That's according to an employee who attended yesterday's newsroom staff meeting about 20 just-announced layoffs planned for their department. I don't know enough about USA Today's foreign bureau network, including how long it had a bureau in Hong Kong (left), as a base for covering Asia and perhaps for selling advertising for the International Edition. The paper staffs bureaus in London and Baghdad. But I'm pretty sure the Brussels bureau was closed. And I don't recall USAT ever staffing world capitals like Paris, Berlin, Rome or Moscow.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
USA Today closing its Hong Kong bureau
That's according to an employee who attended yesterday's newsroom staff meeting about 20 just-announced layoffs planned for their department. I don't know enough about USA Today's foreign bureau network, including how long it had a bureau in Hong Kong (left), as a base for covering Asia and perhaps for selling advertising for the International Edition. The paper staffs bureaus in London and Baghdad. But I'm pretty sure the Brussels bureau was closed. And I don't recall USAT ever staffing world capitals like Paris, Berlin, Rome or Moscow.
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USATers, correct me if I'm wrong: About 8 years ago, USAT had bureaus in Paris, London, Hong Kong, Beijing and Austin (for Latin America). About five years ago Paris was moved to Brussels, Beijing closed, and Kabul opened. In 2003 Baghdad opened and Kabul closed, though Afghanistan coverage continued from Hong Kong. In 2004 USAT entered a JOA with the CSM to jointly run the Mexico City bureau (is that still the case?). In 2006 the never-filled Brussels bureau was killed, freeing up cash to cover the wars. Today, USAT's only remaining foreign bureaus are London and Baghdad, both one-man shows; London also houses a staff of several dozen advertising, marketing and circulation employees, and a reporter for DefenseNews (Army Times trade pub). London is currently advertising for a new bureau chief on usatoday.com.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to foreign coverage, USAT has two international editions: Europe and Asia. They are basically stripped-down editions of domestic USAT but with regional advertising. The international editions are losing MILLIONS of dollars ever year. According to the most recent ABC report, USAT's international editions sold an average of 48,063 copies a day in the first six months of 2008. Of those, only 5,650 copies were sold at full price at a newsstand; the vast majority were sold at 20% or just 5% of face value, mainly to hotels and airlines.
5,650 copies sold at full price in an election year, at a time when the economy is tanking?
ReplyDeleteUSAT now has Beijing, Baghdad, a shared Mexico City bureau and London. IT used to have Berlin but that closed.
ReplyDeleteWhy, if the company is running efficiently, would there be a need for a London bureau when the company has all those papers in the UK?
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. Right, Berlin, then Paris, then Brussels.
ReplyDeleteAny Business 101 student could tell you that these International Editions make no good business sense whatsoever. The only reason to keep them seems to be Gannett vanity and to "compete" against the IHT. But keeping the USAT International Editions makes about as much sense as buying a gas-guzzling, barely-insurable Ferrari. Sure, it looks nice; you can brag about it; you can impress your clients and maybe score some chicks. But at the end of the day, will it make you money? No.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Career Builder is international, so that might play in here somewhere, do you suppose?
ReplyDeleteBe suspicious of accounting on the Intl Ed. We know it has almost no revenue -- the hope that advertisers would globalize a domestic buy has never panned out. But what costs are included? Unless you close all foreign bureaus when you close this edition, bureau costs should not be included. And they are very expensive, especially Baghdad -- salary, food, rent, translators, fixers, security and security training, frequent travel out for R&R, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat are USAT's USA bureaus ? Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, .....?????
ReplyDeleteChicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC
ReplyDelete