There’s been another round of buyout/layoffs at The Star, I understand.
I don’t have it first hand — just don’t have any sources down there any more — but I get information from people who used to work there and remain in close contact with some of their former colleagues.
There have been several rounds of layoffs and buyouts since the mid-2000s, and, of course, this is a trend that has affected all major dailies, ever since readers and advertisers began defecting en masse to the Internet.
Let’s put The Star in perspective. In a recent piece on his Newsonomics blog, newspaper authority Ken Doctor wrote this:
“How big a hole is the U.S. daily newspaper industry in?
“We know the toll in newsroom jobs — about 20,000 lost in a little under a decade — and the fact that the industry as a whole took in about $26 billion less in 2014 than it did a decade earlier.”
Twenty-six billion less revenue between 2004 and 2014!! That says it all, doesn’t it?
…Anyway, my source — a good one — gave me this lineup of editorial employees who are out, or on the way out, as of this week.
Each of these employees is over 60, I feel sure.
:: Alice Thorson, art critic in the Features Department. Thorson, a prolific writer, has been at the paper just short of 25 years. Although she’s been prolific, this is not a major loss, from my personal perspective. The Star’s arts and features coverage has been going downhill for decades. In my opinion — keep in mind I go back to the late 60s and early 70s — the decline began when The Star’s great architecture critic Donald Hoffman (I’m sure some of you remember him) took a buyout in 1990. When Hoffman left, I quit reading the arts section; it just didn’t hold any more interest for me. Don went on to write books, including several on Frank Lloyd Wright and some of the outstanding homes he designed.
KCUR has also weighed in on Thorson’s layoff. Reporter Laura Spencer quoted Kathy Lu, the features department editor as saying The Star was not abandoning arts criticism; that it would continue to work with freelance writers. Apparently overcome by candor — and perhaps disenchantment — Lu added, however, that Star readers “will probably not see as much” arts criticism…Once you get to a certain point in layoffs — and The Star is years past that — it’s futile to try to sell the “less is better” pitch. It’s unvarnished failure.
:: Steve Everly, energy reporter on the business desk. This is a huge loss. Everly has had many ground-breaking stories, including the blockbuster expose several years ago on “hot fuel” — retailers selling gasoline and diesel without adjusting the volume for temperature. (You don’t get your money’s worth in hot climates because the fuel expands.) As badly as I feel about Everly’s departure, I understand he’s had some health problems, so this is the right time for him to step aside.
Everly
Everly’s loss has deeper implications for the paper. A decade or so ago, The Star had a powerful stable of more than 20 business-side reporters and editors. Now, it’s a broken-down barn — sorry to say and no offense to the capable folks who remain — consisting of three reporters and three editors. The reporters are Diane Stafford, Mark Davis and Joyce Smith. The editors are Keith Chrostowski, Greg Hack and Steve Rosen. In all fairness, each of those editors either does some reporting or writes a column, in addition to their editing chores.
Adding insult to injury, Star Business Weekly, a Tuesday institution for more than 20 years, is folding. Little wonder: Over the years it’s gone from as many as 48 tabloid pages per week to eight…Oh, and don’t hold your breath waiting for The Star to apprise us readers of Business Weekly’s demise; in all likelihood, it just won’t be there one Tuesday when you open the paper.
:: Randy Covitz, longtime sports writer. Randy has been an all-purpose reporter throughout his career. For several years, he had the Chiefs “beat.” Although never a standout, he’s always been reliable and very productive.
Covitz
Perschau
:: Rob Perschau, the newsroom’s Information Technology expert. Without Rob’s help, scores of Star reporters and editors would have had to turn to manual labor because they couldn’t have made the transition from the IBM Selectric typewriter to the desktop computer. (I’m squarely in that group.) Rob is a former business reporter who jumped to IT at the dawn of the difficult changeover to computers in the newsroom. He’s an absolute wizard, as well as one of the nicest and most patient guys you’ll ever meet. I have to think he will be sorely missed.
Presiding over The Star’s emaciation is publisher Mi-Ai Parrish. I can’t criticize her too much because she’s simply carrying out commands — and hitting budget lines — coming out of McClatchy Inc. corporate offices in Sacramento. (McClatchy bought the Star and about 20 other Knight Ridder papers after the Knight Ridder chain put itself up for sale in 2006. (I retired at precisely the time that sale closed.)
Parrish
I have said before, however, that I am very disappointed in Parrish’s lack of leadership and particularly in her total lack of interest in trying to rebuild The Star’s corporate and civic profile. Along with other large local companies, the paper used to sponsor various arts organizations and big artistic events, and I, for one, always took great pride in seeing our name up there with the likes of Hallmark, Sprint, Burns & McDonnell, HNTB and others.
Yet, even with all the employee losses, the shrinking news hole and the bursting golden-egg of print advertising, The Star remains, by far, the most powerful news-gathering organization between St. Louis and Denver. Yes, it is better than the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Denver Post.
That said, the downward spiral is extremely discouraging to those of us who plied our trade at 18th and Grand for many years and loved being part of something that seemed magical when we plucked the paper off the front yard the next morning.
So, to those who are leaving the paper, best of luck to you. I know you’ll be happier and healthier in retirement or going on to something else.
To those of you who are staying and continuing to toil in unenviable circumstances, thank you, thank you, thank you. Hundreds of thousands of readers continue to reap the benefits of the great work you do every day.
Hi Fitz,
If I may slightly clarify one thing. I did have a health issue this year but it was fixed and I’m well. I’ve been eager to leave the Star for some time because of all the changes, so it is a good thing for me. The three remaining business reporters are all excellent and I’m sure will continue to do fine work. But they can only do so much with all the losses the once-proud business desk has sustained. It is a shame.
Steve Everly
Great to hear from you, Steve. And the best news, of all, of course, is that your health problem is behind you!
As you say, Diane, Mark and Joyce are excellent reporters — and very good writers — and they will continue to serve The Star and the readers well. I would really like to see The Star boost the number of business reporters to at least five, though. Maybe Mi-Ai can figure out a way, with the cost savings from the departing senior editorial people, to go up one or two.
Hope to see you around. Maybe at one of Perlmutter’s periodic lunch calls, attended mostly by former business reporters.
Sorry to see you go. You made a very dull subject interesting and your journalism was impeccable.
These are all huge losses and I’m very saddened to hear about it. You’re right about Rob Perschau. He is one of the most patient people I knew at The Star. He even tolerated the links of this technology-challenged scribe who could barely figure out how to turn on a computer back in the day.
Great testament to Rob. Man, we loved that guy!
My first job was throwing the Star/Times. I read it every day until I dropped the paper in 2008. So I’m a little saddened by their demise. However, do you think their decline would be even a little bit diminished if they moderated their far left editorial stance? Gun control, abortion, capital punishment, hatred of all things Republican; doesn’t that get a little tiresome?
You could say that about The New York Times, too, but it has gotten stronger as the second-tier metropolitan dailies, like The Star and many others, have weakened. NYT successfully reinvented itself as a national paper 15 years ago or so, and it has paid off handsomely.
I really don’t think The Star’s pronounced liberal tilt has been much of a factor in its depletion, although I can see how those on the right would raise the question.
Fitz, I either added a llink to a previous column, or sent one to you that discussed tensions at the Times because the news folks thought the editorial staff was becoming an embarrassment to the newspaper and an impediment to their work.
It would be one thing if what The Star’s editorial staff wrote was interesting, but it’s so doctrinaire and predictable that you know what they’re going to say without reading the column. Add to that some of their goofy endorsements like the felon convicted of public corruption over a former community college president for a seat on a community college board. Really?
And yes it does have an impact on their depletion. I know many, many people who have dumped their subscriptions because of The Star’s editorial page. I rarely even visit the website anymore.
Jim:
The loss of more top people at The Star is sad, sad, sad. Where is the leadership at the helm? Or where is the helm?
Laura
No money, no leadership, no helm…just a once-proud, incredibly strong company having drifted from the river onto a sandy shoal.
The loss of Alice Thorson is a huge loss to the visual arts community.
I’m no philistine, Anne, I’ve just never read much of The Star’s art, theater or movie criticism. I’m sure the arts community feels much differently.
Hi Fitz!
Most of my contacts at The Star are gone as well. I appreciate you keeping us informed. Hope things are going well for you!
Doug Oswald
Former newsroom accountant
Good to hear from you, Doug. Unfortunately, the Metro budget is not nearly big enough any more to require the services of a newsroom accountant. A chaplain might be more in order.
The NYT is not doing as well as you suppose. It laid off employees as recently as a month ago, when an insufficient number took the buyout offer. Similar to the Star, the NYT never lays off editorial staff or opinion writers, just the nuts and bolts folks.
For the record, Fitz, Donald Hoffmann left the paper in 1990 _ right before the Star/Times merger.
Fitz,
Thanks for the update and the comments and the remembrances.
I remember when we as reporters were held to some fairly rigorous ethical standards.
Such standards don’t apply to The Star as a business: How can an institution slash and slash its staff, continue to shrink the news hole and the pages (which equals content) and yet charge more for a horribly diminished product?
Given that, how can a reader take seriously the news-sides pretensions to have any moral authority?
Great to hear from you, Bill. I hope you and Georgeanne are doing well. You and she were outstanding employees — reporter and copy editor respectively — for many years. She’s not there any longer, is she?
Very sad, indeed. I had a similar experience with one of my employers, and it was almost like a family falling apart. And speaking of lean and thinner, each weekday edition is starting to look like the emaciated Monday issue.
It certainly makes you wonder if they will pull the plug on some of those print editions — Monday and Tuesday, perhaps? — and go with a “new and improved, bigger and better” Wednesday through Sunday print package — charging the same price, of course, as for a 7-day subscription. (Hate to be cynical but now that subscription income has become nearly as important as print advertising, subscription and rack prices have to keep heading north.)
Jim, Donald Hoffmann was among the eight who were pictured in one of the Feb. 28, 1990 issues of the paper, that being the last day the afternoon edition was published. That same group included my father. At any rate, the latest RIF is sad news and my heart goes out to both those who are leaving and those who are left behind to carry on.
I had completely forgotten the buyout — the first I was ever around in journalism — was the result of the merger of The Star and The Times. And if someone would have asked me about “Nick” Nichols, I would have said he was there until the mid-90s, at least. Big presence, hard to forget.
P.S. – A paper that continues to lose staff through RIFs has no business sending a columnist and a photographer down to the Dominican Republic to do a feature on a baseball player of all things, especially if that columnist is relatively new to the staff and is being allowed to keep his job when more-tenured employees are losing theirs. Fact is, struggling newspapers really don’t need two sports columnists. I really don’t think two are necessary even in good times, but then again, I’m pretty “old school”.
More P.S. – Also among the aforementioned group of eight were Frank Spurlock and Joe Henderson.
Although I really liked the package on Yordano Ventura, Rick Nichols raises a very valid point. And it shows that the sports desk pretty much rules the show down there at 1729 Grand.
Yes, and this week’s big throw — the Sunday centerpiece — is “A Nationa of Hagglers.”
What the f—?
Fitz,
As a non-journalist the last 25 years, I never expect to see my name in a blog focused on journalism and the news. So, I’m a week late seeing this post.
You were more than kind in your remarks, as were a couple of commenters. I should point out, though, that I planned to retire anyway in August and The Star was good enough to include me in the staff reduction. I am more than happy with that result.
I loved my time at The Star. We’ve lost a lot of incredible talent over the years, but there are still a lot of top notch reporters and editors in the building. I wish them all well.
My last bit of advice to them: “save often.”
Rob Perschau
That is a (an?) hilarious kicker, Rob. I put it in quotation marks so people would understand you’re giving technical, not financial, advice…Thanks for clarifying the circumstances of your departure. I’m glad we can put you in the category of “legitimate retirement.”
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been in that category had I stayed around under McClatchy.
In any event…REBOOT!