Bad news coming at FWST

Job cuts and furloughs announced for 2013. Fingers crossed for my many friends and acquaintances there.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/199942/furloughs-job-cuts-coming-to-fort-worth-star-telegram/?goback=%2Egde_2246202_member_202494298

 

I give the publisher credit. At least he didn't use a bunch of BS buzzwords and didn't say that the paper would be even better than it was before.

 

The weekly in town breaks this news ...

http://www.fwweekly.com/2013/01/09/star-telegrams-lays-off-watchdog-columnist-dave-lieber/

 

Why not lay off a guy who may be one of those rare beasts: he actually gets people to read the rag.

 

But think of how much money the paper will save. Getting that salary off the bottom line really helps the company.
Or, maybe that shouldn't be in blue.

 

It seems that Lieber was really an asset and he seems like a good guy. But in the story it was quoted that he told executive editor Jim Witt that he loved him. Anybody who has worked for Witt-less would understand that "love" is not the 4-letter word that comes to mind.

 

“He was an invaluable asset, you would think, given the fact that the kind of advocacy journalism and community interaction he supplied were among the few points of difference that the Star-Telegram — or any local daily for that matter — can still offer to keep themselves relevant,” said a former Star-Telegram writer who was previously laid off. “It’s as if management is trying to steer the paper to a premature death.” ...

“Are they going to just reprint all the wire stuff that everybody saw the night before?” the former employee said. “I don’t know what the strategy is there. It sounds like they’re going to ride this thing down to the bottom of the ocean until there are only a couple of high paid executives left. It’s stunning.”

 

To think of how this paper used to compete with the DMN for readership (Arlington Star-Telegram, a prep sports section every day)... God, how far down this paper has fallen.

 

Steveu, totally agree. Can't even say it's a shadow of its former self. Not enough "light" to create a shadow. Too dark.

 

I guess I got my wake up call on just how bad things are this past week -- a friend of mine delivers papers (like whole stacks to businesses) and was going away and asked me to fill in for a few days so I did...

Every day you bring stack to local stores, gas stations, grocery stores whatever -- you get the stack from the day before and count them as unsold.

One store I delivered to had two sold every day. TWO. None had more than four or five.

How the hell is anyone making money in this business any more? It is dying or maybe it is already dead.

 

Times are tough at McClatchy. The stock price ONLY rose 36.8% in 2012.

 

Yeah, PD but there's a lot of "debt" to pay off and executives need to be overpaid before the company and its papers can show a "profit."