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Are Phoenix and Honolulu next

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Moderator1, Jul 18, 2008.

  1. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    to offer buyouts?

    www.gannettblog.blogspot.com
     
  2. MMatt60

    MMatt60 Member

    I read somewhere that Hawaii axed some employees just the other day.
     
  3. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    54 in Honolulu, three in the newsroom.

    http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20080716&Kategori=BREAKING03&Lopenr=80716061&Ref=AR&Show=0
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    There have been rumors for awhile that Gannett is going to fold one of its bigger papers and go to essentially USA Today with a "local wrap" five days a week.

    Essentially, it would be four pages of local news and USA Today. Phoenix was one of the places where it was rumored. Louisville and I think Cincy were the others.

    It seems like the dumbest thing ever, but it is Gannett.
     
  5. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    I had heard that one plan was to do one or two local sections and USA Today would be inserted. Basically scrap all national coverage in the daily and the section(s) would be all-local. No Saturday paper and then have a Sunday paper that would be a mix of local and national.
    Sunday paper still being very profitable with the inserts.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    The way it was told to me was that the biggest drawback to the "plan" was what to do about the Sunday paper.
     
  7. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    Yep, getting rid of Sunday means you get rid of all the cheaply produced and extremely profitable advertorial sections. It also damages the halo you get from the paper on the niche products.
    That's kind of the 400 pound gorilla in the corner. Every time you lessen the paper, you hurt its credibility. When you hurt that, it damages the side projects that paper has going. All those niche tabs and magazines.
    The other problem is staffing. You still need a staff to put the paper out and with press limitations, on some days you might have to do multiple sections because of local advertising. The problem you run into is if you have a staff for one 16-page section, when you have two or three, you won't have the people to pull off all-local and the design and production people won't be there as well.
    So if you have a Sunday paper, and then local sections during the week, you will still need a largish staff to get it done, so you won't see that much in savings from personnel cuts and the long-term damage is that you are basically destroying the brand.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I heard they thought they could do it with a staff of 10ish.
     
  9. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    The East Valley Tribune should be licking its chops at that.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    If it happens at a bigger paper, my guess is it will be Louisville.
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I wonder sometimes... Readers love USA Today. If you run one page of local news, one page of local sports, one of entertainment and one other page and wrap it in the nation's most popular paper, I wonder if maybe people would like that
     
  12. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    that's an interesting concept.
     
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