The Political Whore

From Media General, which owns TBO.com, the Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8 in this market:

RICHMOND, Va., July 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Media General, Inc. (NYSE: MEG – News) today reported net income for the second quarter of 2009 of $20.6 million, or 90 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $532.2 million in the 2008 period, which included a non-cash, after-tax impairment charge of $532.1 million. The current quarter included a $7.1 million after-tax gain on the sale of a CW television station in Jacksonville, Fla., a $3.6 million tax benefit that resulted from a favorable determination concerning a state tax issue, and $7.5 million of tax benefits attributable to the company’s first-half results from continuing operations. Excluding severance expense from both quarters, and last year’s impairment charge, income from continuing operations before taxes was $3.8 million in 2009’s second quarter compared with $2.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

“A 23-percent decrease in total operating costs year-over-year was a major contributor to the company’s improved operating results, helping to offset a 20 percent revenue decline. Actions driving the lower expenses included reductions in force across the company, a furlough program, a suspension of matching in the company’s 401(k) plan in 2009, and the final freeze of the company’s pension plan effective May 31, 2009. Service accruals ceased in the partial freeze of the plan in 2006 and now future salary increases do not affect retirement benefits. Media General has implemented many difficult but necessary expense reductions that strengthen our ability to weather the deep recession and recognize the reduced revenue streams available in our business. As a result, we are in a stronger position to take advantage of an economic recovery,” said Marshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer.

“Our aggressive cost elimination actions were particularly evident in our Publishing segment, which generated a $12 million profit in the current quarter compared with $6.8 million in the prior-year. Publishing revenues declined 20.3 percent in the second quarter, about the same as the first quarter. We saw the rate of Classified advertising declines abate somewhat in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2009, mostly in the automotive category, and particularly in our Florida, Virginia and Alabama markets. The decline in Retail advertising in the current period was also less severe than in the first quarter of 2009.

More budget cuts at Media General’s converged Tampa operations, as the company axed 65 positions, 12 of which were vacant. Doing the math, that means 53 news industry professionals hit the bricks.

The highest profile was sports co-anchor Dave Reynolds, one of a handful of journalists of color at the TV station. From The Feed:

Reynolds, 45, had been covering sports with one other anchor, Dan Lucas; he said WFLA never really named another lead sports anchor after former top dog J.P. Peterson left more than a year ago. The change also means WFLA has just three people of color among an on-air staff of 26 reporters and anchors.

Now, Reynolds says WFLA plans to use more staffers from the Tampa Tribune to help report sports stories on air. The station also has cut back the Sunday Sports Extra show, he says.

“It’s obviously tremendously disappointing,” adds Reynolds, who has a wife and 4-year-old son. “After a certain while, you think you might be safe…This year was arguably the biggest year ever for sports in the Tampa Bay area, with the World Series and Super Bowl and so many other stories. for us to do what we did with two people…we worked very hard.”

UPDATE: Re/Creating Tampa’s take is titled “Tribune Death Watch.”

Apparently we’re not eating enough bacon and pork products (although, God knows, I’m doing my part). Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest processor of that magical animal we call the pig, today announced a sweeping set of cutbacks as it struggles in the global economic slowdown From CNN-Money.com:

The U.S. company is already committed to cutting production by 10% in the year to end-April, mirroring efforts to arrest the domestic oversupply in poultry that is spilling into exports as overseas demand starts to cool.

Smithfield, like rivals Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) and bankrupt Pilgrim’s Pride Inc., has already seen margins fall and liquidity drained from a weakening demand and supply balance that collided with soaring feed costs last year, exacerbated by wrong-way hedges when corn prices started to decline.

The company is closing six of its 40 processing plants and will cut 3.4% of its workforce in a move that will impact more than 3,000 employees, though some will be relocated as part of a restructuring of its vertically-integrated operations that will eliminate four independent operating companies.

The Business Journal reports that it has confirmed one of the affected facilities is Smithfield’s Plant City pig-a-torium.

To put things into perspective, here is a point-counterpoint on the benefits of pork (warning: NSFW):

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune joins the cutback gang today, announcing it is getting rid of a total of 47 employees. Its companywide staff now stands at 350, or 40 percent lower than its real-estate-boom height just three years ago.

The Herald-Tribune reports:

Like other businesses contending with the deep recession, the Herald-Tribune Media Group cut more jobs on Tuesday and said that it would end home delivery in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda in March.

Forty-eight Herald-Tribune employees were laid off, including 31 SNN News 6 staffers who received severance packages Tuesday after being furloughed a week ago.

In November, the Herald-Tribune announced that it was exploring a sale of the station to LDB Media LLC, a company run by SNN general manager Linda DesMarais and her husband, Doug Barker. That deal could still go through with a re-launch of SNN in coming weeks. Asked whether she had enough investors lined up, DesMarais said, “We are very close.”

Herald-Tribune Publisher Diane McFarlin said, “We are certainly open to revisiting the deal under the terms we have negotiated if Linda and Doug are able to get everything in place within a couple of weeks.”

From bad to worse in the ol’ Journalism Biz:

These are horrible, scary times in most newsrooms, with recurring rumors of cutbacks and open speculation about the future of the business and journalism. Newsroom morale, chronically bad in most places, is even worse these days–if that’s possible. Fear and loathing is at a record pitch.

So there’s no excuse for management to add insult to injury by humiliating staff members. Nonetheless, there are a couple of ugly examples today of exactly that happening:

• At the Newark Star-Ledger, two newsroom veterans have been reassigned to the mailroom.
• At the Longmont, Col., Times-Call, staffers have been invited to work as parking valets at the publisher’s holiday party–albeit at full pay. How generous.

And this is on the heels of the Raleigh News & Observer’s silly two-slice limit on election night pizza. (Yeah, it was called off. But the morale-killing damage was already done.)

A two-piece limit on pizza?!? How bad can things get? Stay tuned.

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.