Aug 11, 2011

Four Thursday

1. Science writer Thomas Maugh departed the Los Angeles Times in what is expected to be an unrelenting month of layoffs and buyouts at the paper. LAO

2. Alan Mutter remains bearish on the newspaper business, despite all the cutbacks. Mutter

3. The Onion wants a paywall, but the Washington Post wants to stay free (for now). Romenesko

4. Gannett's Florida Today laid off 25 percent of its newsroom, bringing the total number of employees to 57. Gannett Blog

4 comments:

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

As long as Plaschke and Simers get nailed, I'm down wid it, homeies.

Anonymous said...

Joe - Be nice. Not everyone can clean up on Jeopardy on the side like you.

Anonymous said...

Mutter has it dead on. Hope is not a business plan and hope has left the building. If newspaper revenues have been more than halved in the past decade, that curve will continue to steepen ove the next five years. There is no premium left for newspapers. Even the leaders who ran the business 30 plus years ago in a much different enviornment couldn't compete today with the same business model. The difference is that they would at least be trying to do things that made sense. The best analogy I can come up with is that newspapers are in a concrete bunker with a ten foot ceiling. The water is rising faster and faster and they have about a foot left of air space. Drown change or leave.

Anonymous said...

Times barred overtime today - you are supposed to walk away and let managers handle it if you hit 8 hours. This after massive newshole and freelance cuts.