It keeps getting worse

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper plans to cut about a quarter of its newsroom staff.
Management told union leaders Thursday that it plans to eliminate 80 union and 20 management positions, out of a newsroom staff of about 400.
Managers told the union the cuts were necessary because of the paper’s continuing financial losses, Michael Cabanatuan, president of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, said in a prepared statement. The Chronicle published a brief news story about the staff reduction Friday.
The guild has proposed a plan to achieve the target number of job reductions through voluntary buyouts and retirement incentives, which management is considering, Cabanatuan said.
In an e-mail distributed by the union to its members, the guild said management could make “involuntary reductions” if 80 cuts could not be made through the buyout and retirement incentives within 30 days.
Two spokesmen for the newspaper did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday.
Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega was quoted in the newspaper’s story saying: “Representatives from the Chronicle did meet (Thursday) with guild representatives to initiate discussions on early retirement and buyout programs involving a significant number of people. We are not prepared to discuss specifics because it was just a preliminary conversation.”

 

Didn't San Fran go from a two-paper town to a one-paper town within the past decade? And now they are cutting more jobs?

This is just getting scary.

 

It's a bloodletting race between the Chron, the Merc and the CC Times.

 

Wasn't there also the Examiner at one point? Is that still around or was it in a different city? I seem to remember something about two papers folding into one in recent history in San Fran.

 

There was a merger a few years back. Hearst gave the Exminer away, bought the Chron and promised jobs to just about everyone in the building. The Ex was bought by trillionaire Phi Anchutz, who made it into a 6-day-a-week free tabloid. He also started the Washington and Baltimore Examiners. This is the second round of buyouts in the last few years.
The new Ex covers local City news and prep sports.

 

At this rate, all newspapers in the country will be out of business by the end of the decade. Here's hoping the bleeding stops soon.

 

In a race to the bottom you've got to put your money on Singleton. And hey, its not so bad - most of these cutbacks are merely a dog-and-pony show in order to clear out top-of-the-pay-tier veterans in their 50s and 60s so they can hire younger, cheaper and healthier staffers.
Remember that report a few years ago that found newspaper quality wasn't a factor in whether someone read a newspaper or not. Could you imagine if it found the opposite was true?

 

i think our definition of quality and readers' definition of quality are two different animals. one of our desk guys forgot to run a late baseball box a week ago, and i got the call from a pist off reader pointing out the fact that "all of you down there" pretty much are idiots. somehow, i think readers care.

 

A core group of readers cares intensely. However, that group is shrinking, and newspapers haven't come up with a good way to sell that group to advertisers. (Although it's possible that "45-64 Male Who Keeps Track of the Box Scores" is not on the list of key demographics.)

Things are changing, sure. But executives are doing a very poor job of riding it out and trying to move with the changes. They're rearranging deck chairs. The thing that will kill newspapers is not the changing habits of the reader; it's the knee-jerk reaction to self-preservation on the part of executives. Scary, really, because these are supposed to be smart people, and you'd think they'd know better.

 

i gave one example of many. you cannot bastardize quality and expect to sell your product to more people. quality has been cut ... see cuts in newsroom staff.

do you really think the advent of the lean deans, the cnhis and the jrcs of the world have nothing to do with declining readership? i'm not saying it's the whole enchilada, but these 7-11s of journalism sure do contribute.

 

When is the last time you picked up a newspaper and read something and said "Holy Sh*t!" after reading a story? (and not because you were thinking what is THAT doing on the front page?)

 

I'm not sure of where you are going here.