Three things I read on Romenesko today

The Associated Press countersues Echo Park-based artist Shepard Fairey, who sued AP after AP claimed he had infringed on its copyright for using an AP photo as the basis for his "Hope" Obama poster.

The Miami Herald slashes its workforce, becoming the latest McClatchy newspaper to do so. The paper will cut 175 employees and eliminate 30 vacant positions. The employees who remain will see a pay cut of either 5 or 10 percent, depending on how much they make. Also, the paper plans to shrink its print edition. In December, McClatchy put the Herald up for sale.

Lastly, a law professor at the University of Montana wants to shut down the college paper's weekly sex column because she doesn't like it. She's threatened to take her case to the Board of Regents... even the state Legislature if necessary! Apparently the professor doesn't teach constitutional law.

The wisdom of the axe

Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton and former LAT Editor Jim O'Shea discussed the wisdom of and prospects for making further newsroom cuts at the paper, and opine as to whether the Times should simply shut down the presses (the answer is no, because the print edition is still the real money maker). The two met at a conference at Harvard Law School.

Voila, convergence!

The individuated-newspaper initiative jogs a reader's memory of yet another mostly forgotten newspaper experiment. This time it's the CueCat, a bar-code reader that aimed to link the printed page to the World Wide Web.

From NAA's TechNews column:

Of course, all these technologies assume that you’re willing to read (or watch television) while hunched over your creaky computer table. As wireless advocates predict about the ’Net as a whole, print-to-Web technology will leap forward when it’s untethered from the PC and accessible anywhere.

The year 2000 never seemed so long ago.

Cash for stimulus*,**

The Pasadena Star-News reports on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan that allows cities without 'shovel-ready' transportation projects to sell their federal stimulus allotment to cities with projects for cash. Sierra Madre, La Habra Heights, Rolling Hills and Bradbury have already made deals.

*Updated 9:51 p.m.: The Los Angeles Times follows the Star-News story and finds that MTA officials suddenly aren't so comfortable with nature of some of the deals:

Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is responsible for distributing federal highway and transit stimulus funds to agencies in Los Angeles County, said they had no objection to this kind of exchange provided the projects that are to receive stimulus funds meet the federal criteria.

But officials sent a letter to city managers and others Tuesday saying that efforts by more municipalities to take the bartering process a step further will not be allowed.

**Updated March 11, 7:11 a.m.: The Star-News had a folo of its own. Apparently MTA staff just didn't understand what the MTA board wanted - and neither did the cities, where officials that had completed deals are freaking out. The MTA now says the deals are strictly limited to a dollar-for-dollar exchange of federal stimulus money for future allocations of county Measure R transportation funds.

Ad mix

LANG today announced several personnel and job title changes that will further consolidate the business operations of the Torrance Daily Breeze, Los Angeles Daily News and Long Beach Press-Telegram - now dubbed LANG's metro division. From the staff story:

"These moves are not only designed to get efficiencies throughout our organization, but to strategically position all three metro division companies with coordinated, cohesive strategies that will drive our sales and circulation efforts," said Edward R. Moss, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.

Broad makes noise about buying the Times

In a speech given Monday in New York, Eli Broad said he's still interested in buying the Los Angeles Times from the now-bankrupt Tribune Co. - not outright but through a partnership that includes his foundation.

From Reuters:

Broad, jokingly, said: "I've regained my sanity since then," referring to his earlier interest. But turning more serious, he added: "I would like to see our foundation and others join together to own the LA Times."

Even then, budget constraints would likely be at play. "I am not sure it can be a national paper, or have the same aspirations it once had," said Broad. He added that one way to broaden reach could be tie-up with The Washington Post Co.

Employee-owned papers?

The union at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer first broached the idea of buying its threatened newspaper from Hearst Corp last month. Now the union representing workers at the San Francisco Chronicle has approached Hearst with a purchase proposal of its own. Is this something more than an effort to gain a toehold in the negotiations if the paper is put up for sale?

From the SF Weekly:

The request was made in a written set of suggestions for keeping the paper alive that the California Media Workers Guild submitted to Hearst earlier this week. "It is our intention to form a public-labor partnership to explore the possibility of acquiring the Chronicle should the paper be offered for sale," the Guild proposal states. "If necessary, we will keep the paper going on borrowed funds and volunteer labor."

Borrowed funds and volunteer labor? The former sounds like what's already been going on and the latter sounds like the very thing the guild is trying to avoid.

Four in the morning

Gearing up for the Cold War in the 21st century ... Losing our religion ... Stuck in Lodi again ... Song of the Laid-Off Copy Editor's Lament

Cuts at the Sacto Bee*,**

The Sacramento Bee is expected to cut as many as 26 newsroom staffers next week. Those that remain will see their paychecks cut by six percent.

*Updated March 9, 5:42 p.m.: The Sacramento Bee will lose 29 newsroom staffers, the paper announced today, and 128 jobs overall. That brings the total number of layoffs to 301 since June.

The cuts are part of a company-wide downsizing plan. Owner McClatchy is slashing 15 percent of its total workforce, or about 1,600 jobs. McClatchy stock was trading at 45 cents this morning.

**Updated: The Fresno Bee is still working on its layoff plan.

Remaking America in the Great Recession

The corporate titans that once stood as symbols of America's economic might are faltering and the Great Job Purge of 2008-09 has spread from sea to shining sea, signaling a massive reshaping of the American economic landscape is underway. So what will the new America look like when the recovery finally comes? It's too big a question to answer, but one we're wrestling with at "To The Point." Here's a first attempt at getting our head around the issue.

Back to the future

The news of MediaNews Group's "I-News" inspired an anonymous commenter to dredge up an old and mostly forgotten newspaper experiment. It's rich:

Here's a must-watch newspaper 1981 experiment on YouTube that lasted about as long as Singleton's printer will: http://tinyurl.com/dn4avh

A tale of two job listings

To get an idea of how tough the job market for newspaper journalists has become in Southern California, a friend recently sent along the following two newspaper job listings.

The first comes from the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (circ. 5,860) in Sulphur Springs, Texas (pop. 15,387*). The paper is advertising for a full-time photographer - experience preferred but not required. The position pays between $25,000 and $30,000, or between $12 and $14.40 an hour.

The second listing comes from the Redlands Daily Facts (circ. 7,094) in Redlands, Calif. (pop. 71,807**). The paper is looking for a full-time reporter/photographer, some experience and a bachelor's degree in either journalism or communications are required. The hybrid position pays between $20,000 and $25,000, or between $9.60 and $12 an hour.

According to City-Data.com, the median price for a home in Sulphur Springs is $92,934, the median household income is $35,407 and the median rent is $546. City-Data says the median price for a home in Redlands is $419,900, the median income is $65,782 and the median rent is $985.

Given how volatile the real estate market is some of the City-Data stats are probably out of date, but you get the picture.

For some added context, when I first went to work for the twice-weekly Claremont Courier (circ. 5,000) in 1997, I was paid about $9 an hour.

*City-Data.com
**2008 California Department of Finance

Bellows dead at 86

Legendary editor Jim Bellows died today at the age of 86. He had suffered from Alzheimer's. From the Los Angeles Times:

Over two decades beginning in the 1960s, Bellows transformed the New York Herald Tribune, the Washington Star and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner into showcases of sophisticated writing and spunky reporting that often shamed their more formidable rivals.

Bellows could not save the papers, each of which ultimately sank under long-standing financial pressures. But he helped them shake their bones in their twilight years and revived a spirit of competition in what had been essentially one-newspaper towns. Along the way, he created an early platform for the innovative brand of nonfiction called New Journalism and saw his best ideas copied by the stronger paper across town.

Careful with that axe

Hearst has threatened to cut 225 jobs at the beleaguered San Francisco Chronicle unless the newsroom's union agrees to strict concessions - and then only 150 jobs will be cut. The East Bay Express reports:

The company demands include giving up senority rights and slashing vacation, sick time, and maternity/paternity leave. The company also wants the union to allow it to oustsource some jobs to nonunionized employees.

(h/t Romenesko)

Printless in Seattle

Rather than shutter the Seattle Post-Intelligence, Hearst seems poised to move ahead with an all-digital newspaper, the New York Times reports.

So, how many newsroom staffers will the digital P-I employ? According to Ken Doctor at Content Bridges, about 22 news staffers would remain, down from the 170 staffers the P-I has now.

Adding the cost savings from eliminating print to the revenue losses from going digital, Doctor guesstimates that digital papers would have to jettison roughly 75 percent of their staff to become a going concern. That's something to think about as MediaNews Group tinkers around with the "I-News" service (see below).

All the news you find fit to print

Los Angeles Daily News subscribers will be the first to test drive an electronic news-delivery system called "I-News" that Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group claims will turn readers into their own editors and publishers.

The "I" stands for "individuated" and the system purports to let subscribes choose which news stories they want to receive - and which ones they don't - via a stand-alone printer hooked up to a phone line or through a web-enabled device. The Daily News plans to test the "I-News" service sometime this summer.

From the Denver Post:

"You'll be able to choose the news you want about anything, whether you're a Detroit Red Wings fan or if you're green-oriented," said Mark Winkler, executive vice president of sales and marketing for MediaNews Group. "You become your own editor and publisher."

I-News gathers content not just from The Denver Post and other MediaNews papers but also from The Associated Press and other "scrapers of media," Wink ler said.

"We want to give the consumer exactly what they want," he said.

Time will tell whether this will be more useful to readers than Google Alerts and RSS feeds, and the story does not mention anything about subscription prices or delivery options. Will existing newspaper subscribers get the service for free? Can they dump the print edition and go with the e-edition only? Can new subscribers sign up for the e-edition without getting the printed newspaper? Will MediaNews offer these stand-alone printers for sale?

Then there's the moral hazard of turning newsrooms into buffet lines. If more subscribers want sports than City Hall coverage, will the paper cut resources to the latter? Or will revenues be shared equally? Is there a chance traditional beats will disappear if their numbers don't perform? Will subscribers have to pay more the more news topics they choose to receive?

Maybe more important in the short run, however, is a proposal mentioned toward the bottom of the Post's piece to cut the number of days the newspaper's print edition is published, as MediaNews has already done in Detroit:

One proposal, based on how well testing in Los Angeles goes, would be to print the newspaper only three days a week. That will already be the case with the two papers in Detroit, including MediaNews Group's Detroit News, starting March 31.

"Our greatest expense is printing and delivering a newspaper," Winkler said. "Eliminating it four days a week would be significant."

Layoffs at the Press-Enterprise*

Responding to an edict handed down from parent-company A.H. Belo, the Riverside Press-Enterprise started another round of layoffs on Wednesday. I haven't heard how many positions are being cut but the names are beginning to trickle in. Yesterday, Executive News Editor Barbara Tarshes was handed a pink slip. Here are a few additional names to add to the list:

Richard Fisher, assistant managing editor
Glenn Gullickson, city editor
Cindy Martinez Rhodes, reporter
Imran Vittachi, reporter
Greg Vojtko, photographer
Zeke Minaya, SB County reporter
Melanie Ladonga, news assistant
Jessican Logan, night cops reporter

A number of these journalists had covered areas in San Bernardino, which makes me wonder if the paper is pulling back its non-Riverside coverage.

*Updated March 9, 12:18 p.m.: Additional names:

From sports:
Diamond Leung
Tim Dutton
Dan Alegria
Kevin Pierson
Jason Vrtis
Dan Weber
Ralm Jung
Photographers:
David Shea
Frank Bellino
Paul Alvarez
Reporting staff:
Hope Pierson
Jessica Logan
Art department:
Becky Hageman

Former KB Home CEO charged with fraud

As the SEC mulls civil charges against former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo (see below), a federal grand jury today handed down a 20-count indictment against former KB Home CEO Bruce Karatz for criminal fraud.

Here's part of the press release from the Department of Justice:

A former CEO and chairman of the board of KB Home was named today in a 20-count indictment that charges him in a scheme to defraud KB and its shareholders by awarding himself and other KB executives millions of dollars in undisclosed stock-based compensation in connection with the backdating of stock options over a seven-year period.

Bruce E. Karatz, 63, of Bel Air Estates, was charged with seven counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire, three counts of securities fraud, four counts of making false statements in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and one count of lying to KB’s accountants.

This scheme alleged in the indictment involves Karatz’s use of hindsight pricing to inflate the value of stock options granted to him and other KB executives, as well as Karatz’s ongoing concealment of this practice from KB’s board of directors, Compensation Committee and shareholders. Furthermore, the indictment alleges, when an internal investigation into stock-option backdating was initiated at KB in May 2006, Karatz falsely denied his orchestration of the stock-option backdating scheme and caused a false report of KB’s historical option-granting practices to be submitted to KB’s Audit Committee and outside auditor, which impeded the timely and accurate disclosure of this matter in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Former Countrywide CEO could face fraud charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to recommend former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo and at least two other company executives face fraud charges for misleading shareholders about the risks associated with its aggressive subprime lending practices, according to a story in today's Los Angeles Daily Journal by Gabe Friedman. The charges would be civil rather than criminal.

From the story:

The charges would be the most significant attempt at an enforcement action by government lawyers against high-ranking executives involved in Southern California's massive mortgage lending meltdown that presaged the nation's current economic crisis.

Once the nation's largest home lender, Countrywide has become synonymous with exotic lending practices that ultimately became unsustainable. Countrywide, now part of Bank of America, shifted away from traditional fixed-rate mortgages toward riskier loans such as subprime and adjustable rate mortgages in recent years. Investigators are paying particular attention to a loan program in which Countrywide allowed borrowers to pay less than the minimum monthly interest due on their loans, the sources said.

About a month ago, lawyers for Mozilo and his successor David Sambol both received phone calls offering a final opportunity to make their case with SEC staff who are investigating the matter. The offers, informally known as "pre-Wells" notices, can be precursors to actual "Wells notices," formal written letters from the SEC notifying individuals that formal charges will be recommended to the Commission. A final decision on whether to file charges could take at least two months, the sources said, and the executives' lawyers could have another opportunity to meet with the commissioners before the decision is made.

DJ stories are behind a steep pay wall, thus no link to the full story.

Tarshes out at PE

I'm told Riverside Press-Enterprise Executive News Editor Barbara Tarshes lost her job today as the paper moves ahead with another round of cuts.