Scripps cuts pay

The Scripps chain will cut pay by more than 3 percent, and emplyees will go ahead and take it, I'm sure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/media/20scripps.html?_r=1&ref=business

And still more furloughs

It's a regular epidemic. This time it's Media General.

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2009/02/16/daily41.html

A former Gannett employee runs a blog keeping tabs on that chain

Here's the link: http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/

Gannett has a bad reputation among the rank-and-file even among media chains. It's not rock bottom, however, that honor undoubtedly belongs to JRC.

Another daily drops a couple of days

Kane County (Ill.) paper drops Monday and combines Sunday and Saturday into a weekend edition coming out Saturday.

http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2009/02/16/04732986/index.xml

More furloughs, this time in Kansas and Missouri

NPG Newspaper's give 390 employees a week "off."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003941981

Another "daily" drops a day

This time in Idaho Falls: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003941774

So how do you make information worth paying for?

Interesting debate over how to save newspapers here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hm-NaXE47tuN1DQKXQlgBaYJpNJA

The reality is that there needs to be some way to make providing information economically viable to do.

Personally I think any model that depends on consumers paying is not viable given current technologies. We're seeing the same problem play out in other media such as music and book publishing. All these were created during an era when technology required physical media that was impossible to copy by the individual user and therefore it was possible to control distribution by limiting access to the physical media represented by the book or record/LP/8-Track/cassette/CD. Newspapers and magazines, ironically, were less wedded to this model, generally only charging the consumer for the cost of the paper and generating most income from advertisers.

Given that information can't be held in by the current bounds of technology I think it's a losing strategy to expect consumers to pay for content at any price that would be economically viable.

On the other hand. advertisers still need to get attention and in an environment where it gets harder and harder to be noticed. What will have to change, I think, it's the expectation that advertising dollars will support the huge infrastructure of current media companies. Most of the people employed at a newspaper or magazine don't produce content.

Indeed, at a newspaper with a couple hundred employees, only a few dozen work in the newsroom and around the same work in advertising. The news media of the future will be much leaner and meaner. There will still need to be reporters, editors and ad reps but the whole printing and circulation operation will have to go, along with comparable reductions in the support staff needed.

"Never?" That's definitely "deferred" compensation

Bankruptcy judge OKs the Chicago Tribune's plan to stop paying deferred comp and change severance policies.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/business/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003937485

Different ways to skin the cat

Stephens Media, which publishes a dozen dailies, has suspended its 401 (k) matching program.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/business/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003941054

Better than furloughs and layoffs, perhaps, but still money out of pockets.

And 401 (k) are better than pensions because ... ?

Fargo Forum lays off 21 employees

The Forum daily newspaper of Fargo (ND) reports laying off 21 employees. The paper says it has about 240 FTE employees.

Details: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/230672

JRC closes 8 weeklies

Troubled media giant Journal Register is closing 8 weekly papers in New York.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090210/NEWS/90210041

More furloughs

This time New England Newspapers, which publishes the Berkshire Eagle, among others. bout 300 jobs, the Boston Globe reports.

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/02/new_england_new.html