No Glee This Time

Republic Columnist Laurie Roberts speculated on how other media would react to the demise of the Tribune.

Today, I’m quite sure that local pundits, radio talk show hosts and bloggers alike are simply delighted at the news hat the East Valley Tribune is retreating and, oh by the way, laying off 40 percent of its staff.

I can only speak for myself, and say that while I have certainly expressed glee over the demise of the newspaper industry, I take no pleasure in the sudden jolts that cause 140 people to be laid off.  It's one thing when your job disappears, but for these folks, their entire profession has disappeared.  Let's face it, very few--perhaps none--of them are moving to a different newspaper.

Each journalist's story is unique but they all have a common theme. Former USA Today reporter Jim Hopkins writes the popular "Gannett Blog" and provides a poignant example. I've often linked to Jim's coverage of the Gannett meltdown, but he has a personal story as well. 

Hopkins accepted a Gannett buyout in January of 2008 and appears to have received the standard two weeks pay for every year of service.  That means that his severance checks stop coming this week.  Jim took advantage of the brief period of financial freedom to start Gannett Blog.  Four months ago, he and his partner "Sparky" moved to the resort island of Ibiza Spain for an extended vacation.  While he and Sparky have been enjoying the region's charms, Gannett blog's traffic climbed to over 200,000 page views a month. 

Naturally, Hopkins' next move was to try to make a living off the site, so he asked readers how much they would pay in order to subscribe.  The results totaled less than $1,000 a month.  Jim and Sparky are moving back to San Francisco.  Here is his most recent post. 

Leaving Ibiza, I'm now heading into a cloudy future, at a time of great economic uncertainty. I will be officially unemployed in less than two weeks, when I get my final USA Today severance check. I'm 51. And I don't know what I'm doing next.

I think that statement sums up the fears of a lot of journalists. 

(Of course, one has to question the wisdom of how Jim spent his transition time.  As a CPA, I would have to say that if you accept a buy out, you probably shouldn't spend the 40 weeks blogging from a Mediterranean resort.)

Now the Tribune has announced a major restructuring and a lot of people are in the same boat as Jim Hopkins.

The sad part is that I don’t see how the Tribune's changes make the paper any more viable.  I don't have any special information about the Tribune's cost structure, so it's quite possible that I'm missing something.  However it's clear that management hoped to reduce costs in order to bring them in line with revenue.  That's fine, but it's equally clear that those cost reductions will also reduce revenue. 

For example, advertisers don’t pay as much for free papers. A paper that is simply thrown onto a drive way is much more likely to be walked directly to the recycle bin.   Circulation will obviously drop since the Tribune is no longer serving Scottsdale or Tempe.  And advertisers who are based in Scottsdale or Tempe will be much less likely to place an ad in the paper.  So revenue is going to plummet. 

The real question is whether the top brass have managed to reduce costs more than they have reduced revenue.  They cut 40% of the staff, but there are a lot of costs other than salaries--paper, printing, fuel and rent will be somewhat reduced by the closing of the Scottsdale office and consolidating the distribution area, but a lot of those costs are fixed and it's unlikely that the total cost reduction will exceed 30%. 

Conversely, I don't doubt that the revenue reduction could exceed 40%.  After all, the paper is now entirely free.  Surely they had some subscription revenue.  The Tribune's viability will depend on the discount that advertisers demand for the conversion to a free, sub-regional, four-day paper.

My guess is that the discount will be substantial, and that management has only delayed the inevitable.  In fact, they may have hastend it. 

But I take no glee in that either. 

 

Comments

[ron]

The jobs which are available will not pay as well as the ones they will be leaving.

There has been little comment about the closing this weekend of the Rudolph-Lou Grubb-Power Chevrolet dealership at 27th Ave and Camelback. The dealership will be replaced by Lowe's. Here's betting that the average weekly salary at Lowe's will be quite a bit less than was paid by the dealership. The neighborhood is grateful that the site will not be empty too long; at the same time, it grieves the income base lost to the community.

[jamcool]

Power has been planning to close the Camelback store and consolidate out in Peoria for several years. The neighborhood has changed too much.

[The Klute]

A thought: Doesn't this strengthen the Republic? They'll soon be the only game in town.

[Name:]

Forget the shortened vacation to Spain, not being able to afford the retirement move to San Francisco is just a tragedy!

[I Escaped]

I'm a buyout babe, too. Jim from Gannett Blog must have taken offense to my comment when he asked how many people would be willing to pay to read it and how much. I answered, "Not a dime. You should have managed your money better." Some douchebag poster called me a douchebag for saying so, but tough. Jim basked away Ibiza the last four months while I sent out resumes and clipped coupons, trying to figure out how my six months severance would last should it take longer than that to find a job. If he's crying poor now, he should go hock his tan because that's about all he worked on this summer.

For the East Valley Tribune, this is heartbreaking. I love the industry but it's dying. My decision to leave newspapers felt like I was breaking up with a cad of a boyfriend: Ditch the guy before he ditches you.

I hope my comrades at the EVT land on their feet. And for the rest of you still in the business, it's time to check your parachute.

[ron]

Power already has a Peoria shop - which means that no one was transferred to that business. All employees were let go - and told 'good luck'.

[Bryan Schmidt]

Good riddance, I'm glad these people are losing their jobs.

The main-stream media has done its best to undermine the U.S. both around the world, and here at home. They have decided it's their duty to change public opinion rather than actually reporting the news. People have voted with dollars, and they have rejected the left-wing, activist journalism that is disguised as main-stream, non-partisan news.

I'll have no trouble sleeping at night knowing these people are going to have trouble making ends meet and have to find new careers.

[Mesa Republican George]

And we Republicans wonder why some people think we are hypocrits for including in our party both the religious right (didn't Jesus say to love your enemy) and the "I hate everyone who dosn't agree with me and want to throw them into hell" crowd that Mr. Schmidt represents so well.

[Marizco]

Guys like Schmidt don't understand that along with those "activist-journalism" features he despises, he's also losing watchdog journalists who work to keep the people in charge honest. He's losing breaking news, unless he thinks the shaky-hand-cam videos of citizen journalism are fulfilling his pressing need for news from Iraq (assuming he's interested). He's losing the platform for eloquent thinkers like George Will; and he's losing the raw information base that bloggers expound from.

[BobH]

"A thought: Doesn't this strengthen the Republic? They'll soon be the only game in town."

To follow the "game" analogy: It doesn't help (much) to be the only game, if it's a game nobody's interested in anymore.

In any case, the Rep may be helped short-term by the demise of the Trib, but they have their own parental problems, since Gannett was put on credit watch by S&P today.

http://www.forbes.com/media/2008/10/01/newspapers-media-debt-biz-media-cx_jea_tvr_1002papers.html?partner=media_newsletter

[Ty]

Schmidt, dude, all those people laid off were not activist journalists. Some of them were ad sales reps. Some were pressmen. Some were delivery drivers. Hopefully you get the point. They all have families and regardless of what is printed in the newspaper, they no longer have jobs.

I find it sad that all journalists are thrown under the "liberal press" blanket. Some of us are actually conservatives! Some of check our bias at the door of the newsroom. And as a longtime reporter, I know that there is a general liberal group-think involved in newsrooms, but there are many of us who have fought it -- and lost our jobs for it.

But honestly, the destruction (as some of you call it) or the newspaper industry is all about the business. Greg has pointed out for years that the newspaper business model is out of date and no longer sustainable. While he has pointed out bias in the media, he has always said that newspapers are dying because they cannot affix their current, monolithic, business model in the age of the Internet.

Lastly, Schmidt, to see your glee in these job loses is very sad. They are people, many of whom will be headed to the Department of Economic Security for help because there are no newspaper jobs out there anymore.

[Name]

I agree with Ty. During my years as a journalist, including at the Tribune, everyone would just assume I was liberal and talk to me as such, when I wasn't liberal at all. But I kept my opinions to myself as is the responsible thing for journalists to do!

[Jackie_Hewlett]

I'm with Schmidt on this one, I'm glad tough times are here for the MSM. The only way the media will reform itself is if it's on the verge of extinction.

I know people that work on the business side of Gannett, and one of the biggest reasons people cancel they're subscriptions is because the subscribers feel the paper has a left-wing bias. Countless subscribers call into their customer service division and cancel their long-standing subscriptions in outrage.

If Gannett wants to reach out to more customers and stay in business, they're going to have to force their newspapers to be more balanced in their coverage, otherwise it's lights out. They seem to have no interest in reforming, so good riddance, I hope they all go under.

[Airwolf]

Those of you dancing (prematurely) on the Trib's grave are stupidly celebrating the diminishing of a LIBERTARIAN publication - not liberal. There's a difference. You're too busy parroting the ignorant "mainstream media" war cry of the right-wing talk show hosts to understand that.

The Trib's editorial philosophy is that government should provide for the people's defense, then get out of the way. The investigative reports on Joe Arpaio that have so enraged the elderly racists of the Valley (sorry, truth hurts) are aimed at his and his cronies' flagrant abuses of power - not the advancement of any one race.

The Trib is undergoing turmoil at the moment but will emerge as something other than a daily newspaper - finally showing some innovation. And its an experiment that will, thank God, easily outlive Ma and Pa Lynch. It is to THEM that *I* bid good riddance!

[jdleslie1]

There's a difference between hoping economic hard times make the MSM reform into something more balanced (though I think most people's definitions of balanced is "believing as I do") and casting your lot with a guy like Schmidt, who openly wishes for people to have trouble making ends meet.

[BobH]

Freedom Communications' flagship, the Orange County Register, is apparently up for sale, and Freedom is in violation of the terms of its loans:

http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2008/09/15/possible-bid-for-the-oc-register-reported/2698
http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2008/10/06/oc-register-parent-seeks-to-modify-loan-terms/3577

[Timothy S. Carlson]

While I do feel some glee that the newspapers are in their downturn (being 'liberal' as they are, how do they justify the amount of wood pulp consumed by their industry?), I also feel for Jim Hopkins' situation.

I'm 49 and was laid off 14 months ago - and I still haven't been able to get work in my profession. Either the market is saturated with candidates, or the jobs that require my skill set have been moved to China or India where they pay 1/6 of what I was receiving.

It's a long time before 65 and Social Security checks - but will the SS system still be viable by that time? And will they push the eligibility age higher in 15 years?

I guess we can look forward to a 'baby-boom' of blogs, with all these freelance journalists afoot...

[John]

You say:
"while I have certainly expressed glee over the demise of the newspaper industry, I take no pleasure in the sudden jolts that cause 140 people to be laid off."
Huh? It appears you must have been under the impression that reporters and pressmen and editors and delivery people were going to be fine. That they would share your glee about the demise of the industry.
I'm guessing they are not. Their kids still need braces. They still have a mortgage to pay.
These are real people. And you are gleeful.
You, sir, are an idiot.