KTLA lays off two reporters, weekend anchor (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 1, 2008 | Greg Braxton

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KTLA-TV Channel 5 laid off a veteran reporter and one of its weekend anchors Monday, part of a handful of cuts at the local station that also included several executives.

Weekend anchor Walter Richards and reporter Willa Sandmeyer were let go along with reporter Janet Choi, executive editor of planning Joseph M. Russin and morning news executive producer John Hensley. KTLA, like the Los Angeles Times, is owned by Tribune Co., which is struggling financially because of major shifts in the media business and the softening economy.

John Moczulski, vice president of programming and marketing at KTLA, said the cuts were economically driven and came after a newsroom evaluation focusing on efficiency. Further cuts may be coming, and other positions may be reconfigured, he said.

In an interview, Richards, who has worked at KTLA for 14 years, said he was hoping to land another anchor job.

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More good news.

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ping

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http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/06/newspaper-shares-slid-23b-in-6-months.html

Newspaper shares slid $23B in 6 months
The value of 11 newspaper companies traded on the public market since 2005 dove a combined $23.7 billion in the first half of this year, falling almost as much in six months as they had in the three prior years put together.

Wall Street’s intensifying repudiation of the industry means that the companies in the group have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 3½ years, vaporizing 51% of shareholder value since Dec. 31. 2004.

To date, the decline in newspaper shares has not had a commensurate impact on the compensation (details here) enjoyed by the chief executives of several of the affected companies.

As you can see in the table below, Journal Register Co. and the Sun-Times Media Group (nee Hollinger) suffered the worst losses in the 3½-year period, respectively shedding 99.1% and 96.9% of their value.

Journal Register is deemed to have a 72.9% chance of defaulting on its crippling debt, which in all likelihood would render its shares valueless. Sun-Times, which has a legacy of tax and other issues resulting from the criminal mismanagement of former chief Conrad Black, has been for sale all year, with no takers identified at this writing. Both publishers were booted off the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, because their shares fell below the minimum price required for listing. They now trade on the Pink Sheets under the symbols JRCO and SUTM.

While the stocks of Lee Enterprises (LEE) and McClatchy (MNI) remain in good standing at the Big Board because their shares trade above well above the required minimum price of $1.10 apiece, their performance was not much better than that of the two publishers exiled to the Pink Sheets. Their market caps respectively have plunged 91.2% and 90.2% since Dec. 31, 2004.

MNI this year wrote off $2.8 billion, or 70%, of the $4 billion it spent to buy the bulk of the Knight Ridder chain in 2006, because the acquired assets were overvalued under the accounting rules described here. Required to undergo the same accounting exercise as McClatchy, LEE in May wrote off $862 million in the book value of its publishing assets, including nearly 53% of the $1.46 billion it paid for the Pulitzer newspapers in 2005.

Although they did not entirely escape the drubbing occasioned by the accelerating declines in advertising and circulation at most newspapers, the shares of the most broadly diversified publishers fared the best of the group. The value of Scripps (SSP), which is spinning its non-newspaper assets as of July 1 into a separate company called Scripps Network Interactive (SNI), fell a cumulative 12.4% in the 3½ years. Next best were the Washington Post Co. (WPO, down 23.5%) and News Corp. (NWS, off 32.5%).

In addition to Knight Ridder and Pulitzer, two other publishers that were publicly traded in 2004 have disappeared from the market. They are Dow Jones and Tribune Co., which respectively were acquired in late 2007 by News Corp. and a private transaction helmed by Sam Zell on behalf of the company’s employees.

Beyond the 11 publishing companies that have been continuously traded since 2005, the list below includes the performance of two relative newcomers. GateHouse (GHS) has lost 72.0% of its value since its initial public offering in November, 2006. A.H. Belo (AHC), the pure-play newspaper spin-off created by Belo (BLC), has slid 68.7% since its debut in mid-January, 2008.

Mere words cannot do justice to the carnage. You can cick on the image to make it bigger, but the numbers won’t get any better.

Disclosures: I own shares of JRC, MNI and SSP and consulted for SUTM in 2007.

[xDGx]

And the people who will lose their jobs are not the ones primarily responsible (namely, the left-wing owners and editorial boards.)

Disclosure: I dumped my last media stock 6 months ago. :)

[hermgem]

There also is a positive side, namely reduced paper usage, reduced wood cutting, and environmental support of which these papers so frequently informed us about.

[xDGx]

* smacks head *

You’re right! KTLA is downsizing to lower their carbon footprint. They are putting into action their cries to save the planet!!! Talk about taking one for the team.

President/Secretary General Obama should award them EMOH’s (Environmental Medals of Honor) for their sacrifice. To ALL the media which is doing this for all of us, and especially the children.

* posting through tears *

[jimfree]

KTLA radio remains conservative talk today. I haven’t followed the TV side of the call letters in a while. George Putnam had several stints as anchor on channel 5. I remember his “...in this reporter’s opinion...” conservative commentary pieces watching tv with the family in the 60s.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Blogosphere ( Flopping Aces ) regarding McClatchy:

Tabloid Paper “McClatchy” Going Down, Down, Down…..

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Couldn’t have happened to a better tabloid newspaper: (h/t McClatchy Watch)

Shares of The McClatchy Co. dropped almost 6 percent in trading Monday and fell to a new 52-week low, after the newspaper publisher was removed from the Russell 1000, a closely watched index.

The Sacramento-based company has been battling declining advertising revenue and fewer readers for the past few months. The drop in earnings and revenue prompted 10 percent across-the-board layoffs

Lets take a gander at their steller performance/a> shall we?

When you try to sell crap the market usually sends you packing. This finally appears to be happening.

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McClatchy has been particularly bad and devious in their reporting regarding the Iraqi War....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See the nice chart at post #8...

[Grampa Dave]

Great article and chart!

“When you try to sell crap, the market usually sends you packing. This finally appears to be happening.” *

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McClatchy has been particularly bad and devious in their reporting regarding the Iraqi War....

* Which is why the liberals hate the free market.

[Grampa Dave]

Newspaper shares slid $23B in 6 months
The value of 11 newspaper companies traded on the public market since 2005 dove a combined $23.7 billion in the first half of this year, falling almost as much in six months as they had in the three prior years put together.

Wall Street’s intensifying repudiation of the industry means that the companies in the group have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 3½ years, vaporizing 51% of shareholder value since Dec. 31. 2004.

The dinosaur fishwraps continue to Enron its share holders, bond holders and the liberals employed by them posing as journalists.

[Finny]

No, no, no!! Walter Richards was a good, low-key reporter with the coolest hair on the planet! He’ll be missed. I hope he does well in his next professional endeavors.

[BurbankKarl]

So they keep the young tarts and that aweful Michaela Perreira

[lainie]

They’ve hired Manny Medrano away from KNBC and Elizabeth Espinosa from KTTV. Maybe they’re trying to build a new army. They lost Hal Fishman and Carlos (big loss). But you’re right — Perreira has got to go. She’s BAD.

I no longer watch morning TV. The Fox show is gossipy and dumb, and it’s all stuff we can easily read on the Internet — mostly the night before. The people talk over each other constantly. But I can’t switch to KTLA because of Perreira. The whole show is not good but she tops off the reason not to watch.

[NormsRevenge]

quite a steep slope too.. wow.

Hope Walter and Willa catch on somewhere.

[SevenofNine]

WOW that late Hal Fishman network

I be honest with you abb I stop watching KTLA long time ago around the time when Hal kick the bucket that the network goes to in SO CAL that feature international news that only cool thing about that channel

Beside KCAL Channel 9 had all high speed chases LOL!

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“You’re right! KTLA is downsizing to lower their carbon footprint. They are putting into action their cries to save the planet!!! Talk about taking one for the team.”

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Notice how much energy their transmitters use. How much extra power does PG&E have to generate in order to keep them powered up?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTLA
Transmitter Power: 44.7 kW (analog) - 1000 kW (digital)

http://www.well.com/user/dmsml/ktla/index.html

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I haven’t watched a high speed chase in for ever....are we still having those?

[SevenofNine]

Yeah we still have them KCBS and Channel 9 would break into Dr Phil programming that good in my view LOL!

I rather watch high speed chase than Dr Phil sometime

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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003822957
Lee Enterprises Joins Wide Meltdown After Downgrade

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003822832
Another Illinois Paper Cuts Monday Editions

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003822837
McClatchy Co. Shares Dip After Deutsche Bank Downgrade