Trade journal Editor & Publisher reports that Publisher Eddy Hartenstein sent Los Angeles Times staffers a memo yesterday detailing changes to the sections in the print edition, as well as the loss of as many as 300 jobs throughout the newspaper. Editor Russ Stanton followed with a memo of his own.
Both are available here.
And A.H. Belo Corp. will lay off approximately 500 employees at The Dallas Morning News and its three other dailies, CEO Robert Decherd told employees in a memo that said pay cuts and the newly popular industry practice of furloughs had been considered and rejected by management.
Those surviving the Belo layoffs will feel the pain of the company’s financial squeeze in big and little ways, ranging from the suspension of matching contributions to employee 401(k) retirement plans — to charging for parking at the Dallas Morning News.
Monthly reimbursement for wireless devices paid some employees will be “substantially” reduced to $35, saving $200,000 annually, he said.
Staring in May, employees will be charged $40 a month to park in outdoor lots owned by the company. Those parking in the garage of The Belo Building will find their monthly charge bumped from $40 per month to $70 per month. The fees will generate about $520,000 a year, Decherd said.
The Belo bad news is here. The Company’s diversified group has holdings in television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets and owns KTVK Channel 3 in Phoenix.
The trickle-down effect harms others outside of the newspapers. Many of these conglomerates own various media sources. As pointed out in the post, Belo owns Arizona’s local television outlet TV 3. The fact that the dailies have stopped providing reliable and objective news reporting has been a blot on the entire profession.
300 jobs? Wow! Hey, this is beginning to sound serious. The Los Angeles Times no less..wow.
Why doesn’t the liberal media just try reporting objectively and see if things get a little better. They just don’t have it in ‘em. Too bad.
These sources make their choices of straight news reporting or biased editorializing pretending to be actual news. Even the laziest reader eventually sees through that journalistic charade and tires of it. No wonder readership declines and newspapers fold.