And to help push the newsprint further over the edge ... ink costs

Last week or so our corprate guys came down from the mothership to inform us the news hole is once again shrinking.
We have shrunk our paper size twice since I have been employed there (almost a decade). Now, we are shrinking the newshole for the second time in less than year.
Our sports section is three pages (and agate page) six days a week. The reason?
I'm told the price of ink will double - DOUBLE - July 1.
With a smaller newshole, we need less stories to fill it (and by extension less reporters) and less copy deskers to lay it out.
The last time we shrank the news hole, it was followed by layoffs.
I'm a little worried this time around.
Our reporters have a standing order to file two stories a day - that's not a hard and fast rule, but a good gauge. For the last two weeks, we had leftover daily stories for the paper.

In six months, the corporate guys are going to bitch cause circulation is down, cause there is nothing to read in the paper. They'll be right, but it won't be our fault... The vicious downward spiral continues.

 

I've been at two papers where the size shrunk and layoffs followed both times — even though we were told they wouldn't.

Hell, at one paper, the "redesign" consisted of bigger fonts as to lower the number of words — and thus stories — on a page. And, you guessed it, we laid off two reporters shortly after the redesign.

 

How do they know that? Can they also predict the cost of gasoline on July 1?

 

Contract price for the next fiscal year.

 

I'm assuming the powers-that-be shopped around for a better deal, and didn't just accept a high price from the current ink place? Seems incredible ink prices would be doubling in this economy, unless your paper was getting an incredibly good deal before.

 

It is my understanding, that like newsprint, ink is virtual monopoly with only a few suppliers.

 

sounds like time to get in the ink business...