MediaNews consolidation plans pick up speed

The universal copy desk is on the march. Already implemented within the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, parent-company MediaNews Group has approached the Newspaper Guild about the potential for similar consolidation plans on a national level. Whether the company wants consolidated copy desks at regional hubs, as Gannett has planned, or something more drastic remains to be seen.

The changes would undoubtedly save money, make it easier to share content and allow for the outsourcing of some functions. It would also make it easier to implement chain-wide changes, such as adopting an MNG mobile news service or a pay wall strategy. And, of course, it would make any other consolidation or merger proposals easier to implement.

The guild press release follows:

MEDIANEWS APPROACHES GUILD ABOUT POTENTIAL PRODUCTION CONSOLIDATION

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEB. 11, 2011

 

WASHINGTON, DC -- MediaNews Group Executive Chairman Dean Singleton has contacted national leadership of The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) to discuss a potential national consolidation of the company's copy desks, pagination and front-end production.

 

We are seeking additional information from MediaNews to better understand what is being considered. At this point, we have no information to assess the timing of such a change, how many newspapers might be affected, or what such a radical shift in production would mean for current employees.

 

A union task force is being established consisting of leaders from all the Guild-represented work sites at MediaNews, including locations in Denver; York, Pa.; Northern and Southern California; and St. Paul, Minn. We hope to reach out to newsrooms at non-represented MediaNews operations as well. Our goal is to preserve jobs and quality journalism while engaging constructively with MediaNews.

 

We will keep our members and communities informed as we learn more details.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Bernie Lunzer, TNG-CWA President, 202-434-7175

Layoffs at the Ventura County Star

The layoffs continue at the Ventura County Star. Sports columnist David Lassen got word Tuesday that he'd been fired - a month shy of his 25th anniversary with the paper. He's posted a two-part farewell to readers (links here and here). Here's an excerpt:

The meeting was brief, mostly because I was stunned. I was told the envelope contained the “involuntary separation plan,” information on filing for unemployment, and my final paycheck — two weeks’ pay en lieu of two weeks’ notice, plus settlement of outstanding vacation time. And details of the severance package — which could be worse, but could obviously be a whole lot better for someone cast out into a state with 10 percent unemployment, and a resume of work in a dying industry that dates to age 14. ...

I e-mailed the Lakers to cancel my seat request for Thursday’s game with Boston, one of four assignments that had already been on my schedule. The other three were high school playoff games — exactly the kind of thing that are supposed to be crucial to the “hyperlocal” strategy that is the buzzword of most newspapers, but that would no doubt go uncovered now, because there was one less person to cover them. ...

Newspaper layoffs aren’t really that big a deal any more, in the grand scheme of things. There’s not anyone in the business who hasn’t seen a friend downsized, or a face-of-the-paper veteran summarily dismissed, even though those are the kind of people that give papers their distinguishing features, make them unique in a corporatizing climate of sameness.

The County Star's sports and features editors reportedly received pink slips this week as well, and the entire copy desk and design department got laid off as the Scripps-owned paper prepares to outsource all news desk functions to a "universal copy desk" in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Former San Bernardino Sun sports writer Paul Oberjuerge penned a farewell to Lassen here.

Interstate copy editing

E.W. Scripps plans to consolidate the copy desks for its California and Washington newspapers and locate the centralized desk in Texas, according to former Ventura County Star cartoonist Steve Greenberg.

He writes:

The E.W. Scripps Company, publisher of my former employer, the Ventura County Star, has decided to “consolidate” the desk functions — including the page designers — of its three West Coast properties (the Star, the Redding Record Searchlight and the Kitsap Sun in Washington) into one department in… Corpus Christi, TX. Yup, Texas.

At least 15 copy editors and page designers (some people do both jobs) dealing with news, features, business and sports will see their positions eliminated, along with the news wire editor. Supposedly they can apply for jobs in Corpus Christi… but then, that means living in Corpus Christi.

-snip-

What does this mean to the newspapers? It means there won’t be local people to catch local place names, history or other regional idiosyncrasies that good local copy editors can catch, nor any real “institutional memory” of local people and institutions.

For example, the city of Ojai (pronounced OH-high) in Ventura County has a now-closed burger shack, the O-Hi Frostie. An out-of-town copy editor likely wouldn’t accept the deviant spelling of the latter to see print even though it would’ve been correct. Would they know that “Mandalay Bay” and “RiverPark” are part of Oxnard? Would they think the name “Oxnard” is too weird and maybe it should be “Oxford” instead?

As Greenberg notes, MediaNews Group pioneered the consolidated copy desk, having merged multiple news desks into one for its Southern California papers and one for its Northern California papers. The company has yet to cross state - or international - lines.

(Comment on Greenberg's post: "Is it true that the Ventura paper is changing its name to the Ventura County Lone Star?")

One for all

Tomorrow, April 20, is the first day of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group's universal copy desk experiment. Copy editors from the Daily Breeze, Press-Telegram and Daily News will now make the daily commute to West Covina to join a single news desk serving LANG's nine newspapers. It will be interesting to see how this works out, and whether more consolidation plans are in the works.

Universal copy desk*

I'm told April 20 is the day copy editors for the Los Angeles Daily News, Torrance Daily Breeze, and Long Beach Press-Telegram will begin making the commute to West Covina to work on LANG's new universal copy desk. Not everyone is going, of course. Some editors decided to take buyouts rather than make the move.

The six papers that make up LANG's Inland Division merged desks in January.

*Update: In regards to consolidated copy desks, remember when Dean Singleton said this?: "One thing we're exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews ... maybe even offshore."

One desk, many papers

The universal copy desk is gaining popularity as a cost-savings device for the big chains. Gannett recently penned a memo outlining a plan to create a single copy desk to serve four regional newspapers in New Jersey. The company also signaled that it might merge the news desks of several newspapers in Indianapolis, according to Gannett Blog.

Daily News to cut again

The Southern California Media Guild says another eight newsroom staffers could lose their jobs at the Los Angeles Daily News. From the Daily News[room] blog:

The initial number of employees to be laid off is listed as eight, with a more detailed list of positions to follow. It's said these layoffs are separate from the copy desk transfer, and presumably any losses that may occur as a result of the transfer.

The transfer reference to here is a proposal to create a single LANG-wide copy desk to be based in West Covina. I posted on the latest rumblings about the plan earlier today.

Roiling in Woodland Hills

According to the Daily News[room] blog, Los Angeles Daily News Editor Carolina Garcia on Friday told reporters and editors that the planned copy desk merger with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune will take place in March. She also told staffers to expect more layoffs, but said the paper would offer buyouts first.

The Daily News[room] reports:

The potential number of layoffs would be dependent on how many employees accepted the buyout offer, but initial reports suggest the target is five or six.

The details and terms of the buyout package are unclear at this time, but several employees have stepped forward in response to the offer.

Do you know the way to San Gabe?

LA Observed obtained an e-mail from the Southern California Media Guild that would indicate the cake is not yet baked for LANG's universal copy desk. According to guild rep Vicki Di Paolo, Senior Vice President Jim Janiga confirmed reports that LANG's Inland Division will merge news/copy desks this month, but said the Daily News, Daily Breeze and Press-Telegram will be added only if the inland merger "proves successful."

Here's the e-mail:

Hi everyone, In a meeting late this afternoon I was told by SVP Jim Janiga that the San Bernardino Sun, the Redlands Daily Facts, the Inland Daily Bulletin, the Pasadena Star-News and the Whittier Daily News copy desks will be moved/centralized in San Gabriel. The company plans to reduce the number of employees both in managment and the staff who perform the work. Janiga did not have exact numbers but did say the employer may have a problem if current staffers were not willing to commute to San Gabriel. He also stated that if this proves successful the company plans to also move the Daily Breeze and the Daily News there in a few months - most likely April. I understand the information above conflicts with what Daily News members were told by Carolina* this afternoon. I am sending Janiga an email questioning which statements are most accurate. In unity, Vicki

Since the Inland Division's earlier copy desk merger proved unsuccessful, it's unclear what new criteria will be used to evaluate this latest effort. Maybe if enough money is saved in stage one, or if advertising picks up precipitously in early 2009, or if too few copy editors agree to relocate, there will be no further consolidation in April. However, from what I hear, top editors at the Daily Breeze and Daily News seemed convinced the universal copy desk is inevitable after meeting this week with LANG management in West Covina.

Note: For the sake of clarity, the universal copy desk would be located at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, which is headquartered in the city of West Covina. There is also a city called San Gabriel in the San Gabriel Valley.

*Carolina Garcia, editor of the LA Daily News.