Down, but better than out
More people at the News & Observer will lose their jobs in the next couple of weeks as its owner, McClatchy Newspapers, continues to tiptoe along the precipice. McClatchy announced yesterday that it will cut 15 percent of its work force, and if the N&O’s ranks are reduced by that percentage it means about 90 of the paper’s 600-plus workers will forfeit their jobs. Reports are that 30 or so of that total will come from the newsroom.
And thus the mortality cycle is maintained: The depth and quality of the news report continues to deteriorate, simply because — despite those earlier promises from executives to do “more with less” — a reduced staff results in a reduced product. No company survives by continually offering customers less for their money.
There are many people who are actually made happy by the prospect of the death of their local newspaper. (Just look at the comments following the job-loss article linked above, for instance.) I’m not one of them. I have often expressed unhappiness with the performance of the journalism industry, and of the N&O specifically. But I can’t imagine that the public would be any better off if the newspaper business collapsed. Let me offer a moment of blogger self-awareness: I’d hate for the collection of news to be left to the likes of me. (And I had 30 years of practice, a third of it with McClatchy.)
There was a moment last week when it seemed McClatchy might be climbing out of the hole it dug for itself three years ago, when it went deeply in debt to buy the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain. In one frenzied spurt of buying, investors drove the stock price up 50 percent. But it was an illusory rise in value, almost surely caused by a phenomenon called a “short squeeze.” By the next trading day, McClatchy’s share price had dropped back near its low point — less than the cost of a single postage stamp. The company’s latest stab at cost-cutting was met with a yawn from investors.
I want McClatchy to survive, and not just because I’d prefer to avoid wrestling with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to get the money I’ll need to buy dog food in my old age. (For me, not the dog; he’s on his own.) Sure, the information void would be filled by others if the newspaper industry failed, but I have little hope we’d get an upgrade. For all the disdain heaped upon the industry, it’s still got the best ratio between basic facts and bias.
But the people who want newspapers to die focus only on the second without acknowledging the first. Me, I’d far rather bitch about the paper than do without it.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:19 am
“I’d far rather bitch about the paper than do without it.” Well put and that’s exactly how I feel. It’s frustrating how some folks simply won’t acknowledge that so many of the news stories that get covered by TV or bloggers originate from newspaper reporters. I still subscribe to the N&O, but I recently cut back from daily to Friday, Saturday, Sunday delivery. And while good, original copy is still printed in the paper and online every day, it’s definitely not as thick as it was a 18 months ago.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I concur!
I’ll never agree with everything in the N&O and how boring it would be if I did. But I still get it daily and read every section — some more thoroughly than others of course. Yes, it’s much thinner than it was and I worry each time there’s another cut-back.
I’m a reader and I like to hold on to what I’m reading. Somehow I can’t see taking the computer out to the deck with my morning coffee. Nor is it practical while waiting for an appointment or commuting.
I see some things changing and it’s for the better. Losing the daily newspaper is definitely not one of those changes.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Death by a thousand layoffs. The N&O is cutting its throat with a rusty dull knife. Didn’t the same article say something about the N&O still being profitable? McClathy seems to think that the profitable papers should support the unprofitable. The N&O has had some great reporting, even fairly recently, and it has had some great columnists, particularly a couple that were run out.
Now the dang thing is so thin I finish the paper way before I finish my second cup of coffee, and I drink the stuff pretty fast.
What a shame.
Someone local aught to buy the thing. Probably pick it up for less than a mcmansion in Wakefield.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Of course, GD, your concern is based on the assumption that the void created by the absence of the N&O would not be filled. I think everyone pretty much agrees there is a demand. Problem is, it’s a demand for honest journalism. Something the N&O has proven again and again to be incapable of. No, not always, but to a profound degree, and to such a point that the value of such series as the one on Probation or the Mental Health abuses are overwhelmed by the contempt that is generated by the superior elitism and leftist ideology put forth overtly and covertly within the N&O’s pages. The N&O deserves to fail, and I hope it does, so that a market void will be created that will eventually prove fertile ground for a more honest approach than currently exists.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Explain to InTheArena that the N & O is no longer the house organ for the Democratic Party and that the covert delivery of leftist ideology is a Dittohead canard. It is a tiresome bleat. There is no leftist cabal in the corner office rubbing there paws with glee about the latest liberal stealth message delivered in the news side of the operation. Our faults and biases are far more mundane, rooted in standard institutional foolishness of which you are well positioned to explain. We may be flawed, but most of us are pros who play as honest a game as we can.
March 13th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Yes Yes Raul. One must be a dittohead, in lockstep with some mindless conservative Neanderthal to recognize the fraud the N&O perpetuates. In the absence of rational thought, name calling is always best. Just ask Linda Williams.
Bias is a comparative rather than relative term, thus it’s no surprise as you look from desk to desk that you see none. Of course, more and more of the desks are empty, which may be another reason. Keep up the fine work of fiddling in the flames.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
There you go again. When you spout forth an original idea, tell Dan to give me a call. I’ve seen none so far, yet you feel free to call folks like me and the work we do dishonest. I suppose you feel you’re being honest in this, but I’ve always found that one man’s honesty is another man’s bias.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Gosh Raul, your superiority humbles me. Time and again, you and your cohorts bitch about how many people accuse you of having a liberal bias (whilst snickering behind your closed doors). Yeah, we’re all just a bunch of dolts. Your contempt is palpable. Yours would be an original idea if only Stalin and Mao hadn’t thought of it first. So, thanks for being such a pillar to the masses Raul. If not for you, we would be just a wandering herd. Your self delusion is exceeded only by your self absorption. Original idea indeed.
March 13th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Son, you just keep proving my point again and again — and showing your ass. Which seems to be the font of your original ideas. By the way — which is it you think I am — a Maoist or a Stalinist? Can’t be both.