Bloggers Kill Off Another Newspaper

Mistermj · Oct 26, 2008

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Star-Ledger cuts newsroom staff by nearly half
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width="99%">Oct 24 07:03 PM US/Eastern
By ANICK JESDANUN
AP Business Writer</TD><TD style="PADDING-TOP: 5px" vAlign=bottom align=right><TABLE style="BORDER-RIGHT: #bababa 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #bababa 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #bababa 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #bababa 1px solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #edf0f4" height=33 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=1 border=0></TR><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; PADDING-LEFT: 15px; FONT-SIZE: 9pt; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">90 Comments </TD><TD background=http://www.breitbart.com/images/article/dots.gif>

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</TD><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 14px" vAlign=top width="99%">NEW YORK (AP) - The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., will reduce its newsroom staff by nearly half through voluntary buyouts as New Jersey's largest newspaper seeks to return to profitability.
Jim Willse, the Star-Ledger's editor, said Friday that the newspaper accepted 151 buyout offers from its news staff, or about 45 percent of its 334 editorial employees. He said 17 buyout applications were rejected.
Some staffers already have left, and others are leaving by year's end, many after the elections.
"We've got from now to the end of the year to figure out what adjustments we have to make," Willse said. "We will be able to produce an abundance of good stories. We will still have a good paper but we have to figure out exactly how to accomplish that."
The number of buyouts accepted outside the newsroom was not immediately known. The newspaper had sought at least 200 total, out of 750 full-time, nonunion workers, and received more than enough applications.
Two unions agreed to another 120 buyouts combined.
The Star-Ledger, with daily circulation of about 350,000, has posted losses for at least three straight years and was on pace to lose between $30 million and $40 million in 2008. The newspaper won union concessions and enough voluntary buyout applications from nonunion employees to lift a threatened sale or closure by January.
The newspaper's owner, Advance Publications Inc., believes that upcoming operational changes and payroll cuts should return the paper to profitability even if the advertising outlook doesn't improve, though ad prospects are looking worse following last month's financial meltdown, which further depressed spending.
Willse said the paper has no plans to pull back its coverage or circulation area following the staff reductions. He said he did not know whether the newspaper would need to expand the use of freelancers, who now write food, travel and other items.
Newspapers across the country have been reducing staff through attrition, buyouts or layoffs, but few have seen such drastic cuts. The East Valley Tribune, a daily newspaper primarily serving Phoenix suburbs, has announced plans to eliminate 142 jobs, or 40 percent of its employees, early next year when its print edition will become a free distribution publication running four days a week. A third of the jobs cut belong to journalists. Also Friday, Gannett Co. said it would explore additional job cuts beyond the 1,100 announced this summer because of poor economic conditions, while A.H. Belo Corp. said it was imposing a companywide wage freeze Nov. 1 and suspending profit-based payments to retirement plans in January until it returns to profitability.

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barman · Oct 26, 2008

I like all the citations within this article which report the cutbacks were due to the "blogging" community.

barman · Oct 26, 2008

By the year 2015, expect to see over 80% of current print edition newspapers to be distributed without cost to the public.

Advertisers are far more interested in plugging into the ever increasing market for cyber editionsof mainstream news-"papers", as well as cyber editions for other mainstream media outlets owned by television and radio stations.

Mistermj · Oct 26, 2008

barman said:
By the year 2015, expect to see over 80% of current print edition newspapers to be distributed without cost to the public.

Advertisers are far more interested in plugging into the ever increasing market for cyber editionsof mainstream news-"papers", as well as cyber editions for other mainstream media outlets owned by television and radio stations.

By the year 2015...most will be belly up. Bloggers have already dealt the "death blow" to the dinosaur media. Slapping up a cheesy website isn't going to save them.

Kill em all...and replace them with 1000 shining points of light.

The liberal dinosaur media is dead...kill em all.

That liberal beacon...The Paper of Record...The Ol Gray Lady...downgraded to "Junk" status. Fishwrap would be more like it.

:nohead:

Preussen · Oct 27, 2008

barman said:
I like all the citations within this article which report the cutbacks were due to the "blogging" community.

Well, MJ couldn't provide anything at all when asked to back up his assertion in his thread some days ago that Bloggers are responsible for the decline of the NY Times, so I guess neither will he this time.
It's alwaysfascinating to see that MJ has absolutely no scruples to not only repeat an assertion but even opening another thread about it despite being singularly unable to substantiate it. But then that's MJ for you...

Willie99 · Oct 27, 2008

Obviously guys, the internet, where bloggers just happen to be major players, are killing off the liberal dinosaurs. The good ole boys are losing grip and revenues everywhere they turn, but they refuse to go down with an ounce of objectivity. I'm guessing their financial failures means they are unable to tap those on-line revenues, eh?

%^_

Preussen · Oct 27, 2008

Willie99 said:
Obviously guys, the internet, where bloggers just happen to be major players, are killing off the liberal dinosaurs.

And another simple repetition without anything substantial.

Actually I couldn't care less how the American newspapers do, I'd even be prepared to concede this point to you if you could just give me something to back it up.

Willie99 · Oct 27, 2008

Sometimes, you just gotta observe and think.

Do you not see how things are changing? What do you think is happening? Do you really need some study to tell you this?

Please

bigplay · Oct 27, 2008

Preussen said:
And another simple repetition without anything substantial.

Actually I couldn't care less how the American newspapers do, I'd even be prepared to concede this point to you if you could just give me something to back it up.

I am sure the internet has not helped newspaper sales. But it is a fact that newspapers sales have been falling for over 3 decades.

bigplay · Oct 27, 2008

The Milwaukee Urinal/Sentinel has been trying to give me their paper FREE for decades.

Preussen · Oct 27, 2008

Willie99 said:
Sometimes, you just gotta observe and think.

Do you not see how things are changing? What do you think is happening? Do you really need some study to tell you this?

I do not need a study to tell me that the internet has an increasing influence and very probably is partly the reason for the decline of newspapers.

However, I do question that internet Blogs play a significant role in this. Personally, I don't know anyone who thinks that Blogs can replace newspapers. Blogs can provide opinions, but very few people (I hope) will turn to them for the kind of information you usually look for in newspapers.

punter · Oct 27, 2008

I think that craigs list has hurt newspapers quite a bit.

I like getting my news from the paper. I can read as much or as little as I want on a subject.

As far as the editorial comment goes, most good papers try to offer all views. Conservatives only want to hear 1 view no matter how factual. Witness mr mj's reading list.

JudgeWapner · Oct 27, 2008

Bloggers are also killing off the auto industry.

Loren78 · Oct 27, 2008

If this is really true....its time to pop corks....

JudgeWapner · Oct 27, 2008

Also video killed the radio star.

cutacrossshorty · Oct 27, 2008

The majority of the mainstream print media has been bought and paid for. They've killed or wounded real reporting and replaced it with celebrity gossip. Every day more and more recognize this and cancel their subscriptions.

Mistermj · Oct 27, 2008

NEW FAS-FAX OUT: Most Major Papers Continue Circ Decline

By Jennifer Saba

Published: October 27, 2008 7:55 AM ET

NEW YORK For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, this morning brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros.

According to ABC for the 507 newspapers reporting in this period, daily circulation slipped 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8% to 43,631,646 copies.

For comparison purposes, in September 2007 reporting period, daily circ fell 2.6% and Sunday was down 4.6%.

Across the country, publishers have put in place plans to cater to core readers and subscribers. It's too expensive to bulk up circulation in unprofitable areas such as third-party, newspapers in education, and bonus day copies. Not in the core market defined by the newspaper? You are out of luck, at least for the print edition.

All daily averages below are for Monday through Friday. The percent change compares this September period to the same period last year.

Daily circ at The New York Times fell 3.5% to 1,000,665 copies.

The Wall Street Journal (as we reported last week) was virtually flat, up about 117 copies on a daily basis to 2,011,999. USA Today was also up a fraction of a percent to 2,293,310 copies.

But The Washington Post's daily circulation declined 1.9% to 622,714. Sunday was down 3.1% to 866,057. At the Los Angeles Times circ decreased a little more 5% daily and on Sunday to 739,147 and 1,055,076, respectively. Daily circulation at the Chicago Tribune was down 7.7% to 516,032. Sunday declined 5.7% to 864,845 copies.

The San Francisco Chronicle lost 7% of its daily circulation to 339,430 copies while Sunday was down a hair more, 7.4% to 398,116. The San Jose Mercury News was down slightly, 1.9% to 224,199 and Sunday was down much more, 4.3% to 241,518.

On the East Coast, daily circulation at The Boston Globe plummeted 10.1% to 323,983 copies. Sunday circ was down 8.4% to 503,659. The Baltimore Sun’s daily circ declined 5.9% to 218,923 while Sunday fell 3.8% to 350,640.

Daily circulation at The Philadelphia Inquirer slipped 11.0% to 300,674 copies. Sunday plunged 13.7% to 556,426. At the Daily News in Philly, daily circ slipped 13.2% to 97,694.

Daily circ at The Arizona Republic declined 5.5% to 361,333 while Sunday 3.6% to 463,036. Its sister paper the Indianapolis Star lost 3.3% of its daily circ (244,796 copies) and 4.6% of Sunday to 321,760.

In Florida circulation fell steeply at the Miami Herald - its daily circ was down 11.8% to 210,884. Sunday was down 9% to 279,484. The Orlando Sentinel lost 3.3% of its daily circ to 206,363 and about the same on Sunday (-3.2%) to 307,976 copies.

Daily circ at the Denver Post dropped 6.5% to 210,585 and at the Rocky Mountain News it was down 6.6% to 210,281. The combined Sunday circulation for the JOA papers declined 9.1% to 545,442.

In Detroit, the Free Press lost 6.8% of its daily circ to 298,243 copies. The Detroit News’ daily circ plunged 10.0% to 178,280 copies.

The Houston Chronicle's daily circulation skidded 11.6% to 448,271. Sunday was even worse, down 15.7% to 584,164 copies. Daily circulation at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was down 13.6% to 274,999 and Sunday fell 2.3% to 464,805.

Here are some numbers for McClatchy papers: The Kansas City Star’s daily circ declined 2.3% to 239,358 while Sunday dropped 5.3% to 324,837. Daily figures for the Ft. Worth Star Telegram were down 3.7% to 194,257. Sunday decreased 2.9% to 280,447. The Charlotte Observer lost 3.9% of its daily circ to 193,577 copies. Sunday fell 3.7% to 252,300.

In the twin cities, daily circ at The Star Tribune in Minneapolis dropped 4.2% to 322,360. Sunday lost 8.6% to 520,828. The St. Paul Pioneer Press increased its daily circ by a fraction -- up 0.2% to 184,973 while Sunday gained the same to 246,431 copies.

Some Advance Newspapers: The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J., down 10.4% to 316,280 daily copies. Sunday skidded 14.6% to 455,699. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland decreased its daily copies by 8.5% to 305,529. Sunday was down 7.7% to 411,061. The Oregonian in Portland dropped 8.4% to 283,321 daily copies while Sunday fell 7.1% to 344,950. Daily copies at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans dipped 2.4% to 175,530. Sunday fell 2.8% to 194,248.

The tabloids in New York both saw declines in daily copies. The New York Post’s daily circ decreased 6.2% to 625,421. At the New York Daily News, daily circ was down 7.1% to 632,595.

Go here for the list of the top 25 daily newspapers in the country and the top 25 Sunday newspapers.

*
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:nohead: