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.

Ambinder, Madhani to National Journal

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder and Aamer Madhani of USA Today have been hired to lead the National Journal's White House coverage. Madhani is scheduled to join the National Journal next month and Ambinder will join after the November elections.

This is part of a massive talent hunt by the National Journal, which recently named Ron Brownstein as the editorial director of the National Journal Group.

Some of the other recent hires at the Journal include, "the Wall Street Journal's Yochi Dreazen, Sue Davis and Fawn Johnson; Politico's Josh Kraushaar and Coral Davenport; and Campaigns and Elections' Jeremy Jacobs.

Circulation drop*, **

The average weekday circulation for the daily newspapers fell 8.7 percent over the last six months, according to the most recent ABC report.

Of the big papers, the San Francisco Chronicle and Dallas Morning News did the worst, dropping 22.6 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively. The Washington Post and USA Today also saw double-digit declines, with the Post down 13.1 percent and USA Today dropping 13.6 percent. The New York Times beat the average, but only slightly, with a drop of 5.1 percent.

The Wall Street Journal was the only major newspaper to see a bump in circulation, though by less than 1 percent. Most of the increase was attributed to a boost in the paper's online subscription base.

*Added from LA Observed: [The] San Diego Union-Tribune ... saw its circulation plunge 23%**. The Los Angeles Times lost 14.7% to reach 616,606 daily (down 7.6% Sunday to 941,914.)

**CORRECTION: As a reader correctly pointed out, the numbers for the Union-Tribune are wrong. The San Diego daily saw its circulation drop 8.7 percent

The secret lives of private jets

ProPublica got its hands on a list of privately owned corporate jets that were kept off the government's air-traffic tracking system and so could not be tracked by the public. The list includes jets owned by several newspaper companies:

Owners of newspapers that have fought for access to public records, including Journal Enterprises, owner of the Albuquerque Journal, and Sam Zell, chairman of the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Journal Enterprises told ProPublica it would take its plane off the list. Sam Zell's Tribune Co. declined to comment.

Gannett, which owns USA Today, also owns a blocked jet. USA Today ran a version of the ProPublica story and included this fact in the article.

(found via Romenesko)

Gannett thaws frozen wages

The Gannett newspaper chain is apparently ready to lift a wage freeze implemented roughly a year ago, the Gannettoid blog reports:

Gannett has not commented on the expiration of the wage freeze, but executives have confirmed to Gannettoid.com the budgets are set with room for wage increases to begin in April.

Thawing wages will be welcome, but pitfalls remain:

Despite the upcoming return of raises, Gannett remains in a cutting mode. The round of layoffs [newspaper division president Bob] Dickey announced over the summer has yet to complete, employees are required to take five furlough days during the first quarter and the company is considering whether or not to impose another week of furloughs in the second quarter. The announcement last month that Westchester would lay off 166 employees when it outsources its printing is a part of the 1,400 planned layoffs Dickey announced over the summer.

Gannett is the largest newspaper chain in the country and USA Today is its flagship. Locally, Gannett owns the Desert Sun in Palm Springs.

A little more sunshine

The White House will make public most of the names of people who visit the White House on political business. This is a change from the confidentiality policy of the Bush administration and comes in response to several lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. USA Today

Cuts underway at Gannett newspapers

The expected layoffs at the nation's largest newspaper chain are now underway. Gannett Blog is keeping a running tally of the layoffs - USA Today and the Detroit Free Press are exempted. Between 1,000 and 2,000 people are expected to lose their jobs. As of now, the total is 1,041.

Massive layoffs coming to Gannett

As reported on the Gannett Blog last week, Gannett Company plans to institute massive layoffs at its newspapers, and now comes word that an official announcement will drop in the next few days.

The Wall Street Journal reports that between 1,000 and 2,000 people will lose their jobs. The company's flagship paper, USA Today, will be spared.

Gannett has created a pile of pink slips in recent years. Between 2007 and 2008, the company eliminated 10,000 jobs.

From the New York Times:

Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and 84 other U.S. papers, saw newspaper advertising revenue fall 34.1 percent in the first quarter, compared with the period a year earlier. Analysts say second-quarter numbers will be similarly weak. The company has taken some drastic steps to lower expenses, including cutting home delivery of The Detroit Free Press from daily to three days a week, and stopping print publication of The Tucson Citizen.

(h/t Romenesko)

More cuts coming to Gannett

Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in America and parent of USA Today, plans another round of layoffs at the start of July, according to reports from Gannett Blog. The Business Courier in Cincinnati - Gannett also owns the Cincinnati Enquirer - summed up what's at stake:

A report by the Gannett Blog on Friday references a memo from Gannett CFO Gracia Martore that projects 4,500 newspaper layoffs throughout the Gannett chain in July as well as a 10 percent pay cut for its broadcast employees. The Gannett Blog report also says Gannett workers will not face any more furloughs this year.

Chopping 4,500 jobs would amount to an 11-percent reduction in the company's worldwide workforce. Gannett Blog's Jim Hopkins says the company is probably aiming to save the financial equivalent of 4,500 jobs (roughly $338 million, he estimates), so the number of layoffs could change.

Four in the evening

1. Los Angeles Times employees got a scare Monday when they arrived at work and found their ID cards wouldn't get them into the building. From Ed Padgett's Pressmens blog:

Why would employees think they had been let go you ask? Last year two employees were not notified of their job loss until they arrived at the newspaper. When their I.D. cards did not work, security gave them the bad news that they had lost their jobs.

(h/t fishbowlLA)

2. USA Today is the latest to offer subscribers an electronic edition of the printed newspaper. LANG launched theirs earlier this week.

3. What an emotional world. Clay Shirky says our penchant for instant news updates to be rebroadcast over social media sites "favors excitement over objectivity."

4. A study finds that newspapers salaries rose 2.1 percent between 2008 and 2009. Experienced reporters saw a 2 percent increase and interactive producers saw gains of 13 to 14 percent. It's not clear whether eliminating jobs might have boosted the averages.

Gannett Blog to close up shop

Jim Hopkins of Gannett Blog said he will stop writing about the turmoil of the Gannett newspaper and put the blog in deep freeze come October. Hopkins, a former reporter and editor at USA Today, cited the psychological toll - he's headed to Ibiza:

[T]he tone of comments shifted in December -- for entirely understandable reasons. Many of Gannett's 41,500 employees came to understand what was taking place in the company. They are now fear-filled, desperate, angry -- even suicidal, on occasion. Blogging can be very stressful, of course. Now, I'm finding it may be psychologically harmful, too.

Gravity assaults America's newspaper

This picture of the fallen "U" from USA Today's Virginia headquarters does a fair job summing up the kind of year the newspaper industry has had.

The free market criminal

America's paper looks at a new wave of cybercriminals - the good news, you're no longer worth their time:

In the past year, cybercriminals have begun to infiltrate corporate tech systems as never before. Knowing that some governments and companies will pay handsomely for industrial secrets, data thieves are harvesting as much corporate data as they can, in anticipation of rising demand.

-snip-

Elite cybergangs can no longer make great money stealing and selling personal identity data. Thousands of small-time, copycat data thieves have oversaturated the market, driving prices to commodity levels. Credit card account numbers that once fetched $100 or more, for instance, can be had for $10 or less, says Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist at IBM ISS, IBM's tech security division.

Dan the Gunmaker

Dan Cooper, founder and (former) CEO of Montana-based Cooper Firearms, a maker of fine rifles, has been forced to resign his post for his announced support of Barack Obama, USA Today reports.

Cooper, a lifelong Republican, said he felt the GOP had ventured too far right in recent years and supports the Democratic candidate's position on the war. In response, incensed gun owners and conservative bloggers formed an online firing squad and blasted the 38-person company with boycott threats.

The company responded:

"The employees, shareholders and board of directors of Cooper Firearms of Montana do not share the personal political views of Dan Cooper. Although we all believe everyone has a right to vote and donate as they see fit, it has become apparent that the fallout may affect more than just Mr. Cooper. It may also affect the employees and the shareholders of Cooper Firearms. The board of directors has asked Mr. Cooper to resign as President."

Cooper acquiesced and left the company. However, he indicated that, once the smoke clears, he might take legal action, telling the paper, "stronger measures may be forthcoming."