Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville to publish three days a week

If that's how they decide to handle the day-to-day. But the point is, he'll still be covering that team 7 days a week.

 

I can say, with confidence, major changes are coming for the Jersey cluster.

 

That's not how it's worked at other places they've tried this. You cover the beat seven days and write your stories. The only difference is where the story is published, either online or in print.

 

I don't... I feel sorry for the layout guys who will be let go.

The beat writers get more flexibility when they don't have to worry about some of the deadlines that come with a print edition. They can write longer.

There are people to feel sorry for in all of this, but it's not the beat writers.

People here seem to be reacting like they're only working three days a week. They're not ceasing publication four days a week... It's just online only...

Very few people still get the actual paper.

 

More flexibility? He'll now be expected to post hourly-if-not-sooner updates to the web, even more to teh Twitters, and yet have less chance to actually, you know, write for that thing called newsprint. So it's probably just more grinding work and far less creativity and the emotional reward of seeing your work in print.

 

Why would he be expected to post "hourly, if not sooner" updates to the web? You're overreacting juuuuust a little bit here, I think.

Of all the people to worry about in all this, the Alabama beat writer isn't one of them.

 

jimromenesko.com/2012/05/25/exciting-really/

 

I think the "emotional reward" of seeing your story in print has been long gone for at least the last decade...

 

It's like a spouse. Once people learn they can live without something/someone, there's no going back. Instead of closing altogether, like the Rocky Mountain News, this is just a slow death.

As mentioned on another thread, I suspect more and more papers will become "paperless papers" in the future.

 

Not sure it is quite that way. It's not like you summarize three days of news into one. You are no longer offering a complete product. You drive people to the website (as one editor would say). Wednesday and Friday just offer a print version of that day's news.

I don't see how a reporter's job changes that much. In fact, if this plan actually works, it could wind up saving jobs in the long run. The biggest drain on papers are the printing and delivery costs, not a reporter's salary. It's the up till now, printing and delivery were considered necessary. Reporters were expenditable.

 

I just hope AL.com gets an upgrade through this, because the site's presentation sucks. Nearly impossible to navigate and find things.

 

Al.com's minions told the multitude of complaining readers to "get used to it" in the comments feedback Wednesday after the new upgrade made its debut.

They won't change it. The mentality is accept it and if you don't like it, tough shit.