Posted on 06/27/2008 5:57:36 PM PDT by Michael.SF.
Uh-oh, someone tinkled in humblegunner’s Cheerios this morning.
I thought “the Great One” is Mark Levin.
Thanks for the link to some great comments.
There’s a club of Great Ones. You need sufficient braggadocio to belong.
I was leaving the grocery store a few weeks ago and some guy from the Star was trying to get new subscribers. He asked if I wanted a copy of the paper and I asked, “The Star?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Absolutely not.” He looked stunned because I was kinda snotty. I should have gone back and apologized but I didn’t.
Amid a drop in print ad revenue, The Star is cutting 120 jobs
The Kansas City Star is cutting 120 jobs, or about 10 percent of its work force, as part of its parent company’s elimination of 1,400 positions companywide.
In a memo to employees Monday, Star Publisher Mark Zieman called the move “a painful but necessary step,” citing dramatic reductions in revenue due to increased competition in a changing media landscape and the current economic downturn.
“These cuts are part of the way we must respond as we strategically realign our company for success in this digital age,” Zieman said.
The cuts come as the newspaper industry continues to grapple with the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet. Although Zieman noted TheStar now reaches a record of nearly 4 million readers a month in print and on its KansasCity.com Web site, the company is struggling to replace lost print advertising revenue quickly enough with new online revenue.
The Star’s cuts will be made through voluntary and involuntary buyouts and will affect every division of the newspaper. Many of the affected employees were notified Monday.
Most of them will be eligible for two weeks’ base pay for each year of continuous service. The minimum severance pay will be six weeks and the maximum will be 26 weeks.
In a statement, The Star’s parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, Calif., said it had relied on attrition and outsourcing to reduce its work force by 13 percent between the end of 2006 and April 2008. But it said it needed to move more aggressively now, given “today’s more competitive media environment and challenging operating conditions.”
“It’s important to recognize this move as part of a continuing, strategic vision for successful future operations, not solely a response to today’s adverse conditions,” McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt said in the statement.
In announcing the layoffs, McClatchy joins other major newspaper chains that have announced similar staff reductions in recent months.
McClatchy, the nation’s third-largest newspaper company, said the companywide cuts, amounting to a 10 percent reduction of its total work force, are expected to produce annual savings of $70 million — part of a broader plan to reduce overall expenses by $95 million to $100 million over the next year.
“McClatchy has always said, ‘We don’t bulk up in good times and don’t lay off in bad,’ so this obviously is a change from that,” said newspaper analyst John Morton. “… At least, though, like the San Diego Union-Tribune and a couple of other companies, they’re making the reduction across the board, rather than focusing on the newsroom, which a lot of newspapers have been doing.”
In an interview Monday, Zieman said he expected 20-22 positions, out of about 285, to be eliminated in the newsroom. That marks the biggest newsroom reduction since 1978, when some 50 employees left, many voluntarily, after Capital Cities bought the newspaper in 1977 from Star employees for $125 million.
The layoffs represent the biggest newspaper-wide staff reduction at The Star since mid-2001, when it announced plans to cut 125 positions, or 6.7 percent of its then-work force of 1,869 employees. Late last year, The Star announced a voluntary severance program, which 24 employees accepted.
McClatchy owns 30 daily newspapers and 50 nondailies, as well as direct marketing and direct mail operations. Besides The Star, major McClatchy daily newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas, The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, TheNews & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and The Wichita Eagle.
More at http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/666653.html
Looks like something from the Ted Rall school of art. Vile.
I can't remember the last time I actually read the "KC Red Star." I actually used to look forward to getting calls from their subscription people, when I'd grill them over the star's editorial policies, and the fact that it seemed that their news was run by that same editorial board.
I didn't know about the cartoon until this thread. I was thinking that I might fire off an email to the paper, but then I also can't remember the last time I went to their web page either. Maybe I'll call them on the phone...
Mark
I look at the Star online daily - it’s the same crap and not updated as it should. I check the obits daily and often do the crossword puzzle online.
I think you may be referring to Wichita, KS and Kansas City, MO.
Judge swings between meaningless liberal babble to mean liberal blathering. Always has, always will, he has never made a rational point in his career.
Yup—my bad. This Kansas City, Mo stuff has often led me to errors in geography.
You're thinking of Wichita, Kansas, which plays host to Dr. Tiller's clinic.
Mark
Thanks for the second direction...an extremely juvenile attempt at humor...an attempt that misses. My 10th grade journalism/english teacher would have given this clown an “F”.
Yes, I went to an Excellent High School>>>PRIVATE!
I thought he got the “h” mixed up with the”d”?
God Works In Mysterious Ways
Submitted by mware on June 27, 2008 - 8:04pm.
I hear The Kansas City Star is cutting 120 jobs. Perhaps you will be one of the cuts.
God does indeed work in mysterious ways.
“SNORT!”
And yet you youself have bought the hate Rush line from the mainstream media.
You have been co-opted so easily.
The war has begun. Too bad the sissies don’t believe in defending themselves.
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