Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville to publish three days a week

Newspapers might be in bad shape, and their future (long-term) may be bleak. But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that truly stupid, insecure and often incompetent people in charge are accelerating the death march. I saw it happen at my own paper, where all the smart people in management who were good at journalism were thrown into the street in favor of the ass kissers and those who were more adept at office politics. What remained were editors who only became editors because they were terrible at daily journalism in the first place, and because they understood this, they were extremely insecure and vindictive toward those remained. And that went all the way up to the publisher. It's obvious we've lost an entire generation, maybe two or three, of good people to greed and lack of foresight and incompetence. And it's obvious we'll never get them back. I pray, somehow, when a new model emerges, someone will rise to take their place. But watching this, over and over again, feels like a funeral.

 

Double D, I hope you're wrong as to how this is all going to end up. That's just downright depressing.

 

After 9/11, all of the airlines cut staff.

I was at Continental Airlines, and we were the first to announce layoffs.

There was about a week where everyone was in limbo, then decisions were made, and people were let go -- immediately.

It seemed really harsh, but I think it's for the best. United announced they were going to lay people off too, but waited months to do it. As bas as that one week was at Continental, I can't imagine how bad it was at United.

Productivity and moral had to go way down, and the stress levels are incredibly high. If you're going to drop the axe, drop it swiftly, and provide a decent severance package.

 

When I got laid off once, it was with a two-week delay. It came in early June. I agreed to stay because I had really nothing better to do and I knew my "vacation" was coming soon enough. If I had somewhere else to go or something I wanted to do that month, I would have left ASAP.

 

I understand that newspapers need to change. But to eliminate sports in Huntsville? To apparently eliminate the business sections and the political reporters? Staffs of 15 or 16 in towns the size of Huntsvlle or Mobile? Why would anyone subscribe to such a paper? Or to bother reading it on-line?

 

It sounds like they're going to be beefed up versions of Patch.com.

The goal is to compete for local advertisers and "page views", not provide local news.

 

Was just looking at the (Mobile) Press-Register website. Lots of articles by "Press-Register Correspondent". Most of them civic fluff pieces.

So is this where they are going? Most content being rewrites of press releases or stuff from contributors. Or freelancers getting $30 per story.

 

Not that I expect we'll like what we hear, but I'm really morbidly interested in hearing exactly what the hell they're planning. I can't honestly imagine they'd just completely abandon sports, but how are they going to fill that space, and with who? Are they really trying citizen journalism to cover their high school nut? Nothing but freelancers and press releases? Is there going to be a sports hub? Some fresh hell none of us have dared nightmare yet?

 

Get ready for stories on this weekend's open houses.

 

I understand the idea is compete for local advertisers and "page views". But if a company does not offer a differentiated product no one will view the pages and local advertisers will abandon your product. When you reduce your product to reprinting press releases that someone can find on-line for free I humbly suggest the value of your newspaper to the consumer will be zero and said periodical will quickly die.

 

I have tried and tried to see things from their perspective and I simply cannot yet fathom what they are expecting the product to be or how this is going to work (or not work). Guess we will all be in for some surprises.

 

Lots and lots of Alabama and Auburn coverage. Those guys will always have jobs.

So yeah, Auburn, Alabama and....roundups of everything else and AP stuff? Probably so.