More layoffs in Riverside, CA

[Moderator1]

The fun continues. Will it never end?
From The Pipeline:

More layoffs in Riverside. Sports staff now down to the high teens. Was over 40 two years ago.

 

[BTExpress]

Over 40? Doing what?

We peaked at about 48 a decade ago when we had, next to Dallas, more space than anyone in the country.

 

[Moderator1]

Doing plenty. Covering LA pro teams, college stuff, lots of high school coverage - and an inside crew to handle all of it.

 

[Drip]

I thought they were in the market of looking for more people. What gives?

 

[JackReacher]

What is Riverside's circ? Damn. More than 40 in sports is a ton, even in the good days.

Edit: Looks like it's about 140K, which means what, about 160, 180K in the good days? Still...40 in sports seems like a little much.

 

[OTD]

What is Riverside's circ? Damn. More than 40 in sports is a ton, even in the good days.

Edit: Looks like it's about 140K, which means what, about 160, 180K in the good days? Still...40 in sports seems like a little much.

Five years ago, Riverside was covering all the LA/OC pro sports teams (with the possible exception of the Clippers) home and away. They also covered UCLA and USC home and away and local preps and colleges. For a paper that size, they did a pretty good job.

 

[JackReacher]

I'm sure they did do a pretty good job with 40 people.

 

[Moderator1]

40 ain't that many for all that coverage. We had 31 at our peak in Richmond and we covered one pro team. The paper covered a lot of ground and did it well. May still do it well, haven't checked in lately. But I know it is not covering all the stuff it used to cover.

With a few editors, the writing staff and a desk large enough to handle all that coverage - I'm surprised 40 actually surprises people.

 

[JackReacher]

Well, I've never worked in a newsroom for a paper with more than 32K circ, so that helps explain my surprise a bit perhaps.

But hey, if you can employ 40 people in a section, more power to ya. And it sounds like they got the most out of their numbers, so that's good.

 

[BTExpress]

With a few editors, the writing staff and a desk large enough to handle all that coverage - I'm surprised 40 actually surprises people.

How much space do/did they have?

"Covering" a bunch of teams is one thing. But is it sporadic coverage? Daily coverage? Daily coverage including feature and notebook?

We "cover" our NFL team today to the tune of 2.5 open pages in the Monday section (in addition to the cover).

A few years ago we devoted 4.5 pages to them.

Space dictates to a large degree how many people you need.

 

[devils_claw]

What is Riverside's circ? Damn. More than 40 in sports is a ton, even in the good days.

Edit: Looks like it's about 140K, which means what, about 160, 180K in the good days? Still...40 in sports seems like a little much.

Even just three years ago, the P-E was at 180/190K.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Space dictates to a large degree how many people you need.

So does how heavily you zone that space. Having 39 columns with six editions can be tougher than 60 columns with one or two editions. Also, look at the geography. Riverside County stretches from the L.A. burbs to the state line, with a gazillion dinky high schools in the boondocks. If I am not mistaken, they delved into San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which are also geographically enormous.

 

[OTD]

Space dictates to a large degree how many people you need.

So does how heavily you zone that space. Having 39 columns with six editions can be tougher than 60 columns with one or two editions. Also, look at the geography. Riverside County stretches from the L.A. burbs to the state line, with a gazillion dinky high schools in the boondocks. If I am not mistaken, they delved into San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which are also geographically enormous.

San Berdoo, yes, to a limited degree; San Diego, no, except for some home Padres coverage. But yes, they formerly had seven or eight zones at one time. I think they're down to two or three now. They've pretty much given up the desert to the Palm Springs paper and they've mostly retreated from San Bernardino County. They were covering the Lakers on the road last year, but we'll see if that continues this year.

 

[Riddick]

Back on topic, do we know who was let go?

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

"Covering" a bunch of teams is one thing. But is it sporadic coverage? Daily coverage? Daily coverage including feature and notebook?

In its "Fastest Growing Newspaper in SoCal" heyday, Riverside covered the Lakers and Dodgers home and away, and had a regular beat writer for the Angels. Not sure if that person traveled.

Their former Lakers guy, Broderick Turner, broke news left and right on the Lakers, and he's at the LA Times now.

They also hit USC and UCLA hard, and obviously their preps as well.

To put this in perspective . . . let's just say Riverside is far from a hop, skip and a jump from the pro and college areas they were covering.

For a paper that size, a staff of 40 including prep geeks, college and pro beat jockeys, and copy editors made perfect sense.

Now, things are much different. They already do all of their pro soccer with an (excellent) freelancer, so they may well spread that to otrher sports.

After all, the LA Daily News has a "Special to the Daily News" guy (who is also quite good) doing Dodgers coverage. Yay for precedent.

 

[Editude]

It looks like one gone from sports this time, off the copy desk. I hear that the newsroom total was to be 16, but I haven't seen that many names as of yet. And yes, the paper's circ reached the upper 100ks in the boom days.

 

[MileHigh]

Back in the day, yeah, the P-E was close to 200K daily, and over 200K Sunday. Covered all the pros home and away, and USC/UCLA as well. Over 40 is about right.

I battled those guys for years. And they also, back in the day, zoned like crazy like we did 10 miles to the nort, including into southern San Bernardino County in the 1990s. Could have been the OC Register of the IE had they done it right after MediaNews took over San Bernardino in 1999, but they didn't.

They've certainly pulled back since then. The list I saw listed a sports copy editor -- nice timing with the NLCS and ALCS starting -- and a friend on Facebook today posted it was their "best" copy editor. Plus some news-side copy editors were let go who helped out on Friday nights for football.

I know lots of people there. The demise of The Sun has broken my heart. This continued demise doesn't make me happy either.

 

[OTD]

Could have been the OC Register of the IE had they done it right after MediaNews took over San Bernardino in 1999, but they didn't.

Well, not sure what they could have done better. They kicked the Sun's ass for years after Singleton took over -- helps when you've got 4x the staff size, of course.

Their forays north and west might have made sense from a business perspective, but not from a readership or journalism perspective. You can't be king of two different markets, and "the IE" is not one single entity -- Riverside and San Bernardino counties just don't have enough in common. How can you effectively cover Palm Springs and Big Bear and Corona all at the same time?

The P-E's jump-the-shark moment, in my mind, was when they had Cal State SB men's basketball completely blown up on the cover for the D-2 Final Four a couple years ago. Barely enough people in San Berdoo care about the Coyotes, let alone in Riverside County, to warrant that type of coverage.

That's one problem I've always had with the P-E. There's an attitude that because it's local, people will care. Their coverage of UC Riverside is way out of proportion to the interest. On the other hand, they've got tons of Cal State Fullerton alums AND current students in their circulation zone, and they barely mention the Titans.

 

[MileHigh]

Could have been the OC Register of the IE had they done it right after MediaNews took over San Bernardino in 1999, but they didn't.

Well, not sure what they could have done better. They kicked the Sun's ass for years after Singleton took over -- helps when you've got 4x the staff size, of course.

Their forays north and west might have made sense from a business perspective, but not from a readership or journalism perspective. You can't be king of two different markets, and "the IE" is not one single entity -- Riverside and San Bernardino counties just don't have enough in common. How can you effectively cover Palm Springs and Big Bear and Corona all at the same time?

The P-E's jump-the-shark moment, in my mind, was when they had Cal State SB men's basketball completely blown up on the cover for the D-2 Final Four a couple years ago. Barely enough people in San Berdoo care about the Coyotes, let alone in Riverside County, to warrant that type of coverage.

From a complete zoning standpoint, they could have owned both markets. They even attempted that, getting rid of "Riverside" from the nameplate and going with "Press-Enterprise." They're attempts to cover San Bernardino County was half-hearted at best. It was "We're not The Sun, subscribe to us." They didn't do enough to supplant a 100-year-plus "institution" in the county when said institution was circling the drain. Hell, down the drain.

And I think it's a definition of the IE. I don't consider the deserts -- and many others don't -- the IE. But they certainly could have gone into the more lucrative Rancho Cucamonga/Upland/Claremont areas more than they did and be the paper from La Verne to Banning to Temecula and all points in between. And with the manpower they had in comparison to 399 North D Street, they could have -- and should have -- dominated and overtaken that market more than they did.

 

[MileHigh]

Could have been the OC Register of the IE had they done it right after MediaNews took over San Bernardino in 1999, but they didn't.

Well, not sure what they could have done better. They kicked the Sun's ass for years after Singleton took over -- helps when you've got 4x the staff size, of course.

Their forays north and west might have made sense from a business perspective, but not from a readership or journalism perspective. You can't be king of two different markets, and "the IE" is not one single entity -- Riverside and San Bernardino counties just don't have enough in common. How can you effectively cover Palm Springs and Big Bear and Corona all at the same time?

The P-E's jump-the-shark moment, in my mind, was when they had Cal State SB men's basketball completely blown up on the cover for the D-2 Final Four a couple years ago. Barely enough people in San Berdoo care about the Coyotes, let alone in Riverside County, to warrant that type of coverage.

That's one problem I've always had with the P-E. There's an attitude that because it's local, people will care. Their coverage of UC Riverside is way out of proportion to the interest. On the other hand, they've got tons of Cal State Fullerton alums AND current students in their circulation zone, and they barely mention the Titans.

And rightly so. Outside of the baseball program, no one cares about Tuffy the Titans. Certainly in the OC, and even moreso in Riverside County.