• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« When it comes to T-Mobile and Sprint, The Star is putting jobs ahead of consumer interests
A parade of young defendants…and then, an old man steps forward »

McClatchy’s new regional system is just another name for the same old strategy — shrinking and cutting

May 2, 2018 by jimmycsays

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…”

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments

15 Responses

  1. on May 2, 2018 at 12:09 pm lesweatherford

    Thanks for the nod, Jim.


  2. on May 2, 2018 at 12:45 pm Liselotte

    When I first read the names of the laid off, I felt speechless. Moments later, three words come to mind:

    This is bullshit.


  3. on May 2, 2018 at 1:16 pm Kevin Catalano

    Well said, Fitz (and Les). The newsroom will never be the same.


  4. on May 2, 2018 at 1:39 pm Regina

    If I had read this 48 hours ago, I probably would not have renewed my subscription.


  5. on May 2, 2018 at 2:04 pm Julius Karash

    Good column, Jim, you nailed it.


  6. on May 2, 2018 at 2:25 pm jimmycsays

    Good to hear from all of you…Thanks for the kudos. And welcome to the Comments Dept., Kevin and Regina!


  7. on May 2, 2018 at 3:26 pm jimmycsays

    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


  8. on May 2, 2018 at 3:45 pm mikerice64

    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/


    • on May 2, 2018 at 3:57 pm jimmycsays

      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.


  9. on May 2, 2018 at 4:29 pm Edward E Scott

    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.


    • on May 2, 2018 at 5:38 pm jimmycsays

      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!”


  10. on May 2, 2018 at 4:48 pm streamfortyseven

    The way the Star is going, they’re going to have to change their name to “My Weekly Reader” soon…


  11. on May 2, 2018 at 11:59 pm Peggy Stevinson Bair

    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.


  12. on May 3, 2018 at 8:38 am mikerice64

    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.


    • on May 3, 2018 at 10:35 am altevogt

      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.



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 511 other followers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    %d bloggers like this: