Orange County Register offering buyouts ...

L.A. Times can't have all the fun with its Tribune mess. The Orange County Register's having problems too. I've also heard the San Diego Union-Tribune isn't far behind, either.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ocregister30sep30,1,1487928.story?coll=la-headlines-business

 

Wow! Orange County is a very wealthy area so for this to happen is a really bad signal.

I can't help but wonder if, with launching the OC Post, they are competing against themselves by creating a new publication which might end up being a zero sum game at best and a negative net for them. Would an advertiser wait, advertise in the OC Post at what are probably low introductory rates, and then see how they are affected by reducing their advertising in the OC Register.

Thoughts?

 

Talked to someone at the paper today about this very subject. Here's what he told me.

The OC Post is a loss-leader. They're not expecting to make any money on it this year or probably the next. But they have people pulling double-duty getting it out.

As for the buyouts, it's across the newsroom spectrum. They're trying to get the veterans to take it, for obvious reasons on both fronts; some of those folks would take home $200,000. Should they not get enough volunteers, the layoffs will commence, with between 10 and 40 people being escorted from the Grand Street premises.

The reason: because advertising is down across the board, except for new-home ads.

The real reason: because the Blackstone Group and the other VC group that bought 40% of Freedom stock two years ago in the wake of the Hoiles family rebellion aren't seeing enough $$$.

That the Register is losing money is simply unfathomable. It's not happening.

 

... it's not making enough money and it has, for the most part, a monopoly as far as daily newspapers in Orange County. Oh, there are a couple of other papers and the LA Times sells papers in Orange County, but if you want to sell homes or cars, the Register is pretty much the place where you do it. They do this because they can do it.

 

What's this "buyout" nonsense?

I just send people out the door, revoke their entry clearance, then dock their final paychecks if they fail to turn in their company-issued pencils and reporter's notebooks.

But, just to show there's no hard feelings, I give them a coupon good for $5.00 off the cost of a printed obituary in any JRC paper, good for five years from the day of discharge. Good for the employee, their spouse, and any dependent children. Just to add the 'personal touch,' I sign the coupons myself. Who says we're not a caring company??

 

How big is their newsroom? How much is 40 cuts at that paper, 10 or 15 percent?
Just wondering.
And at what point do the fat cats think the cuts must stop? Do they stop when there's no more newsroom or when there are so many complaints about what's not in the paper that even the fat cats notice?

 

The hits keep coming. It's uncanny at this point, even trendy.

 

It's kind of hard to assess that from afar. Among former employers, I worked for one paper that was severely understaffed with a newsroom of more than 500 and another that had scores of people doing absolutely nothing in a newsroom of 230. It really depends on what the expectations are, and it also depends whether the dead wood is staying or going.

 

Right. I'm not looking to argue that they have too many or too few people in the newsroom.
I just want to know how big their newsroom is.
300? 400?

 

With only 10 staffers shifted from the Register to the OC Post, it's hard to figure out why this is causing such a hardship, unless there's more than a few underperforming people whom others need to compensate for. The company is trying several ways to reach readers (see the yourhub site in Colorado Springs) when it wasn't as concerned before outside investment came in.

 

Oh, and I left this out of my last post... largely because new information came in after I posted...

Right now, the Register is down two copy editor spots and an Angels writer (see Mark Saxon/USC gig on other thread). This would be standard operating procedure, save for the fact that SE Greg Gibson is hampered by a hiring freeze.

Of course, having FIVE columnists and no GA writer could create some problems...