Star-Ledger facing cutbacks?

This is very bad news...the cash cow of the Newhouse newspaper empire is bleeding:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003691745

 

Wow, big-time bad news.

If The Star-Ledger is bleeding that much ...

 

This is what happens when you lose the free advertising of "The Sopranos."

Let's see Tony trudge out to his driveway and pick up the Internets.

David Chase probably would end a documentary on newspapers the same way: The screen going black.

 

Not a complete surprise, considering Dorf cut jobs some time ago, citing reduced revenue from the S-L.

Also, I'd like to see how revenue from Conde Nast compares with the company's newspapers.

 

You know, when I think of what I miss, I think about the Star-Ledger Sunday sports section and all of the great columns.

Newhouse is not a publicly-owned company trading on a stock market. I would accept the fact that they are losing revenue but would wonder about if they are actually losing money.

I lived in Newark for most of my life before moving to southern California. The thing about the Ledger is that pretty much as soon as the Newark Evening News died in 1972 or 1973, they saw themselves as a statewide paper. A former top editor of the Bergen Record told me that when the Ledger used to arrive at the state house in Trenton, that was the paper state officials felt they had to read.

Why do I bring up this point? Because the Ledger's immediate area is Essex County, and it really wasn't covered very well. In the 70s to the 90s, they did little probing in Newark, which is where they were located. Essex County was treated like Union County or Morris County. The news side wasn't that good, although it always was a great paper for sports.

I have to wonder what is going on when they can do better in circulation in a wealthy area like Morris County than the Daily Record and can't make money?

 

the ledger's in serious labor talks with its printer/delivery unions. this is all about that.

in the last 10 years, has the paper gone from printing money to losing money? yes. but it's not hemorrhaging money. there were christmas bonuses, per usual, and staffers are set to receive a lump some bonus equal to about 3 1/2 percent of their salaries this week.

that's a lot of coin for the newhouse clan to spend on its featured newspaper franchise, which is why the staffers i know there aren't panicked. less comfy than a decade ago, but not panicked.

 

Haven't they been doing all sorts of cuts - cost-cutting -- in sports already? Lots of kids replacing the old-timers?

 

That was sort of how I read this as well, shockey. Good to know some of the old guys are still OK there.
But, as you said, they used to print money. Now, not nearly the same.
And given the hit the Times-Picayune has taken in the aftermath of Katrina, things are not quite the same in the Newhouse empire.

 

no doubt about that.

 

yes. through buyouts and such.

 

Seems like the alarming trend among the country's newspapers is spreading -- cut, cut, cut!! No journalists is safe, especially if you're old and long-tenured. Hello, online.

 

hey, let's not get crazy now, estreet.