I had a cup of coffee this morning with Kim Underwood at Chelsee’s. Kim is the Winston-Salem Journal’s online guy and we had a great conversation. After coffee we walked over the the Journal’s building he gave me a tour of the newsroom and introduced me to a few folks. Someone asked me if I was going to write about the layoffs last week at the News & Record and when I said I wasn’t sure she said something to the effect of "you should, especially since you haven’t been shy about writing about us."
Good point, but my reply to her was that I didn’t feel as comfortable writing about internal goings-on as "public facing" events. For instance I have no problem critiquing the newspaper’s web re-design because I’m the audience and my opinion matters as much as anyone elses. On the other hand, I don’t work at the newspaper, don’t know the financial situation, don’t know the personnel situation and so I don’t feel qualified in evaluating the specifics of the layoffs. (For what its worth, I took a similar tack last November when the Journal had their own layoffs.) On the other-other hand, if some of the stories coming out of the layoff action are true then I can say that in those specific instances the individuals who were laid off got a pretty rough deal. Here are two specific cases that I know of:
- One N&R library staffer was laid off and he is getting ready to enter cancer treatments and is apparently going to need a bone-marrow transplant in the future. I’d originally heard this as a rumor, but now Ed Cone has posted an appeal to help Marcus Green pay for the COBRA expenses for the procedure so I guess it’s true.
- One reporter was hired, started last Monday and was laid off at the end of last week. Four days on the job! How the management at the N&R let that happen is beyond me. At best it’s poor management and at worst it’s callousness of the grossest kind.
As for the rest of the layoffs I don’t really have much to say. It’s obviously a business call that the folks at Landmark felt they had to make, but it doesn’t make the situation any easier for the folks now looking for employment.
In general terms one thing I’d like to see, just once, is a case where a senior exec takes a personal hit in order to save the folks working for him or her. I’m not talking about the N&R here, I’m talking about all the companies out there who are downsizing in an effort to improve their financials. Is there one CEO out there willing to say, "You know what, the buck stops here. Before I lay off 30 people making $50,000 each I’m going to give up my $1.5 million bonus, and together we’re going to fix this business"? Somehow I think we’re more likely to hear, "It’s unfortunate that we have to let go 30 fine people but rest assured that as your all-star CEO I’ve created a contingency plan to have those same functions fulfilled by 60 people in Bangalore for 1/6 the cost, which is why my $1.5 million incentive is returning a tremendous ROI."
Oh, and by-the-by, the folks at the Journal were really nice to me, especially when you consider that I’ve not always been so nice to them. Either they take a more charitable view of we bloggers than many of their brethren, or they know exactly what I am: an opinionated person with enough ego to think that people might want to read his opinions, or seen another way, a guy who’s a few slices short of a full loaf and knows how to type. Either way, they treated me well and I had a good time checking out their digs.
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Befuddled 
My brother, my brother…. You know I am reluctant to comment on your blog, particularly in the areas of local media critique. I really enjoy the free wheeling writing between you and your brethren of local bloggers. In this particular post though, I thought I might be able to provide another angle.
Let’s not forget this is “business.” As a participant in the day to day newspaper business, I can assure you that things change so fast, even the most seasoned inky finds his/her head spinning. There is no silver bullet, no all encompassing answer to current trends, only a constant search for the right formula to make sure that generations old franchises are a part of the future media world. That said, this is a business, and we all serve one master or another. Further to that, each newspaper is a business, whether or not they are part of a larger conglomerate. Each situation is unique, and while I cannot attest to the particulars in Greensboro or Winston-Salem, I’m sure they are not far off trend from markets of similar size and demographics that I am very familiar with. Everyone’s doing the very best they can to hang on, and find new ways to grow. Adjusting structure is a necessary component of the newspaper world today.
So here’s the critique: Just like in your home, when times are tight, you buckle down. The cultures at both Media General and Landmark are such that they would hit every other possible expense before they would go after a head count reduction. Let’s not be too critical of the “CEO’s and senior execs” here either. In both cases, you’re basically talking about owners. The hit to the wallet they have taken is nothing to shrug off. And yes, in these times, you can bet there are fewer of them just as there are fewer in the newsroom.
And now the brotherly lecture: You cite two examples of the N&R’s staff reductions that paint the newspaper in a pretty negative light. Admittedly, you haven’t verified if either incident is true. I feel comfortable in assuring you that your new friends in both newsrooms welcome your input, and thoughtfulness. The participation of the local blogging community is no doubt part of their future strategic planning. While you don’t have an obligation to, the checking that will accompany a post that straddles opinion and fact will be the determining factor in the level of access you, or any other blogger, has to the mainstream media. I willingly submit that access and exposure may be of no concern to the most of the blogging community at all. But…….when you step on the porch and ring the bell, you’re either selling or running.
Here endeth the lecture.
(Please feel free to edit grammar in this as you did for me in school. Being a corporate suit has not made me any better in that regard)
Brother, when you comment you really comment. You’re absolutely right that I should check facts when I straddle opinion and reporting. I will say that the two N&R cases have been shared on a couple of blogs and they haven’t been disputed by the folks who would know (and who also blog), at least as far as I’ve seen. As for the executives at Landmark and Media General I wasn’t really going after them in particular, but I was saying that I can’t remember an instance where a senior executive has taken a personal hit in order to save some jobs under him/her. Not that it hasn’t ever happened, but it sure isn’t common. And even if they don’t take a personal hit it’s even more egregious when they ask employees to make sacrifices, down-size the company and then get rewarded with incredible incentive packages.
One point you made that I hadn’t thought about is that there are probably fewer senior execs just as there are probably fewer mid-managers and front line employees. That’s an important aspect that I totally overlooked. You also make a good point about the owners’ taking a financial hit themselves, but I’m pretty sure you’d find little sympathy from those who lost their jobs since that’s way more than a hit to the pocketbook. That’s a life-changing “pack the bags honey ’cause we’re moving” event. And I also doubt that these moves at the N&R and Journal, and most other companies for that matter, are done in a cold and robotic way. I’ve met very few people that I think would fire someone without fretting about it, and I really don’t think that John Robinson, the editor at the N&R, deserves what he’s been getting since the firings.
I guess my main problem is that the market demands that companies that are not losing money, are operating at profit margins that are great compared to other industries (yes they are down compared to historical highs within the industry), cut people in order to improve the bottom line. As Ed Cone has pointed out repeatedly at his blog it would behoove Landmark, Media General (Gannett!) to take a short term hit and throw resources at developing killer new-media offerings. One area that local papers have a HUGE advantage is in their reporting. There’s literally no one else that can provide the depth and scope on coverage of local events and if they can retain that advantage while figuring out how to make money in whatever medium is their future then they’re going to win. Cutting staff seems to be a short term financial fix that will cause long-term problems.
BTW, I know that in DC some of the stuff written about W-S and Greensboro isn’t of great interest, but you really should check out some of the blogs like Ed Cone’s (www.edcone.com) if you haven’t already. Really interesting to see how it meshes with the local community.
Thanks again for a great comment, and keeping me in line (as always).
Sadly, even with all the writing I’ve been doing lately I do believe your grammar is better than mine.