San Jose update

How do you cover a city with the size and complexity of San Jose with a newsroom of 200?
Do they want people to cancel their subscriptions and more advertisers to flee?
Because this just gives subscribers a far better reason to do that than the Internet and the economy.

Anybody know how it'll affect sports? I'll say a prayer for everybody over there.

 

Imagine going to a car dealer and looking at a car and checking under the hood (missing piston), the trunk (no spare tire) dash (no air conditioning) and interior (no cup holders). Sure you could drive it, but why should the dealer expect to sell a car that isn't as good or have as many features as earlier models when he is selling it for the same (or higher) price.

 

My mother, of all people, unintentionally summed up the state of the newspaper business the other morning.

"The paper just keeps getting smaller and smaller," she said disgustedly. "There's nothing in it anymore."

And the paper she reads is in a top-10 media market, NOT the Podunk Times.

The suits keep giving people less and less and less and then scratch their heads, wondering why circulation is falling.

 

The top assistants will remain intact in sports, so the plan to fill in while Rachel Wilner is on maternity leave probably won't change. The exit of one of the night-time assistants might have saved a copy editor from being fired. But sports will take a substantial hit this time around.

 

What a tool.

When the fuck is management going to realize you can't put out a newspaper, even if it is smaller, and write for the Internet and shoot video and conduct iPod interviews and blog and chat with readers with half the damn staff for a city that hasn't decreased in size?

"Joey, here are your new duties. We let go four of your coworkers in Sports so you'll have to pick up their work, too. Raise? Well, no, there aren't any raises. Advertising is declining in the newspaper industry, you know, and well, online advertising still is something we're working on. But don't forget you have an online chat tomorrow night at 7."

 

When are people like Singleton going to learn. "News and advertising migrating are migrating to the internet! To compete with that we must fire the reporters who allow us to have any hope of competing with internet!" Someone needs to wake up and realize that the biggest moneywaster in the business is the process of printing and distributing the paper. Go online and compete for the advertising dollars. It's time for newspaper companies to stop being luddites, can the press operations, and move on line.

 

This is an incredibly naive view.

As maligned as print editions seem to be these days, they still the pay the bills to an extent that online, even with the loss of paper/printing costs, couldn't begin to cover.

 

It's about cash flow, the print edition allows them to buy time and sell ads while transitioning their product to the web. And can someone let me know why it takes fewer people editorially to put out a comptetive web product than it does a competitive print product?

 

That is what I would like to know, and what I was driving at in my post.

 

I think it speaks to the generally lack of understanding about the Internet among news executives and does not engender a lot of confidence about future Web efforts.

 

Lean Dean might not be great newspaperman but he is without question a great businessman. He continues to buy up newspapers, chop them up and squeeze more money out these operations.

Unfortunately for those under his employment, it doesn't make for a great work environment.