Posted on 08/02/2007 3:25:09 PM PDT by abb
Memo from Orange County Register editor Ken Brusic
Folks,
Most of you heard during town halls last week that revenue problems continue to plague our company and our industry. We learned, for example, that revenue was 14 percent behind last year and profit was 38 percent behind. And last year’s financial results were behind the year before.
You also heard that one necessary solution was to cut expenses, including the elimination of positions, people and other non-payroll costs.
None of this is easy. But the truth is, as we see revenue continue to fall, especially in print, our company needs to take strong action to regain some balance.
So today we began a series of actions in the content center that include layoffs. Unlike the voluntary severance we went through last year, people this time are being asked to leave.
The deputy editors and I have made every effort to minimize the effect on people. We are cutting space, eliminating open positions, reducing freelance, dropping some wire services and saving money any way we can. Still, some people will need to leave.
The process is difficult and painful -- especially for those most directly involved. They have done nothing wrong; they are good people. We will miss them.
I ask that you be respectful of the individuals involved. The compiling of lists, the emailing of names or idle speculation and gossiping will not be helpful to them or those of us who need to continue to build and grow our future with fewer people.
Our plan is for everyone to be notified and most of those affected to be gone by next Thursday. We will hold a session in the hockey rink 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9 to attempt to answer your questions.
The publisher and executive team have requested that we not talk about specific numbers of people involved here or throughout the company or the total expense reduction. You'll recall from the town hall meetings that every division within Freedom is being asked to cut costs.
Our entire industry is in a state of transition. We are seeing fundamental shifts in the way people acquire and use news and information. We have a lot going for us in Orange County. We have a strong economy and a vibrant community. We have good customer relationships, smart people and one of the best community news gathering organizations in the country. Local news and information continue to be our strength and a powerful competitive advantage.
If we can focus on the light at the other side of this small tunnel rather than the darkness, we will prosper. We have some good plans in the works to deal with a slightly smaller staff and prepare ourselves for a new way of thinking and working, as well as the creation of new products. We have already seen substantial results from our efforts on the Web.
Please be helpful and kind to those who are leaving and to one another as we work through the changes in the way we work. And thank you for all of what you do every day. -- Ken
Ping
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the news business, and perhaps the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting coming back in.
How long before somebody decides that the newspaper business is so important that it should be subsidized by government? I expect Hillary or some other Democrats to say that newspapers are important community institutions, and they are all struggling in this new world of the internet and other communications. And that because they fill an important role, they should be subsized. It would tie in with their socialistic view of the world. They don’t want to see their main cheerleaders, such as the N.Y. Times decline any more in importance and circulation than they already have.
Isn’t the OC Register a conservative paper?
Actually, you're a bit behind the curve. This idea has been floated several times over the past year or so in columns by several leading lights of the journalistic community. Newspapers should be run by a "trust," or a university or some such. They should be insulated from the evil marketplace. They shouldn't have to worry about 'profits' and other such distractions. And on and on and on. Do a keyword search on DBM and you'll see many posts about this.
Ah. It’s a “folksy” layoff.
Small 'l' libertarian. Which just demonstrates that regardless of a newspaper's particular political orientation, print publishing is a dead-end market.
It also demonstrates that perhaps only a few national newspapers will survive, such as the NYT & WSJ. This is the direction Murdoch is betting - otherwise there isn't any rationale for purchasing a specialty (business) paper.
I am sure part of their problem is that OC is now full of uneducated non-English speaking illegals...which the dinosaur media supports such illegality.
Illegals do not read English papers...heck they cant read any paper..period
They never met an illegal that they didn't like. Ten yrs ago I wrote/called the editorial department numerous letters about their liberal slants. No response. So I quit it & never looked back.
Perhaps used to be conservative/libertarian, but they jumped the shark, for me anyway, about five years ago when they changed their editorial page from very conservative to liberal (sort of like reading Hillary's thesis). It happend practically overnight. And they quit writing their own articles and just printed stuff from AP, NYT, etc. And, the final screw in the coffin, they quit putting a TV Guide in the paper.
That was enough for me. I really loved that paper and was sad and still am sad that I can no longer support my local paper. I do occasionally borrow a neighbor's to check the sales, but that's about it.
OCR was the paper I bought when on travel in LA. I ignored the LAT. And I told the hotel clerk NOT to put a USAToday outside my room as I have a kid serving and don’t appeciate traitors like Gannett.
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