From BANG to LANG?

MediaNews Group's decision to merge its 12 Bay Area newspapers into three has led to speculation that the company could do something similar with its nine Southern California papers, collectively known as the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.

I can only speculate myself, but I see the potential for structural mimicry if MediaNews succeeds in its stalled bid to buy the Orange County Register.

With the Register, LANG would look more like the Bay Area News Group did before yesterday's merger, with the Register playing the role of the Mercury News: a large paper with a statewide brand in a relatively affluent county that could serve as an editorial center of gravity for a larger region. The LANG papers already exist as three clusters of three, a structure that could be collapsed into two or three newspapers.

However, MediaNews would have to have a reason to further consolidate LANG. One obvious reason would be a desire to cut staff to lower costs - the BANG merger led to 120 layoffs. I might be wrong, but I think LANG was already leaner than BANG in terms of staff and so might not be able to stand such a huge "streamlining." (Indeed, the Register itself might be more vulnerable if cuts are a priority.)

Another reason could be that MediaNews actually believes the BANG model is more efficient and effective: Fewer brand names, a more uniform editorial approach, better positioning to do mobile, etc.

One reason MediaNews might leave LANG alone, even after a Register deal, would be to give it time to evaluate the Bay Area merger to see what works and what doesn't. Undoubtedly, there will be backlash from readers and circulation will probably drop (though the consolidation will mask some of this). But this feels like a post-print production plan and so BANG might be the guinea pig that gets isolated and studied until it recovers - or doesn't.

Singleton to step down as MediaNews CEO*

There's a massive shakeup in the boardroom of MediaNews Group. Chairman and CEO Dean Singleton has announced he will relinquish his position atop what is now the second-largest newspaper chain in the country. Singleton, who has come to symbolize aggressive cost cutting, consolidation and cheapness in the newspaper industry, will become executive chairman of the company.

Additionally, President Joseph Lodovic said he will resign, effective immediately. An interim president has been named in his place.

MediaNews has launched a search to replace the two men.

From the Denver Post:

MediaNews also said it will launch a search for the newly created position of chief revenue officer. Michael Sileck, a MediaNews director, will serve in that position on an interim basis.

"In light of the significant opportunities and challenges we and the industry are facing, our company is best served by having separate executives focus their full efforts on both the strategic landscape, and on implementing an effective plan to expand our revenue streams and meet our operational and efficiency goals," Singleton said in a statement.

MediaNews also named three new directors: Heath Freeman, Bruce Schnelwar and Eric Krauss.

*Update: The Post article does not offer any background on the three new directors. According to Silicon Valley Business Journal, Freeman is managing director of Alden Global Capital; Schelwar is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Smith Management LLC as well as managing director of Alden Global Capital, and Krauss is chief financial officer of Action Sports Inc.

When financiers get put in charge, and a chief revenue officer is hired, one can be fairly certain that the banks that helped bail the company out of last year's bankruptcy are not happy with performance. As I wrote in March, "Bank of America and the other major creditors probably won't be very patient about seeing returns on their investment after forgiving [$765 million of] debt." And, apparently, they weren't.

What this means for a company that already has furloughs and a vacation freeze on tap is hard to know. Further consolidation almost seems impossible - nevertheless, that's the plan. And Singleton will be in charge. Here's the company press release, explaining Singleton's role now that he has more free time on his hands:

...focus on opportunities to optimize the company’s portfolio of properties and consolidation opportunities in the newspaper industry.

Porfolios are rarely optimized through investment and adding newsroom staff.

MySpace cuts again

MySpace will cut 500 jobs from its worldwide operations, AP confirms. A good number of those people work at the company's headquarters in Beverly Hills. The decision was expected and comes two years after another mass layoff, which sent 420 people out the door. MySpace is owned by News Corp.

Five to go from Sac Bee newsroom

The Sacramento Bee has instituted another round of layoffs. Twenty-nine people will be cut, either through layoffs or buyouts, including five newsroom employees. Sports editor Bill Bradley is one of those losing his job, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.

Four in the morning

1. Twenty-eight-year old Pulitzer winner uses his prize money to establish a fund for rural reporters. IRJ

2. Las Vegas Review-Journal defends its practice of suing over alleged copyright violations. LV Sun

3. Thank god someone is finally giving corporations a chance to be heard. Forbes will run corporate/marketing/advertising blogs alongside staff blogs to make sure these afflicted get the comfort they so sorely need. AdAge

4. I guess since so many journalists have already left, Sidney Harman won't have to fire that many people at Newsweek. Poynter

Four in the afternoon

1. NPR is looking for an ombudsman (or woman). NPR

2. NBC News is building newsroom in Conan O'Brien's old studio. LAT

3. The Washington Post on the downward side of the arc. CJR

4. Irony blushes as a judge bars "reporters" from a public auction of two Philadelphia newspapers. WSJ

Miami chop house

The Miami Herald is cutting 49 employees, including seven full time and two part timers. Poynter has the memos.

Cause you can't fit as many people into a smart phone

As Gannett goes mobile with USA Today as part of a massive restructuring plan, it is also going smaller in terms of staff. As AP reports:

The makeover outlined Thursday will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke told The Associated Press. That translates into a 9 percent reduction in USA Today's work force of 1,500 employees. Hunke didn't specify which departments would be hardest hit.

The reorganization plan aims to make the paper more adaptable to smart phones and iPads. These changes will also create a different way of organizing news production and bring advertising into the room. Again, from AP:

The newsroom instead will be broken up into a cluster of "content rings" each headed up by editors who will be appointed later this year. The newly created content group will be overseen by Susan Weiss, who had been managing editor of the Life section. As executive editor of content, Weiss will report to USA Today Editor John Hillkirk....

In a move that may raise conflict-of-interest questions, Weiss will have a "collaborative relationship" with USA Today's newly appointed vice president of business development, Rudd Davis[.]

I don't know what a content ring is, but I do know that everyone is collaborating these days. Competitors collaborate. News and salespeople collaborate. Media owners are hoping the collaboration orgy produces enough new streams of revenue that a sustainable business will emerge. It is, of course, ugly to watch.

Earlier: Gannett announced new copy desk hubs for its other newspapers and the launch of a new high school sports site.

Newsroom cuts in San Diego

The creation of the "Jr. Staff Writer" at the San Diego Union-Tribune isn't as funny as it first appeared. Apparently the lower paying position coincides with yet another round of newsroom layoffs. Between 34 and 40 reporters, web editors and copy editors could lose their jobs, according to NBC San Diego.

Four today

1. California Watch, run by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, has hired three new reporters: former Los Angeles Daily Journal and LA Times reporter Joanna Lin; Pulitzer Prize-winner Ryan Gabrielson, and reporter Susanne Rust. LA Observed

2. The San Diego Union-Tribune appears to be contemplating more newsroom cuts. fishbowlLA

3. Blogger Danny Sullivan accuses the "mainstream media" of doing what he claims the mainstream media accuses bloggers of doing: taking a scoop without giving due credit. Daggle

4. The San Diego News Network, bolstered by big donations and rosy talk, has followed its cousin, the Orange County News Network, into oblivion. All writers and freelancers were fired as of June 1. San Diego Reader

OC Register shrinks again

According to the SportsJournalists.com message board, the Orange County Register eliminated 30 positions this month, including 10 from the content side. Of those, seven were open positions that were eliminated. Three people were fired, including UCLA sports reporter Al Balderas.

From poster "playthrough":

This comes shortly after the fourth-quarter economic targets were achieved and everybody received bonuses. But in 2009, there was a one-week furlough and a 5 percent pay cut. And, currently, the entire floor of the building that houses the Content staff is undergoing a significant remodeling projected rumored to be in the $500,000 range.

Also, Freedom's bankruptcy, which previously had received court approval, is supposed to be finalized next week.

Keep in mind that the posted information comes from an anonymous source. I decided to link to it since the message thread includes a memo from OC Register editor Ken Brusic that mentions furloughs and possible layoffs. If I get any further information or corrections, I will post them prominently.

Variety fires critics, will use freelancers

Variety has fired its theater and film critics and will use freelance reviews from now on. LA Observed has the story here.

A new Times on Monday*

Los Angeles Times subscribers will find a smaller, narrower newspaper starting Monday. The changes include the elimination of the Monday business section, an inch cut to the paper's width and earlier print deadlines. To compensate for the last, the paper will launch LATExtra, which is supposed to catch late-breaking stories that don't make the regular edition.

*Some of the changes won't take effect until tomorrow, according to LA Observed.

P-E lays off two

The Riverside Press-Enterprise laid off two newsroom employees yesterday: Southwest area reporter Aaron Burgin and photographer Rodrigo Pena.

Possible layoffs at the Bee

The Sacramento Bee plans to cut 25 jobs in the next couple of weeks. Management will first offer buyouts and will resort to layoffs if not enough people agree to leave. Sac Bee

Buyouts at the Star-Ledger

Yet another Newhouse newspaper has offered buyouts employees as a way to shrink the payroll. The Star-Ledger in New Jersey wants 50 people to "voluntarily" leave their jobs to avoid the possibility of layoffs, the New York Times reports.

Here's a portion of the memo from Publisher George Arwady:

Full-time, non-represented employees can apply to receive 2 weeks’ pay for every year of completed service, capped at 26 weeks’ pay, along with medical coverage for the severance period. The newspaper reserves the right to reject applications based upon business needs.

We sincerely hope that we meet our staffing goals through this voluntary buyout offer. If we do not, we will need to resort to other ways of reducing our employee costs, which could include involuntary layoffs.

The paper eliminated 150 positions through buyouts last year.

Elsewhere in the Newhouse chain (aka Advance Publications)...

The New Orleans Times-Picayune recently made all employees eligible for a buyout package equal to one year's salary.

The Oregonian's interim publisher released a buyout plan last month and hinted strongly that layoffs would follow if too few people took the offer. To wit: "If a significant number of you accept the offer it could minimize or eliminate the need for layoffs down the line." The interim publisher did not say how many jobs were on the line but set a deadline of November 9 for employees to accept a buyout.

Cuts, consolidation and reorganization at the Oregonian

With a buyout offer on the table and the specter of layoffs looming, the executive editor of the Oregonian newspaper yesterday released a memo - obtained by Oregon Media Central - that outlines a major restructuring of the paper's newsroom.

From the memo:

We are committed to the principles and values that have defined print journalism and will not shirk our responsibility to serve as a watchdog on government and the powerful. At the same time, we need to evolve our journalism, embrace the two-way nature of the Web world and be even more responsive to a public that expects more of a conversation with us.

-snip-

We will not abandon our foundation of beat reporting, but beats will be redefined along areas of expertise of most interest to our readers. Some beats will be eliminated because with fewer people we cannot cover everything that we have in the past.

The smaller newsroom will be split into two parts. The first, with between 60 and 70 staffers, will focus on "local expertise and enterprise reporting." The second, with about 40 reporters and editors, including interns, will focus on "community." There will also be an "editing and producing" hub that will endeavor to push stories out onto the web more quickly with fewer rigid deadlines. As with most newspaper cuts these days, the change also means fewer copy editors and designers to check quality. Again, from the memo:

We also need to streamline editing operations and simplify newspaper production since we will be losing many copy editors and designers. We must move toward “one-touch editing.”

In addition, all photographers and photo editors will need to be trained in both still and video.

The Oregonian is owned by the Newhouse family, which operates the paper through its Advance Publications company. Advance also runs Condé Nast Publications, which recently shuttered Gourmet and Portfolio magazines and which has made significant cuts to many of its other magazine operations. Advance newspapers include the New Orleans Times Picayune, Cleveland Plain Dealer and New Jersey Star-Ledger. The Times-Picayune recently offered buyouts to all employees.

The business end of journalism

As newsrooms shrink to keep pace with shrinking profits, the business side of journalism has become increasingly dominant over the editorial side. Which probably explains the itchy trigger finger firing of Brian Nutting at Congressional Quarterly.

After he wrote an email that demanded the company explain why 44 newsroom staffers were laid off after the company merged with Roll Call, Nutting was told he could either resign or be fired. He was fired.

From the Washington Post:

Nutting said he wrote the e-mail in some haste, after walking out of a mandatory meeting called to discuss the layoff announcement. He said he did not expect his missive to go beyond his newsroom ("I'm a Luddite; I never thought about it"). But he took some issue with the notion that he was insubordinate: "I don't know what the definition of insubordination is," he said. "I guess it's whatever the employer says it is. I just asked some inconvenient questions."

At the moment, he said, has no job prospects and doubts he'll be able to continue in journalism, given the economy, his age and the declining state of the news business.

Nutting said he volunteered to be laid off last week if it meant sparing the jobs of two of his reporters, who had been laid off from other jobs. Both of the reporters were let go anyway, Nutting said.

Blood on the Hill

Politico reports that 44 editorial employees were fired today as a consequence of the merger of Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call. Both of publications cover Capitol Hill. The mash-up publication will still have 184 staffers.

Cuts at the Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle laid off another five editorial employees in recent days. More layoffs are expected, but not in the editorial department.