The amount of Cincinnati Enquirer space allotted for content other than ads -- the "news hole" -- will be reduced by six pages on Sundays and a combined 30 pages across other weekdays beginning the week of Dec. 28, top editor Tom Callinan told CityBeat in a story out today.Callinan also acknowledged that his paper didn't publish details of a recent layoff at the paper -- even though many smaller Gannett papers mustered the resources to disclose their own plans. CityBeat, citing sources it doesn't identify, says "at least 30 people -- including 13 in the newsroom -- were let go."
CityBeat's figure would bring jobs cut in Gannett's latest layoff to a total of 1,934, based on Gannett Blog reader reports for 68 of 85 newspapers.
Callinan says the news hole reduction "most likely will be accomplished by eliminating the newspaper's separate Life section, once known as Tempo, and folding it into the Local News section. The Enquirer already eliminated its stand-alone Business section last year as part of cost-cutting moves."
[Image: today's front page, Newseum]
The unofficial number I heard today was 43, which includes the newsroom, advertising, circulation, and finance. I'm not sure if there were any layoffs in production. I was told that IT dept was spared this time.
ReplyDelete...and at least one community newspaper, Mason Community Press, is rumored to be killed next week.
ReplyDeleteThe Enquirer eliminated its stand-alone weekday Business section in 2006. That was a prime reason the Business editor left in disgust.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, in return the publisher took that newshole and a bit more from elsewhere to launch the "near" local-local Hometown Enquirer editions.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet you'll be seeing more of this at most Gannett shops.
ReplyDelete6:39 has it on the nose.
ReplyDeleteAs further evidence that Gannett takes a cookie-cutter approach to covering its communities and that this entire content chaos is being coordinated by a cost-cutting Corporate crony (phew... OK, I'm done), Wilmington is doing the EXACT same thing in the very near future.
Life will be folded into the Local section, and the Business pages that used to be in the back of Local are being moved into A. What they haven't counted on, of course, are the booking problems that occur when you have overflowing obituaries that eat up 2+ inside pages. Forget about more content inside - you're lucky to have enough room to jump stories from the front!
I pity the poor souls on the design desk who are being tasked with the execution of such a shitty plan. I feel sorry for the readers who are going to be forced to buy it because there is no statewide competition in Delaware. Like reading your comics on the toilet? Dear Abby? David Broder's political analysis? You've got one choice.
[Digression: How the hell does Gannett manage to not make a profit in a monopoly market? There's not even statewide TV to compete with in Delaware.]
But above all, I really can't wait to read the spin from the editor and publisher. Ledford and Riddle will have to be tap-dancing geniuses to pitch this to the readers in any sort of positive light. "You just raised the price of a paper 25 cents for less stuff? Forget that."
7:50 - Who said Wilmington is not making a profit? Of course they are.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, in return the publisher took that newshole and a bit more from elsewhere to launch the "near" local-local Hometown Enquirer editions.
ReplyDeleteThe Hometown Enquirer editions are one of the paper's last saving graces. They're immensely popular amongst readers and have boosted circulation.
Really. I thought Bonus Days (paid sampling) and the death of the Post was what was driving circulation. Plus, those sections really seem to be stuck in the same page counts they had when they started, which wasn't much.
ReplyDeleteNo one will know how Enquirer circ is doing on a year-to-year basis until we complete a full year without the Post. For now, all we know is that our daily circ is up, thanks to the Post refugees, but that Sunday circ was down 3.6 percent, from 290,501 in 2007 to 279,825 in 2008, as of the 3/31 ABC report. Does somebody have the Sunday figure from the 9/30 report?
ReplyDeleteI live in Cincinnati and subscribe to the Enquirer. I can tell you that I have never once read the Hometown section. If they are popular, it must be with long-tiem residents who want to see what their high school classmate's kids are doing on the local pee-wee team.
ReplyDeleteI buy the Enquirer for the national news, state news, business news, sports and, yes, local news....but major local news, not to the insignificant level provided by the Hometown section. I don't care that the neighborhood community countil wants everyone to do luminaria this weekend.
12:45: Thanks for the correction. I meant, of course, how the hell does Gannett not produce ENOUGH of a profit in a monopoly market. A million bucks just isn't enough, as everyone here knows. More, more, more...
ReplyDeleteI live in Cincinnati and subscribe to the Enquirer. I can tell you that I have never once read the Hometown section.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on where you live if you receive the Hometown edition or not. It's only delivered to select communities outside the city limits and in surrounding counties. It's more of a suburb outreach kind of campaign.