Press-Enterprise editor heads to Tennessee

Maria De Varenne will become the executive editor of The Tennessean after 10 years as editor of the Press-Enteprise in Riverside. Nels Jensen will takeover duties at the P-E.

Layoffs at the Press-Enterprise

The Press-Enterprise in Riverside on Tuesday cut several newsroom staffers Tuesday. At least one of the names I was originally given turned out to be incorrect, so I've removed the information from this post until I can confirm exactly who was laid off.

(this post was updated)

Press-Enterprise publisher announces changes

The Press-Enterprise laid off 24 employees yesterday, including three newsroom employees - a city reporter and two web staffers. This morning, Publisher Robert Redfern sent out a staff memo (see below) announcing changes to the paper's business publications. Redfern does not reference the layoffs, but notes the "severe measures" taken by parent-company Belo in the last few years in response to falling revenues. Here's the memo:

Dear Colleagues,

As with others within our industry, we’ve had to take severe measures over the past several years in order to adjust our business to the economy and the marketplace changes. We continue to be very uncertain about what will happen with our local economy in this coming year, largely because we’ve continued to experience revenue challenges.

As a result, we’re being forced to make further adjustments in our business priorities. Some of these will impact The Business Press, which first published in September 1995 and has been part of our product portfolio for the past 16 years. Unfortunately, because of the economic downturn of the past three years, we’ve come to a point where we’re no longer in a financial position to continue publication. Consequently, June 6, 2011 will be the final weekly edition of The Business Press.

This means we are changing how and where The Business Press readers seek and consume B2B information each day. The business reporters of The Press-Enterprise will continue to cover the Inland Southern California business community, but now these B2B stories, analysis and in-depth perspective, along with blogs and calendars, will be appearing on PE.com and in the daily Business section.

This was a difficult decision to make in response to the current adverse business environment with which we in the newspaper industry continue to struggle. We understand that this current business climate can be difficult to deal with, and we thank you for your commitment to our Company.

Ron Redfern
Publisher

The Press-Enterprise has made a few newsroom hires in recent months, I'm told, so it's not clear if yesterday's layoffs actually shrink the news staff or keep it steady.

Layoffs in Riverside*

I'm told at least three newsroom staffers got laid off today at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside. More than two dozen employees were laid off company wide. I'll update when I get more information.

*Update: Three newsroom employees - a city reporter and two web position - were cut as part of a 24-person downsizing. 

Layoffs at the North County Times and Californian

The North County Times and The Californian have laid off twenty workers between them, according to the Press-Enterprise. The Lee-owned papers cover parts of San Diego and Riverside counties. The layoffs hit multiple departments; the story does not say how many newsroom employees got the axe. Said the dejected source who emailed me the article, "A few years ago people actually cared about stuff like this..."

Bloomberg hires for Daily News reporter for Capitol beat

James Nash, who worked for the LA Daily News before heading to the Columbus Dispatch to cover the Ohio statehouse, will be the Capitol reporter in Sacramento for Bloomberg News. Nash has also done stints at the LA Business Journal and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside.

Managing editor of the Press-Enterprise set to leave

John Gryka, managing editor of the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, sent a memo to employees to say next week will be his last at the newspaper. Gryka has worked at the Press-Enterprise for 23 years and took over as managing editor in 2004.

AOL Patch continues to hire

The AOL Patch network of city blogs continues to expand in Southern California.

Redmond Carolipio, formerly night editor at the San Bernardino Sun, will take over as assistant regional editor for San Gabriel Valley Patch sites.

Melanie Johnson, who got laid off from the Press-Enterprise in Riverside and was a former Sun reporter, will edit the city of Walnut and City of Industry patch sites - expect a good deal of news about Ed Roski Jr.'s planned football stadium project.

Gina Tenorio, who worked at the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, will become editor of the Loma Linda Patch.

Apparently, AOL wants these two Patch sites up and running by Dec. 13.

Belo employees to get bonuses

On news that the company turned a $4.6 million profit in the third quarter, A.H. Belo's board of directors has authorized a one-time bonus for its newspaper employees, including those who work at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside. In a memo from CEO Robert Dechard, employees are told they'll received a bonus of between 1.5 percent and 3 percent of their base salary.

Here's the memo:

Layoffs, departures at the Press-Enterprise

The Press-Enterprise in Riverside laid off 11 pressmen, a photo tech, and an editorial assistant this week, I'm told. No word on whether the Belo-owned newspaper plans to change its printing operations.

The paper also had some recent departures from the newsroom, but not due to layoffs. Cops reporter Paul LaRocco is headed to Newsday and prep sports reporter and columnist Matt Calkins took a job with the Vancouver (Wash.) Columbian to cover the Portland Trail Blazers.

Comings and goings

Former Press-Enterprise reporter Aaron Burgin has taken a staff writing position at the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he covers the communities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista.

*Here's one of his first stories, a nice profile of a local councilman with an apparent gambling problem.

Press-Enterprise's owner wants to toss the old newspaper image

The Press-Enterprise Company, which owns and operates the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, La Prensa, and a few other publications and websites, has adopted a new name: Enterprise Media.

The name change has several purposes, not the least of which is to shed the image of a company tied to a tired, "one-dimensional" product: newspapers.

The new name also appears designed to position the company to better capture new revenue sources - Belo, Enterprise Media's parent, is going to experiment with paywalls come spring - and could simplify matters if Enterprise Media chose to partner with other media companies in the region.

From the memo to staff (my emphasis):

This change in our Company name has been planned for some time to ensure our business is seen by our clients as keeping pace with the significant, rapid and dynamic changes that are happening in the media industry. It also is aligned with the long-term vision for our business to reflect the innovation, new directions and forward-thinking multimedia strategy that our Company is actively pursuing. We have expanded from being a newspaper company to become a diversified media company. It’s now time for our customers to know us as more than a newspaper company as well.

The name Enterprise Media describes and defines who we are as a company. It effectively conveys our position as a future-focused media company; a leading and digitally savvy, multi-media news and information content provider. It is a name that will impress and influence our advertising and business-side clients to change their minds and attitudes about who we are.

This change is important because the name ‘Press-Enterprise Company’ does not align with our strategy. It is inextricably tied to our daily newspaper, ‘The Press-Enterprise,’ and it does not communicate to our customers the size, scale and capabilities of our multi-media product portfolio. ...

[T]he name ‘Press-Enterprise Company’ is tied to their past experiences with a newspaper company and it evokes attitudes and perceptions that are:

· One-dimensional. It causes our B2B [business-to-business] clients to see us as a one-product company; in their minds, one that has limited, if any, value for their needs. Reality is we are so much more as a business partner.

· Geographically limited. In the minds of our B2B clients our Company’s market and audience reach is limited to the geography of our newspaper circulation area. Reality is that our sphere of influence and audience extends well beyond the geographic area our newspaper serves.

· Institutionally bound. It says “newspaper” which means “inflexible,” “high rates,” and “old media” to advertisers who are looking for new ways to reach their clients using social media, mobile, and more. We want our name to convey that we’re playing in that space too.

The full memo is here.

Belo building walls

The Dallas Morning News plans to put stories written by the staff or about the Dallas Cowboys behind a paywall. Wire service copy and stories less than 150 words would be available for free on the newspaper's website, according to News Tech. From the story:

Seven-day-a-week print subscribers will still be able to see all of dallasnews.com's content free of charge. The Morning News charges new subscribers up to $33.95 per month for home delivery, and $37.95 for mail delivery, among the industry's steepest subscription rates for a general-circulation daily.

The Morning News is owned by Belo, which also owns the Press-Enterprise in Riverside. It would seem logical that if the paywall succeeds in Dallas that something similar would be erected out here.

Riverside newspaper sues to open pension records

The Press-Enterprise of Riverside has sued the San Bernardino County retirement system to force the release of records for all former employees earning pensions of more than $90,000 a year.

From the story:

The action filed by The Press-Enterprise asks a judge to order the San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association to disclose the payments

The association initially "denied in whole" a California Public Records Act request from the newspaper for the "names, monthly payment, annual payment, job title, government agency and department" of all individuals receiving at least $90,000 in annual retirement benefits from the association.

The retirement association denied an initial request to turn over the records. The executive director cited privacy concerns, saying, "We are dedicated to preserving the confidence and trust of our members."

To newspaper contends that the records are public documents under state law. Attorney Alonzo Wickers, who represents the Press-Enterprise, had this to say: "Given the extraordinary public interest in this information and given the incredible burden pensions are placing on local governments in California, such as in Bell, there is really just a tremendous interest in access to this public information."

PE sports writer killed in accident

Long-time Riverside Press-Enterprise sports writer Paul Campbell was hit by a car and killed on Friday. He was 52. Here's the brief:

A 52-year-old pedestrian from Colton died this weekend of injuries he suffered during a Friday afternoon accident in San Bernardino, coroner's officials said this morning.

Paul Campbell was injured at 1:42 p.m. Friday by a vehicle that was backing out of a driveway near Inland Center Drive and G Street.

Campbell died Sunday at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He was a longtime member of the sports staff at The Press-Enterprise.

San Bernardino police are investigating the accident.

P-E lays off two

The Riverside Press-Enterprise laid off two newsroom employees yesterday: Southwest area reporter Aaron Burgin and photographer Rodrigo Pena.

The home front

California leads the nation in home foreclosures, and there will be a lot more in the coming year. But banks aren't putting enough cheap homes on the market to satisfy the demand. We speak with Leslie Berkman of the Press-Enterprise, Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac, Tom Moon, founder of REObroker.com, and a frustrated would-be homebuyer. The segment starts at 7:34. Which Way, LA?

Selling the news*,**

The Dallas Morning News has decided to tear down the wall that separates editorial and advertising, having concluded the wall is a barrier to revenue. In a memo to staff, Morning News Editor Bob Mong says editors will now report to sales managers and sales managers, in turn, will have a hand in content. It's all about "business/news integration."

From the memo:

To better align with our clients' needs, we will be organized around eleven business and content segments with similar marketing and consumer profiles including: sports, health/education, entertainment, travel/luxury, automotive, real estate, communications, preprints/grocery, recruitment, retail/finance, and SMB/Interactive.

Each segment will be led by a General Manager (GM), a newly-defined role, each reporting to Cyndy Carr, charged with analyzing and growing the business by developing solutions that meet consumer needs and maximize results for our clients. Their responsibilities will include sales and business development. They will also be working closely with news leadership in product and content development.

The amount of jargon needed to explain the proposal is a first sign of trouble. Robert Wilonsky at the Dallas Observer did his best to pin down Mong about what all this means and Wong made an unconvincing effort to brush off concerns. Mong does draw a line between stories and ads, but he sidesteps issues of whether moneymaking pressures will have a direct role in how and what the newsroom covers.

One remaining barrier to prevent unethical behavior, Mong told Wilonsky, is the team of journalists employed at the paper:

Believe me, our journalists aren't shy. If they think this thing isn't working right, they'll be the first to tell you. I talked to a lot of people yesterday, and, yes, there's uneasiness in some areas, and I would have been disappointed if people didn't raise questions.

That's all well and good, but journalists aren't angels. They feel pressure when their jobs are on the line (and will notice that the sales people are in charge). They accommodate higher ups. They aim to please. Moreover, you are what you practice. If you eliminate the wall, eventually people start acting like it's gone. Just take a look at the local television news.

All that said, the integration plan does not appear to include core beats in business or Metro. But it's not clear why they would be kept separate if management, which thinks this new regime is safe and ethical, starts to make money.

A lot of newspapers, including ones in the Los Angeles area, have danced around the separation barrier by creating hybrid general manager/executive editor/publisher slots that give the business side a say in content creation. Most of the time, the influence is limited to special sections and advertorial pieces. The Dallas Morning News has gone much further, and it wouldn't surprise me if it emboldened other newspaper chains to follow suit.

*Update: Although the Dallas Observer reports that the memo went out to all Belo papers, I'm told no one at the Riverside Press-Enterprise received it. It appears this only involves the Dallas Morning News - for now.

**Update II: Dallas Morning News publisher Jim Moroney tells the Dallas Observer that the "business/news integration" plan is about developing niches to attract customers (i.e., making more money). He says the concerns about breaching journalistic standards is "much ado about nothing":

We are trying to understand the local consumer -- what kind of relevant, important news and information does the consumer want in a particular category -- and try to build audience loyalty and more engagement by trying to find the content people most want and that's most relevant and most important. And if we do that, it attracts an audience.

-snip-

No one will tell Lisa they have to put this picture of this restaurant in the Guide because they're an advertiser. No one will tell Leslie Brenner which restaurant to review.

This is much ado about nothing, and I guess at the end of the day the only way I'll convince people is to tell them to check back in 90 days, 180 days, 365 days and see if anything has changed.

MediaNews, Belo want to block Google, too

MediaNews Group owner Dean Singleton said he will follow the lead of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and block Google News from linking to stories that are put behind pay walls, Bloomberg reported today. MediaNews plans to start charging for some content at papers in Chico, California and York, Pennsylvania, and Singleton said that content would be off limits.

From Bloomberg:

“The things that go behind pay walls, we will not let Google search to, but the things that are outside the pay wall we probably will, because we want the traffic,” Singleton said.

Belo, which owns the Riverside Press-Enterprise, also announced tentative plans to charge for some online content and said it would likewise block Google from indexing those stories.

Local papers see circulations drop*

Newspapers across Southern California saw substantial drops in daily circulation over the last six months, according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report.

The region's largest paper, the Los Angeles Times, lost 11.1 percent of its weekday circulation between April and September. The paper now sells an average of 657,467 papers a day during the week.

Dean Singleton's LANG papers lost circulation as well, the Times reports. Circulation at the flagship Daily News in Woodland Hills plunged 26% to 95,938. The paper has had several rounds of buyouts and layoffs and, as a result, has shifted focus away from Los Angeles to concentrate on cities in the San Fernando Valley.

The Pasadena Star-News fell 5.3 percent to 24,362. The Long Beach Press-Telegram dropped 8.2% to 71,411 and the Daily Breeze in Torrance 2.7%, giving it a circulation of 61,925*.

Singleton's Inland Empire papers - also part of LANG - experienced similar drops, the Press-Enterprise reports. Weekday circulation at the San Bernardino Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin dropped 9.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. The Sun now sells an average of 47,015 papers a day during the week and the Bulletin averages 48,014. The Sun lost 6.4 percent of its Sunday circulation and the Bulletin lost 2.9 percent.

The Belo-owned Riverside Press-Enterprise experienced the biggest decline in the Inland Empire, with circulation falling 24.3 percent on weekdays for an average of 113,182 copies sold. Sunday circulation was down 23.3 percent. Contributing to the losses were several rounds of staff cuts in the last year and the paper's decision to end delivery services in parts of San Bernardino County.

Out east, weekday circulation at the Desert Sun in Palm Springs decreased 11.6 percent to 36,207 papers. The Gannett-owned paper cut staff last year and instituted furloughs this year.

The Orange County Register's weekday circulation slipped 10.1 percent to 212,293; the Register's parent company, Freedom Communications, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which suffered major staff cuts shortly after it was bought by Beverly Hills-based Platinum Equity, dropped 10% to 242,705.

Nationally, newspapers lost an average of 10.6 percent of their circulation, according to ABC.

*I have yet to come across circulation numbers for the Whittier Daily News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

*Updated: Finally saw a list of all the papers. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune saw its weekday circulation fall to 33,387 papers a day from 37,594, an 11 percent drop. The Whittier Daily News fell 13,076 from 14,563, a decline of 10 percent.

A small sliver of silver lining: The Pasadena Star-News saw a 1 percent increase in Sunday circulation and the Whittier Daily News saw a 2 percent increase.