More Cuts at the Uptown Paper of Record?
Posted June 6th, 2008 at 11:08 AM by Jeff A. TaylorThe following was represented to me as an email the went out yesterday afternoon from Observer publisher Ann Caulkins to all staff at the paper. Last night I emailed editor Rick Thames asking if in fact such an email was sent and he has yet to respond. So make of this what you will:
To: @Charlotte All
Sent: 6/5/2008 3:37 PM
Subject: Message from Ann Caulkins
Please note that the following message is being sent to you on behalf of publisher, Ann Caulkins.
- – - – - – - – - – -
To All Observer Employees,I want to take a moment and give you an update on the current state of our company and the voluntary separation program. We had thirty-two employees who have left or will be leaving The Observer under the provisions of the voluntary buyout offer.
Unfortunately, the business climate continues to worsen and advertising revenue is lagging. We are evaluating all measures to cut costs as our cost structure must be in alignment with our current revenue projections. This is critical, going forward, so The Observer can continue its mission of providing news and information for Charlotte and its surrounding communities.
The Leadership Team is working very hard to devise plans to reduce expenses in order to operate our newspaper company more competitively and efficiently. As I have stated on several occasions, we continuously review our operations and business model. Our plans for additional cost cuts should be complete and ready to announce in upcoming weeks.
I know this current environment of uncertainty is very stressful for you. I appreciate your hard work and commitment to The Observer through these very difficult times.
Ann
Ann Caulkins
President & Publisher
The Charlotte Observer
Now for some perspective. Every “new” path the Observer is running down has been tried before. And failed. The “hyper-local” Neighbors sections? The mighty WaPO tried that and failed. Failed because no one wants that.
Check out what former Observer columnist Jon Talton, now in San Diego, has to say about the trends, which he says add up to newspapers committing suicide:
As a news manager and editor, I sat in countless focus groups where regular readers reacted with disdain to these schemes, while non-readers said “gee, kewl,” but would still refuse to buy the paper. Yet the corporate bosses plunged ahead, and most of these “local-local” ventures by major papers have failed.
The cost has been high. First, expert, highly skilled journalists were demoralized and pushed out the door.
Gee, sound familiar to anyone? There’s more:
And newsrooms were discouraged from compelling, high-impact coverage of local news. I know of one of the largest papers in the country, in one of the largest cities, with one — one — reporter covering City Hall. … Even now, aggressive new ideas seem beyond newspaper companies. Scripps shut down the Cincinnati Post rather than try something like an Internet newspaper, with a staff of 10 top-notch journalists and propellerheads on a mission to cover real news in a fascinating but secretive city. … The key is the same as always: get interesting news and put it in “the paper,” whether online or on dead trees. Local news is important, but no more important than that from a world that everyday affects the lives of those “average readers.” But the local news must be interesting. Especially peculiar has been newspapers’ aversion to creating first-class cops beats with veteran reporters.
Hammer. Nail. Done. Each week several fascinating news stories go begging in this town, ones that are sincerely interesting to anyone with any civic sense and do not hinge on a particular world view. A couple in no particular order of importance:
- Hushhush.com — Where’d that go?
- CMS legal goons — Why were CMS attorneys again badgering Independence football star Devonte Holloman’s parents this week? How many hours have been billed investigating Indy football coach Tom Knotts and why?
- Judge with tax trouble — For over a year I’ve been trying to nail down the apparent seizure of a Mecklenburg County judge’s property by the IRS for non-payment of taxes. But some of the corroborating documents have mysteriously disappeared from state databases. Anyone else interested?
- Who wanted to extradite Michelle Young and for what? Remember the CMS teacher arrested the other week? You must be lonely.
- What is the hold-up with state on the Ira Yarmolenko case? Straight-up good government story there.
- Last year the city of Charlotte quietly filed an environmental impact statement on building $400m. worth of streetcars in West Charlotte. What does it say and does it take into the account the carbon footprint of the construction work? Does the project ever offset that?
And I got more. Much more. Just wait and see. The Uptown paper of record could do the same. But won’t. As such, its fate is sadly sealed.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
20% to 30% layoffs required ASAP at the Charlotte Observer.
The parent company, McClatchy, is running out of cash and bleeding red ink. They exist only at the whim of their $2 billion in junk bond creditors and a line of credit.
This company will likely be forced into bankruptcy by 2010.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Oh no Jay, you must be mistaken. There are more 12-part docudramas on poultry plants on tap.
A newspaper’s highest calling is guilt-tripping white liberals into cutting up their own roasting hens.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I am eagerly awaiting the next 6 part serious on the poor illegal aliens that really deserve to stay here. Unfortunately, the local tabloid leaves out the parts about the illegals crowding the schools and emergency rooms.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
From today’s Engadget:
Apparently unfazed by his recent egg attack, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has now gone out on a limb and made some pretty bold predictions in a recent discussion with Washington Post editors, the biggest of which, by far, is his proclamation that he thinks there’ll be “no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network.” So as not to leave any doubt about that, he also went to further clarify that that means there “will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.” He did add, however, that if it was 14 or 8 years, it’s “immaterial” to his fundamental point. Among the other nuggets dropped during the wide-ranging conversation, Ballmer says he has “no clue” what Google is up to and, just in case you’ve been dying to know, he says his favorite TV show is “Lost” (although he’s not willing to “pay a buck” for it on iTunes just to get rid of the ads).
McClatchy is screwed. And before that, the CO is screwed. If they’d only, you know, stop being a cheerleading squad for TPTB and actually report news (all of it, not just one side), then they might be able to save themselves in some form.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
The smart employees at newspapers will bail out now on their own terms and find another industry with a future.
The idiots will stay because they don’t know anything else
June 6th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Just to clarify: You mean dailies, right?
Because I don’t see Creative Loafing or the Rhino disappearing The weekly-and-free format seems to work just fine.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I hate it for McClatchy because they were one of the best newspaper companies before they bought the Observer. And I still think the Raleigh paper is top notch.
The majority of daily newspapers had no competition for years and I think that allowed them to indulge in left wing idealism–what could anyone really do about it? Now that blogs like this one are giving the Observer a run, I think they are having to rethink their entire business model. Who knows what will happen in the future. The Observer is a bloated company and I think after several more streamlinings, they could get to a place where they will have a viable model again, whether that’s print or online or both.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
But streamlining isn’t enough. You could streamline the CO down to just a few writers and eliminate the presses and turn it into a blog; it wouldn’t change the fact that they don’t report all of the news, just certain parts of it. They are truly no better than a left-wing blogger, barking pointlessly into the night about whatever they are told to bark about.
Since real news is available elsewhere, and since every other piece of info they provide is also available elsewhere, there is truly no reason beyond institutional inertia for any person with an Internet connection to buy the Observer.
What they really need is to be an independent entity whose mission is to cast light on all of what’s going on in Charlotte. If the City Council pulls a dumb stunt, they need to call them on that; if there are shady dealings between CCCP and UNCC about light rail studies, they need to call them on that. We get enough fluff as it is from local government; we need a watchdog, not a lapdog.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Heh. You guys report better than they do, and more honestly.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Someone — columnist Michael Wolff I think — just bet that Newsweek won’t exist in a decade, so some folks are rethinking all print media.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I guess it is more cost effective for them to send a “reporter” out to a happy hour armed with a video camera to do a “Dat’s Wassup” feature on whether Obama should pick Hillary as his running mate instead of having a seasoned veteran reporter down at city hall or CMS digging up some facts. On the same note, I guess the “Dickensian” stories like the poultry plant are easier to put together than a big expose on the Hush-Hush.com client list.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I’m told — I didn’t hear it — that some Ob editor held forth with Mike Collins (of course) and went into great detail about all the manpower and cost that went in the Hens of Hell series. You then get to enter it in a contest and maybe win a prize.
Profit.
The only thing missing is the underpants.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
The fawning coverage of Obama is just getting sickening. The “news” media is practically giving Obama their advice under the cover of calling it “news”
June 6th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hens of Hell.
That is funny.
And I’m lovin’ it that Mike Collins is associated with coop fodder.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Wanna learn what’s going to be in the Observer this week? Get the Creative Loafing and Meck Deck entries from three months ago.
Speaking of CL, it looks like the Observer has pretty much ceded what-to-do-this-weekend coverage to them. The CO just revamped its Friday entertainment insert and it’s a lot thinner. A lot fewer music listings. And the theater reporter, Julie York Coppens, is leaving with her duties being taken over by a current reporter who’ll be doubling up.
One of the things I like least about the Observer is that there are no contrarian columnists. Not just that there’s not a conservative or libertarian, but there’s no one who doesn’t just toe the establishment line. Is there anyone who works there who thinks, for example, that the influence of the banks and their civic parasites over city policymaking is a bad thing? That, while Charlotte has enjoyed a good 15 year run, our economy is perilously undiversified – due in part to our civic catering to existing employers? That the mass exodus of middle class families from Mecklenburg has more to do with paying high taxes in exchange for sh*tty government and schools than with racism and contented suburban mediocrity?
June 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am
What keeps on amazing me is the hell bent level of self destructive policy that the CO continues to run on. Like most lefties (or righties for that matter), they see themselves as mainstream.
They must be getting the word from outside however, and falling subscriptions and revenues would lead most companies to make changes that they didn’t even like for the sake of business. They could even stick contrarians, conservatives, and real investigative reporters down the hall in that now empty wing so they wouldn’t even have to see them.
Perhaps they view their ideological imperative of spreading leftism and covering for certain political allies to be on a greater plane than staying in business. Whatever – reminds me of a movie I saw where a Klan Grand Dragon preferred to bleed to death than take blood from a black man.
Not that I could care so much that the Observer hung itself, but what concerns me is that while the CO just doesn’t get it and is now more bother than they are worth, the potential for a single comprehensive news source will be long gone to the community.
I note however, that Ann didn’t insult folks’ intelligence so much as she did last time when she said there are no plans for future layoffs. Here’s another revenue booster right down her ally – right in there with laying off all the telemarketing folks. Stop deliveries. So how much money could be saved by not paying for this service but instead have people stop by the Observer office every morning and get the newspaper there? That’s the ticket.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I don’t think the problem is doctrinaire leftist writing. The overwhelming tenor of the paper’s coverage is directly in line with the objectives of CCCP, the Charlotte Chamber, the Foundation for the Carolinas, and all the rest of the usual suspects. It’s basically big government/big business liberalism. That’s why you get so many worshipful profiles of local movers and shakers like Hugh McColl or Michael Marsicano. And it’s also why the sacking of Ken Thompson from Wachovia has generated multiple stories about local anxiety. An A-lister, a true playa, was shown the door, and no amount of local public/private partnerships or strategically-placed grant money could keep it from happening.
But there’s a difference between that kind of liberalism and, say, Mother Jones or The Nation.
And I’m not sure the extent to which political slants have been a factor in dropping readership (my comment about contrarian columnists above had to do with my personal preferences, but I don’t ascribe them to a susbstantial readership). Most local papers, especially after the age of competing local dailies ended decades ago, have been staffed and edited by liberals. But the readership decline only began recently. I suspect it has to do with the same market fragmentation that’s been killing the music industry. And newspapers don’t have a clue how to deal with it.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Cato, the cause of the demise in print newspapers is directly caused by several simple things.
In no particular order (except the first):
1) The internet. Print newspapers cannot compete with online free news. Quite often the story in the printed version is old and stale by the time it is delivered.
2) Craigslist.com. Free online classifieds is destroying 30% of the revenue of print newspapers.
3) The recession for real estate and autos. Those two categories are the largest buyers of print advertising. Much of the real estate decline in print advertising is permanent and will not come back after the recession.
These issues are not going away. In fact, they will get worse. The main readers of print newspapers are older people that grew up that way. Younger people do not read newspapers. They get EVERYTHING online or on their cell phones. So as the people who are 65+ die, there goes a few percentage points of newspaper audience every year, and they are not coming back.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Cato you are correct that they are in line with the names you mention. The readers don’t get the sense then that there is any zeal to be found in critiquing the methods and policies responsible for making decisions.
My point never included doctrinaire. However, when the CO avoids investigative journalism and critiquing of any area of government action because they are in line with leftist ideals of big government tax and spending, avoids critique of liberal politicians, buries stories or provides pure mention only because they have to, readers know that this press is no longer in their corner. Charlotteans understand fully when a media source becomes little more than a tool for the ideology of the management.
Sure, many papers are leaning such and have even when newspapers were doing well. They also used to give a more balanced view and weren’t so obvious in their bias of propaganda. Today, most papers just don’t care if they are known as a leftist toolpiece. 25 years ago, the CO understood that bad policy, fraud, crime, and bad politicians were something that needed to be vetted no matter what party was involved.
People still like to read news when they understand that it is aimed at improving their lives, uncovering and reporting news stories irrespective of ideology, and it’s interesting and making waves. They don’t bother so much when it’s picked through and filtered through dirty political and biased hands.
Is this the answer to all their woes? Certainly not. But as a college professor of mine said, “If you want people to pay attention, be interesting, controversial, or both.” Most newspapers are neither. Charlotte has so many issues that would have been choice fodder for reporters in the past and so many opportunities to arouse interest and passion.
As for the ad revenues, there is an unspeakable fallacy in the idea that when faced with competition and your market goes down, that you raise the prices and dedicate more ad space to make up the difference. Most people don’t choose to subscribe to get the ads. Increasing market share can be done and if they were to choose to stick to the news as their ultimate goal, everything else would improve.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I still like a good paper. Last Sunday’s sports section — I was really struck by how much diverse, interesting stuff there was in it.
That why I wonder about the DAILY output of a paper paper — do it two or three times a week as a coupon delivery mechanism, keeping the tradition of the big Sunday paper.
The only thing that is keeping dailies alive in markets like Charlotte is inertia.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:25 am
[...] As we speculated might be coming a couple weeks ago, the Uptown paper of record will cut 11 percent of its workforce, including 22 newsroom spots. Overall the paper will loose 123 positions. [...]