Bay Area bloodbath

[Joe Williams]

Anyone have any idea how many folks they want gone? And does this include San Jose? (Romenesko summary doesn't specifically say.)

The memo from John Armstrong says that everyone but operating directors and himself will be receive buyout info, with corporate then deciding who actually gets approved to go. It ominously adds that, if it doesn't get enough volunteers, people will be laid off and the layoffs will get only half the severance pay that the buyout applicants receive.

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13148

"We must reduce our operating costs, and we must do so quickly," says a buyout memo to employees at the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and other Bay Area News Group papers. "In the past few months, we've relied on attrition to bring down the number of employees, but that no longer is adequate. ...We are not announcing the number of job eliminations. ...But I will say this: The number of jobs that will be eliminated will be significant."

 

[buckweaver]

No. Surprise. At. All.

:'( :'( :'(

 

[ServeItUp]

**** you, Singleton. **** you with an unlubricated broom handle.

 

[Left_Coast]

Good ol' Lean Dean at it again. Wrecked Southern California papers. Wrecking -- as predicted -- Northern California papers. Has his eyes set on the Orange County Register with this "consolidation" bull****.

 

[hockeybeat]

Between what's about to happen to the Singleton papers and what's happened to the Examiner, is the Bay Area a dying market?

 

[Left_Coast]

Um, I'd venture to say there are many dying markets.

 

[Tom Petty]

sad thing is, singleton only is one of many ****ed up owners today.

my heart goes out to those who no longer will be employed for simply doing their jobs.

 

[hockeybeat]

Um, I'd venture to say there are many dying markets.

I understand that there are many dying markets. I'm asking if the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose area has become one of those markets.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Note to self:

Invent time machine, go back in time, and convince Dean Singleton to funnel his money into the tobacco industry or something similar instead of newspapers.

 

[Left_Coast]

Um, I'd venture to say there are many dying markets.

I understand that there are many dying markets. I'm asking if the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose area has become one of those markets.

With Lean running things into the ground there -- and in less than two years -- I'd say yes.

 

[Tom Petty]

Um, I'd venture to say there are many dying markets.

I understand that there are many dying markets. I'm asking if the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose area has become one of those markets.

With Lean running things into the ground there -- and in less than two years -- I'd say yes.

and, btw, **** DS for what he's done to some pretty damn good papers.

 

[slappy4428]

Between what's about to happen to the Singleton papers and what's happened to the Examiner, is the Bay Area a dying market?

Is it still a vital market? Probably so.
Is it dying because of the owner as opposed to the market itself? Probably more so.

 

[hockeybeat]

Between what's about to happen to the Singleton papers and what's happened to the Examiner, is the Bay Area a dying market?

Is it still a vital market? Probably so.
Is it dying because of the owner as opposed to the market itself? Probably more so.

Slap, I agree with you that it is probably a vital market. In fact, I think it's a market that just begging for someone with deep pockets--Rupert Murdoch, perhaps?--to come in, buy a paper and compete with the Chronicle and Lean Dean.

 

[DanOregon]

Between the cost of living in the Bay Area, the news consuming audience, and the way BANG has gone poof, perhaps Singleton bit off more than he could swallow with his purchases.
And if the current rate of attrition followed by declining revenues continues, Singleton could be bottoming out. I wonder if that guy "reimagining" the Merc will still be there once the buyouts are done. Sounds like Singleton is doing it himself. Do any papers still have "hiring" managers?

I think the Bay Area still is a viable market, but the day of the general interest newspaper might be dying.

A sports daily would work there.
A hard core politics and news daily for the NPR crowd.
A daily aimed at suburban families with a lot of features on the community and "living" news.
And I'm sure they already have a thriving Spanish-language daily.

The key isn't the quality of the newspaper, it is how effective it is at reaching a specific demographic or audience. Advertisers don't want to pay for a market segment they aren't after anyway.

 

[Screwball]

Between what's about to happen to the Singleton papers and what's happened to the Examiner, is the Bay Area a dying market?

Vibrant market in general, dying for newspapers. Singleton pretty much has 'em all except for the Chronicle ... whose owners inflicted their own financial damages beyond those of the industry in general by absorbing the Examiner's staff almost in whole and by paying $66 million to the Examiner's new owners.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

**** you, Singleton. **** you with an unlubricated broom handle.

I'll echo this. Gladly. Loudly.

 

[Moderator1]

The Pipeline sends along an e-mail from someone at the Mercury News:

The memo posted on Poynter refers to Oakland Tribune, CC Times and other papers in the Bay Area Newspaper Group. It doesn't refer to the Mercury News in one conspicuous way.

Theirs: "Everyone except Operating Directors and me will get the opportunity to apply for a buy-out. Each of you will have the opportunity to apply." The memo goes on to say the buyout package is twice as much as the involuntary layoff package; I don't know what that entails precisely.

At our place, non-Guild employees are eligible for two weeks' pay per year of service up to 26 weeks. As for the Guild ...

"Q: Will Guild-represented employees be offered a buyout? A: No. We will not be offering extra-contractual benefits to Guild-represented employees. Guild-represented employees who are subject to layoff will receive their severance benefit under Article XV of the collective bargaining agreement, as outlined in the next question."

That severance benefit is your lump-sum pension, which you receive when you leave the company for any reason and cannot access without penalty until retirement. Dean couldn't refuse that if he tried (and I'm sure he has). The actual in-your-pocket severance package is two weeks of pay. They'll work you up until March 5, they'll call you March 6 or 7 and tell you you're laid off. Your two-week severance starts at that moment.

It was hateful and ridiculous enough when I thought it was limited to the management/non-management divide at the Mercury News. Now I see that companywide, every worker bee who isn't in a Guild -- the other shops aren't unionized -- gets a chance for some small silver lining.

I don't know if union employees robbed his mother's purse on the picket line or what, but my God does that guy harbor an irrational hatred for organized labor.

P.S. The general feeling in the foxhole is that after the buyouts are decided, Deano will lay off 49 Guild employees, because to cut 50 would require two months' notice under the WARN act.

 

[Fran Curci]

the merc is definitely part of this, just to clarify.

from its Web site:

the Mercury News today announced an unspecified number of staff reductions through a combination of buyouts and layoffs.

Publisher Mac Tully cited a serious drop in advertising revenue as the reason for the cost reduction, which will be completed in early March. The reductions will be the third round of staff cuts since September 2006.

The Mercury News is owned by Denver-based MediaNews, which also owns the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times. Those newspapers, along with roughly 14 other daily and weekly papers in the company's Bay Area News Group, announced today that they would offer buyouts to roughly 1,100 employees. The company didn't specify how many positions would be eliminated.

 

[Left_Coast]

Not a surprise. He loathes unions. See Long Beach and what happened there. And, well, everywhere else.

 

[Left_Coast]

I get the feeling we'll be hearing more of this soon from all Lean Dean operations, not just BANG and, on the other thread, LANG.