A memo from SGVN Managing Editor Steve Hunt provides the details:
Because many of our copy editors and designers will be working 1:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. shifts, we also are going to change the copy deadlines for reporters at all five papers. Beginning Monday, Jan. 19, all inside A section copy for the three SGVN papers will be due at 1:30 p.m. A1 copy for Whittier and Pasadena will be due at 5 p.m., while A1 copy for the Tribune will be due at 5:30 p.m.The San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin implemented a 3 p.m. deadline* for inside-A material.
The SGVN papers (San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, and Whittier Daily News) had already instituted a 2 p.m. deadline for non-A1 copy, so the change might be less dramatic there. Still, the earlier deadlines will mean less timely news in the printed newspaper and bolster reader reliance on online briefs and updates for the latest news. It will probably also force the sister papers to rely more on each others copy to fill in gaps.
The Inland Division copy-desk merger will also result in earlier "off the floor" deadlines - that's the point at which stories need to have been edited, copy edited and set for print. Once again, the memo:
Beginning Jan. 26, the deadline for the Sun will be 9:30 p.m. and the deadline for Whittier will be 9:45 p.m. The Bulletin deadline will remain 10 p.m. Pasadena's deadline will remain 10:45 p.m., while Tribune's will change to 11:30 p.m.The Sun's deadline comes before most city council and county board meetings are even at their half-way points, so readers will have to go online to find out what happened the night before.
The gaps left after the Bulletin deadline might be designed to accommodate further copy desk consolidation, with the other members of LANG - Torrance Daily Breeze, Los Angeles Daily News and Long Beach Press-Telegram - possibly joining the uber desk in the next few months.
Read the full memo here.
*The original post listed an incorrect deadline time here. The information is now correct.
Posts
29 comments:
I am beginning to think the only people who care about this or lang in general or newspapers are those of us who, or use to work at them. So news will become less important to help with the copy desks merging. Very soon it will all be a moot point as they manage themselves right out of business.
good thing news never happens after 2 p.m.!
A couple more "good business" steps and they won't even be newspapers anymore.
They certainly no longer matter in their communities.
A few years ago, the Sun and Bulletin moved their deadlines up forcing the staff to have most everything in by some absurb time. The deadlines were staggered and required that the bulk of the stories be in by the earlier deadlines.
Effective immediately each publisher should remove the word "new" when referring to the newspaper.
You seem to think the publishers have a say in what goes on. They don't. All they do is follow orders. Their meetings in person or on the phone are a riot. Revenue is down, where are we going to cut. It is like rats and a sinking ship. They are waiting for a miracle that won't happen and none of them know how to be a rain man.
God, the idiocy of the early deadlines is truly mind-boggling.
Trying to get all your calls returned by noon so that you can write a coherent story by 2 p.m.? Are you kidding me?
If you needed any more evidence that these people don't give a shit about the quality of the "news" "content" in their papers, here it is.
What a fucking waste of resources. What an insult to both readers and employees.
There's just no point anymore. This can't be called journalism.
It takes a full 8 hours to edit and layout a story? How bad is that copy? Or how slow are those editors?
anyone know about the DN, PT and breeze? when are joining this?
It takes a full 8 hours to edit and layout a story? How bad is that copy? Or how slow are those editors?
Or how small are they planning on making that consolidated desk?
Maybe, just maybe, they're not going to keep enough people around to do the job right?
All yall pay atenshun now. These aint the news, this are the daily ads. How many motha-fakn stories are good ones anyways cause all I see all the time is BS ads pumped up as fakin stories. And ads are always the same, so deadline shmedline, you all aint jurnalists but just a bunch of copy righters who dont give a crap about your work anyways. have you all read you're stories recetnly?
Before Media News came along, people at these papers were able to take great pride in their work. In fact, in many situations, they were in competition with each other -- PT vs. Breeze, Bulletin vs. Sun, etc.
Now most of them are just hanging on because they have families to support. You can't blame them for asking "how high" when Lambert says to jump.
Fortunately, President Franklin Delano Obama plans to create 2.5 million new government jobs.
if lambert says how high, at least the answer is not very.
beware: major layoffs coming.
Earlier deadlines is going to further neuter MediaNews' so called papers.
The so called readership of the lang papers truly doesn't give a crap. Every ABC statement that comes out tells that continuing story. Bad newspapers, bad leadership, bad company, bad ownership.
Is the printing going on in San Bernardino since they have the better presses? And The Sun deadline is 9:30 p.m.?
So now it's Obama's fault? WTF?
Waa! Waa! Waa!
still just the beginning of an ugly year. look for printing to be outsourced and valencia plant closed and sold. not in the to distant future. lots of layoffs and still won't be enough to quell the losses that are mounting up weekly in bigger and bigger numbers. their boat has to many holes and no pails left.
My suggestion is to outsource the management team to some 15 year olds with a number two pencil.
this is a great blog but why are the posters just running off at the mouth and sounding so unprofessional? how about some intelligent posts, with CREDIBLE info, not just idle gossip and speculation with no merit.
There aren't any credible posts because the people who know what's going on are scared to death to lose their jobs. They have to post anonymously so that they won't get on Lambert's bad side. Look what happened to Steve Dilbert.
It's all moot unless you still work there and need to support yourself and your family. But the company appears to be in exit, and that appears to be that.
this is a great blog but why are the posters just running off at the mouth and sounding so unprofessional? how about some intelligent posts, with CREDIBLE info, not just idle gossip and speculation with no merit.
If LANG showed their employees even a modicum of respect and human dignity, we wouldn't have to rely on rumors. But when they run things like a fascist regime where you're constantly in the dark, treated with suspicion, and informed only at the last minute and always as an ultimatum, then rumors are what we have to work with.
Bank on production being shut at Valencia. Bank on a number of other jobs to be outsourced soon too. There is no end to this until those in charge are gone and someone who understands how to run a business is running LANG.
to 1:35 am: We're treated with suspicion because internal memos end up in this and other blogs, because we go up in arms over rumors/hearsay before we confirm first if what we hear is true or if the source is reliable, because we slander people and call them names when we know they can't defend themselves, etc. etc. It's like we've forgotten our training as journalists. I'm a peon in this company, too. But I understand that right now (and I'm talking RIGHT NOW), layoffs are happening all over in all industries. It's naive to take layoffs personally in these times. Or haven't you heard of other companies that are laying off thousands in one day?
the problem here is that these are wounds that are self inflicted by a group of leaders who should know better. when the daily news very quickly is 20 pages for the entire paper and a good chunk of your support that is left like the i.t. dept is outsourced they won't need many people to do anything.
Post a Comment