The Deseret News cuts nearly half its staff, and other riddles of language

The Deseret News, a daily newspaper in Salt Lake City and owned by the Mormon Church, has announced that it will axe 43 percent of its newsroom staff - 57 full-time and 47 part-time employees. But rather than let the obvious shock settle in over the fact that the 143-year-old paper is hacking at its bones, management threw up all kinds of flares, fireworks and fancy neologisms to cast the layoffs as part of a creative disruption reinvention system that will add to and improve the paper's coverage.

Less is more, in other words, using the latest in media jargon. Here's one of the executives, quoted by Ken Doctor, explaining why layoffs won't hurt coverage:

“That’s an Old Media world view,” Deseret News President and CEO Clark Gilbert told me today. “We have access to more journalists, hyperlocal contributors, national sports figures than ever before.”

Doctor's piece goes on to explain all kinds of things the Deseret News is up to, from its values-based missionary journalism to its labeling of journalists as Rewrite/First Responders.

Some of the ideas might work. But I suspect most of these overly intellectualized plans are going to fail unless and until the Deseret News, and all other expand-by-shrinking media companies, can figure out what they want to do and explain it to themselves in plain language (can you imagine putting Rewrite/First Responder on your resume?). Words that describe actions, not words meant to convey the idea of activity.

Ready, set, charge!

Starting next year, the 54 papers in the MediaNews Group chain - including nine papers in Southern California - will begin charging readers for access to some online content. That's according to an interview MediaNews chairman Dean Singleton gave to KSL Channel 5 in Salt Lake City.

The details of what would go behind the pay wall remain sketchy. Singleton said sport, "hyperlocal" features and entertainment would be likely candidates for a subscription site, while breaking news would remain free to all readers. Subscribers to the printed newspaper would have access to everything online at no extra charge.

Said Singleton:

"When you give it away for free, it has no value. When you begin charging for it, it has some value."

In May, Singleton and MediaNews president Jody Lodovic released a memo that outlined their concept for an online subscription service. They contemplated dividing content between a free "news.com" site with breaking news and some user-generated content, and a subscriber-only "newspaper.com" site with in-depth features and specialized content.

The memo also left open the possibility that MediaNews would stop short of charging readers and instead require them to register. From the May memo:

We are not trying to invent new premium products, but instead tell our existing print readers that what they are buying has real value, and to our online audience (who don't buy the print edition), that if you want access to all online content, you are going to have to register, and/or pay.

The trouble with niche

Going "niche" is all the rage these days in news publishing. Sculpt your coverage into something that a small, special-interest audience cares intensely about and they'll act as your umbrella in the shitstorm besetting the newspaper world.

But small, special-interest audiences have small, special interests. That runs counter to the very idea of what a newspaper is supposed to be. Trade publications and industry newsletters often ignore information they and their audiences don't deem essential. As a result, they and their audiences are walled off from information that, although not "essential" on first blush, might prove useful, even vital, but just didn't fit the niche.

When it comes to news, "niche" is the gated community of publishing. Which is to say, they're fine for those who want them, but not something you can force on a community.

Witness what is happening at the Deseret News, which is being "transformed" into a niche Mormon publication. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that an editor and a reporter were recently demoted because they wanted to stop the paper from slanting stories to make them "acceptable" to LDS readers and killing the ones that weren't. The demoted reporter was replaced by someone who "gets the tone" publisher Joe Cannon wants, state government editor Josh Loftin told the Tribune.

"They can never tell us what the 'tone' is," Loftin says. "They say, 'You'll know it when you get it.' "

Had Cannot started a publication for LDS readers, who would care if he wanted to strike the right "tone"? The problem is he's doing this in reverse and destroying something important in the process.

(Salt Lake Tribune story via Romenesko)

Dying in the Deseret

The Deseret News will cut 35 positions by mid-July. The paper's editor blames a steep decline in classified advertising. Circulation at the Latter Day Saints-owned paper has been relatively stable, down just two percent. The Singleton-owned Salt Lake Tribune, on the other hand, saw an 8-percent drop in circulation.