Indy Star buyouts

[Upstatesfinest]

The Indianapolis Star said Friday it will eliminate about 20 positions throughout its entire operation via voluntary buyouts. The newspaper also will be adding about 45 positions in a new regional photo-toning center in Indianapolis that will prepare electronic images for print production at multiple Gannett Co. locations. The buyouts and new hires should be complete by mid-August, said Ali Zoibi, senior vice president and general manager of The Star.

Fortunately, it's 20 positions across the whole building, so hopefully just 3-4 per dept. (newsroom, advertising, circulation, etc.)

Anyone know how many were in sports?

 

[playthrough]

One of my buddies in advertising production took a buyout, after 30-plus years he deserved a break.

Don't know about sports.

 

[playthrough]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

 

[vonnegutnaked2]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

 

[playthrough]

Wow. Didn't know they were actually pulling the trigger on that. Pointer's a solid enough guy to take the high road but that truly sucks.

 

[Bob Cook]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one. Not sending Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen is bad enough, but to drop a major beat near and dear to readers' hearts -- that just blows my mind, as one who grew up reading the Star, and one who still knows some people there. Sheesh, Purdue is only an hour up the road! It's not like it's a plane ride away.

 

[Write-brained]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one. Not sending Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen is bad enough, but to drop a major beat near and dear to readers' hearts -- that just blows my mind, as one who grew up reading the Star, and one who still knows some people there. Sheesh, Purdue is only an hour up the road! It's not like it's a plane ride away.

**** Gannett. They killed the Star a couple of years ago. Now they're just selling the parts.

 

[DanOregon]

I gather that Info Center thing they're doing is really turning the company around.

 

[Bubbler]

I think some of these decisions have little to do with Gannett and a lot to do with the philosophy of their sports section.

When you compare the space the Star has devoted within their section to collegiate coverage in comparison to comparable dailies in areas of major college interest like Kansas City and Cincinnati, to a name a few, there is no comparison.

For whatever reason, the Star has not prioritized collegiate coverage, which strikes me as extraordinarily odd given the huge interest in Indiana in its college sports, especially the Big Ten.

 

[Editude]

No excuse, but it would seem college coverage is made more difficult when no major colleges are in your city but are elsewhere in the state, and there are two pro teams in town. I guess Cleveland is in the same situation.

 

[jambalaya]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

That's a shame. I met Mike for the first time last season and he kind of hinted this outcome was a possibility.

Seriously, why doesn't Gannett just replace all of its papers with USA Today. Just streamline it all down to one paper. I mean, isn't that what they'd want in the long run anyway?

 

[Bubbler]

No excuse, but it would seem college coverage is made more difficult when no major colleges are in your city but are elsewhere in the state, and there are two pro teams in town. I guess Cleveland is in the same situation.

You're right ... no excuse. Purdue is just over an hour up I-65. IU is about the same distance down Ind. 37. It just isn't that far for the state's largest paper to manage.

I'm not going to get into it beyond this, but when you look the resources similarly sized papers like K.C. throw at Missouri -- which is much further away from K.C. then either Indiana or Purdue are from Indy -- then factor in Kansas (admittedly closer to K.C.) and Kansas State (also further afield than IU/Purdue from Indy) and when you figure that K.C. has an equal amount of pro sports teams and an equal amount of interest in college sports, it makes you wonder.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one.

It's probably not as big a deal as you might think. A couple years ago, the Courier-Journal did away with its IU beat and started carrying Terry Hutchens articles. The C-J still sends a columnist up to Bloomington from time to time. I'd assume the Indy Star would do the same in West Lafayette.

 

[Bubbler]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one.

It's probably not as big a deal as you might think. A couple years ago, the Courier-Journal did away with its IU beat and started carrying Terry Hutchens articles. The C-J still sends a columnist up to Bloomington from time to time. I'd assume the Indy Star would do the same in West Lafayette.

For the paper ... I might be able to see your point, though I think the more beat writers there are the better it is for fans (more options), media, and whether they like it or not, the institutions (in the media's watchdog role. Fewer media, fewer competition, fewer watchdogs).

But on another point, since beat responsibilities are branching out into blogs, podcasts, streaming video responsibilities, etc., it strikes me as incredibly short-sighted for papers to start limiting their own access to beats which are important to their readers.

 

[playthrough]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one.

It's probably not as big a deal as you might think. A couple years ago, the Courier-Journal did away with its IU beat and started carrying Terry Hutchens articles. The C-J still sends a columnist up to Bloomington from time to time. I'd assume the Indy Star would do the same in West Lafayette.

Sure, Bob Kravitz will go to West Lafayette a few times, the outrage will die down after a while and the Star won't lose 10,000 subscriptions over it. But at the end of the day it's just another way a newspaper tells its community it can't/won't do what needs to be done to put out a comprehensive news report in its own backyard with its own people. A sad refrain that appears to have no end.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one.

It's probably not as big a deal as you might think. A couple years ago, the Courier-Journal did away with its IU beat and started carrying Terry Hutchens articles. The C-J still sends a columnist up to Bloomington from time to time. I'd assume the Indy Star would do the same in West Lafayette.

For the paper ... I might be able to see your point, though I think the more beat writers there are the better it is for fans (more options), media, and whether they like it or not, the institutions (in the media's watchdog role. Fewer media, fewer competition, fewer watchdogs).

But on another point, since beat responsibilities are branching out into blogs, podcasts, streaming video responsibilities, etc., it strikes me as incredibly short-sighted for papers to start limiting their own access to beats which are important to their readers.

I agree wholeheartedly with you Bubs. More reporters lends itself, in my opinion, to better reporting. Plus, what's important to Indy Star readers for IU may not be the same as C-J readers.

But if any company, not just Gannett, owns papers in adjacent markets, then it only makes good business sense for them to share resources. Good journalism isn't always good business. Unfortunately, good business nowadays trumps good journalism.

 

[Twoback]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one. Not sending Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen is bad enough, but to drop a major beat near and dear to readers' hearts -- that just blows my mind, as one who grew up reading the Star, and one who still knows some people there. Sheesh, Purdue is only an hour up the road! It's not like it's a plane ride away.

That's a bit overreactive.
Is it nice for Indy to have a beat person for Purdue? Yes.
But doesn't it make sense for Indy to use a Purdue-based beat writer who lives and works in W. Lafayette and is employed by the very same company that publishes the Star?
If it were my beat, I'd be disappointed, of course. If I were a Star subscriber, I would not expect the product to be greatly diminished.

 

[HackyMcHack]

The Indy Star sports section died when they ran off Robin Miller and Bill Benner.

These days, they're just breaking up the skeleton.

 

[Bob Cook]

Obviously not as heavy a topic as buyouts and job losses, but allegedly this weekend the Star is not sending motorsports beat guy Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen for the IndyCar race. It's believed to be the first IRL race held in the U.S. which the Star has not staffed. It's the little things like that...

And along those same lines, the Star will now no longer have a Purdue beat writer.

Michael Pointer will return to the prep beat, which he touched on in a recent blog entry.

Instead, the Star will use copy from the Gannett paper in West Lafayette.

No Purdue writer at the Star? That's like no Michigan State writer at the Freep. The Purdue alums are going to be dropping subscriptions in a hurry over this one. Not sending Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen is bad enough, but to drop a major beat near and dear to readers' hearts -- that just blows my mind, as one who grew up reading the Star, and one who still knows some people there. Sheesh, Purdue is only an hour up the road! It's not like it's a plane ride away.

That's a bit overreactive.
Is it nice for Indy to have a beat person for Purdue? Yes.
But doesn't it make sense for Indy to use a Purdue-based beat writer who lives and works in W. Lafayette and is employed by the very same company that publishes the Star?
If it were my beat, I'd be disappointed, of course. If I were a Star subscriber, I would not expect the product to be greatly diminished.

It would make good business sense if, say, all the Gannett papers using coverage from the West Lafayette person pitched in to PAY for the beat writer. That way, the papers could also have control over stories, travel, whatever. But Indiana's largest paper now is beholden to the coverage and budget decisions of a paper with a much smaller circulation.

And again, the decision tells the many Purdue grads in the Indianapolis area that their school doesn't matter as much as IU, no matter how you justify the business decision. True, IU has many more grads living locally, but as you all know, for better or worse alum readers closely follow the coverage in the local paper. For example, IU supporters always referred to Bill Benner as "Boilermaker Bill."

Not to say a paper needs to appease a fan base. But while my old hometown's pro sports presence has grown substantially since my growing-up days, Indianapolis is still at heart a college sports town. Just in case the big bucks to lure the NCAA headquarters and all the NCAA championships held there didn't give you the hint.

The decision not to send Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen is more defensible because of the limited fan interest in the IRL, even in Indianapolis. But the decision to drop a Purdue is a seismic shift in coverage, and tells Boiler fans they may as well go to Rivals or something to get news on their schools' teams.

 

[Scoop returns]

HackyMcHack,

Are you kidding? That section improved greatly once it rid itself of Robin Miller. This guy was the biggest unethical asshole our business has ever seen. It was because of the good old boys' network that he got his job and maintained it all of those years. Robin had and likely still has a huge gambling problem and routinely bet on the events he covered (primarily auto racing, of course). Benner was a much greater loss.