(Sacremento) Bee offers buyouts to majority of full-time workers (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Sacremento Bee ^ | August 25, 2008 | Dale Kasler

[abb]

The Bee offered voluntary buyouts to the majority of its full-time employees today and hinted that another round of layoffs is possible as well.

The buyouts represent the latest round of cost cutting at The Bee, which is facing a big slump in advertising revenue. Two months ago the newspaper eliminated 86 jobs as part of an across-the-board layoff ordered by its parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento. McClatchy imposed a companywide wage freeze two weeks ago.

But Bee executives said today they needed to make more cuts. The economic downturn has deepened and The Bee, like the rest of the newspaper industry, continues to struggle with the migration of business to the Internet and other media.

"It's about continually looking at your work force and looking at your economic projections and trying to bring those in line," Bee Publisher and President Cheryl Dell said. "We thought that we had that two months ago, but with the worsening economy, we just need to do more."

She added that bankruptcies of several advertisers, including Room Source, Linens N Things and Mervyns, has contributed to the uncertainty.

Dell said another round of layoffs is possible if there aren't enough voluntary buyouts. But she said it was "premature to establish a target or quota" for the buyouts. The buyouts were offered to 55 percent of the paper's full-time employees and a smaller number of part-timers, she said. About 44 percent of all employees are being offered buyouts.

The buyout program was announced just a few weeks after The Bee unveiled a redesigned, smaller format for its printed paper, another move largely aimed at cutting costs.

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[Enchante]

I don’t think we will run out of news providers - there will be loads of articles available even if some MSM dinosaurs go under. The business model is changing a lot, but there will still be demand for a lot of news & info. Sure, the web pushes everything toward a ‘free’ model and the big issue for MSM dinosaurs is how to collect money for their output, especially with classified ad revenue plunging lower.

BUT, there are still untold billions of dollars flowing through the MSM and there will be many news sources for a long time to come. Shake-ups and consolidations will continue, but I’m not worried about running out of material for FR threads.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: the Rainbow Left

Watch California's gay "marriage" state constitutional amendment coming this election day. Watch the collapse of San Francisco's city government resulting from among other things their sanctuary city status. Things are changing, IMO.

Re: Thus my observation that the traditional lines between Corporatism and Communism have become markedly less clear

I can agree in the context of Davos and our New Democrat Third Way progressives-transnational corporations partnership.

I have often described it as Marxist revolution from the top down.

See Davos World Economic Forum 2008 here

The Third Way knows it needs a free market to bring prosperity -- their corporate partners are being used but are happy making tons of money. Like Lenin's New Economic Plan (NEP) the day will come when the progressives start buying rope from their "partners" and hanging them. IMO.

[Milhous]

RE: "the “Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™”is also the FR DeathWatch."

Your assessment completely ignores FR's roles as a newsmaker and a virtual bulletin board for conservative activism.

IMHO mass media mostly produces propaganda. OTOH blogs serve me as the ultimate spy network with over a billion people feeding me intel. For instance a blog search on "Denver" for the past 24 hours returns about 30,000 hits. And that's just blogs. Add mail lists, tweets, chat rooms, etc to get an even better picture.

Bottom line - the Inet provides plenty of hard facts to critical thinkers.

[abb]

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[LomanBill]

[Your assessment completely ignores FR's roles as a newsmaker and a virtual bulletin board for conservative activism.]

 

Not at all.  I recognize both.

 

But all you have to do is count the number of FR threads that are based upon MSM articles to see that the MSM is a key part of the FR business model. Without the MSM, FR would be quite different

 

>>IMHO mass media mostly produces propaganda.

 

Nothing prevents Internet blogs from doing the same.

 

>>OTOH blogs serve me as the ultimate spy network
>>with over a billion people feeding me intel.

 

True, but it's also great conduit for Mis/Dis information too.  Trying to sift out the "Alex Joneses" can be a challenge.

 

 

There's no easy answer.  It's ultimately up to consumer of information to decide the truth for themselves... assuming they managed to acquire the tools of logic and reason despite being edumacated.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I agree. We of course will continue to weigh the information and we can go directly to local MSM sources.

In fact if we'd had the "new media" in 1964 the MSM could not have destroyed Goldwater to the extent that some actually asked after the election, "Did we go too far?"

Nevertheless it was how our system worked but one side had the "high-tech weapon" of TV to produce their propaganda.

Above I stated that IMO all this is how our system works. But things have changed

I remember Henry "Scoop" Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, Harry Truman -- I knew the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party was a friend of America. The Rat Party is no Democratic Party.