Windsor Star stops Monday print edition

The Windsor Star (Ontario, Canada) will cease Monday print and e-edition publication, the CBC reported. 

Managing Editor Craig Pearson put the news in a notice published in the paper.

Doug Schmidt, Windsor Star's newsroom union representative with Unifor Local 240, said no layoffs are planned in the change, according to the CBC.

In an email he said ad revenues are "being cut into by web giants like Facebook and Google, who share our stories for free without contributing to the cost of the work required to generate those stories."

The website "will continue to be updated regularly," according to Phyllise Gelfand, vice president of communications at Postmedia, the CBC said. 

Postmedia Network owns the paper.

News and Tech

Behind the pages of The Dallas Morning News

How does a story idea become a published article in The Dallas Morning News? It takes a lot of hardworking people, effort and time — on tight deadlines.

Lee board members re-elected; company announces stock buyback

Mary Junck, Lee Enterprises executive chairwoman, Kevin Mowbray and Herb Moloney were re-elected to the board of directors Feb. 20, Lee’s Dispatch-Argus reported. 

Junck, who was elected as executive chairman in 2016, is set to move out of her job, but go on as chairman of the board of directors. Kevin Mowbray became president and chief executive officer in 2016.

Davenport, Iowa-based Lee has also announced the repurchase of up to $10,000,000 of the company’s common stock over the next 24 months. Under the program, the company may purchase its shares from time to time in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. The amount and timing of the purchases will depend on a number of factors including the price and availability of the Company’s shares, trading volume, capital availability, debt covenant restrictions, Company performance and general economic and market conditions, the company says.

Lee has daily newspapers, digital products and nearly 300 weekly and specialty publications serving 49 markets in 20 states. 

News and Tech

Thursday Morning in the Blogosphere

Woodstock's newest newspaper hits the stands - CBC.ca

Poll: How does the public think journalism happens? - CJR

Tanzania's Magufuli strikes again, suspends Citizen newspaper - Africa News

All-star lineup of Tucson reporters faces buyouts, layoffs loom - Tucson Sentinel

How Freelance Labor Became the Unsung Casualty of Media Layoffs - Observer

Dallas Morning News scales back commercial printing, cuts 92 jobs - Dallas News

North Korea media tries slicker, quicker summit coverage - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Noticias Telemundo’s statement on the abduction of its Venezuela correspondent - Telemundo

Sizing up the Valuation According to Quant for Tribune Publishing Company - Holland Review

A Tax on Digital Ad Spend (Facebook and Google) Could Bring in $2 Billion for Journalism - NL

Knight Foundation to put $300 million in journalism over 5 years

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will double its investment in strengthening journalism to $300 million over five years, the foundation has announced. The focus is on building the future of local news and information, “which are essential for democracy to function,” the foundation says.

“Without revenue, you can’t pay reporters. Without reporters, you can’t develop consistently reliable news reports about what’s happening in your town. Without that reliable news report, you can’t figure out how to run local government. It isn’t rocket science,” said Alberto Ibarguen, Knight Foundation president. “We’re not funding one-offs. We’re helping to rebuild a local news ecosystem, reliable and sustainable, and we’re doing it in a way that anyone who cares can participate.”

Among those receiving support in the effort are American Journalism Project, ProPublica, Report for America, Frontline PBS, NewsMatch, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, the News Literacy Project, the Solutions Journalism Network and Cortico.

Knight is investing an additional $35 million in research to support the creation and expansion of research centers around the United States.

News and Tech

Today in Labor History – February 28th

Sue Cowan Williams

The U.S. Supreme Court found that a Utah state law limiting mine and smelter workers to an eight-hour workday was constitutional. – 1898

Faced with 84 hour workweeks, 24 hour shifts and pay of 29 cents an hour, firefighters formed the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). Some individual locals had affiliated with the AFL beginning in 1903. – 1918

Members of the Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in San Francisco’s Chinatown began what is to be a successful four-month strike for better wages and conditions at the National Dollar Stores factory and three retail outlets. – 1938

Sue Cowan Williams represented African- American teachers in the Little Rock School District as the plaintiff in a class action lawsuit challenging the disparity between black and white teachers’ salaries in the segregated South.CLICK TO TWEETThe case was lost but won in a 1943 appeal. – 1942

The entire workforce of the 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, went on strike in support of the 450 members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union being laid off at a 3M plant in New Jersey. The South African worker, all of whom were black, were among the hundreds of thousands of union members whose militancy helped bring down the apartheid system. – 1986.

Earning as little as 6 dollars and forty cents an hour, janitors working for contractor UNICCO at the University of Miami go on strike over wages and benefits, working conditions, and union recognition. Students and faculty at the university joined in demonstrations, sit-ins, and hunger strikes, and by the fall, the janitors ratified a contract that increased wages and included health care benefits and paid vacation time. – 2006

February 29th

The minimum age allowed by law for workers in mills, factories, and mines in South Carolina is raised from twelve to fourteen. – 1915

Screen Actors Guild member Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award, honored for her portrayal of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind” – 1940

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Tri-Mega Business International taps TSC for Goss towers

Philippines-based Tri-Mega Business International has bought three Goss Community SSC 3-high towers from The Siebold Company. 

All three towers have spiral brush dampening, remote inking and motorized registration. TSC prepared the equipment for transoceanic shipment and arranged all shipping arrangements for delivery to Manila. 

TSC, which specializes in the newspaper printing, commercial printing and material handling industries, has completed more than 5,000 successful equipment installation projects since 1989 throughout North America, the company says. 

TSC is the parent company of DR Press Equipment, DGM and Smith Pressroom Products and offers press equipment brokering services, equipment reconfiguring and reconditioning services, equipment audits and appraisals and operational consulting. The company is the exclusive distributor for Netherlands-based GWS Printing Systems.

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9 Paths to Subscription: Why recent subscribers chose to pay for news

What motivates people to pay for local news? We asked 4,100 recent subscribers of 90 local newspapers why they decided to pay. We learned that people follow different paths to subscription. Learn more about all 9 types of readers, and how publishers can appeal to them, in our report: “Paths to Subscription: Why recent subscribers chose to pay for news” at: http://bit.ly/subscriptionpaths

Koenig & Bauer launches apprenticeship programs

In light of the tight labor market and the acute need for qualified candidates to join the printing industry, Koenig & Bauer (U.S.) has taken a step to develop new apprenticeship programs to fill its technical positions. For the past two years, the Dallas-based division has been working in collaboration with the Training and Human Resources Departments at its factory in Germany and Texas State Technical College (TSTC) to establish a technician apprenticeship program and recruit qualified students.  

The first two chosen are Kaitlin Sullivan, a recent TSTC graduate with a A.S. degree in Wind Energy Technology (WET), who joined Koenig & Bauer as an electrician apprentice, and Amanda Beltran, who graduated with an A.S. in Mechatronics Technology and joined the program as a machinist apprentice.

Sullivan is based in Dallas and is reporting to a regional service manager. She will work in the field with mentors for the next few months until she moves to Germany this spring. Beltran will be based in the Dallas machine shop, but her training will also include some fieldwork and specialized training in Germany. 

News and Tech

Wednesday Morning in the Blogosphere

The lonely streets of Skid Row Los Angeles

Newspapers still valuable to majority of Americans - Clarencebee

Why Branded Video Is a Must-Have Product for Publishers - Folio

The Rocky Mountain News closed a decade ago this week - Poynter

Judges Select 10 Finalists for World’s Best-Designed Newspaper - SND

Publishers grow frustrated by the lack of revenue from Apple News - Digiday

Dagens Nyheter Shares 5 Steps for Successful Digital Transformation - INMA

'Spanish Warren Buffett' may be key to McClatchy's Tribune bid - New York Post

Strs Ohio Acquires New Stake in Tribune Publishing Co (TPCO) - Fairfield Current

As these newsrooms shrank, they started working together to uncover corruption - Poynter

What the Media Insight Project Tells Publishers About Modern News Audience - Local MA

Tribune Media’s North Branch site for sale

Tribune Media is looking to sell a large piece of land on the Chicago River, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. 

The 30 acres on the North Branch of the river, where the Chicago Tribune's Freedom Center printing plant is located, had been presented to Amazon when the retail giant was looking in 2017 for a spot to build a second headquarters. 

Tribune Media had gotten zoning approval in 2018 for a 8.5 million-square-foot project called River District at the North Branch site, Crain’s reported. Tribune Media could opt to keep the site and perhaps work with developers on it, Crain’s says.

A flyer on the site referenced an opportunity to draw from the Freedom Center as Tribune Publishing has a lease going until 2023 for the 828,000-square-foot printing plant, Crain’s said. There Tribune Publishing prints the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. The lease includes two options to extend the lease for 10 years each, Tribune Publishing executives have said, according to Crain’s.

Texas-based broadcast company Nexstar is currently buying Tribune Media.

News and Tech

Today in Labor History – February 27th

Photo of Eugene Debs

Legendary labor leader and socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen.CLICK TO TWEETFive years later he was leading the national union and in 1893 helped found the nation’s first industrial union, the American Railway Union. – 1875

John Steinbeck was born on this date in Salinas, California. Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, wrote numerous novels from the perspective of farmers and the working class, including The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row & East of Eden – 1902

Thirty-eight miners died in a coal mine explosion in Boissevain, Virginia. – 1932

Just days after the autoworkers’ victory at General Motors, more than 100 women workers at one of forty Woolworth stores in Detroit, Michigan, began a sit-down strike over wages, hours, working conditions, and union recognition. Solidarity action in support of the workers was incredible. The strike spread, and on March 5th the workers won their demands, including the union shop. The union won a uniform contract for all forty stores in Detroit, which covered 2,500 workers. – 1937

Following a decade of sit-down strikes, the Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes, a major organizing tool for industrial unions, were illegal. – 1939

A mine disaster killed 75 at Red Lodge, Montana. – 1943

Seattle ACORN workers went on strike. Their office was shut down after their employer refused to recognize Public Interest Workers IU 670 union of the IWW. – 2001

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Apollo buying Cox TV stations

Cox Enterprises has reached an agreement with funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management to buy a majority interest in Cox Media Group’s broadcast television stations, including the company’s radio, newspaper and TV properties in Ohio. 

Cox Enterprises will maintain a minority stake and will join the Apollo Funds in forming a new company to operate these stations, which will be headquartered in Atlanta.


Cox Media Group’s TV stations reach a combined 31 million viewers nationwide. The purchase involves 13 stations, including WSB-TV, ABC Atlanta; WFTV-TV, ABC Orlando; WPXI-TV, NBC Pittsburgh; WFXT-TV, FOX Boston and WHIO-TV, Dayton, Ohio. The Apollo Funds will also acquire a majority stake in Cox Media Group’s other media platforms in Ohio: the Dayton Daily News; the Springfield News-Sun; the Journal-News (covering Butler County); WZLR, 95.3 FM and 101.1 FM; WHKO, 99.1 FM and WHIO, 95.7 FM and 1290 AM. Cox Media Group also provides programming, sales and other operations services for WJAX-TV, CBS Jacksonville.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory review and closing conditions. 

Private-equity firm Apollo has offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Bethesda, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. 

News and Tech

The History of Newspaper Publishing | 80Twelve

All though the newspaper industry may be in decline these days, newspapers used to dominate the print market. Check out just how popular the newspaper was, and where we are now!

Staff at McClatchy papers take buyouts

Twenty-four people have accepted buyouts at the McClatchy-owned Kansas City Star, public radio station KCUR reported.

Those taking buyouts include “more than half a dozen marquee reporters,” the station reported.

The buyouts were offered to staff who are at least 55 and have worked at the paper for a decade or longer.

A minimum of ten have taken buyouts at the Miami Herald, according to the Miami New Times. That publication ran a letter it said was from McClatchy CEO Craig Forman that said “A bit fewer than half of our colleagues volunteered for the early retirement offer, out of 450.”  

On Feb. 1, McClatchy offered buyouts to ten percent of its employees at its papers around the nation, the New Times reported. McClatchy owns 29 papers.

News and Tech

Tuesday Morning in the Blogosphere

Back in the day when the newspaper was owned by Sam Zell

Getting Over Ourselves - CJR

How the Definition of ‘Journalist’ Is Changing - Recode

Robot Journalism Supports Digital Transition in Scandinavia - INMA

The Morning Call's journalists are starting a union - Lehigh Valley Live

Robservations: Chicago Tribune writer goes out with a bang - Robert Feder

Santa Rosa newspaper carrier killed after car rolls on him - Bakersfield Now

Retired carpenter found second life as newspaper carrier - Southgate News Herald

Tribune Publishing to Report Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Results on March 13 - Nasdaq

Cartoonist faces backlash by adding Jussie Smollett to Famous African-American storytellers - CT

Alden's Bid For Gannett Underscores Struggles Of Ghost Newspapers - MediaPost Communications

Gannett reports a Q4 revenue drop, rise in digital

On Feb. 20, Gannett reported a drop in fourth-quarter revenue and earnings along with rises in digital revenue and paid online subscriptions, Gannett-owned USA Today reported. 

The company posted a net loss of $14.2 million in the fourth quarter, “due largely to restructuring, asset impairment charges and other costs of $56.3 million,” USA Today said.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 44 cents, with Wall Street expectations at 45 cents per share, S&P Global Market Intelligence said. 

Gannett's digital-only subscriptions rose 46.3 percent year-over-year to 504,000. Gannett CEO and President Robert J. Dickey said USA Today Network publications will lower the number of stories people can read for free without a subscription this year. 

Seventy-five percent of ad revenue is now digital at USA Today, a milestone for the brand, according to Dickey. 

Gannett rebuffed a recent unsolicited bid from MNG Enterprises, owned by Alden Global Capital and known as Digital First Media, to buy the company or take over Gannett’s board. MNG put out a statement last week critical of Gannett’s leadership, while Gannett put out a statement critical of MNG’s remarks.

News and Tech

Today in Labor History – February 26th

Photo Of the Buffalo Creek Valley Dam Collapse

Congress okayed the Contract Labor Law, designed to clamp down on “business agents” who contracted abroad for immigrant labor. One of the reasons unions supported the measure: employers were using foreign workers to fight against the growing U.S. labor movement, primarily by deploying immigrant labor to break strikes. – 1885

Bethlehem Steel workers struck for union recognition in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. – 1941

A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapsed, flooding the 17-mile long valley. 118 died, 5,000 were left homeless. The Pittston Coal Company said it was “an act of God.” – 1972CLICK TO TWEET

The UFCW and employers reached an agreement to end the nearly five-month-long grocery strike and lockout of 59,000 workers in Southern California. The strike was fueled by management’s demand to strip workers of their healthcare benefits. The new two-tier contract required employees to pay for healthcare benefits for the first time, included no raises, and paid new hires less and put them in a different healthcare plan. – 2004

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A few highlights from Key Executive Mega-Conference

The Key Executive Mega-Conference kicked off Feb. 25 at the Paris Las Vegas with approximately 700 attendees.

The Mega-Conference is a joint effort of newspaper media associations that have an estimated combined membership of more than 5,000 publishers. Hosts are the Inland Press Association, Local Media Association, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and News Media Alliance, with the Nevada Press Association as a local partner. 

Exhibitors showcased new services, software and mergers aimed to increase efficiency in newspaper operations.

Some highlights included Brainworks announcing new cloud-based solutions in collaboration with CRM development partner APG Media; events marketing automation platform Evvnt announcing a strategic partnership with Metro Creative Graphics and TownNews announcing that it’s formed a partnership with AffinityX and that it’s acquiring GTxcel's Rayos and Rivista content management system business.

News and Tech

Monday Morning in the Blogosphere

Unwanted newspapers

Newspapers, then and now - Ashland Daily Tidings

Philippine Fact-Checkers Team Up to Debunk Election Misinformation - Poynter

Standard Deviations: 3 easy ways to support local journalism - Standard-Examiner

Profitable in 100 days: Ananda Vikatan's digital subscription strategy - Editors Weblog

Tribune Publishing Downgraded to Sell at Zacks Investment Research - Fairfield Current

Amid financial struggles, independent student newspapers find other ways to print - BUNS

Is it impact investing when billionaires buy newspapers and news magazines? - Impact Alpha

Alabama Newspaper Editor Who Endorsed KKK to Be Replaced With Black woman - Haaretz

Tribune Publishing Taps Digital Agency Ntooitive As Business Intelligence Provider - Media Post

Can The New York Times Avoid a Trump Slump and Sign Up 10 Million Paying Subscribers? - NL

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Today in Labor History – February 25th

Photo of Edgar Daniel (“E.D.”) Nixon

The Paterson, New Jersey silk strike began, with 25,000 immigrant textile workers walking out when mill owners doubled the size of the looms without increasing staffing or wages. The strike was organized by the Industrial Workers of the World but collapsed when mill owners exploited divisions between skilled and unskilled workers, successfully getting the skilled workforce to agree to return to work. Five strikers were killed during the 208-day walkout. – 1913

The Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employees of America changed their name to the Amalgamated Transit Union. – 1965

The Order of Railroad Telegraphers changed their name to the Transportation-Communication Employees Union. – 1965

Labor organizer and civil rights activist Edgar Daniel (“E.D.”) Nixon died on this date.CLICK TO TWEETWhile working as a Pullman porter, Nixon organized the Montgomery local of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and served as its president for many years. He was a key organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and co-founder of the Montgomery Improvement Association. – 1987

A crowd estimated to be 100,000 strong rallied at the Wisconsin State Capitol in protest of what was ultimately was to become a successful push by the state’s Republican majority to cripple public employee bargaining rights. – 2011

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