Results matching “times plans online commenta”

Bad news for US newspapers: a wave of layoffs has hit many newsrooms in the beginning of 2008.

The Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times Co., announced it plans to cut 60 jobs by offering voluntary employee buyouts - these won't affect the website, Boston.com. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette will cut 20 jobs.

Tribune Co.-owned Newsday publisher Tim Knight announced that the newspaper will cut about 120 jobs across the company, representing about 5% of the workforce. 25 of the layoffs will be in the newsroom. The pressroom will cut 24 union positions.

Other Tribune Co. newspapers including the Los Angeles Times (where 100 to 150 jobs are to be eliminated, 40-50 of them in the newsroom), The Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune Media Group announced about 300 layoffs two weeks ago. The Los Angeles Daily News laid off 22 editors and reporters on Feb. 29.

At the San Jose Mercury News, reporters have been told to stay at home until the morning of March 7, when they will or will not receive a phone call telling them they've lost their job. The Mercury News' staff has shrunk to about 200 from twice that number in 1999.

The problem is that newspapers have yet to find a way to compensate print declines with online revenues. Part of the solution is citizen journalists, unpaid volunteers with some expertise in a field who can complement coverage. But most content produced by citizen journalists is commentary rather than news coverage.

According to Graphic Designr, there were more than 2,000 layoffs and buyouts in the newspaper industry in the last half of 2,007. In the first two months of February, the count is over 1,000.

Sources: Los Angeles Times - Yahoo News - Newsday - Graphic Designr through I Want Media and Poynter Romenesko

As the first anniversary of his appointment approaches, the Financial Times’ editor Lionel Barber is confident in the essentiality of his paper.  Eight months into his tenure Barber introduced a new integrated newsroom that resulted in 50 layoffs.  The editor maintains that the actions were necessary to bring FT into the digital era.

The Financial Times will launch a digital news and commentary service, Alphaville, for finance professionals. The service will include: "6am cut," a daily email with market information, a rolling blog with news, analysis, and commentary, and "Markets Live," a daily online discussion on financial news led by FT associate editor Paul Murphy and senior stocks correspondent Neil Hume.

Source: Press Gazette 

 

 

The San Francisco Chronicle is struggling, like many other US newspapers, to coexist with new media. The Los Angeles Times characterises its position as "on the front lines of the battle between old and new media." The paper reported a 16% loss in sales across the last 6 months and it is also suffering decreasing advertising revenue.

Micky Kaus at Slate suggests a solution for the paid-online content dilemma newspapers are facing. He recalls how when television hit the scene, people never thought they would pay for it. But for some time now, most people pay for cable TV, even if it's just "basic." So why wouldn't people pay a bit for packaged news on the web?