Sacramento briefing: Bee lays off 20 employees (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Sacramento Bee ^ | November 22, 2006 | Dale Kasler

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The Bee has laid off 20 employees following reorganizations in its advertising and circulation departments, the newspaper said Tuesday.

The circulation department reorganization eliminated 11 jobs, while the moves in the ad department cut six jobs. Three other jobs were eliminated elsewhere, said Bee spokesman Steve Weiss.

The cutbacks represented a little more than 1 percent of The Bee's work force of 1,542 employees, he said.

Reacting to falling circulation and ad revenue, newspapers around the country have been trimming their work forces through layoffs and buyouts. But while The Bee's parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, is battling the same revenue slump -- its revenue fell 2.2 per- cent in October -- Weiss said the job cuts simply represent an at- tempt to become more efficient.

"It's not some widespread or across-the-board action -- these are not across-the-board layoffs," he said.

All the employees will be offered severance packages and outplacement services, he said.

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GONE WITH THE WIND - 2006

"There was a land of Publishers and Editors called the Newspaper Business... Here in this pretty world Journalism took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Reporters and their Enablers, of Anonymous Sources and of Stringers... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization Gone With the Wind..."

With apologies to Margaret Mitchell...

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Raoul's First Law of Journalism
BIAS = LAYOFFS

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Ping

[2banana]

When revenue is down 2.2% (assuming profits are also down about the same) and inflation is at 2-3% - getting rid of 1% of the workforce ain't really going to help...

[TommyDale]

I wonder how long before McClatchy cuts the staff at the Raleigh News & Observer?

[Leisler]

Don't forget the value of the stock is going down. What you have is the same dynamics of a slum lord.

[GOPRaleigh]

Isn't it funny how they almost never start cutting in the newsroom?

Fyi - former N&O employee of 17 1/2 yrs.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

McClachy's solution to declining circulation at the Minneapolis paper was to fake the circulation numbers.
There...that's easy !

[TommyDale]

At the newspapers in California, they usually just raised the advertising rates and subscription rates. However, these days readers are dropping like flies. The only time I even buy a Raleigh News & Observer might be on a Saturday for the Real Estate sections, or Sunday for the advertising. Never have I found it necessary to read it for news. The sports section is non-stop basketball, even in the off-season.

[maggief]

They can start by cutting a couple idiot columnists and agenda-driven editors.

[TommyDale]

That was my reason for pinging you. I knew you would have a good idea on this one! :-)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I call on the paper industry and can tell you this trend has reached the newsprint paper mill level. Paper companies are ditching this biz for more profitable lines of paper goods.

[maggief]

Ruth, Barry, Melanie and some other editor, who's name escapes me, a "sickening" bunch. "We know you know."

[mort56]

Typical!

Not only do the publishers of this fish wrapper not fire the people responsible for their financial losses (i.e. the editors and CEO), but they have to make sure their scapegoats get canned just before Thanksgiving.

Anyone want to make a bet the higher ups won't be getting their usual Christmas bonuses? Of course they will! My wager is they fired these poor schlubs to pay for them.

Don't ya just love liberalism? It is the penultimate cult of caring! /s

[TommyDale]

The problem is that if McClatchy lays off the untalented waste at the News & Observer, the entire editorial and news staff would be gone. :-)

[Grampa Dave]

""It's not some widespread or across-the-board action -- these are not across-the-board layoffs," he said."

Once these liberal companies get used to the taste of the blood of their fired employees. Future firings are easier and serve as punishment, whenever bad results happen.

The high execs/priests and priestesses will become blood thirsty and will gladly become Aztec in their dealings with their underlings. They will use human sacrifices/firings to appease the evil Gods of the business world. Top management knows that there is no place for them to run to for a big paycheck. So they will gladly sacrifice those under them to stay employed until they are sacrificed.

Now every employee is just one personality conflict away from being fired.

[knews_hound]

From an previous thread...Is your newspaper Americas worst?

And finally, my current hometown rag, the Sacramento Bleed.  It has all of the worst qualities of the 2 previous papers and none of their good points.  From a reliably far, Far, FAR left editorial staff, who hasn't endorsed a Republican in 50 years to "The Poodle" Diana Griego who apparently never interviewed a single person, ever, for her never ending series of sob stories that just happened to illustrate the evils of conservatives or on the other hand, showed the wise and tolerant policies of Liberals, the fishwrap is a DNC mouthpiece from beginning to end.  The knews section is a disgrace, a never ending stream of regurgitated NYT, AP or Reuters copy republished seemingly without apology.  The local knews consists of odd crime reports that never describe the "youths" committing them for fear of "profiling" them and an odd mix of local events and programs.  

To top it off, their featured columnists are Krugman, the only economist in the universe that still believes you can tax your way to prosperity along with Ivans, MoDo and whatever Leftist they can round up for that days 10 Minutes of Hate. I usually go straight to the Workers World website and skip the Bees slower load times for the same info.

Strangely, the entertainment section is outstanding, with Kushman the highlight of the entire rag.

In total however, it is not worth the effort.  After all, why read tomorrow about what happened yesterday when you can read about whats happening NOW on the 'net.

Newspapers; Yesterdays Technology Tomorrow©

Cheers,

knewshound

http://www.knewshound.blogspot.com/

[longtermmemmory]

The dinosaurs have to die out FASTER.

We don't want them to find a way to survive in the new media.

[Milhous]

Once these liberal companies get used to the taste of the blood of their fired employees. Future firings are easier and serve as punishment, whenever bad results happen.

The high execs/priests and priestesses will become blood thirsty and will gladly become Aztec in their dealings with their underlings. They will use human sacrifices/firings to appease the evil Gods of the business world. Top management knows that there is no place for them to run to for a big paycheck. So they will gladly sacrifice those under them to stay employed until they are sacrificed.

Now every employee is just one personality conflict away from being fired.

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