AJC circ drops 24.7 percent MORE, quality of sports section drops 2,470 percent

Re: AJC circ drops 24.7 percent MORE, quality of sports section drops 2,470 perc


It wasn't an internet crisis. It was a debt crisis combined with a recession.

The chains that screwed up by leveraging themselves to the hilt (fuck you with a rusty knife, Sam Zell) did not have time to keep their print brands intact because creditors were banging down their doors and demanding a minimum amount of operating cash flow. Slashing expenses was the only way to keep the wolves at bay in the short term (or until bankruptcy could be filed).

We we were 5 years into the internet age when Tribune stock split and rose 38 percent.

We were 14 years into the internet age when my paper posted a $173 million profit.

The salad days are over because of the internet. The industry is ruined because of greed and debt.

 

You make a good point BT, but I'll ask this: What conditions changed that made the debt more difficult to pay back? Craigslist and its impact on classifieds revenues? Changes in technology that have made a free version of written media easier to access online (smart phones, wireless access for laptops, etc.)? The internet was here 10 years ago, but each technological advance related to the internet has sort of chipped away at the profitability of the old model of media (and Craigslist isn't even a technological advance). When a lot of these newspaper debts were taken on, they were taken on based on what technology was at the time, not where technology was going.

So, to me, it still comes down to an internet crisis and the industry's inability to see it coming.

 

Re: AJC circ drops 24.7 percent MORE, quality of sports section drops 2,470 perc

You make good points, but to answer the above question . . .

---- These companies were not billions of dollars in debt back then. Tribune had almost no debt until it bought Times-Mirror and inherited a billion-dollar tax liability. Zell's fiasco basically put the company insolvent the moment the ink dried on the contract (and there's a lawsuit accusing them of exactly that in the works).

--- Economy tanked. It's not newspapers' fault that Circuit City closed (good-bye, $1 million advertising contract) among thousands of other businesses or that the auto industry tanked or that the real estate market tanked. These were ad dollars that simply evaporated almost overnight. No ad dollars = no ability to pay off debt.

---- Regarding Craigslist: Most of its ads are FREE, which would do newspapers no good to emulate. What revenue it does get from employment ads ($100M/year) would basically average out to about $75,000 per U.S. newspaper. And I would think even those employment ads hit the skids since, well, nobody's hiring.

 

BT, still good points, but if it were just bad business decisions, then papers that steered clear of those business decisions should not be in trouble. They are in trouble, just like everybody else. They may not be in it as bad as Zell, but they are still having fundamental problems and I think many of them. Again, these decisions were made under certain faulty assumptions. And those assumptions were based on business realities that have changed, probably for good.

The economy is again something that exacerbated the problem, but the problem would still be there.

I agree about Craigslist. I used it as an example of a phenomenon that the industry didn't see coming and, as a result, did not adequately plan for. As late as the early part of this decade, many newspapers looked at classifieds as cash cows that would be around forever. We know that's not likely the case now.

 

Met an old friend of mine at a Kentucky Derby party Saturday. He happened to be in the Globe building a few weeks ago and the classified department, which as you can imagine is a humongous room, was dark. Not just empty, dark.

 

This appears to be the entire sports staff of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

I count 15.

Online only:
Mark Bradley, sports columnist/blogger (Digital)
Bill King, Junkyard Blawg columnist and blogger (Digital)
Jeff Schultz, sports columnist/blogger (Digital)
Chip Towers, Recruiting columnist/blogger (Digital)

Beats:
Michael Carvell, high school sports reporter
Darryl Ledbetter, Falcons reporter
Cunningham Michael, Hawks reporter
David O'Brien, Braves reporter
Doug Roberson, Georgia Tech athletics reporter
Tim Tucker, UGA Athletics reporter
Chris Vivlamore, Thrashers reporter

GA:
Steve Hummer, Sunday sports cover stories reporter (Sunday)
Carroll Rogers, sports general assignment reporter
Ken Sugiura, sports general assignment reporter

Editor:
Ray Cox, sports assignments editor

I guess you could add this editor, listed under the general newsroom leadership:
Monica Richardson, Beats team leader/News, Business, Sports, Living

Source: From the online listing here:

http://projects.ajc.com/customercare/contact-newsroom/

Perhaps there are others not listed.

It is sad.

 

cheap shot of 50k sports sections.

what exactly are you saying about 50k sports sections? and why?

 

I thought Stinson was still there as some sort of editor. And David Wellham. And isn't Tim Ellerbee one of those weird-titled manager types? I thought there were several others as well.

Maybe I'm just confused by the bizarre organizational structure there.

 

Welham and Stinson are on the staff list, as "story editor," under "Beats." Not listed as in sports, particularly.

About a dozen editors have some form of that title, presumably working on various sections.

Oh, and Ellerbee is "External content and freelance coordinator" under "Beats."

You can't make this stuff up.