(Oakland) Trib's Owner Busts its Union (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

East Bay Express ^ | August 13, 2007 | Kathleen Richards

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As expected, the union at the Oakland Tribune and its sister papers has been busted as a result of today’s merger between those former papers of the Alameda Newspaper Group and the non-union Contra Costa Times, its sister papers, and the former Hills newspapers. Operations for those papers have been consolidated under a new banner, Bay Area News Group-East Bay, or BANG-EB, for short. In an e-mail this morning to all ANG and CC Times employees, publisher of BANG-EB John Armstrong noted that members of the Guild bargaining unit at the former ANG newspapers now constitutes “significantly less than 50 percent of the newly consolidated editorial group of BANG-East Bay.” He added: “Accordingly, we withdrew recognition from the Guild effective today.”

As 92510 previously reported, members of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, which represents reporters, photographers, and copy editors at the former ANG papers, worried this would happen after plans for the creation of BANG-EB was announced on July 25. Armstrong concluded saying the consolidation will “dramatically improve our newspapers and Web sites, to the benefit of all of us.”

Also announced was a $7 million investment into a new electronic front-end system that will link all the Bay Area newspapers of the California Newspapers Partnership, including the San Jose Mercury News. Which begs the question: Will the Merc’s union also get busted?

Read the full e-mail after the jump.

From: Armstrong, John Sent: Mon 8/13/2007 10:09 AM To: All ANG; All CCN Subject: Employee Update Colleagues:

A new era in Bay Area journalism was ushered in today with the consolidation of Contra Costa, Hills and ANG Newspapers into Bay Area News Group - East Bay. The consolidation better positions our editors, reporters, columnists, photographers, graphic artists and support personnel to meet the challenges of a 24/7 print and digital multi-media world.

On the eve of this consolidation, the Board of the California Newspapers Partnership, representing owners MediaNews Group, Stephens Media and Gannett Co., took two important actions to support this move.

At a meeting last Thursday, the CNP Board approved an operating budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year and a $7 million investment in a new electronic front end system that will provide the technology to support our new mission.

About the budget: We project our revenues will decline by $8.9 million or 14 percent from the previous fiscal year as we continue to cycle through hard times in the real estate and automotive markets and some softness in retail. We expect some of these core losses will be offset by double-digit growth in advertising revenues in online and targeted publications.

With some savings in newsprint due to reduced volume and lower price and lower costs stemming from the East Bay consolidation begun last year, we project that the operating profit of BANG-East Bay will grow by 3 percent. While it's an improvement from our profit in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, it still puts profit at 10 percent below what the separate Contra Costa/Hills and ANG groups accomplished in 2005-2006, before the industry was hit by such severe revenue challenges.

About the front end system: Executive Editor Kevin Keane, Managing Editor Pete Wevurski and their team are excited about what can be accomplished through a state-of-the-art system linking all the CNP newsrooms in the Bay Area. Three systems are under consideration, and they all provide the technology necessary to succeed in a multi-media landscape. We expect a contract to be signed next month.

The approval of an achievable budget and a new front end system is an expression of confidence by the CNP Board in what we can achieve working together in the months and years ahead in the East Bay.

Working together began in earnest today with the migration of more than 20 editors, reporters and photographers to new locations and, in some instances, to new and expanded responsibilities. Another seven will move in the next week or so.

Working with local editors, AME's/News Carolyn McMillan, Kat Rowlands and Martin Reynolds now have more than 80 local reporters and 12 editorial assistants to build our leadership in local news and information, the heart of our franchise.

Mike Oliver, BANG-East Bay's special projects editor, now can call on as many as 18 seasoned investigative and regional specialists to create the kind of journalism that makes headlines.

In features, sports, business news and photography, AME's Lisa Wrenn, Tom Barnidge and Drew Voros and Director of Photography Nick Lammers, respectively, now can now call on staffs that dwarf in size those of all competitors in the East Bay.

AME/Production Bob Nishizaki, with the help of associate editors/news production Al Fields (Pleasanton) and Kerry Young (Walnut Creek), will oversee two copy desks until installation of the front end system next year allows for the consolidation of the desks in Walnut Creek.

Very importantly, this consolidation frees our newsrooms to put much more emphasis on our Web sites. Over the next several weeks we will establish digital breaking news and multi-media hubs in Walnut Creek and Oakland as well as an expanded online entertainment hub in the Features Department.

AME/Online Content Ari Soglin, Online Entertainment Editor Kari Hulac and multimedia editors Kathleen Kirkwood and Ray St. Germain will lead the digital charge. Prior to the consolidation, our East Bay newsrooms had four "digital first" staffers; now we'll have 13 to 16.

Finally, we have carefully considered the impact of the consolidation on the Guild bargaining unit at the former ANG newspapers. That group now constitutes significantly less than 50 percent of the newly consolidated editorial group of BANG-East Bay.

Because of this and the fact that the ANG bargaining unit has been completely integrated into BANG-East Bay, we can no longer recognize the Guild as the representative of, and here I quote from the contract, "(a)ll full-time and regular part-time employees of the Employer employed at its Editorial Department at its Alameda, Hayward, Fremont, Dublin, Danville, Tracy, Martinez, Livermore, Pleasanton, Oakland and San Mateo locations . . ."

Accordingly, we withdrew recognition from the Guild effective today.

With this consolidation, readers will see some relatively unimportant changes: Staff writer and staff photographer designations, new names in the mastheads, a common email domain (bayareanewsgroup.com), to name three. Much more significant is the capabilities this consolidation gives us to dramatically improve our newspapers and Web sites, to the benefit of all of us.

As always, your questions and comments are welcomed.

John Armstrong President and Publisher Bay Area News Group-East Bay

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Monday Afternoon Good News.

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ping

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http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=&t=98

Newsroom consolidation means loss of public ‘watchdogs’
Publisher’s blog, posted by Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly, on Aug 8, 2007 at 3:25 pm

Aug. 13 will mark a day that will change the landscape of media in the East Bay.

The sale of The Contra Costa Times by the McClatchy Company in April 2006 gave MediaNews Group of Denver unprecedented concentration of ownership of newspapers in the Bay Area. Now it has been announced that on Monday The Contra Costa Times and ANG newspapers, the Bay Area division of MediaNews, will consolidate their newsrooms into one entity. They will reduce staff accordingly. Locally this will affect The Tri-Valley Herald and The Valley Times, but will also involve The Oakland Tribune and several other Northern California MediaNews-owned publications.

According to a memo from John Armstrong, vice president of MediaNews’ California Newspapers Partnership, to the staffs at the publications, “As we eliminate duplication of effort in our newsrooms, we will reduce the size of the editorial staff. It is our hope attrition will cover this reduction, but there is no guarantee that layoffs can be avoided.”

“Streamlining” is not bad in and of itself. Reducing redundancy is a good business practice. It is also good when the result of streamlining is more time and resources to produce more and better products or services. But this is not the concept of this consolidation; this is to reduce costs and increase profits for the shareholders. But this cost reduction strategy is costly for the public. Fewer news gatherers means fewer stories, less depth in coverage and lower quality.

Consolidating newsrooms is not a new concept, nor is it unique to California. Bigger newspaper companies have been swallowing up smaller ones for decades. The shareholders and owners benefit, but the demise of these smaller newspaper companies is detrimental to the health of a society because we lose a significant cog in the democratic process.

The success of democracy is in part dependent upon having a number of diverse, local, independent news organizations to be the “watchdogs” for the public. Media consolidation stifles independent voices and limits public access, leaving increased censorship of divergent views and less coverage of politics and local issues.

Newspapers are not just a business—they are a public trust and an integral part of the American democracy. While everyone understands the need to make a profit to cover expenses and employ the news gatherers, we must also take into consideration the importance of keeping local media strong. Owners and shareholders might need to give up the 20 percent profit margins, which they are keeping through reduction in staffing, to keep the newsrooms strong.

When we consolidate two, three, four newsrooms into one and eliminate the journalists, we silence a number of the “watchdogs,” leaving only one voice to be heard. And if that one voice becomes weak, hindered or compromised in some way, well, it’s the only one we have.

This reminds me of a John Mayer song lyric: “When they own the information they can bend it all they want.”

Your thoughts and comments are encouraged.

Gina Channell-Allen, a 20-year journalism veteran, is the president of the East Bay division of Embarcadero Publishing Company, president of the Pleasanton Weekly and publisher of the Danville Weekly. Send questions to gallen@danvilleweekly.com.

[Chode]

[Chode]

[george76]

revenues will decline by $8.9 million or 14 percent from the previous fiscal year ...

8-)

[abb]

revenues will decline by $8.9 million or 14 percent from the previous fiscal year ...

Thanks, I missed that. That is known in the news biz as "burying the lede."

[Milhous]

This reminds me of a John Mayer song lyric: “When they own the information they can bend it all they want.”

From my perspective "they" means the likes of Gina Channell-Allen, gatekeeper wannabe and author of this story.

[TChris]

Another defeat for the Labor Cartel. That’s always a Good Thing, IMO.

[martin_fierro]

THIS IS A JOB FOR...

CAPTAIN IRONIC!

[SmithL]

Outsourced media news comes up short

Published by Editor August 11th, 2007 in Contra Costa County Politics.

MediaNews must think Contra Costa Times readers are dolts. If not, why would the Times publish the recent blather from the AP and pass it off as trustworthy “news coverage” of the budget mess in Sacramento?

AP “reporter,” Dan Thompson, gushes—in his lead sentence, no less—that: “California’s elected officials can’t agree on a state budget, now nearly two months overdue, but they do agree that such a prolonged stalemate is no way for the world’s eighth-largest economy to govern itself.” Note the ease with which Thompson mistakenly equates the state budget as the eighth-largest economy in the world, as if it’s old news that California is some Stalinist ant farm on a five-year plan.

Like so many other so-called “professional journalists,” Thompson tacitly accepts and uncritically promulgates the seriously flawed premise that the State is the same thing as Civil Society; as if government is everything and subsumes all other societal structures. Lucky for everyone, this is simply not true; on two important counts.

First, the eighth-largest economy in the world is not the State government budget, but the overall GDP of California’s entire economy including a huge private sector that actually produces real goods and services. Secondly, and for the most part—despite the California Legislature’s best efforts—the eighth-largest economy in the world is governed more by real-world market forces here and abroad, than by politicians playing musical chairs in Sacramento.

So why is it that neither the AP or the Times editors bothered to ask if Thompson’s reportage was factual? Is it because they too wish such speculation to be true? Or is it because it’s not about “news coverage,” anymore; when fluff-with-attitude is good enough because there’s hardly any local staff left to turn out the lights, let alone check the facts?

I’m betting on lazy. Either way, bargain basement “mc-journalism” is what the public gets when Bay Area newspapers, in a near-monopoly market, lose sight of their fiduciary duty and in the name of the bottom-line in Denver, out-source their editorial mission to delusional AP stringers, in a headlong-rush to become nothing more than a classified wrap for ads from Fry’s Electronics.

Halfway to Concord

[george76]

Thanks.

And we expect to win the multi-state lottery.

We expect some of these core losses will be offset by double-digit growth in advertising revenues in online and targeted publications.

.

[Milhous]

So why is it that neither the AP or the Times editors bothered to ask if Thompson’s reportage was factual?

This author's implicit romantic assumption that factual reportage existed earlier at the AP and the Times is erroneous.

[TOneocon]

Good news indeed.