When McClatchy Co., The Star’s owner, announced in January it was going to a new “regional” system of editorial leadership and newspaper management, I knew it signaled one thing: Contraction and more layoffs company wide.
The first big hit under the new system came two weeks ago, when a 37-year-old regional editor announced more than 20 layoffs at the Sacramento Bee, McClatchy’s flagship paper.
Lauren Gustus, who had just been elevated to regional-editor status in January, issued a statement that said in part, “Our future requires us to adapt and innovate, and we will continue to change as we forge a path forward.”
As we’ve seen the 10 to 15 years with most remaining newspaper chains, forging a path forward can be translated only one way: “How do we cope with the disintegration of our business model?”
Yesterday, another shoe dropped, this time here in Kansas City, with the announcement that The Star was laying off — or parting ways with — at least 10 employees.
Finn
Chrostowski
Long
Among those who are packing their pencil or photo bags, according to KCUR’s Laura Spencer, are pop music writer Tim Finn; photographers Allison Long and David Pulliam; reporter David Frese; and editors Tod Palmer, Greg Branson and Michelle Smith.
Another editor, Keith Chrostowski, a four-decade veteran of the paper, is retiring.
In a non-explanation of the layoffs, KC Star editor Mike Fannin and managing editor Greg Farmer said in an internal memo that editors in the new midwest region (which Fannin heads) had determined in meetings that “we can do more to realize the future faster.”
Well, uh, the future certainly is coming at us pretty dang fast, but I’m not sure that stating it as a fact is going to help these editors cope with the mess they’ve got on their hands.
The whole idea the last several years has been for newspaper chains to transition subscribers from print to digital. That’s a good strategy, but it does not appear to be working for some companies, including McClatchy.
Consider three key points from a recent Poynter Institute analysis of McClatchy’s first-quarter, 2018 earnings report:
:: “Total revenues for the first quarter this year were down 10.1 percent compared to the same period in 2017.
:: “Digital-only subscriptions increased to 112,000, up 32.8 percent from a year ago. But spread across 30 properties, that is a modest number — a promising start but not enough to have much impact financially. By contrast, the Boston Globe has roughly 100,000 paid digital subscribers and the Minneapolis Star Tribune 50,000.
:: “Digital subscription revenue did not grow nearly as much as the raw number. Digital-only audience revenues grew 16 percent year-to-year. And since McClatchy assigns a share of print-digital subs (subscriptions) to digital, total digital audience revenues were up just 2.6 percent.”
The digital-only figure of 112,000 is less than modest; it borders on disastrous. That’s an average of 4,000 digital-only subscriptions at each of the company’s 30 papers. (A trade organization called the Alliance for Audited Media publishes circulation figures for all U.S. newspapers, but I cannot tell from The Star’s data how many stand-alone digital subscriptions it has.)
So, where is this headed?
I don’t know, but it looks to me like McClatchy is something of an empty sandwich board at this point. If it drops or curtails print editions to cut expenses significantly, it also sacrifices the main part of its subscription and advertising revenue. If it continues to push away gradually from print, while raising print subscription prices, it risks falling flat on the all-digital front.
**
As I said, I don’t have the answer. But at the very least, I would like to see McClatchy officials start publicly acknowledging the company’s dire situation and stop issuing platitudinous memos, like the one Fannin and Farmin put out yesterday.
That memo concluded with this…
“Progress is never easy, but we see a lot of compelling evidence of the impact we are having every day on the communities we serve. And we have a responsibility to those readers and to the businesses we all love to keep moving forward.”
Weatherford
A friend of mine, a laid-off, former Star copy editor named Les Weatherford, deftly punctured that hot-air balloon on the Kansas City Star Bylines Facebook page.
Weatherford wrote:
“And we have a responsibility to those readers and to the businesses we all love to keep moving forward…This is a recording…This is a recording…This is a recording…”
Thanks for the nod, Jim.
When I first read the names of the laid off, I felt speechless. Moments later, three words come to mind:
This is bullshit.
Well said, Fitz (and Les). The newsroom will never be the same.
If I had read this 48 hours ago, I probably would not have renewed my subscription.
Good column, Jim, you nailed it.
Good to hear from all of you…Thanks for the kudos. And welcome to the Comments Dept., Kevin and Regina!
One thing I wasn’t able to work into the post were the 2017 compensation rates for McClatchy’s seven top executives. Here they are, compliments of former development reporter Kevin Collison.
Craig Forman, president and c.e.o., $2.4 million
Patrick J. Talamantes, former president and c.e.o., $2.3 million
Elaine R. Lintecum, v.p. of finance and c.f.o., $862,000
Christian A. Hendricks, former v.p., of products and marketing, $1.7 million
Mark Zieman, v.p. of operations, $1.2 million
Tim Grieve, v.p. of news, $698,000
They are not too amused by all of this down in Fort Worth
https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2018/05/mcclatchy-guts-star-telegram-considers-fort-worth-to-be-part-of-midwest/
As the writer points out, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has been lumped in the midwestern region with The Star, the Wichita Eagle and the Belleville News-Democrat. Those Texans take umbrage at being lumped in with anybody; they like to stand in their own boots on everything.
Interestingly, the writer is pushing for the Bass brothers, Texas billionaires, to buy the Star-Telegram from McClatchy. I’m sure McClatchy would be receptive.
When you have mass layoffs, in waves, it needs to be pointed out that the survivors in each wave, kept silent, as the bodies float past them. Then when it’s their turn, the cycle repeats. (Yael, Judge, & Finn for starters.) For what it’s worth, the Denver Post just recently broke ranks and shamed their “vulturous” ownership. Probably too little, too late. Did The Star have ANYONE speak up, on the record, in the paper? If someone did, hats off to them…but I missed it. Carry on the fight, Fitzer…you might be the last man standing in KC with any institutional moral compass concerning the great journalism — WWII vets coming home and producing newspaper content based on “why we fought the war…” democracy… and understanding the importance of 20th Century, 1st Amendment, newspapering.
To the best of my knowledge, none of the many current staffers who posted notes of commiseration on Allison Long’s Kansas City Star Bylines note about being laid off lit directly into McClatchy.
A former staff member who did, however, was Paul Wenske, a business-side reporter who got the axe in 2008.
Wenske wrote, in part:
“Instead of commiserating with the fine journalists losing their jobs, why not cuss the hacks who continue to bleed the organization. It’s like watching a bully pound your best friend to pulp and shrugging, ‘Too bad I can’t do anything to stop this.’ Stop it McClatchy! You Assholes!”
The way the Star is going, they’re going to have to change their name to “My Weekly Reader” soon…
Fair warning: I watched this happen in the microcosm of my hometown paper The Leavenworth Times. It went from a full-fledged paper with reporters, photographers, section editors, assistant/copy editors in the 90s to what it is today: It is a SHOPPER. Literally. A shopper. It’s nothing. And you know what happens when you kill a newspaper like that? The government doings are not covered. The business doings are not covered. Crime is not covered. No one knows what is going on in this town – so none of those entities have to answer to anyone. Let that sink in.
Couldn’t have stated it any better, Peggy! I’m sure that elected leaders in that town love the fact that no media is covering their meetings.
Exactly true and even worse in WYCO where Carol Marinovich threatened to “bury The Kansan” and then did. We have nothing left of The Kansan, not even a shopper pretending to be a newspaper. It went from a newspaper to selling its building (The Star’s already checked that box) to smaller digs in a rented office, to digital only and then oblivion.
All we have left are a few random TV stories given 30 seconds and usually more about yet another crime than anything about a government with a long history of corruption.