BANG goes boom

MediaNews Group announced today that its Bay Area News Group will undergo a major consolidation that will merge 12 newspapers into three and eliminate 120 jobs - 48 of the positions are in the newsroom, KQED reports. When all is finished, BANG will consist of the Mercury News, The Times and East Bay Tribune.

BANG is using words like "streamlining" and "rebranding" to describe the merging and cutting. The actions should not come as a surprise given the decision MediaNews made in June to consolidate editorial control of the papers.

Here's part of the story (which appears to have been written by an ad agency) published on the soon-to-be retooled Contra Costa Times website:

Bay Area News Group (BANG) today announced a rebranding of many of its newspapers to better reflect the scope of its regional coverage. The changes - which include a streamlining of its print operations - primarily involve its East Bay newspapers, and will result in greater emphasis on providing high-impact, regional and local coverage. 

-snip- 

The streamlining of its print operations will also result in a reduction of approximately 120 jobs - primarily in the production and editorial divisions - out of a local workforce of 1,500 employees.

Management at MediaNews will argue, as it does in the story, that this consolidation is about much more than job cuts; that its a necessary step to position the BANG as a competitive news outlet in the rough and tumble 21st century. And maybe this smaller knot of news power will get the job done. But we cannot overlook the fact that this recently bankrupt company is trying to raise $350 million to buy newspapers from Freedom Communications. And we know editorial power wanes when you eliminate four dozen news staffers.

Or as the San Francisco Chronicles' Carla Marinucci tweeted: “Corporate PR spin: Release from CA’s Bay Area News Group, announcing decimation of its newspaper/staff chain tday, calls it ‘rebranding.’” (found via Romenesko)

Layoffs at Contra Costa Times*

A July 1 memo from Bay Area News Group Executive Editor Kevin Keane to employees says the paper will layoff 18 people from the newsroom by midsummer.

Keane writes:

It goes without saying that this deep a cut on top of previous reductions will have a lasting impact on our newspapers and Web sites. Our preference would be to hold staffing at its current level until the revenue bottomed out, but we can't delay if we're to get through this downturn.

Before we finalize these cuts, however, we're asking for volunteers to step forward. These volunteers will receive an additional severance of up to eight weeks salary on top of the severance mentioned above - one week's pay for each year worked, up to eight years. Under the volunteer program, a 12-year employee would receive the maximum 20-week severance.

Read the full memo here.

The Bay Area News Group newspaper chain is a division of Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group and includes the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune. BANG plans to consolidate its copy desk functions with the San Jose Mercury News, which is expected to lead to even more layoffs at the latter paper.

(h/t themediaisdying)

*Update: This post has been clarified to show that the layoffs will affect all BANG papers, not only the Contra Costa Times.

Second take

The Newspaper Guild wants editorial employees at the Contra Costa Times to form a union. According to this article, guild members in California generally make less than their competitors, they rarely receive meaningful raises, their reps have done almost nothing to prevent staff cuts (unless they're able to sacrifice reporters in sister newsrooms), their reps seem powerless to prevent job reprisals and the group's claim to fame is convincing reporters at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minneapolis to assist the advertising department.

That's some pitch.

I'm well aware of the fact that Singleton has depressed newsroom wages (a starting reporter at the Vacaville Reporter makes between $12 and $13 an hour) and that organizing can provide some benefits. But why form a union to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?

If you want to do good journalism and get paid a decent wage for it, get out. Or organize to change the Singleton business model. Otherwise, all your negotiating will only get you a better spot on the assembly line.

All together now

The Newspaper Guild plans to spend $500,000 to organize a union at the Contra Costa Times. It's a response to the union-busting ways of owner Dean Singleton, who merged news desks at his Bay Area papers to break the union at the Oakland Tribune.

It's not clear to me what unions have done to help reporters at the Singleton papers where they exist. From my standpoint, they misunderstand as well as anyone the challenges facing newsrooms and the Singleton business model. These misunderstandings threaten to bring about bad collective bargaining agreements.

Here's the success anecdote: A veteran reporter at the Hayward Daily Review collapses from all of the extra work she has to do and takes two weeks sick time to recover. When she returns, she's reassigned to a rookie beat. Two union employees show up at her house and offer to help.

Punchline: The guild was not able to get her regular beat back, but (the reporter) says she was able to retrieve her self-respect.