There has been a noticeable increase in stories about the shitty jobs newspaper employees are being given in order to continue receiving their pay. Editor and Publisher reported this morning that Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger employees, “Reporter Jason Jett and Assistant Deputy Photo Editor Mitchell Seidel have been filing, sorting, and delivering mail for more than a week, according to sources”. Later this afternoon Westword Blogs reported that, “Staffers at the (Colorado newspaper) Longmont Times-Call recently received an internal e-mail inviting them to work as valets at a private Christmas party for the Lehman family, who own the paper”.

I’m sure the owners of the companies think they are doing a great thing for their employees. I can’t think of a better way for employees to generate revenue than manning mailrooms and parking cars. WTF!? How about parking your own car and paying your employees to do something they are trained to do?

It’s funny because it’s absurd.  You can make your own here http://www.tombstonebuilder.com/index.php. when you’re done, save it, send it in to us and we’ll post it. Enjoy

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40% or 151 of about 330 people took buyouts in the recent selling / panic fiasco at the newspaper.  This begs the question of.  “what will the content look like now that so many people are leaving”.  But more importantly, what were those people doing before they were let go?  I’d like to see a list of Names and Titles of people leaving.

From The Wall Street Journal:  The task now, Mr. Willse said, is to “figure out a way to make a good newspaper with a 40% smaller staff.”

Ohio. The Cincinnati Post was printed and distributed there and in neighboring Kentucky for over one hundred and twenty six years.   The peak circulation saw some 275,000 papers being printed daily. But that circulation figure is from 1961 , so I ask you. What the hell was the paper doing from then till now to lose circulation? My answer is this, “Everything it could”.  Cruising around the net and speaking to people, this story is played off like the Post is just another Internet casualty.  The fact is that this paper was operating under multiple pressures giving it a high mortality rate compared to other newspapers.

I believe the Cincinnati Post went out of print circulation because the publication’s business strategy no longer made it useful to readers. The flaws break down as such:  First, the paper was an afternoon edition putting it in direct competition with all other forms of news dissemination at a time in the day when people are not accustomed to reading papers.  Indeed there exist only 614 afternoon papers in America.(NYT)  Second, the paper was a joint effort between Gannett and E.W. Scripps, meaning no one entity cared enough about the product as a whole.  When responsibility is spread too thin, there is no accountability.  Also, the joint operating agreement between these two publishers ended on December 31 of 2007 and that is when the print version was terminated.  They knew three years ago the paper would fold.  Finally, there were two papers operating in Cincinnati and that is just an untenable situation these days. One paper is enough in a city that small.

Other afternoon papers beware this fate.  Innovate and stay relevant!

Global newspaper, Metro International issued a warning that it will lose 18million dollars in 3rd quarter 2007 versus 9million from the same time last year.

I can’t comment on their worldwide operations, but I see what they are doing in NYC and it is not difficult to see why they are losing money there. First off it is one of the most competitive newspaper markets in the nation paid or otherwise. Second, their content is homogeneous. It is almost all AP newswire stories. AMNY at least gets to siphon content off Tribune and Newsday. Lastly, Metro’s website is not as widely read as the AMNY website. According to Alexa, metro’s 3month reach is .000355% compared to amny’s at .0026%

I think metro should pull out of the New York Market. They have no competitive advantage over the other papers serving this area. What value are they providing that market? Perhaps they should expand in the Asian or African markets?