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Newspaper biz, like icebergs, is cracking up Comparing newspapers to a cataclysmic meltdown of polar icecaps may strike some as hyperbolic. On the other hand, there's little doubt that a fundamental restructuring of the business, now well underway, soon could result in something only vaguely recognizable as a "newspaper" industry. (Español) Cut loose in India, reporter sues, wins A labor court in New Delhi, India, has set a precedent by ruling that foreign reporters working for companies with a base in India are governed by Indian labor laws. Currying favor in Memphis Outsourcing isn't funny. But it's better to laugh than cry, and the Memphis Guild made lots of people smile when we hit the sidewalk March 12 posing as sleazy company travel agents. NLRB lawyers green-light union-busting shuffle The National Labor Relations Board has taken another giant step back from enforcing employees' rights to workplace representation, accepting a legal interpretation that strips recognition of Guild bargaining rights from 130 members in the San Francisco Bay Area. Future of 'old media': stuck to the web? As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, there are many print journalists who are wondering if the newspaper newsroom has any future - or a future they want to be a part of.
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News of the industry Scripps Takes Next Step Towards Spinning Off Newspapers Editor & Publisher 09 May 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co. took another formal step towards spinning its newspaper business into a separate company, announcing Friday that its board of directors had approved the plan. The separation is expected to take place July 1. Scripps shareholders will get a tax-free distribution of stock in the new company, called Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., and will continue to own shares in E.W. Scripps, which will operate the newspapers. Tax gains lift Tribune Co. to first-quarter profit James P. Miller, Chicago Tribune 09 May 2008 Tribune Co. reported a big first-quarter profit, thanks to a mammoth tax gain the Chicago media concern recorded in connection with the leveraged buyout by which it went private at the end of 2007. Without that artificial boost from the tax change, the company swung to a loss, as interest payments soared to service Tribune's heavy load of buyout-related debt. U.S. wages war on journalists Amy Goodman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer 09 May 2008 Sami al-Haj is a free man today, after having been imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than six years. His crime: journalism. Targeting journalists, the Bush administration has engaged in direct assault, intimidation, imprisonment and information blackouts to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. The principal target these past seven years has been Al-Jazeera. Labor Department wants more info from union officials Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press 09 May 2008 Unions should be required to make public more details of their internal finances, the Labor Department said Thursday as it proposed new changes to union disclosure forms. Federal officials are proposing a more detailed form, and penalizing small unions who get into trouble with the law by prohibiting them from filing a simple form. The proposed changes will be printed on Monday in the Federal Register.
'Deafening' silence on analyst story Michael Calderone and Avi Zenilman, Politico 08 May 2008 Even with countless media outlets available these days, a Sunday New York Times cover story could always be counted on to send a jolt through the television news cycle. But apparently that’s no longer the case. Indeed, reporter David Barstow’s 7,600-word investigation about ex-military talking heads--often with direct ties to contractors--parroting Defense Department talking points on the air, has been noticeably absent from television airwaves. Journalism, Satire or Just Laughs? "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Examined Project for Excellence in Journalism 08 May 2008 The Daily Show aims at more than comedy. In its choice of topics, its use of news footage to deconstruct the manipulations by public figures and its tendency toward pointed satire over playing just for laughs, The Daily Show performs a function that is close to journalistic in nature -- getting people to think critically about the public square. In that sense, it is a variation of the tradition of Russell Baker, Art Hoppe, Art Buchwald and H.L. Mencken. |
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Toni Locy was always a good, tough-nosed journalist, always in high heels and high spirits. She is now in danger of becoming a very broke and incarcerated journalist. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., wants to bankrupt her and throw her in jail because she won't give up her sources. The legal fatwa against Toni Locy is arbitrary and Orwellian, and if successful will make reporters even less likely to keep an eye on the government. The Sun-Times Media Group (STMG) expects its Class A shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to be de-listed. The company said in an announcement yesterday that it does not intend to appeal, and that it expects to move trading of the stock to the OTC Bulletin Board once it gets kicked off the Big Board. Over the last 15 years, at least 500 journalists were killed directly because of their work. But in less than 15 percent of cases have the perpetrators been brought to justice, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Murder is used by states as the ultimate form of censorship, and the more these cases go unpunished, the more the press is silenced. New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller told his staff today to expect a "small number of layoffs." Keller would not disclose the number or the people who are on the list. Two months ago, the Times said it needed to reduce its newsroom staff by 100 positions and offered voluntary buyouts. Not enough employees took the buyout so the paper will have to resort to layoffs. Robert Battista, who for five years chaired the National Labor Relations Board, told a U.S. House-Senate joint hearing in December he doesn't believe the primary purpose of the National Labor Relations Act is to promote collective bargaining. Now he can put that belief openly into practice: he's joining the notorious union-busting firm of Littler Mendelson. The Lexington Herald-Leader is looking to trim its staff of 385 full-time employees by 4 percent through a voluntary buyout program, but is leaving the door open for layoffs if fewer than 4 percent take the voluntary buyout. In March the Herald-Leader announced it was shutting down its internal ad design and outsourcing the jobs to an Illinois company with design centers in India and the Philippines. The owner of the Star Tribune has informed investors that it has written down the value of its $100 million investment in the newspaper by 75 percent to reflect deteriorating conditions since the purchase in March 2007. But the owner, New York's Avista Capital Partners, also denied a recent report in the New York Post that the Star Tribune may file for bankruptcy. What's up with recent doom-and-gloom coverage of the Star Tribune? One possibility is that with contract negotiations set to begin next week, the new owner is leaking stories about its dire financial situation as a n anti-union cudgel. In that regard its hiring of the Blackwell Group is potentially significant, since Blackwell has a history of aggressively slashing labor costs. Challenger Bernie Lunzer will win The Newspaper Guild presidential election, according to voting data obtained by E&P that indicates he has a lead of more than 900 votes with only some 600 potential ballots left to be counted. Sources within the guild revealed that out of 6,420 votes tabulated so far, Lunzer, the longtime secretary-treasurer, has 3,648, while incumbent Linda Foley has just 2,722. There is genuine press freedom within the EU. No state has ordered the murder or imprisonment of a journalist and official censorship is a thing of the past. Media express a diversity of opinion and a pluralism of ideas is generally assured. But the situation is not perfect. Threats made against journalists, murder attempts by private groups, assaults, intimidation of families are all among the very serious risks run today within Europe.
Newspapers seeking to compete with the Internet are likely to become free and place greater emphasis on comment and opinion in the future, a survey of the world's editors showed on Tuesday. The Zogby poll revealed that newspaper editors were still optimistic about the future of their publications but believed they would have to adapt further for the digital age. |
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