Over on The Jackson Free Press website, Todd Stauffer reports on layoffs at The Clarion-Ledger:
"Editor and Publisher magazine is reporting the contents of a memo circulated by the Clarion-Ledger's current publisher, Larry Whitaker, to his staff. The memo was leaked earlier in the day to Romenesko, a media "insider" blog hosted by the Poynter Institute.
The memo suggests that the reasons for the layoffs include slowdowns in both print and web advertising. Whitaker writes: The economic downturn affecting much of the country is taking a heavy toll on the local economy. To be direct, it will lead to significant changes in the way we do business at The Clarion-Ledger. In nearly every advertising segment, our customers are reporting difficult times for their businesses. They are cutting back on print and online advertising, which has a direct impact on our business. These economic forces, which are out of our control, make it necessary for us to reduce our workforce..."
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/c_l_to_lay_off_20_staffers_080108/
When I posted the fact that the alternative weekly publication had approximately $45,000 in upaid federal tax liens earlier this year (which HAVE been paid since initially reported), I made the comment that if a similar situation existed at The Clarion-Ledger, The JFP would not hesitate to report on it. Like Keith Olberman taking a shot at Bush, Mr. Stauffer just could not help himself.
As for the Clarion-Ledger's problems, I think one of the main reasons for them is because they are Gannett-owned. I've talked to more than a few employees there and they know what the problems are and some of them have pretty good solutions. Unfortunately, Gannett sucks every dime it can out of that paper, making it harder for the management to invest in the publication and its reporters as well as a top down management. For several years now the newspaper has been "dumbing down" its stories and coverage as it thought that would attract more readers when such has obviously not been the case. The reporting and editing has been very sloppy (See coverage of the Scruggs and Heather Spencer stories. See note below). Many businesses don't advertise in The Clarion-Ledger because the rates are so high.
If I were running the CL, I would take a serious look at charging a subscription to read most of the online newspaper. It makes no sense to virtually give away the content you are charging money for in print. The newspapers in Little Rock and Lake Charles both have gone to subscription-based content and there is no reason why The Clarion-Ledger can not do the same. Instead of charging a fee for archives, imitate the Wall Street Journal and charge monthly and annual fees while including free access to the archives in the services provided.
When you give away your product, don't be suprised when you don't make a profit. However, unless some radical changes happen at the Jackson daily and in Gannett's corporate philosophy, expect more of the same downward spiral.
Note: The CL referred to Robbie Bell as "Robbie Spencer" earlier this year. Despite a phone call and email to Ronnie Agnew AND the reporter, nothing happened until 5:00 PM that day when I reached Ms. Simmons on the phone, who went to the website, saw the error, and changed it. There were no apologies to the Spencer family on the website for this outrage and Mr. Agnew and the reporter never responded to my attempts to contact them. Multiply that kind of behavior a few times and its not hard to see why more people are alieanated by the local newspaper.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Irony
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2 comments:
"LADD: This is a problem of leadership there. They should not have allowed the paper to fall apart as it has, even if they had to fight corporate every step of the way."
And Ladd's experience leading a daily and/or bucking up to a corporate management structure over journo orthodoxy is exactly what?
Yeah. Try bucking corporate management. don't work. CL is just a unit to them and the employees are subunits. I've worked for Citi and GM and believe me, you might be able to buck things one to two management levels above you but above that, forget it. They move on their own inertia and trying to stand in the way if you work for them only gets you run over. period.
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