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Tampa drops a really big shoe...

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by steveu, Apr 14, 2008.

  1. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    absolutely no sign of this coming down the pike in the past year?
     
  2. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    And if you haven't read the Tampa Biz Journal story ...

    When MG says "half," they mean 613 people from the print at TV operations, combined.

    Six. Hundred. And. Thirteen.

    Damn.
     
  3. jps

    jps Active Member

    Half is astounding.

    And I actually feel a little sick to my stomach to think it let alone write it, but that just made the job hunting for everyone out there that much more difficult. How soon do we all need to figure out just what else we're actually good at/want to do? Tomorrow, maybe?
     
  4. jps

    jps Active Member

    What do you think they want to dump if they offer half? My guess would be about a third?
     
  5. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Anyone who didn't see it coming wasn't paying attention. You can go into freefall as they have there and not expect something.
    My surprise is it took until now.

    Other MG properties were affected by Tampa's troubles. I was told at least once, "Tampa had a bad month. Trim some of your budget."

    Will they reduce staffs elsewhere because of this? I hope not but I would not be shocked.
     
  6. Jones

    Jones Active Member

    This will betray my lack of business acumen, but I think this has to be a great time to buy a newspaper -- undervalued properties, tons of talent on the market (unfortunately -- and I feel for these folks; half is insane), and if you actually put out a good product, you could become a journalistic leader in weeks or months, given how shit most newspapers have become. I swear to God, someone is going to come along and make a mint by putting out a great, startup newspaper.

    That might be the morphine talking, but I really believe it.
     
  7. andyouare?

    andyouare? Guest

    From the story:

    Media General netted $10.7 million, or 47 cents a share, in 2007 compared to a gain of $79 million, or $3.35 a share, earned the year before. Revenue also was down from $964.9 million in 2006 to $932.2 million in 2007.
     
  8. accguy

    accguy Member

    Maybe I don't get the panic on this. The story doesn't say exactly how many people they want to take the buyout.

    We had buyouts at our place not that long ago and everyone was eligible.

    Just because half the staff is eligible doesn't mean they want to whack half the staff. To me it's two different things. In some ways, offering buyouts to half or everyone is good. If they only offer it to 50 or over or whatever, there's a smaller pool of people to get the reduction of staff from.

    I'm not saying the situation is good, but that they offered a buyout to half the people to me doesn't mean anything without knowing how many jobs they want to eliminate.
     
  9. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    That's what I would think.
     
  10. derwood

    derwood Active Member

    Was this forced by Harbinger (hedge fund)?
     
  11. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    that's usually the way it works. they started with the mother ship; i doubt anyone else is above the fallout.
     
  12. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    It will still clear a 15 percent profit.

    Great buy compared with many businesses... still.
     
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