McClatchy layoffs?

[Fredrick]

McClatchey to me, from reading this board, seems like it is rivaling Gannett for worst chain. And it certainly appears to be one that has done the most to decimate the staffs of big city papers along with Gannett of course. a.) is this observation correct? b.) why the hell is McClatchey in business? Seems to me they are losing buckets of money and need to sell the whole damn chain before all the big city papers they own or large properties employ about 5 people in editorial total. WTF with this chain? Explain?

 

[LanceyHoward]

McClatchey to me, from reading this board, seems like it is rivaling Gannett for worst chain. And it certainly appears to be one that has done the most to decimate the staffs of big city papers along with Gannett of course. a.) is this observation correct? b.) why the hell is McClatchey in business? Seems to me they are losing buckets of money and need to sell the whole damn chain before all the big city papers they own or large properties employ about 5 people in editorial total. WTF with this chain? Explain?

I have posted this before but in response to your question McClatchy is underwater. Because of their bank debt and the money they owe pension funds no one will buy them. Newspapers currently sell for four times cash flow. In calendar year 2016 McClatchy generated about 190 billion in cash flow. So the companies papers are worth under one billion dollars. Total long term debt is above 1.5 billion.

Revenue declined eight percent in Q1 2017 so this year will be worse. The company scratches up enough cash to pay the banks. As revenues decline the company cuts more to generate enough cash to pay the banks.

 

[Bronco77]

McClatchey to me, from reading this board, seems like it is rivaling Gannett for worst chain.

Do any good chains/companies exist anymore, or is it just a matter of a few of them being the best of a bad lot?

I'd have given my company a solid B until early last year. Because of its actions since then, I'd drop it to a C-minus now -- borderline bad, but still far ahead of Gannett and GateHouse. Unfortunately, I could see either one of those hyper-acquisitive companies swallowing up our shop one of these days.

 

[MileHigh]

They did. Jeff Shain. That's an area with pretty good preps and a heck of a golf scene (RBC Heritage is there). And they have no one on staff in the sports department right now.

Jesus Christ. Worked with Jeff at 1HP and played more than a few rounds with him in South Florida. He got lopped off by McClatchy down there and now this. Excellent writer, great colleague.

 

[HanSenSE]

Seeing some Twitter mentions of layoffs in Sacramento. Don't know much more than that, but will update only when I get some definitive news.

 

[Fredrick]

I have posted this before but in response to your question McClatchy is underwater. Because of their bank debt and the money they owe pension funds no one will buy them. Newspapers currently sell for four times cash flow. In calendar year 2016 McClatchy generated about 190 billion in cash flow. So the companies papers are worth under one billion dollars. Total long term debt is above 1.5 billion.

Revenue declined eight percent in Q1 2017 so this year will be worse. The company scratches up enough cash to pay the banks. As revenues decline the company cuts more to generate enough cash to pay the banks.

What will McClatchy do? You can lay off all the people you want, but they are close to having not enuf people to have a product at all? Will they be the first to go all online to save $$ that way? Firing all the designers, copy editors in that scenario?

 

[Fredrick]

Do any good chains/companies exist anymore, or is it just a matter of a few of them being the best of a bad lot?

I'd have given my company a solid B until early last year. Because of its actions since then, I'd drop it to a C-minus now -- borderline bad, but still far ahead of Gannett and GateHouse. Unfortunately, I could see either one of those hyper-acquisitive companies swallowing up our shop one of these days.

Tell us the horror stories of what your company has done to drop to a C-; Thanks.

 

[Bronco77]

Tell us the horror stories of what your company has done to drop to a C-; Thanks.

Will reply by PM.

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

What will McClatchy do? You can lay off all the people you want, but they are close to having not enuf people to have a product at all? Will they be the first to go all online to save $$ that way? Firing all the designers, copy editors in that scenario?

Not the way they're doing it ... they got rid of all the online staff at Charlotte, save for one person who works evenings/early morning ... all that work has been shifted to the designers/copy editors now ...

 

[Fran Curci]

Not much interest in golf in Hilton Head, right?

 

[Fredrick]

Not the way they're doing it ... they got rid of all the online staff at Charlotte, save for one person who works evenings/early morning ... all that work has been shifted to the designers/copy editors now ...

Geezus. What is that company's vision? Looking at their websites compared to their dying print editions you get the feeling they are one of the chains most interested in dumping the print product and going all online. Then they do that in Charlotte? Now don't get me wrong. That's a Gannett-like move, to dump the online work on the print people who have to produce the daily newsprint product anyway. To simply **** on them so to speak. That's the logical move if you want to hack bodies: stack piles of extra work on the folks who have to lay out the actual newspaper. But this is NOT what you do if you are trying to build a new online powerhouse company.

 

[BTExpress]

Not the way they're doing it ... they got rid of all the online staff at Charlotte, save for one person who works evenings/early morning ... all that work has been shifted to the designers/copy editors now ...

That's a Gannett-like move, to dump the online work on the print people who have to produce the daily newsprint product anyway.

That is not what's happening.

All online work is basically done by the assigning editors (1A editor, sports editor, etc.). The "print people" are ONLY responsible for rewriting the online heads as necessary and making the stories and captions fit the print specs (they are told NOT to do a hard edit, just to read enough to make the print head work and trim the story at an acceptable place).

IF the print people spot an egregious error that needs to be fixed online, they send an alert e-mail out, and the story is fixed and reposted by others.

Print people are working for 11 newspapers. Zero online work is demanded of them.

 

[LanceyHoward]

What will McClatchy do? You can lay off all the people you want, but they are close to having not enuf people to have a product at all? Will they be the first to go all online to save $$ that way? Firing all the designers, copy editors in that scenario?

I think McClatchy will continue to cut and cut and hope at some point revenues stabilize. The McClatchy family has controlled the company for 150+ years. While the value of the company has declined from 748 to 9 in 13 years I think the family still has emotional ties and hopes for a turnaround.

 

[ncdeen]

Not much interest in golf in Hilton Head, right?

Someone who works at McClatchy told me their method of how they decided who gets laid off: web hits. Didn't matter who you were or how long you'd been there, if you weren't getting a certain amount of clicks, you got axed. Makes since in Shain's case. He never stood a chance. His audience is made up of a lot of retirees, the generation of folks who still prefer to read a printed paper and don't use a computer. Now those same people don't have a golf writer and hence won't want to buy the paper anymore. Wonderful business model, isn't it?

 

[Fredrick]

Someone who works at McClatchy told me their method of how they decided who gets laid off: web hits. Didn't matter who you were or how long you'd been there, if you weren't getting a certain amount of clicks, you got axed. Makes since in Shain's case. He never stood a chance. His audience is made up of a lot of retirees, the generation of folks who still prefer to read a printed paper and don't use a computer. Now those same people don't have a golf writer and hence won't want to buy the paper anymore. Wonderful business model, isn't it?

Web hits. I'm still a little skeptical that web hits are going to lead to enough ads to justify a newspaper''s existence in the future. I guess it's all up to advertisers. Do they give a darn about how many clicks a newspaper article gets?

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

That is not what's happening.

All online work is basically done by the assigning editors (1A editor, sports editor, etc.). The "print people" are ONLY responsible for rewriting the online heads as necessary and making the stories and captions fit the print specs (they are told NOT to do a hard edit, just to read enough to make the print head work and trim the story at an acceptable place).

IF the print people spot an egregious error that needs to be fixed online, they send an alert e-mail out, and the story is fixed and reposted by others.

Print people are working for 11 newspapers. Zero online work is demanded of them.

And the lack of an online-only staff is showing on the webpages ... seeing a LOT more AP stuff on the main sports page, and even AP copy that has nothing to do with sports ... that's stuff that didn't happen before the layoffs ...

 

[BTExpress]

seeing a LOT more AP stuff on the main sports page,

Heh, that's probably because of fewer reporters.

Charlotte hasn't had a NASCAR reporter since theirs took a buyout in March. They've been using AP, and the SE wrote the lead from the Coca-Cola 600 (which didn't even make the print edition).

 

[Mike_Persinger]

If you find an AP story high in our main sports feed it's because it's a big deal and we put it there. Sometimes they get into the bottom of the feed, but that's more about a slow time of the year.

There's a method to the madness in McClatchy, but if you're wedded to print you won't want to hear it.

 

[HanSenSE]

Looks like there was a layoff today in sports at the Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star. Down to one person there, if so. Can't confirm since the farewell story has been taken off the website.

This is my once-upon-a-time stop. Cover about 10 high schools, a JC and an NAIA school in UC Merced. Lot of the administrata comes from Modesto.

 

[HanSenSE]

Confirmed via Facebook post from readers. Sean Lynch off the payroll in Merced. Shawn Jansen left to soldier on.