The Gannett-controlled Detroit Media Partnership escaped the deeper cuts other papers felt in December, during the last big layoff, because the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News have had their hands full, curtailing home delivery to just three days a week. The joint operating agency, run by newly appointed CEO Susie Ellwood, handles ad sales and other business operations for the two dailies, which have competing newsrooms. Gannett owns the Freep, after selling the News to MediaNews Group. "No word as to how it would break down between the business side and the newsroom,'' my reader says of any cuts.Can anyone confirm -- and add details? Please post replies in the comments section, below. Or e-mail gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, right.
OK, explain to me how Susie and Dave DIDN'T expect huge revenue drops in this "experiment" that eliminates or decreases revenue by:
ReplyDelete* Canceling contracts to deliver the Wall St. Journal, Investor's Business Daily and other newspapers when the they eliminated their own home delivery four days a week.
* Eliminated revenue from inserts on those four days a week.
* Dramatically decreased display and classified advertising revenue four days a week in the mini-papers they are printing only 200,000 copies combined and distributing them only via single copy. Returns on those days are also increasing.
And that is just the start.
They finally dropped most of the money losing "speciality" publications like the Signature magazine and women's publications Twist and Strut. Yes, they cut costs by stopping printing and distributing these publications, but they kept most of those staffers in other positions and didn't replace the limited revenue these publications brought in.
Further advertising continues to drop and circulation continues to fall on the "big" three days a week.
And while page views are still OK on their web sites, the numbers drop each day on views on the "e-editions."
I guess the only hopeful thing about all this is that maybe the Detroit experiment won't be rolled out to all the other Gannet papers.
ReplyDeleteMore likely the lesson is to just cut staff to the bone, further consolidate papers close to one another, and just print three days a week without the bother of four days of mini editions. If I worked at the Livingston County "Daily", Lansing State Journal, Battle Creek Enquirer, or Port Huron Times Herald, I would be very worried. The Free Press could become Gannett's first "regional" paper and they could close all the other Michigan papers. At minimum, the Free Press' Sterling Heights plant has enough capacity with the declines in circulation and four days of small single-copy only papers, they could print ALL the Michigan papers there.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to add the coming losses in home delivery subscriptions and revenue once existing contracts run out and people realize they don't need delivery three days a week because they now do just fine without the News or Free Press the other four days a week.
ReplyDeleteHey, where are the corporate goons who have been all over this blog disputing the above posts?
ReplyDeleteIs anyone seriously surprised that there would be layoffs for newspapers in a metro area with one of the nation's highest unemployment rates? The city of Detroit has an unemployment rate of 22 PERCENT, nearly three times the national average. Detroit's suburbs have unemployment rates ranging from about 10 percent in "rich" Oakland County to about 15 percent in the other suburban counties. The News and Free Press are doing the best they can in a metro area that is going through a DEPRESSION.
ReplyDeleteBut Elwood and Hunke said their master plan was designed to prevent future layoffs despite the DEPRESSION
ReplyDeleteThey were talking about layoffs in the newsroom. You'll note that they laid off about 200 people on the business side at the moment the new distribution system was launched.
ReplyDeleteThere will be new layoffs in the newsrooms as well as on the business side.
ReplyDelete1:26 -- I've been through about four rounds of layoffs at my mid-sized paper. And each round of cuts was designed to minimize or prevent future layoffs.
ReplyDeleteThat's the standard management line designed to keep employees pacified for the two to three months they'll have before the next round of cuts. If anyone in Gannett actually takes what a publisher or executive editor says at his or her word, they haven't been paying attention.
Circulation is better than was expected, with fewer cancellations (so far) and slightly higher street sales. The new circ. plan seems to be delivering the numbers promised to advertisers -- they are cutting for economic reasons. If it was just the new circ. scheme, advertisers would be cutting their buys only in Detroit, not all over the country.
ReplyDeleteOne rumor says 100 jobs total, first in the agency, then among the two newsrooms, as well as possible salary cuts and/or furloughs in the fourth quarter.
That's all rumor only -- cuts would be announced June 1 and take effect by end of the month, some have heard.
Unfortunately, these cuts will be deep. All of the losses will be in editorial.
ReplyDelete"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, these cuts will be deep. All of the losses will be in editorial.
5/09/2009 1:49 AM"
So help me understand why we are supposed to blindly believe your comment? Care to substantiate a little or are you just trying to start some BS?
I would think more cuts would come from the distribution side of things. Why cut your distribution operation right off the bat? You would need extra people to get over the hump and then decide what kind of staffing to maintain once things settle down.
Yep, methinks you are spreading manure. And the masses will eat it up.
Really the vast majority of previous cuts have been on the Operations side -- pressroom, mailroom, maintenance and in Circulation. The saviors in Editorial have been spared because they were deemed as too important by Hunke. Where as the single mother working a second job delivering papers at 3 a.m. or the father working on the inserting machine trying to make ends meet has been expendable. They only reason is that people like Hunke and Ellwood never see those people. Tell me why the News and Free Press need gardening writers or movie reviewers or home decor columnists? G-d, they still have TV writers and music reviewers. If more cuts are coming, it is about time Editorial gets its share.
ReplyDeleteIf they are cutting more, then why would they be reconsidering their recent decision to eliminate the Eccentric in Birmingham-Bloomfield? Word has it this week that higher ups are considering maintaining this losing publication? What has anyone heard?
ReplyDeleteAll the Observer Eccentrics had been cut to the bone before they decided to shut down Birmingham-Bloomfield, Troy, West Bloomfield, etc. They all lose money and since Gannett gave up on their concept of micro-zoning the Free Press and the realized the bromide of "hyper-local" coverage doesn't pay, I really don't see ANY of the Hometown papers they bought a few years ago for a HUGE price surviving the year.
ReplyDeleteThe News has the Detroit papers' only movie critic, home decor writer and restaurant critic because its readers and advertisers want high quality journalism on the areas these critics cover. Homestyle, the weekly home decor tab, does so well in a tight economic environment that this Detroit News product is distribed by the Free Press as well as the News.
ReplyDeleteOn the question of the Eccentric, what about the Livingston County daily and the Hometown weeklies in Oakland County? Will they go the way of the Eccentric?
ReplyDeleteUnlike the Eccentrics, th Livingston Daily Hometown and Observer papers actually make money. That's why the Eccentrics are closing, and not the rest. And the weeklies just add to the Freep's bottom line. But yes, Gannett overpaid for those papers.
ReplyDeleteAt the distribution centers for the Eccentric this past weekend, managers were telling drivers that the Birmingham Eccentric will be maintained after the scheduled May 30 shutdown. 5,000 copies will continue to be delivered to certain areas of Birmingham-Bloomfield.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard anything about this?
So they plan to continue throwing free B'ham Eccentrics on people's driveways that immediately get thrown into the trash or just sit there into summer?
ReplyDeleteAnd I seriously doubt the Livington or Observer papers make money. This time next year, all those papers will be gone.
This was on their front page Sunday:
ReplyDeleteRefunds
The Birmingham Eccentric will cease publishing on May 31. Subscription refunds will begin Monday, June 1. For more information, call (866) 88-PAPER. (866) 887-2737, or go online at www.hometownlife.com.
Closing comments
The Birmingham Eccentric, after 131 years of publishing, will close on May 31. The Birmingham Eccentric is preparing a final edition for May 31. If you would like to share a memory of the Eccentric, please e-mail to gkowalski@hometownlife.com or mail to 6200 Metropolitan Parkway, Sterling Heights, MI 48312.
Do they plan on telling readers in June they were just joking? ... and notice that the address is at the Sterling Heights plant, as they forced all the Observer-Eccentrics to move there several months back to cut costs.
Doubt their profitability all you want. One newspaper group has 6-page A sections. The others have as many as 20 pages in the main section.
ReplyDeleteMac Doodle want to get the hell out of here. Are we moving soon?
ReplyDelete150-200 layoffs
ReplyDelete5:46 pm: What's your source?
ReplyDeleteI heard 100-150 layoffs at a meeting that was held yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThe latest word is that there will be consolidation of distribution centers and will eliminate jobs. This will be part of the 150 total - no severance - no nothing.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is now official. Gannett has granted a reprieve to the Birminhgam Eccentric, which was scheduled to close at the end of May. Supposedly if a citizen group can sell 3,000 subscriptions by July 1 and then another 2,000 paid subs by end of October, then the Birmingham edition will continue to publish. Also, the citizen group has to help them get advertising. No official word on whether if they miss the July deadline if the paper will just close then. Should be interesting. Sunday's edition is supposed to carry a story to this effect. What does anyone else hear?
ReplyDelete