Ennything helps!
God bLess Yoo!!
Posted on 07/05/2008 9:55:07 AM PDT by Bean Counter
Saturday, July 05, 2008 By LOU BRANCACCIO, Columbian editor
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”
William Edwards Deming, the guy largely credited with improving production during World War II, had this somewhat sarcastic comment about change.
Hey, it’s no big deal if you don’t want to change. Dead isn’t a bad alternative.
Well, wait just one second. Most of us aren’t all that enamored with this dead option.
So we change.
In the 1940s, it was critical to produce war materiel in a much more efficient way. The changes Deming suggested were very important to the success we had back then.
Today, changing in an attempt to adapt to this crazy world we live in has never been more important.
Surviving today means quickly figuring out what’s at play and moving to … change.
The Columbian is no exception.
We are in an absolutely miserable economy, the likes of which I cannot remember.
A Labor Department report this week showed a staggering 500,000 jobs lost so far this year.
And newspapers are no exception.
If anything, newspapers are worse off. Not only are we fighting the bad economy but we also are up against structural changes. Craigslist, for example, has done considerable damage to newspaper classified advertising sections.
It’s very expensive to support a quality news staff, as well as the many other departments at a newspaper.
Faced with this challenge, The Columbian will be changing. Here are some of the changes:
– There will be fewer staffers. The Palm Beach Post in Florida (a larger newspaper than The Columbian) just announced it was trimming 300 jobs, 130 of them in the newsroom.
— Our daily two pages of Opinion will go down to one.
— The newspaper, in general, will have fewer pages.
— The Tuesday Food section will become part of the Life section.
— The Wednesday Neighbors section will become part of the Life section.
— The Thursday Inspirations section (Homes & Gardens) will become part of the Life section.
No question these changes are being done to better put our expenses in line with our revenues.
We’re like every other person out there: trying to not spend more than we’re bringing in.
I suspect many of us have cut back on our driving. Others are opting not to buy that latte. And eating out has become a rarity.
So, yes, The Columbian is cutting back. Just like you. Still, The Columbian will be there for you. We’ll still be the best mid-sized newspaper in the great Northwest. We’ll still bring you great news and great advertising bargains, and we will get the paper on your doorstep early.
If you have comments on the changes, feel free to e-mail me. And thanks for understanding.
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
Isn’t it cute how hard liberals contort themselves to do everything but what is needed....
It must be. In fact, it must have been beyond the means of any of these newspapers because there is no quality among any of their staffs that I have observed for at least the last 30 years.
“We are in an absolutely miserable economy, the likes of which I cannot remember.”
This person must have post-1979-amnesia. When interest rates go above 20% then let’s talk.
“I suspect many of us have cut back on our driving. Others are opting not to buy that latte. And eating out has become a rarity.”
Oh the humanity! You are right, I didn’t realize this awful economy was causing us to sacrifice our daily latte. What sacrifices our generation must make for the good of mankind!
Values Free Jouralism is Valueless to the Readers.
ping
They need look no further than their editorial page:
http://www.columbian.com/opinion/news/2008/06/06222008_Spanky-must-have-been-a-Republican.cfm
And they wonder why circulation is dropping off a cliff.
What a bunch of pap based on limited loose analogies. I bet he felt brilliant with his eureka moment in ink. I just roll my eyes and recognize how stupid some people are.
Everybody should write a letter to their failing newspaper and ask why they haven’t figured out how to make money while that “irrelevant” Rush Limbaugh just signed a new contract.
Another POS McClatchey paper going down the tubes.
It is profound that he doesn't recognize the reason. He is telling the diminishing number of readers that his excellent staff is not the reason. His product takes no blame.
He's cutting the fluff but leaving the part that is killing him. Dr Raoul made the law...."Bias = Layoffs"
“Isn’t it cute how hard liberals contort themselves to do everything but what is needed....”
Talk to someone in middle management if they have a bunch of liberals working for them.
The liberals will do anything not to work and not do the job they are getting paid for.
We know two ladies in their early 60’s, who are office managers, one in a dental office and one in a medical office.
They have to have 6 employees to do the job that 3 good employees would do in each of their offices.
Recently, one of these ladies stop arguing with me, when I would say she and her dentists had hired a bunch of liberals. 5 of the 6 cars driven by her entitled employees are sporting Obama/Change stickers and one vehicle still has a Clinton 08 sticker on it. The Clinton Nag doesn’t talk to the Obamabots and will probably quit soon.
My response to the Columbian this morning:
“We are in an absolutely miserable economy, the likes of which I cannot remember”.
Ah yes. The first question is, is that a statement of willful ignorance or just plain ignorance? Impossible to say with any degree of certitude; however, on the off- chance that your gratuitous drivel originates from the point of view that it is much more entertaining to present sweeping inaccuracies rather than delve into a few minutes of research, I provide, free of charge, for your edification:
By the time Carter skulked out of the White House, the economic statistics reflected the following data:
14.5 % inflation (roughly 245% HIGHER than current conditions)
7.2 unemployment (roughly 32% HIGHER than current conditions)
21% interest rates (roughly 200% HIGHER than current conditions)
And of course, you have become conveniently amnesiac about cars lined up in gas lines for blocks and 70% (!) marginal income tax rates. Why let facts get in the way of a good story, eh Lou?
Unwittingly, you have answered a question that is implicit in your silly Saturday screed: why does the Columbian have to make cutbacks if we can’t blame the Bush economic slowdown? (not a recession, by way; look it up in an Econ textbook)
The explanation can be unearthed by analyzing the opening subject of this email; the problems your and other publications face are self inflicted. Long ago, you swapped precision and truthfulness for arrogance, political cheerleading, and doom and gloom. I believe (this is called opinion) readers think it irrelevant about the means of delivery of news; what is foremost is a newspaper’s integrity. Lose that and readers flee.
There’s your problem.
says the guy in an industry that's being gutted. Things are rosy in my industry!
So, Lou was born after 1976?
Our daily two pages of Opinion will go down to one.
LOL! What a shame..
“It’s very expensive to support a quality news staff”
“It must be. In fact, it must have been beyond the means of any of these newspapers because there is no quality among any of their staffs that I have observed for at least the last 30 years.”
Truer words were never spoken.
It’s been 54 years since I last read the New York Times whose slogan used to be “All the news that’s fit to print”(
They must have changed that long ago to “Whatever news will sabotage the United States”. They forgot to put under their banner—”Subsidiary of Pravda”.
Remember when we used to laugh scornfully about Pravda and pity the residents of the USSR who were fed only what the Communists wanted to feed them? That is now happening here. They have become an arm of the dem party.
Translation: We;ll only give you one pound of bullsh*t per day rather than two.
Raoul's Second Law of Journalism
Ignoring Bias = Bankruptcy
This is pretty scary because if you have read J. Edgar Hoover’s Masters of Deceit, he wrote about how the Communists planned their “bloodless takeover” of the United States, back when they were still handing out fistfuls of mimeogaph copies. They said they would control the press and education and in this way they would win.
Hmmmm, look at our colleges and universities and the press and what do you see? Lefties crawling out of the woodwork, influencing our young and middle-aged who don’t know any better, and don’t read. And now a pure Marxist running for President. Putin must be laughing hysterically.
The Washington Times has four (4) pages of Op Ed every day and straight news reporting in the rest of the paper.
(Signed) A very satisfied mail subscriber of several years.
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