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Sports Copy Editor - The Detroit News

Discussion in 'Journalism Jobs' started by Ruben_Luna, Jul 24, 2006.

  1. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Here is the way a JOA works: Advertising is almost always sold as a combination buy (each paper runs virtually all the same ads), and each paper's owner gets a predetermined cut of what's left after shared expenses (everything but the newsrooms), in this case a reported 70 percent for Gannett and 30 percent for MediaNews (a renegotiation from a 50-50 split between Gannett and Knight Ridder before the sale). The Detroit News could drop 100K in circulation and still get 30 percent, and theoretically it could grow by 100K and still get 30 percent. MediaNews knew that when it bought the Detroit News and agreed to the restructured JOA. So essentially, any circulation drop is irrelevant to the Detroit News' owner because the revenue loss from selling fewer newspapers would come out of both papers' cut of the overall action, not just the Detroit News'.
     
  2. DyePack

    DyePack New Member

    Doesn't circulation affect the ad rates, though?
     
  3. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    It does, but each paper still gets the predetermined split of the overall profits before newsroom expenses. The ad rates would go down for both papers since advertising is sold to advertisers as a combined buy based on the JOA's total circ, not on each paper's circ individually. A drop in Detroit News circ would affect the Detroit Freep owner's profits, too. They are in this together.
     
  4. DyePack

    DyePack New Member

    Well, since the Freep has been a sinking ship, I don't know that I'd feel a whole lot better over at TWGDPIA.
     
  5. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I doubt that the Freep's a sinking ship. There's no way a company like Gannett would have taken it on if it were. Gannett would not buy a newspaper that would negatively impact its overall profitability and thus affect the price of its stock. If there wasn't a shitload of money to be sucked out of Detroit, Gannett would have simply sold the News and left town. Instead it traded a bunch of smaller (but monopoly) papers to KR in order to get the larger Detroit paper. Gannett is going to make a lot of money on this deal.
     
  6. MGoBlue

    MGoBlue Member

    If the Detroit News is a lost cause, why would it be posting for a position vacated by one of its minor copy editors? Seems to me that not filling a vacancy would be a good place to begin cutting losses (like the AA News not planning to fill an exiting sportswriter's vacancy).

    I agree that this is a fantastic job for someone coming from a smaller- or medium-sized newspaper. Hear that Joe, Chris, Scotty or Tim?

    The Detroit News has some talent from which to choose in its own backyard. Kristi should give them a look (afterall, the AA News has an excellent track record of sending both sports and news editors and page designers to the big leagues).
     
  7. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I don't think the News is a lost cause, either. Deano does not need an especially high profit margin to satisfy stockholders because the company is private. So profit margin is secondary to the fact that he still can suck millions out of a large city like Detroit. Same reason why St. Paul, with a very low profit margin of about 10 percent, was appealing to him -- he's still going to make lots of money in SP, just not as much as a Gannett would want.
     
  8. DyePack

    DyePack New Member

    Contrary to popular belief, you can't just leave copy editor positions unfilled.

    A paper nearby TWGDPIA tried this once. I won't name it, but it rhymes with Croakland Mess.
     
  9. MGoBlue

    MGoBlue Member

    TWGDPIA?
     
  10. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    My guess would be: The Worst God Damned Paper in America.
     
  11. contrary to dyepack's contrary to popular belief, newspapers can and are leaving copy desk slots vacant. At my paper, they left 2 unfilled. At another paper, reporters have learned to lay out pages.
     
  12. cityemployee

    cityemployee New Member

    DyePack I worry about you and your bitterness ... since you are so UNINFORMED about that place let me fill you in ... like any paper, it has issues with writers, managers, etc., but no more than any other place ... it pays well and most of the time that people leave it is for a better opportunity career-wise ... the sports section has been in the top 10 in the APSE awards (100,000-250,000) for as long as I can remember ... most people I talk with that worked in the sports department there and left, say they had the most fun at The News than any other place they've been. Most people that I know there now (except some that have been there for a loooong time) have no real gripes with the department.

    Nothing is ever written in stone, but The News should be there awhile ... when the strike hit 11 years ago, they took a massive circulation hit and they're not about to do that again ... If Detroit went to one paper, they would lose nearly all that paper's circulation and NEVER get it back ... you keep feeding the beast, and they will come ... in fact, there is a pretty cut and dry circulaton base that like either the News or Free Press and only a few like both.

    Even with the automotive industries taking a hit, the potential for advertising revenue in the Detroit is area is still HUGE. Ten years ago, it was ranked in the top 5 in POTENTIAL advertising revenue. Not much has changed since then.

    I've also been told that currently there is a clause in the union contract that states that for one of the Detroit's papers to be closed down it must lose money for three straight years ... the News is not losing money.

    If you want to work for a quality sports section that is interested in beating the competition and being considered the No. 1 sports section in the state, apply for the job.
     
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