Referencing rough economic times, papers across the country are cutting staff - Montana is one of the places being affected by these cuts.
… in Bozeman, Mont., the daily newspaper there said it has to cut six full-time and three part-time positions through layoffs amounting to 6.5% of its staff, according to a story in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
It’s very sad. This is definitely not what our regional papers need.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle has announced it will lay off six full-time and three part-time employees.
The newspaper, the fourth largest in Montana, currently employs 138 people. The layoffs equal about 6.5 percent of the newspaper’s staff and include three people from the newsroom.
…
In announcing the decision, the newspaper noted advertising comprises 75 percent of its operating revenue.
“We started the year strong, but the second quarter showed a dramatic downturn,” Pressly said. “With reduced consumer spending, businesses have cut back on advertising.”
…
The Chronicle’s parent company, Big Sky Publishing, also owns the Belgrade News, the Lone Peak Lookout in Big Sky, the West Yellowstone News and Montana Quarterly magazine.
I can only hope that these other publications are not affected in addition to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
problembear 08.02.08 at 1:18 pm
it’s not just newspapers. everything printed on pages is endangered by the new paradigm of electronic instant news constantly updated and with commentary feedback by interested readers.
the solution? offer electronic instant news constantly updated and with commentary feedback capability for your readers.
why? to drive clicks to your page, which attracts advertisers.
what is the competitive edge that local newspapers have? polished professional reporters, photographers and editors who can succinctly distill the news into tasty morsels of bite size local news that we are starving for out here in the blogosphere. we are not reporters. we have jobs and do not usually have time to run down leads and investigate local angles for producing local news bites.
meanwhile, get rid of or at least minimize AP wire stories in local papers. it is stale news by the time you print it. if we didn’t already see it on tv news or hear it on NPR we’ve already read it 23 hours ago on our daily emailed feeds from NYT, Washington Post and WSJ.
local newspapers should concentrate on utilizing their talented staff for producing much more local news tidbits of interest to local readers and interesting stories which engage a lot of blog talk should become much more in depth than the tidbits.
to paraphrase the realtors, IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE THE NEXT TEN YEARS:
LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL.
and add blogability to the stories on your websites to help you better guage the feedback. - that is all I have for now. but be sure and slip untraceable bills in a sealed envelope under my door if you want more advice from a bear.
problembear 08.02.08 at 1:35 pm
i just took a tour of the Bozeman site and am pleased to see that it is blogable- allows comments from it’s readers on stories. very commendable. i would like to offer one suggestion- make the blogable section less difficult to use. i would be intimidated by the questions about names addressses phone numbers work phone numbers…etc. so i think a lot of readers would not respond. design it more like the system real blogs use- name or user name is fine. email address and voila you can comment. this is sufficient. anything else just looks like you are phishing for marketing info which is definitely not desirable as an avid consumer of news.
Pogie 08.02.08 at 3:41 pm
I definitely agree that local coverage would help these papers, but it has to coverage with a critical eye. It seems like so much of the local news I read in the IR and Chronicle is just rah-rah stuff, not critical analysis.
The Catch-22 seems to be that those puff pieces are really easy to write, while the others would take more investment in staffing. Less staffing=less critical coverage=less readers=dying newspapers.
I’m waiting for someone to see that good coverage will bring more people back to the paper. Sometimes you have to invest to get a return, not just cut corners to turn a profit.
problembear 08.02.08 at 3:51 pm
exactly pogie- i think that journalists have been trained over the past two or three decades by their conservative pro business owners to be too timid. timid writing is insipid writing and drives no readership. it’s all about reward and punishment. if the hard-hitting editor or writer is punished for going after a tough story with a lot of controversy (Dick Manning- Champion) by timid ownership then the staff quickly learns to keep their heads down and try not to be noticed. boring is a lousy way to keep or build readership.
to survive the new paradigm newspapers must learn to be bold (but still accurate) they have the staffs to do this. all the owners need to do is stop punishing good behavior.