A Wall Street Journal article this morning reports that The Kansas City Star's parent company, McClatchy, will cut 1,600 jobs. We just received a copy of Star publisher Mark Zieman's letter on the cuts today. Here's Zieman's spin:
To all employees:Who will be left?
Last month, McClatchy announced plans tofurther reduce operating expenses as a result of the ongoing economic
downturn and unprecedented decline in advertising revenue. Today,
McClatchy released additional information about these expense cuts,
including a workforce reduction of about 15 percent and wage cuts
across the board. The press release is available on McClatchy's
corporate website.
As you know, The Star is also experiencingadvertising losses greater than any of us have ever seen. Like all
other companies and industries, we are making dramatic changes to
survive this recession and come out safe and profitable on the other
side.
We are in the final stages of our expense reductionplans and expect to implement our cuts within a week or so. But it's
safe to assume our workforce reduction here at The Star will be in line
with the overall McClatchy number of 15 percent, or about 150 people
locally.
In addition, we are implementing wage reductions forall employees. Most whose compensation is less than $100,000 annually
will receive a wage reduction in the 5% range, beginning on April 20.
Those above that amount will receive a 10% reduction. We also are
eliminating bonuses for all senior managers and certain other
employees. Every employee affected by a wage reduction will receive a
letter detailing the impact of the reduction on their pay and will have
the opportunity to ask questions.
I fully understand andappreciate how disruptive the last several weeks have been and how
announcements by other McClatchy papers, and by newspapers owned by
other companies, increase concerns about our future. Saying goodbye to
good friends and colleagues is heartbreaking, and I apologize that we
must still wait a bit before notifying the employees involved. And I am
sorry that wage cuts for the rest of us are necessary. We have worked
extremely hard these past few weeks to minimize such cuts by reducing
other expenses in areas across the company.
I know thisongoing restructuring is discouraging and disruptive. But your efforts
during this time to keep this company stable and successful have been
absolutely outstanding. Not only have you kept our newspaper safe, you
have made heroic progress toward successfully transitioning The Star to
a multimedia, multi-platform future. Even during this difficult time,
we remain far and away our region's preeminent source for news and
advertising. When the economy recovers we will be well-positioned for
future growth.
Thank you for everything you are doing. Asalways, if you have any questions about this announcement or other
issues, please contact your department manager or human resources.
Regards,
Mark
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It's been a couple of years since I've heard someone express any importance on print ads. Times have REALLY changed.
Actually you're wrong. Zieman did start his career in ad sales. It was even a prominent part of his bio until they edited it on the day he announced his promotion. The problem was they published his first bio online and edited it several hours later sans the advertising sales.
Actually, Zieman has always been a newsman and an arrogant one at that. He began his career at The Wall Street Journal before coming to The Star as editor of The Star's projects desk. He was named managing editor in 1992.
Simple fact: the advertising staffs in the newspapers have taken over, and said to hell with the editorial content.
They've forgotten that people read papers for news and information, not the ads. Pick up The Star, and at least half of every page is covered with ads, and all the stories read like USAToday. They're writing soundbites rather than stories.
I'll lay you odds - since I can't find anything about it on the Star's site - that the current publisher started in advertising rather than editorial. That's the way it is with most papers these days. It's all about ads, not about content.
And the readers want content, not ads.
Wait--Did anyone mention that the writing basically sucks in the Star? Does that even matter?
Do you think the internet is having an affect with the Star? Yeah . . . As an advertiser they don't get it. Over the years I started paying more and received less . . . benefit and results. They need to offer value.
Actually, The KC Star had one of the best websites in the newspaper industry. Then Knight-Ridder took them over and stuck them with a generalized design. Good luck to all the Star employees out there.
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