Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Tuesday Morning Shorts

‘Dispatch’ will cut staff and features Columbus News
On Monday, old-timers in the newsroom—those at least 55 years old with 15 years of continuous service—were offered a buyout. Curtin said the goal of the deal is to eliminate 25 newsroom jobs, or 10.6 percent of the total news operation. Those 25 jobs aren’t the only things on the chopping block. In coming years, the Dispatch will slash the resources it expends on content that isn’t exclusively in or about Columbus. The first to go will most likely be daily stock listings, which are now readily available in real time online.

PG, unions tentatively reach pact on big cuts Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Both sides declined to release terms, but a press release from the unions cited "enormous financial sacrifices." Leaders representing the paper's 1,042 unionized employees had previously said that they expected job reductions and changes in work rules.

News-Press has become the paper of rancor Los Angeles Times
SANTA BARBARA — After seven months of intense drama — firings, walkouts, boycotts, legal challenges and a union drive — the simplest measure of the impact here from billionaire Wendy McCaw's showdown with her newspaper staff is told by Johnny Morosin.

Tribune Likely to Forgo Bids Wall Street Journal
Billed as a self-help plan by the board members and advisers working on it, the plan is widely expected to involve spinning off the company's broadcast division and borrowing money to pay out a one-time cash dividend to shareholders, said people familiar with the situation. Tribune's board is expected to discuss the structure of the plan at a meeting early this week, these people said.

Professionals split on future of print journalism Boston Daily Free Press
Though newspaper and news magazine revenues continue to suffer because of the growing availability of online news, forcing some publications to cut programs and bureaus, some media analysts are saying it is not yet time to write off print media completely.

Tribune to sell Spanish-language paper Hoy Reuters
NEW YORK, Tribune Co. said on Monday that it will sell the New York edition of Spanish-language newspaper Hoy to ImpreMedia LLC. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter, Tribune said in a statement.

Wrong number, E.T. Reflections of a Newsosaur
The Newspaper Association of America is about to launch an umpteen-million dollar ad blitz that inadvertently reinforces all of the perceived weaknesses of the industry the campaign is supposed to combat.

Newspaper Will Be Around For a Long Time The New York Observer
On Feb. 8, the newspaper Ha'aretz quoted Mr. Sulzberger thusly, responding to a question about whether the Times will still be printed on paper in five years:"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either." On Wednesday, in a speech to Times employees, Mr. Sulzberger plans to clarify the message attributed to him in Ha'aretz.

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