DMN Cuts has the scoop on a meeting today where management plans for the layoffs were discussed. Among the interesting (and depressing) items:
How many will lose their jobs in the news operation? George refused to give any estimate and said the final number has not been set. But he did say that the number now being reviewed is significant. It is the third “official” number. The first demand from corporate was reduced after evaluation of what it would mean to the content in the newspaper. Then after the unexpectedly bad financial numbers from the first couple of months of this year came in, the number went back up.
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The most valuable asset a newspaper has is credibility. DMN has lost all credibility with its readers as well as its employees. Year after year, little by little, this institution has commited suicide.
I don’t see it as a suicide. I see it as murder by management.
DMN is the backbone paper of Dallas. We need to SUPPORT and SAVE it!! All the people I’ve dealt with in the past are extremely generous people. It’s sad to see people lose their job.
Victory or death! And I’m not seeing any victory here.
Let it fail.
Was the grey-on-black graphical design of the DMNcuts site chosen by DMN corporate overlords? If so, I can see why morale is low. Not an interface to cultivate sympathy from a reading public. Shame, that.
This is a terrible, circular process. The reason that people like me have stopped subscribing to the DMN is that it offers nothing to read. When subscribers stop paying for the news, the paper becomes unable to support supplying the news. And on it goes.
I don’t know if FB has linked to Clay Shirky’s virtual obit of newspapers yet, but it’s an important piece:
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/
Why subscribe to a paper that consists mainly of wire content? The Snooze, in its effort to save money, has amputed the content that made it relevant. Yet management can’t see nor understand that.
Speaking as a DMN advertiser, I’ve noticed that the many levels of management are in place yet they keep letting go of the valuable writing talent. When dealing with purchasing ads, there is our rep, their manager and their manager. Each question and request i have goes through each level and then back to me. We constantly ask to speak directly to the top manager, b/c the lower ones never have the authority to make a decision, but get lots of “well, you have to talk to me, but i’ll get the request back to so and so and then so and so”. It seems like a waste of dollars. Plus, doesnt’ offer lots of confidence with the advertisers.
As a local business, we want to support our local paper, but are finding it harder each year. We are also continually frustrated that content is not local.
Sidenote: kudos to Mariana Greene. She is one of the reasons we keep supporting her section.
Another angle. The slant of the editorial section isn’t in line with the average reader.
@ Ed
Like global warming, the problems with the DMN are a function of a natural historical sea change, not the result of a relative handful of narcissistic children playing in a bubble, oblivious to the consequences of their actions.
You should already know this because they’ve told you so time and again, and they are journalists, so they should know better than you or I.
Ed, the managers aren’t journalists. They’re heirs.