Chattanooga tries to sneak some out the door

Babs · Mar 25, 2009

I shopped in a Dillard's a week or so ago and I've never seen salespeople so desperate. When I said I would take only one of the two items in my hand, it was as if I had crushed dreams. It made me not want to go back.

imjustagirl · Mar 25, 2009

Inky_Wretch said:

Moderator1 said:

Little Rock weighs in:

Advertising at the LR paper is tumbling like a stone. The smaller Arkansas papers in the chain are also shedding advertising.
When Alltel eventually closes down, that means an immediate loss of more than a million dollars in advertising. A couple of the chain stores that have closed, like Goody's, also mean big drops in regular advertising.
Regular advertisers, such as hospitals looking for employees, have dropped advertising all together as they are all either on hiring freezes or laying people off.
The paper has been fighting an ill-advised newspaper war in northwest Arkansas, with a local zoned edition. The war has been more or a less a truce because both media companies are performing so badly.
To gin up some money, in the 18 months or so, the Democrat-Gazette launched two specialty pubs — a free weekly tab aimed to take out the local alt-weekly and a glossy, society magazine that was aimed to take out another publication put out by the weekly business paper.
Both are dramatic money losers.
The paper has a total of around 270 or so between the two newsrooms, and about 50 more working on the different special sections and specialty pubs.
When they laid off 7 people a couple weeks back, the remaining columnists all penned tributes and how the "family" was ripped apart, but that was nothing. The paper could easily shed 50, maybe 70, newsroom employees and the average reader wouldn't even notice.
Worth noting that the paper is still widely read and hasn't had the circ. drops other places have had. Average daily circ. is around 170k, and Sunday jumps up to around 260k.
I think the last ABC audit showed less than a 2 percent drop in average daily circ.
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Dillard's, a LR-headquartered department store chain, is close to going belly up.

If that happens the bigger papers in the state will take a serious hit. Dillard's buys full-color half-page or full-page ads on the back of the Sunday A section in the larger papers. Every Sunday.
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Dammit! Dillard's was my favorite store at Fayette Mall.

Scouter · Jan 1, 2015

Dr. Van Nostrand said:

JackReacher said:

bigbadeagle said:

A quick word about the SE in Chattanooga:

He's a damn good man — and an even better friend — and has looked out after me on more than a few occasions. I haven't talked to Jay in several weeks but will soon.
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I can second that, even though I've never met Jay in person. In the conversations I've had with him, he's been nothing short of great. And I know the people who work for him speak highly of him as well.

The guys (and gals?) in Nooga put out a fine product. It's a shame they're having to cut.
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Let me third the opinion on Jay Greeson. He's REAL good people (to use the SportsJournalists.com vernacular). Letting anyone go under these circumstances has to be killing him.
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A talked last night with a friend of mine who works at the TFP who said Greeson is usually one of the most upbeat people in the office but was nothing like that yesterday. Pretty apparent it really bothered him.

podunk press · Mar 25, 2009

To be fair to Chattanooga, my shop laid folks off and didn't say a word.

They were kept so hush-hush that they aren't even appearing on that Web site that lists layoffs by newspaper.

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Chattanooga tries to sneak some out the door

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Chattanooga tries to sneak some out the door

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