The Political Whore

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.

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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)

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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.”

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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) 

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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.)

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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 Schueler

Over 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.

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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.

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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.)

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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:

(more…)

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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.

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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.

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Michael Hinman over at The Business Journal