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Lean Dean the Second

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Moderator1, Mar 14, 2008.

  1. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Tried to look for this and didn't see it. Could easily be a D_B; my apologies if so.

    Long Beach city councilwoman says she wants to re-examine the city's legal advertisement contract with the P-T. MediaNews, not surprisingly, responds with "If you do, we'll just have to lay off more people." Her counter: "We're giving you money and you're laying people off anyway."

    http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003725011
     
  2. Rex Harrison

    Rex Harrison Member

    Just goes to show that people aren't being fooled with the whole "more with less" bullshit. How many advertisers will take a cue from this if they haven't already wondered these things?
     
  3. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    The counter was perfect. Singleton has proven that he'll cut and cut and cut some more. Obviously not news to MediaNews employees or anyone that has kept up with the threads on the board, but still ...

    Glad to see someone around there sees what Singleton is doing. Now to hope his credit rating has taken enough of a hit to quit plundering the industry ... or at least slow it down.
     
  4. MMatt60

    MMatt60 Member

    Here in the Bay Area, the Mercury News, like a lot of papers, had a bunch of big high school events to cover this weekend. I was curious who would cover the big basketball game, since one key prep writer was among those laid off last week.

    The guy who was laid off covered the game. But now he's listed as a correspondent, not a staff member. I guess that's how you save money.
     
  5. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    After the layoffs were announced, but two days before who would stay and go came down, was that City Council meeting. Pretty heavily reported in lbguild9400,blogspot.com and a local online weekly, thdistrictweekly.com.
    Very sad to see the people go to the meeting holding up signs, and give a couple of tearful speeches with large, eloquent words about how you can't kill the local newspaper. Because that ship had unfortunately already sailed.

    The council's attempt to take action is much too late as well, but at least they finally took notice. Singleton and people like him don't care, though.
     
  6. CaliforniaRed

    CaliforniaRed Member

    Everyone claims the prep beat is safe but I think all local sports coverage will be done by freelancers within the next five years. It's going to be a lot less expensive to have a bunch of people covering games for $25-75 a pop without paying out 401-K, health coverage, etc.

    You've gotta have a couple people cover your big teams - especially in competitive markets - or readers can leave your publication for several others. But local sports, there's not a lot of options and let's face it - as long as the stories talk about how great Joe Baller is on and off the court - most parents don't care who wrote it.
     
  7. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    Even worse . . . local prep coverage may well go to citizen journalism.
     
  8. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    With reports from the winning Team Dad and Losing Team Dad. They report. You decide.
     
  9. EmbassyRow

    EmbassyRow Active Member

    Where everybody tries hard. Now for the winter cheerleading preview.
     
  10. rpmmutant

    rpmmutant Member

    You're assuming newspapers will have a freelance budget. Those are drying up, even at papers like the LA Times. The paper I work for is considering having the USC and UCLA beat writers cover high school playoffs because there is not enough of freelance budget to do it otherwise. Why pay someone when there are guys on staff who can work 16 hour days and not get paid any extra? And if you complain, you will be reminded there is a younger, cheaper kid in college who would gratefully change places with you.
     
  11. Screwball

    Screwball Active Member

    LOL ...

    but funny because it's probably true. We already ask coaches in a lot of sports to call in or e-mail their results (or get someone else to do so) ... it's not a huge leap to give the coaches and AD's an e-mail address and tell them to make sure someone e-mails four paragraphs by 10:30. You can send them the template (___ scored ____ to lead ____ to a ____ victory over _____ on _____ at _____).

    You pick the game of the week and staff that one.
     
  12. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    And the "fans" get to decide the all-region teams...
     
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