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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Union Tribune Lays off 125
Nick Morris, Photographer
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San Marcos | CA | United States | Posted: 1:55 PM on 05.08.09 |
| ->> Ouch!! Some good photogs in that mix. |
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Steve Ueckert, Photographer
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Houston | TX | | Posted: 7:51 PM on 05.08.09 |
->> "Hearst Corp., which owns the embattled 144-year-old daily paper, said in late February it would sell or shutter the Chronicle if it couldn’t wrangle sufficient concessions from the Media Workers Guild and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents the truck drivers who distribute the paper. Both unions agreed to cutbacks set to eliminate about 210 jobs, but the paper’s management said earlier it needed to slash an additional 30 or more Guild jobs, which meant that layoffs would be needed to augment the earlier buyouts/voluntary terminations.
"Hearst says it’s been losing $50 million or more annually at the Chronicle, and other sources say the bleeding has been even worse. Hearst stopped the print edition of its Seattle Post-Intelligencer in mid-March, retaining only a much-smaller SeattlePI.com online publication."
$50,000,000 / 240 = $208,333.33.
I fail to see how eliminating (laying-off) 240 jobs is going to offset a $50 million per year loss (negative income) for the SF Chronicle. Even including insurance and retirement benefits, those eliminated jobs would have to be fetching in excess of $100 K salary per year.
Bad news in San Diego as well. |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 12:53 AM on 05.10.09 |
->> Steve,
The rule of thumb is that benefits are about 50% of base pay. Reporters at the Chron are probably averaging 60-80k per year, which extends to 90-120k in total compensation. I think you missed a couple of decimal points. 240 jobs = more than $20 million a year.
But all that completely avoids the point that newspapers are gutting their core competency while continuing to throw many millions at a distribution system that has outlived its usefulness.
--Mark |
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Steve Ueckert, Photographer
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Houston | TX | | Posted: 2:08 AM on 05.10.09 |
->> Mark--
Decimals not withstanding, I think you missed my point. Or perhaps you reiterated my point.
My contention is that the average salary of those laid-off would have to exceed $100 K per annum for this to be a viable economic solution with respect to the SF Chron's financial losses. Having worked more than just a few years, myself, for Hearst and 33 years for large dailies, I doubt that the average salaries came even close to $100 K. I agree that they were likely in the $60 - $80 K range. I don't know if any managers were involved in this staff reduction, but even if they were, their higher compensations likely wouldn't have pushed the average salary to six figures.
The real loss is for the consumers of newspapers not just in San Francisco or San Diego, but nationwide. The loss of talent in this industry over just the last couple of years must fundamentally alter the quality and quantity of product offered to the consumer. I look at staff reductions of papers in Houston, Dallas and San Francisco, among others, and I see far more line level productivity lost than management positions.
I see this willingness to sacrifice productivity while preserving a glut of top heavy management as problematic as the industry's sluggish movement away from ink on paper delivered to the consumers' front steps or distributed to corner paper boxes publishing.
Society clings to newspapers just as it does analog TVs (the repeated pushback of the phase out of which can't be overlooked) and cheap non-renewable energy. However, as Dylan told us more than 40 years ago, "The Times They Are A Changin'." And so are the Chronicles, the Posts and the Union-Tribunes.
--Steve |
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Tom Theobald, Photographer
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La Mesa | CA | USA | Posted: 11:53 AM on 05.10.09 |
->> (Am from San Diego and try to stay on topic)
With all the carnage that's going on in journalism...I keep coming back to one simple yet revolutionary solution. Google this term--> "e-paper".
E-paper is a few years away still and price for the technology has to come down (or better yet, give away a paper thin electronic reader with each subscription). I dunno about you all...but I just can't get into reading a newspaper, magazine, book etc on a normal computer screen. Why? Because reading any normal paper media is a PASSIVE experience.
When the U/T comes to my door in the morning - I love to kick-back in a chair and look for Sean Haffy and K.C. Alfred's work (whew, plz don't get cut them!). Nothing else replaces that passive experience. I say "e-paper" technology could still do it. Craigslist will continue to sap classified ad revenues, but maybe the big advertisers will return... -T |
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Gene Blevins, Photographer
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Woodland Hills | CA | USA | Posted: 4:01 PM on 05.15.09 |
->> Another one to the list
Tucson Citizen to cease print publication
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN – 2 hours ago
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona's oldest continuously published daily newspaper, the Tucson Citizen, will publish its final print edition Saturday but will continue operating online.
Kate Marymont, Gannett Co. vice president for news, told the newspaper's staff Friday that the paper will continue with a Web site edition providing commentary and opinion but no news coverage.
Gannett officials said a joint operating agreement the company has had with Lee Enterprises Inc., which publishes the morning Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, will end as of Saturday. But a business partnership will continue outside of the legal framework of a JOA, Marymont said.
Under the joint operating agreement, the two companies shared costs and profits, with their subsidiary, Tucson Newspapers Inc., handling all non-editorial functions, from advertising to circulation.
Bob Dickey, president of Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing Division, said in the statement that Tucson Newspapers Inc. will print a Tucson Citizen editorial weekly in the Star to expand the reach of the Citizen's voice.
In January, Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, announced plans to close the Citizen if it didn't find a buyer for certain assets by March 21.
Only four days before the original planned closing, however, Gannett announced that the shutdown would be delayed because negotiations were continuing with two interested buyers.
Those talks ultimately proved unsuccessful. The newspaper had about 65 employees remaining as of Friday. |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 12:11 AM on 05.16.09 |
->> Gene,
What was the source on this? The byline is a bit too, uh, perfect to be believed.
--Mark |
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David Manning, Photographer
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