More from Lean Dean

"Larded staffs?" Maybe Ed has seen us and is not writing metaphorically.

 

Newspapers are a classic asset bubble. The fact of their positive cash flows means they cost a lot to buy. Nobody buys from cash anymore, because the profit is in leverage, so they borrow up the yin-yang. Then to pay the debt back, some cluck like Singleton cuts costs to the bone. All good and proper Wall Street thinking.
EXCEPT. You can't cut newspapers costs without cutting your product's value to consumers. So they don't buy it. So the lovely cash flow shrinks, and so does the asset value. So then, you are well and truly whipsawed. No cash to pay the debt service, and no way to sell assets without taking a fatal haircut.
P.S: The bondholders must be a prize crew. Greedy and stupid is no way to go through life.

 

My point exactly, MG. Well said.

You can't take advantage of that leverage without cutting your own throat in the process, something Sam Zell is discovering on a daily basis and something that just hit Dean Singleton like a 2-by-4 between the eyes.

Yes, those bondholders have taken cluelessness and greed to epic proportions. But I can't get over the $50 million profit on $1.2 BILLION. Sounds like Singleton and Scudder went an acquisition or six too far.

 

I don't pretend to fully understand the economics of journalism or explain Singleton's apparently immenent collapse despite MG and Birdscribe's excellent posts.
But I believe that maybe more important, is an emerging psychology that's come out of recent events.
In case you haven't heard about it, former DN staffer Matt Kredell blogs on (recently laid off San Bernardino Sun columnist) Paul Oberjuerge's popular new site http://www.oberjuerge.com/?p=51#more-51 about how resourceful editors tried to save his job as the Kings beat writer (in case you haven't heard, he was being paid as a part-timer, and doing full-time work by any reasonable objective standard).
Obviously, very gutsy move on Kredell's part going public with this.
But MK and others' challenge to what has now become Singleton's pathetic excuse for a newspaper company, seems to me, shows just how much the climate has changed to the point where employees no longer fear Singleton and his henchmen.
A few years ago, reporters would have feared retribution for publicly saying this (fellow laid off DN staffer Val Kuklenski's e-mail flogging of Singleton lackey Dave Butler, reported first on this message board, is another example).
Singleton, through his thug underlings, have for years been able to get away with at best suspect if not illegal labor practice (making part-timers work fulltime hours, employing freelancers who are ostensibly staffers who don't get any benefits, etc. If you've worked at any Singleton paper in the last 20 years, you know what I'm talking about, as this stuff is pervasive throughout the chain) because he's been effectively able to create an environment of fear.
What's changed, I believe, especially after the most recent round of layoffs, is that we don't fear you any more, Mr. Singleton. Not only that, but I know that I speak for others in and out of the company in saying that we are now looking to create conflict with you. We're taking this fight to you, because we sense that you're about to go down. Even your most loyal lieutenants - the Butlers, the Janigas, the Lamberts - are going to turn on you so fast it's going to make your head spin. In the coming weeks, we will openly challenge their authority, and look to engage them in conflicts, mostly because we can, and we want to. A friend of mine who worked in management in LANG used to tell me Butler's used to agrily yell at fellow editors ``keep your people in line.'' If you think about it, it's kind of funny, Mr. Singleton, because years ago, we were warned not to provoke your henchmen. We were warned that Butler is vindictive, and Janiga has a temper. Well aww shucks... now that your Empire is on the verge of collapse, we'll just have to test that, and let's see if you can ``keep your people in line.''

 

Well said, TD.

I truly, truly hope the backlash on those still in the clutches of LANG and BANG, et al, isn't too harsh. They'll be better off later, I know, but it's not that easy when you're dependent on a job.

But boy, will karma be a merciless bitch to Lean Dean Singleton. We can only hope.

 

I actually don't think it was gutsy, or smart, that MK went public with this, at least not in the way he did, because, first, the Daily News and LANG are hardly alone as newspapers or chains that have operated, or do still operate, this way, with part-timers doing what amounts to full-time work, with freelancers essentially being staffers, without the benefits or stature, and with full-timers getting paid, essentially, part-timers' salaries.

Companies apparently don't want reporters who question situations or authority, or who might not always toe the line.

That's clear because although MK, VK and others may no longer fear for their jobs, they should realize that, sadly, that is because they are no longer in their jobs. The fact is that, despite their new, emboldened state, the reality is that they are still the ones who are, or will be, out of a job. It doesn't solve anything, or help the situation at all. Complaints don't matter to the people toward whom we'd like to, and need to, direct them.

And that's the sad thing about all this.

Challenging a system no longer seems to improve it. It just exacerbates the problems, sends the chains and the industry into more of a tailspin, and erodes the public trust and increases its lack of interest in our work all the more.

God, it's depressing, and so wrong.

I'm sorry. I guess I'm really feeling it today.

 

WriteThinking is correct. Everyone is emboldened because they have nothing more to lose.

I would add: Tucsondriver (and I'm not sure if those are your words or Kredell's), I understand the rhetoric about taking the fight to Singleton, we no longer fear him, etc. The Long Beach Union has all of a sudden woken up, the discussion in this thread has become about how former and current employees are fed up and making their displeasure heard. Yay, the fight ensues.

But . . . this is like an army showing up late, after the battle has already been lost, saying, "OK, we're ll ready to go here! Where's the bad guys!" Well, they're over there, dividing up the spoils of the contest. Where were you?

I know, I know. "We can't just give up! Singleton is a jerk!" Yup. And everyone who works for him should spend their free time looking into ways to save themselves, not fight battles that were lost as soon as he started consolidating and cutting. Individuals need to realize that Singleton doesn't care if employees get loud as everything collapses. In the end, he'll come out just fine as far as being able to continue to count his money.

And all the passionate tough-guy speech in the world won't change that.

 

Oh, you guys. I'm so sorry.
But, to think David Butler or Steve Lambert -- and on a larger scale, Dean Singleton -- is going to bat an eye is puerile. I've watched them for two and three decades. Trust me when I state, they have never, ever been the ones languishing.

 

The best I can hope for is that the creditors who bankrolled Singleton's media empire come collecting and take every penny he has, leaving him destitute and poor and crying about how unfair the system is. And the people who relied on Singleton for their high salaries and lofty positions climb over his decomposing body to get out of the bottomless pit he created.

 

William Dean Singleton runs MediaNews. He receives a salary. A big one.
No one will be coming to take the house(s) and car(s). It doesn't work that way.
Again, he won't be the one suffering.

 

Agreed, fishwrapper.

Root for Singleton's failure, and you root for many more people to lose their jobs. No matter what happens, he will be fine, his large coffers lessening the sting of his embarrassment.

I love that so many current and former employees are saying "hell yeah! Singleton is failing! Let's bring him DOWN!!!!!!" And then of course the next sentence is, "We want him to fail, for the good of our newspapers and the communities we cover!!!"

Pardon me, but what color is the sky in that world? The recent cuts were because of Singleton's financial situation. As his "empire" continues to "crumble," more cuts will be made in an attempt to appease creditors.

Don't demonstrate. Don't say pretty words about how the pressure is coming, because dammit, the employees of these gutted newspapers . . . NOW they're angry!

Find an escape hatch. Get out, get to a place where you no longer have to care about William dean Singleton (or whatever robber-baron owns your publication).

 

The only way to do that is to get out of the business, because most of these papers are all owned by one horrible corporation or another.
Unfortunately, that's a shitty way to look at it if you really love this business, which practically all the people on here do.