CASE STUDY: the below conglomerate ought to consider buying a property like hypster.com. This article also exemplifies the demise of old media. These entities have obviously left themselves 'behind the curve' in obtaining online revenue opportunities.
If you want to keep publishing an old-school newspaper and can't support it with advertising--you need to reform the model. Multiple streams of income is a necessity. Every article like this confirms my faith in hypster.com and its growing 'circulation.'
-Pass the Salt
Newspapers plan more cuts to cope with downturn
Seattle newspaper awaits uncertain future as Hearst, McClatchy plot more cuts to stay afloat
* Andrew Vanacore, AP Business Writer
* Tuesday March 10, 2009, 7:12 pm EDT
*
NEW YORK (AP) -- Workers at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer awaited news Tuesday about whether their newspaper would survive as a key deadline arrived, labor leaders representing nearly 500 San Francisco Chronicle employees agreed to important concessions and McClatchy newspapers finalized job cuts as a sharp drop in advertising revenue that began last summer picks up speed.
Efforts to cut costs at newspapers across the United States have intensified in recent weeks. And experts say that even after big cutbacks in staffing, it may not be enough to keep every struggling daily newspaper in business.
The newspaper industry has seen ad revenue fall in recent years as advertisers migrate to the Internet, particularly to sites offering free or low-cost alternatives for classified ads. Starting last summer, the recession intensified the decline in advertising revenue in all categories.
Hearst's Seattle and San Francisco newspapers have been losing money for years, and with a new president at its newspapers division, the company has threatened to close or sell those newspapers under his "100 Days of Change" initiative.
Hearst announced Jan. 9 that it was putting Seattle's second-largest daily up for sale, and that if no buyer could be found within 60 days, the newspaper would be shut down or possibly continued as a Web-only operation. Tuesday marked the 60th day since that announcement.
Hearst Corp.'s deadline to find a buyer for Seattle's oldest newspaper apparently passed Tuesday, meaning the newspaper could announce within days whether to close or continue as an online-only publication with a skeletal staff. Either option comes with major job losses.
Hearst did not say when it would make an announcement, other than to say Wednesday won't be the newspaper's last day of publication. Spokesman Paul Luthringer said only, "We are still examining our options."
The Chronicle's largest union, meanwhile, reached a tentative agreement on contract concessions as part of Hearst's efforts to dramatically cut costs to prevent a sale or closure, though the deal still may not keep the 144-year-old daily from shuttering or being sold.
In central California, unionized workers at The Fresno Bee were to vote Tuesday on similar concessions. Its owner, McClatchy Co., said Monday it was cutting 1,600 jobs, or 15 percent of its work force, and Bee newsroom employees have to decide whether to accept up to 6 percent pay cuts in exchange for fewer layoffs -- 16 full-time jobs instead of 21 in the 89-member Guild unit.
Workers at two sister newspapers in California, The Sacramento Bee and The Modesto Bee, already have agreed to concessions in recent days. Monday's vote at Modesto means pay cuts of up to 7.5 percent for Newspaper Guild members. Eleven of the 50 full-time Guild-covered positions in the editorial department would be cut; another 10 jobs would have been in jeopardy had the union rejected the wage cuts.
Three McClatchy-owned newspapers in South Carolina, The State of Columbia, The Island Packet of Hilton Head and The Beaufort Gazette, announced Tuesday they were cutting 11 percent of their jobs, or 55 positions among them, while reducing wages for remaining employees. The Herald of Rock Hill, South Carolina, announced job and wage cuts Monday.
The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle, The Kansas City (Missouri) Star, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram and The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, are among the other McClatchy newspapers that have already disclosed their job cuts. Others are expected in coming weeks.
In Seattle, there is no word of any buyer for the P-I, and Hearst has made offers to some staffers to work for an online publication. But most of the P-I's employees are expected to lose their jobs. The P-I has been published since 1863.
In the Chronicle's case, the tentative union deal reached late Monday is just the first step toward saving the newspaper.
Hearst warned two weeks ago that it may sell or shut down the newspaper unless it can lower expenses dramatically enough to pare the losses that have been piling up since the New York-based company bought the publication in late 2001 for $660 million. The Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year alone, according to privately-held Hearst.
The terms of even more layoffs and other cost-cutting still must be hashed out with another 420 Chronicle workers represented by the Teamsters union. Those talks probably won't start until employees of the California Media Workers Guild sign off on the concessions their leaders agreed to late Monday. A vote could be held as early as Thursday.
If the package is accepted, the Chronicle will be able to lay off workers regardless of seniority and have more freedom to hire outside contractors.
The union has warned that about 150 of the 483 employees could lose their jobs, although some workers may be offered buyouts. Without the concessions, the Chronicle planned to lay off 225 workers and offer less generous severance packages, according to union negotiators.
Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega on Tuesday declined to comment on the negotiations or the chances of the newspaper surviving.
Even with all the savings envisioned in its cost-cutting plan, the Chronicle's management has warned the newspaper could still lose about $50 million this year, according to union negotiators.
If Hearst decides to abandon the Chronicle, some employees are urging the company to turn over the newspaper to the workers so they can try to keep it alive.
"I believe that it is time now for newspapermen and newspaperwomen to begin saving our institution's soul," Chronicle reporter Delfin Vigil wrote in a recent full-page ad bought in the rival San Francisco Examiner.
Associated Press Business Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Associated Press Writers Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., and Phuong Le in Seattle contributed to this story.
AI
