these “snubbed Floridians,” anyway? As far as I can tell, they’re a projection conjured up in the minds of “snubbed” St. Pete Times political reporters who haven’t been paid sufficient homage by the Obama people, and so have been harping endlessly on his failure to campaign here — whereas I suspect most voters (except for the Clinton-or-else crowd) see that both Democratic candidates have been hobbled by an impossible situation aggravated by the FL legislature and the DNC, and will gladly turn up to see either.
These are not happy days for journalism in Tampa Bay, and I take no joy in the fact that both of the mainstream daily newspapers are cutting back staff and/or space to save a few bucks as the business model that made print journalism possible for years crumbles out from underneath us.
First, the St. Petersburg Times. Over the weekend, the largest daily in Florida informed the readers of the outcome of its secret Flagship committee, which studied how to change the paper to meet a 21st Century audience and declining advertising revenues. Neither Eric Deggans nor Neil Brown used the word Flagship, but nonetheless, here’s what that committee came up with for May 19:
Brown summarized the changes this way:
In a Starbucks world, it is the venerable Dunkin’ Donuts that sells more hot cups of coffee than anybody in America.
Even as the Starbucks “experience” transformed the coffee-drinking marketplace, the 58-year-old Dunkin’ chain found a way to soar, having grown its revenues roughly 50 percent in a recent three-year period. How? Rather than hunker down it adapted to changing tastes: more high-quality coffee, fewer fattening doughnuts.
This seems an apt lesson for newspapers, including the St. Petersburg Times, as we consider how best to deliver distinctive journalism and useful advertising in a time of profound technological change and extraordinary economic turbulence.
Gabe up at the front desk here at alt-central pointed this out to me this morning:
CNN.com is now selling T-shirts with its most tabloid-esque headlines on them.
Just when you think that the news biz has hit rock bottom. Of course, there will be no corporate pressure on headline-writing copy editors to come up with snappier, more tabloid headlines so that they can be monetized into T-shirts. None whatsoever.
But CNN is offering T’s for only the goofy, funny or sensational headlines, with a little T-shirt icon next to those heads (”911 dispatcher falls asleep during call,” “Mom-to-be charged with another DUI”) whereas the great meaty headlines I would want on my T-shirts aren’t featured (”Barbara Walters: I had affair with U.S. senator,” “Immigrant worker: No $$$ left for Mexico,” and the ever-popular, “Official: Two bombs at Iraqi wedding kill 35.”)
Here’s one example of the fun, witty T’s you can get:
I’m personally waiting for the “Bush: ‘Mistakes were made’” shirt.
Already, this affront to real journalism has met with criticism and spoofing, like this from the Ryan Block blog:
Was just talking with a local media maven about the woes at Tampa Trib-parent Media General and the coming buyouts/possible layoffs, and he commented, “They should just put a bullet in it and be finished with it.” Reminded me of this scene:
Just getting caught up from last week’s expected public spanking of the current Media General brain trust. (Deggans had a good piece on it if you want to get caught up on the details. Hinman at the BizJournal, too.) For those who don’t follow arcane public media company goings-on, even those involving the owner of our favorite whipping-boy local daily, the Tampa Tribune, three dissident board members beat out the insiders for seats on the Media General board.
Those nominations had led to a nasty proxy fight that MG lost. And what a sore loser the company’s management was. MG CEO Marshall Morton sent the faithful the following e-mail:
Subject: Marshall Morton Comments on Media General Annual Meeting
April 24, 2008Dear Fellow Employees,
Media General held its Annual Meeting of Stockholders this morning. Based on preliminary election results, it appears that the three individuals nominated by the Harbinger hedge fund were elected to the company’s Board of Directors. Our press release has been posted to the Meganet.
We are disappointed that three very capable directors, who have contributed significantly to the Board’s deliberations, both through their ability and their experience, have been displaced.
I want you to understand that Harbinger cannot, under any circumstances, forcibly gain control of Media General, and that the three new directors cannot gain control of our nine-member Board.
We will listen with courtesy to the ideas of the new directors, but, frankly, I believe they are going to have to prove themselves worthy of their places on our Board before they will be able to earn the confidence of the remaining directors.
I appreciate the many notes of support I received during the proxy contest. Throughout, you stayed focused and continued to make a difference to our audiences, our advertisers and the communities we serve.
You deserve tremendous praise for the successes we have been achieving. Through your efforts, we are transforming the company into a new media enterprise. We know that our customers are in charge, and we are leading change to meet their needs. Employees across our company have created opportunities for us to:
- Foster a critical culture of innovation
- Adopt a successful Web-First strategy in all of our newsrooms to increase total audience and market share
- Create targeted new products to reach new audiences and attract new advertisers
- Expand our interactive advertising services to generate new revenue and cash flow streams
- Complete the transformation to digital broadcasting, launch high-definition local newscasts and use the expanded digital spectrum to offer secondary channels in many markets
- Deliver our content to mobile consumers via cell phones and other portable devices
We will succeed because we have the right strategic focus, the right tools and you are the right employees. Thanks to the relationships we’ve built with consumers and the skills we’ve developed to address their needs, when people want information about their communities, they turn to the Media General brands in their markets. Consumers value our information and we intend to continue to be the leading provider of news, information and entertainment in all our markets.
Your continued support of our mission, our values, and our strategy for success is the right way to build shareholder value for all of us.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Marshall N. Morton
President and Chief Executive Officer
So, at MG, how do new board members “prove themselves worthy?” Vote to overpay for four piddling NBC affiliates in a down economic cycle? Uphold MG’s insistence on broadening the FCC’s media monopoly rules so it can do “convergence” in more markets? Lost tons of money year to year?
Seems that’s the way that the old board members made their bones.
Oh, and the buzz from 202 S. Parker Street (”the News Center”) is that it will be June before the company sorts out its buyout offer situation and plows through the stacks of those who offered to take the bullet now and those who are holding out to be Leo Di Caprio, clinging to the railing as the ship goes down. (”Never let go.”) Said one person with knowledge of the situation: “It’s like a mauseoleum.”
Insiders at the St. Petersburg Times have been relaying to me for about two weeks bits and pieces of the planned cutbacks at the larger of the two Bay area dailies, but nothing officially has been released from the HQ on 1st Street South. Now, the word is reaching a wider audience, with former Times and Tampa Tribune reporter Chris Roush reporting in his business news blog:
The St. Petersburg Times will cut its standalone business section during the week but keep its Sunday business section, current and former members of the business desk have confirmed.
The change is expected to occur next month, likely with the paper of May 19. The business section will be combined with the paper’s metro section.
The Florida paper joins other large metro dailies such as the Denver Post, Orange County Register, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, Palm Beach Post and Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal.
The paper will also be cutting its stock listings, using three-quarters of a page for market data bassed on Associated Press modules. It will have a full page for business news and the bottom of the market data page for jumps and briefs. Business stories will also be candidates for the front of the metro section.
Business will not be alone. In addition, the Times is cutting its Floridian features section during the week. It will also have a page inside the metro section.
The changes would echo similar cutbacks already undertaken at the Tribune.
In the proxy fight that Media General (owner of the Tampa Tribune and Newschannel 8) finds itself in with activist hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, two more pieces of bad news for the Richmond, Va.-based company.
First came news yesterday that a second proxy advisory service, ISS Governance Services, is recommending MG shareholders vote for 2 of Harbinger’s 3 outside directors in balloting at the company’s annual meeting on April 24. Harbinger owns a reported 18.2 percent of MG’s Class A stock. (The company is closely held, however, by the Bryan family through Class B stock, so no matter what happens in the election don’t expect changes any time soon.)
Harbinger is the second-largest outside shareholder. The largest outside shareholder in MG, investor Mario Gabelli with a 22 percent stake, today threw his support behind Harbinger. In a letter to MG, Gabelli wrote:
“In light of the ownership position of Harbinger, the need to launch a zero based budgeting approach to your decision-making process, and the clear lack of explanation as to the thought process behind the ill-fated and ill-timed NBC acquisition, particularly since our firm’s observation that the company should not make any acquisitions and reduce debt to maintain financial flexibility, was ignored. These factors tilt our decision to vote at the annual meeting for the Harbinger slate. This decision will be reviewed on an ongoing basis for future elections.”
He’s referring to MG’s $600 million purchase of four NBC affiliates in markets that some Wall Street observers have said make little sense.
So what does this mean for Tampa Bay? Clearly, the Tribune will continue to be published (in some form) if MG has its way, since the company called its Tampa properties the “Crown Jewel” of its mediocre empire in a recent SEC filing. But expect further, as George Costanza would say, “shrinkage.” Already, the movie critic is history and the Monday business tab is gone. Other sections have been shrunken or eliminated. More with less, that is the US news mantra these days.
But it could be even worse than that, with pressure from dissident shareholders and a deepening recession pointing to drastic cuts and even, at Harbinger’s veiled suggestion, the dumping of the newspaper. It would seem to make no sense, though, since we wonder, who would buy a lone newspaper these days? No Wall Street company would touch it with a 10-foot pole; perhaps citizen activists could come up with some local ownership group? Or let’s face it, the best potential buyer right here in our own backyard: the St. Petersburg Times. It could then put its Tampa Bay Times trademark to full use immediately and consolidate its reach and audience in the Bay area.
The other problem with a sale, from the standpoint of continuing to operate the Trib, is how would you untangle the newspaper from its converged status with Newschannel 8, which clearly would not be for sale and is profitable? The two share a common assignment desk and office space. Conventional wisdom has always been that a Times purchase of the Trib would be for the name only and would result in the end of the Tampa Tribune as a real operating newspaper.
(Ahhh, MG should have taken that Bert Sugarman deal for $1.7 billion back in the 1980s.)
