Sad news at N&O
Submitted by James on Tue, 05/03/2011 - 12:35pm
If you think The Show already has too much influence on content at the N&O, just watch what happens when the paper loses another round of reporters. Soon Art Pope will be the number one content source for the entire operation. Sad news for us all, but especially for those staffers caught in the crossfire.
The News & Observer will eliminate about 20 jobs in the latest cost-cutting effort by the Raleigh-based media company. The staff reductions announced today will affect most areas of the company, including the newsroom. Some employees will have the opportunity to accept voluntary severance packages, but a few positions will be eliminated through layoffs.
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"Although our declines are not as steep as they have been in previous years, revenue trends remain negative year-over-year," publisher Orage Quarles III wrote in a memo to employees this morning. "As a result, we must continue to look for ways to offset this trend by managing expenses.
There's a tipping point ahead, a point at which remaining staff resources simply won't have the capacity to deliver a product worth paying for. I don't envy the management team that is grappling with these challenges, but I do have three words of advice: Stand for something.
Corporate f-ups
The key to the N&O issues is the McClatchy decision to go into debt to buy Knight Ridder -- the N&O has apparently staunched a lot of its own blood -- but the paper needs to give up transfusions to its corporate master. It's greed amuck... and the public pays. Yes, there's a problem when the public good comes from a profit-driven enterprise, but it can work... just not when conglomerates make awful decisions.
Greg