We Were Print

The Unity Journalists, an alliance of journalists who work to keep newsrooms and the news representative of the national diversity, began tracking news industry layoffs in January 2008.

No light reading

Its 2009 report is grim.

During one month – December 2008 — nearly 7400 jobs were lost in the journalism field.

Final edition

 210 media outlets have completely disappeared since January ‘08.

Since the Layoff Tracker began, 46,599 people in the news industry have been bought out or were terminated.

Read the article, which links to a .pdf of the report, on the Unity web site.

At The Dallas Morning News, and other Belo properties, a New “Bold Strategy”

Section Editors Reporting to Sales Managers

 After the jump, you will find a memo Dallas Morning News editor Bob Mong and senior vice president of sales Cyndy Carr sent to everyone at A.H. Belo Corp. Wednesday, Dec. 2, outlining what they call a “business/news integration.”

Which means? As of Wednesday, some section editors at all of the company’s papers, including The News, will now report directly to Carr’s team of sales managers, now referred to as general managers. In short, those who sell ads for A.H. Belo’s products will now dictate content within A.H. Belo’s products, which is a radical departure from the way newspapers have been run since, oh, forever.

Business and Metro likely not exempt

Those sections mentioned in the memo include sports, entertainment, real estate, automotive and travel, among others.The memo doesn’t mention Business or Metro by name, but there are references to “health/education” and “retail/finance”; these are not defined in the missive. Says the memo, Carr’s sales force will “be working closely with news leadership in product and content development.”

Executive sports editor Bob Yates and Lifestyles deputy managing editor Lisa Kresl are quoted in the memo enthusiastically signing off on the unconventional marriage; says Kresl, “I’m excited about the idea of working with a business partner on an arts and entertainment segment.”

[Read more →]

Lisa Rab, reporter for the New Times – Broward-Palm Beach edition – has a media story this week titled The Rise and Fall of South Florida’s Daily Newspapers.

Rab interviews several journalists who took the “voluntary” buyouts.

You can read it through this link.

 Those in the business – and now out of it – will recognize most of the names, and recall most of the facts in the fairly detailed article.

Former short-time Palm Beach Post publisher Alex Taylor left behind a catch-phrase created by a reader that ran during his tenure under the mast:

“The Home Page of Paradise” – as seen below, on Oct. 21, its last day in print.

Well, Taylor is gone and they’re now still without a publisher — and, without Paradise. Here’s the mast from Oct. 22:

43 Daytona Beach News-Journal employees lose their jobs as newspaper continues looking for a buyer

The story posted today by Henry Frederick, on NSBnews.net – an online community newspaper in New Smyrna Beach:

By Henry Frederick

DAYTONA BEACH — Forty-three employees of the Daytona Beach News-Journal lost their jobs earlier today, according to several sources.

Of the 43 cuts, 16 were in the newsroom and nine were unionized pressmen. The others were from various other departments.

Executive Editor Don Lindley informed the terminated employees in an e-mail and then left for the day at 4 p.m. without facing any of those whose jobs were cut, according to an inside source.

Buyouts offered

One of two terminated newsroom reporters is a single mother with a baby, whose recent beat was the city of Deltona. A sports columnist who has written a popular column for more than a decade was terminated as was a longtime photographer, a librarian, a longtime regional editor a page designer in Accent and a page designer on the news desk. Several others in the newsroom were offered and took buyouts, including the senior managing editor Troy Moore, whose last day was Saturday.

Just four years ago, the News-Journal employed more than 800 people and had a daily circulation that hovered around 100,000, but after losing a series of appeals of the $129 million federal court judgment awarded to minority owner Cox Enterprises, the News-Journal’s circulation has plummeted and so has its staff by almost two thirds. The suit was spurred by the late Tippen Davidson’s decision to spend $13 million on naming rights without Cox’s permission for the $29 million News-Journal Center, a cultural arts Center on Beach Street that is now owned by Daytona State College

No buyers for newspaper

The News-Journal has had trouble finding a buyer in this national recession that has wreaked havoc on newspapers across the country, with some offers hovering around $20 million.

The Pennysavers were consolidated earlier this summer and last year the News-Journal closed its bureaus in New Smyrna Beach, DeLand, Deltona and Bunnell.

The former Pennysaver/News-Journal bureau on Canal Street is now the headquarters for the re-election of Mayor Sally Mackay.