(Columbus, GA) Ledger-Enquirer to furlough nearly 1/2 its employees (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Ledger-Enquirer ^ | September 2, 2009 | Tony Adams

[abb]

The Ledger-Enquirer will require nearly half of its employees to take a week off without pay beginning Sept. 6, said Valerie Canepa, the newspaper’s publisher, on Wednesday.

The mandatory furloughs impact 88 of 174 employees — including the newsroom — and will run through Dec. 12. Exempt are advertising sales employees, most production workers and the staff of The Bayonet, a publication that focuses on Fort Benning.

The furloughs come with the newspaper industry nationwide under financial pressure from the severe recession and print readers migrating to the Web for news.

“We have an excellent newspaper and a building full of talent, and I hate that we must require furloughs,” Canepa said in an email to employees. “But further cost-cutting is necessary to weather the volatile market conditions that make the business of producing a daily newspaper more challenging than ever before.”

The Ledger-Enquirer, owned by Sacramento, Calif.-based The McClatchy Co., has used employee buyouts, layoffs, a wage freeze and pay cuts over the last year to manage through the economic downturn.

[abb]

Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?

Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.

Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?

Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Mongol General: That is good! That is good.

[abb]

ping

[wally_bert]

Now if The State, Rock Hill Herald, and Charlotte Observer would just go under, that would be just peachy.

[Tarpon]

At the rate newspapers have been shedding revenue, you would think most are just hollow buildings by now.

Can’t happen too soon.

[SeeSharp]

I was just thinking this morning how bad things must be in the print media for the Enquirer not to have published any pictures of the Dugard kids yet.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Anyone do a chart of leftiness versus financial decline?

[HiTech RedNeck]

To think that in 2003 the New York Slimes were having swaths of NYC wrecked for new offices. How quickly the worm turns.

[Tarpon]

The salad days of Bush hate and more hate.

[abb]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Canada-newspaper-threatens-to-apf-2049688636.html?x=0&.v=7
Canada newspaper threatens to cease publication

http://colinwoodard.blogspot.com/2009/08/obituary-san-francisco-chronicle.html
Obituary: San Francisco Chronicle Foreign Service

http://www.nwanews.com/news/2009/sep/03/northwest-arkansas-newspapers-propose-joint-ventur/?breaking#
Northwest Arkansas newspapers propose joint venture

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214832
Exterminate the Parasites
A radical plan to save old media.

http://weblogs.variety.com/bltv/2009/09/the-news-axis-has-shifted-from-evening-to-mornings.html
The News Axis Has Shifted From ‘Evening’ to Mornings

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20090903_Creditors_move_to_halt_newspapers__campaign.html
Creditors move to halt newspapers’ campaign

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-sun-times-0903-sep03,0,3140075.story
Sun-Times Media Group to close Pioneer Press printing plant in Northfield

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20090903will_globe_get_taylor-made_offer_if_price_is_right_he_may_be_favored_if_not_best_buyer/
Will Globe get Taylor-made offer?

[abb]

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/339527-Report_KEYE_Cutting_5_A_M_News_Too.php
Report: KEYE Cutting 5 A.M. News Too

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/339515-Video_in_Broadband_Driver_s_Seat.php
Video in Broadband Driver’s Seat
FCC workshop explores how video is shaping broadband deployment, adoption

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/339533-AT_T_Soft_Launches_Video_Portal.php
AT&T ‘Soft Launches’ Video Portal
Telco’s Website includes content from broadcast, cable networks

[abb]

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1179766
The post-daily world
To understand what’s next for journalism, it helps to put the decline of daily newspapers (like the Bee) in context

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/09/090901_doc_citizen_journalists_1.shtml
Citizen journalism - democracy or chaos?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/01/bbc-james-murdoch-new-media
Don’t let Murdoch smash this jewel. The BBC must act to save itself

[yarddog]

I think that relatively small paper won a Pulitzer during the mid 50’s for reporting on the corruption in nearby Phenix City, Alabama.

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004009025
Gannett to Consolidate Ad Operations in Indy, Des Moines

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004009153
Proposed: Digital JOAs!

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=112943
Take Two: Networks Relaunch Shows

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=112845
Magazine Newsstand Sales Drop 37% from 2001-2009

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
Employee says the Ledger-Enquirer is being gutted of its best talent

http://www.wordyard.com/
Blogger’s 10th birthday party

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Market Forces

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-taking-the-plunge-how-newspaper-sites-that-charge-are-faring/
Taking The Plunge: How Newspaper Sites That Charge Are Faring

[RJL]

The McClatchy Co., has used employee buyouts, layoffs, a wage freeze and pay cuts over the last year to manage through the economic downturn.

McClatchy living large on the backs of the little people.