Posted on 11/12/2010 7:54:01 AM PST by abb
Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC is shutting down 11 Sun weekly newspapers to reduce costs, eliminating most of the free publications in its chain, CEO Jeremy Halbreich said.
The papers being eliminated are in Geneva, Bolingbrook, Homer Glen, Lisle, Glen Ellyn, Plainfield, Wheaton, Downers Grove, Batavia, Fox Valley and the southwest suburban Lincoln-Way area. They will shut down in late December.
Chicago-based Sun-Times Media, which also publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and owns a chain of 39 weekly Pioneer Press suburban papers, may close some offices in connection with the step, but savings will mostly derive from not printing and distributing the papers.
The cuts may not put any staffers out of work: The media company’s other operations will try to absorb as many as they can, Mr. Halbreich said. He estimated that, at most, five jobs would be eliminated. He declined to say how many workers are at the papers now, or whether any of them have already been shifted to other operations.
“We have so many confluent and moving parts going on right now, it’s impossible for any of us to say” for certain how many jobs will be eliminated, Mr. Halbreich said. “We are redeploying our internal resources across the company.”
The daily Naperville Sun newspaper will continue operating, and there are no plans to downsize it, Mr. Halbreich said.
Over the past two years, Sun-Times Media has eliminated more than 100 jobs as it has trimmed and restructured the company. A group of investors led by Chairman James Tyree, the Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. chairman, bought the newspaper assets out of bankruptcy last year for $5 million and the assumption of $22 million in liabilities.
Mr. Tyree told Bloomberg News this year that print newspapers will likely end within a decade as they are replaced by digital media.
“All we’re doing is stopping the printing and distribution of some products,” Mr. Halbreich said in explaining the latest move.
Employees at several Sun-Times publications said Thursday that they fear more cuts. In addition to eliminating more than 50 truck driver jobs when it shifted home delivery in September to rival Tribune Co., Sun-Times has been nicking away at its workforce throughout this year.
The company last month cut at least 14 editorial jobs at the Chicago Sun-Times, SouthtownStar in Tinley Park and the Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Ind., as it continued a transition to a new technology platform that allows it to better share resources across its papers.
“It’s tough,” said Bob Okun, a Chicago Newspaper Guild representative for some Sun-Times employees in the Joliet area. “We don’t know what the future will bring. There’s no guarantees right now.”
Mr. Halbreich said that the Sun papers’ websites may be eliminated, may be maintained or may reroute visitors to other Sun-Times websites. He also said that the company may start up new sites in areas unrelated to the Sun papers if it sees an opportunity.
“We’re still really evaluating the various websites that were related to those free publication titles,” Mr. Halbreich said.
The company is in the process of notifying advertisers of the changes and has shared the plan internally, he said.
ping
TV needs to be destroyed next - ALL of it because it all supports O/Dems/libs/elites/islam.
LLS
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2010/11/sun-times-media-eliminating-11-suburban-sun-weekly-newspapers.html
Sun-Times Media eliminating 11 suburban Sun weekly newspapers
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703848204575608970171176014.html
Watchdog Planned for Online Privacy
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-11/the-daily-beast-and-newsweek-to-wed/
Daily Beast, Newsweek to Wed!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/11/12/131265004/tina-brown-merger-of-newsweek-and-daily-beast-amplifies-both
Tina Brown: Merger Of ‘Newsweek’ And ‘Daily Beast’ Amplifies Both
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/newsweek-and-daily-beast-partnership-to-be-announced/?ref=business
Newsweek and Daily Beast Have a Deal
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/459781-Survey_22_of_Americans_Canceled_or_Cut_Back_Cable_TV_in_Last_Six_Months.php
Survey: 22% of Americans Canceled or Cut Back Cable TV in Last Six Months
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=147015
Could Comcast’s NBC Look Like CBS?
The scum times ruined the Joliet Herald. That paper is not worth the newsprint it’s printed on.
I really hate to see weekly newspapers suffer. The dailies ... not so much.
Some dailies, like the Boston Globe, are so liberal, so out of touch, that they deserve any abuse heaped upon them.
But weeklies are the last bastion of real news. (Having spent a quarter-century working for weekly newspapers, this is my zone of expertise.) If your kid gets an award for playing Little League, you can bet that your local weekly will run at least a story, if not his picture. Weekly reporters are those poor souls who sit through school committee and planning board meetings, plugging away to get even the boring news into print while keeping officials honest.
Christine O’Donnell refused to talk to the national media until she had visited all of the weekly newspapers that were interested. She gets it.
Sad day. I have no idea what’s going to happen when elected officials can do whatever they want because they know there won’t be any reporters around to ask annoying questions.
I agree to a certain extent with you. The weeklies do the weddings, funerals, little league, Lions Club, church news, etc, etc that the big newspapers don’t do, and that’s good.
On the downside, the familiarity between the local power structure and local newspapers often allows the brother-in-law deals between the county commission and someone’s nephew to happen unnoticed.
I know first hand about this, because I started my own local news blog a year and a half ago and cover local government and see it happen every day.
Adding to the problem is the practice of local government buying sympathetic ink via “legal advertising.” The printing of minutes, legal notices, etc. in local newspapers is little more than legalized bribery.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111202857.html
Ted Koppel: Olbermann, O’Reilly and the death of real news
Question: If “The Beast” and Newsweek merger is 50/50..and Newsweek just sold for $ 1, does that mean that The Beast is also valued at $1?
Ping to the Koppel piece in post ten. You’ll get a kick out of it.
BTTT
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