http://www.mnguild.org Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union Copyright 2009 Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union en-us Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:01:54 -0500 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:01:54 -0500 http://www.sjguild.org/rss/jpg/MNGuild.jpg http://www.mnguild.org 140 55 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065960 Tampa Tribune parent Media General Inc. (MEG) announced the pricing of its offering of $300 million of senior secured notes that will help spread out the maturities of its approximately $730 million in debt. The notes will carry an interest rate of 11.75%. With its price set at a discount to face value, the notes yield maturity is 12.25%. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065960 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065522 McClatchy Co. shares tumbled Friday along with the broader market after the newspaper publisher agreed to pay steep interest rates to push back its deadline for repaying debt. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065522 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065601 Some 50 top executives of The New York Times, including Publisher and Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. met earlier this week in a New York restaurant with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who demonstrated the iPad and talked it up as "the future of media," according to a report by Daniel Maurer on New York magazine’s Web site. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065601 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100205/ap_on_bi_ge/us_newsroom_turmoil_2 An arbitrator has rejected the Santa Barbara News-Press’ $25 million claim against its former editor and ordered the newspaper’s owner to pay more than $900,000 in fees stemming from their dispute. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100205/ap_on_bi_ge/us_newsroom_turmoil_2 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065468 The Seattle Times Co. has renegotiated its debt, giving the publisher increased ability to continue publishing "high quality, independent journalism," as the company indicated in a letter updating its readers on its financial status. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065468 http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/02/journos-arent-helpless-against-market.html Without question, there never has been a bigger response to this blog than the one that greeted the piece the other day encouraging journalists to demand to be paid decently for their work. http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/02/journos-arent-helpless-against-market.html http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/02/google-news-to-publishers-lets-make-love-not-war035.html In the view of some traditional media execs, Google is a digital vampire or a parasite or tech tapeworm using someone else’s content to profit. As that rhetoric heated up in the past year, Google has responded not with equal amounts of invective but with entreaties to help publishers. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/02/google-news-to-publishers-lets-make-love-not-war035.html http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065180 Monster Worldwide’s agreed acquisition of Yahoo’s recruitment platform HotJobs means as many as 200 papers will be shut out of of the Yahoo newspaper consortium (NPC). http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004065180 http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/arthur-and-the-blue-people.html As if the New York Times’ Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson didn’t have enough headaches, trying to figure out how to fend off that other daily beast known as the Wall Street Journal. Until December, 2007, when Rupert Murdoch pulled off the coup of his lifetime, cajoling, wheedling and finally hard-lining just enough of the Bancroft family into selling the prize Journal to him, the Journal had been a national business daily — not the Times’ direct competition. http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/arthur-and-the-blue-people.html http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004064283 Newspaper Web site traffic is falling month-over-month, according to new figures provided by the Newspaper Association of America. The association today published the latest Q4 data for newspaper Web sites provided by Nielsen Online. The number of unique users declined when comparing October (73.2 million uniques) to November (72.3 million uniques) to December (70.3 million uniques). http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004064283 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/01/31/MNTB1BP70F.DTL Tomorrow is the first of February, an important day in the history of San Francisco. It will be 13 years exactly since Herb Caen died. Old San Franciscans revere Caen. A lot of new San Franciscans never heard of him. For the record, he was a newspaper columnist in this town for 58 years, longer than anybody. He was the uncrowned prince of San Francisco, a magic city of his own invention. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/01/31/MNTB1BP70F.DTL http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gannetts-4Q-improves-as-cost-apf-1730286251.html?x=0 Gannett Co. posted its largest profit of the year in the fourth quarter as cost-cutting efforts were aided by a lessening decline in advertising sales. But shares of the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher tumbled after company executives didn’t offer any hope for an upturn in newspaper advertising this year. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gannetts-4Q-improves-as-cost-apf-1730286251.html?x=0 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004064066 The Associated Press has signed a licensing deal with Yahoo Inc. that gives the news cooperative a steady stream of revenue at a time less money is flowing in from newspapers and broadcasters. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004064066 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004063409 Moody’s Investors Service late Thursday assigned a relatively high, but still speculative-grade or "junk" credit rating, to Media General Inc.’s offering of $350 million in senior secured notes that will be used to pay down debt. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004063409 http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/01/25/daily60.html The New York Times has nabbed an extra 1,100 Bay Area subscribers after launching its San Francisco Bay Area section last fall, according to Jim Schachter, a senior Times executive. http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/01/25/daily60.html http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/01/medianews_group_reportedly_wor.php In its reporting about the impending bankruptcy filing by Affiliated Media, the holding company of MediaNews Group, its owner, the Denver Post left the B-word out of the headline — and its published version of an Associated Press story about the filing left out intriguing info included by other papers, including details of MediaNews boss Dean Singleton’s salary. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/01/medianews_group_reportedly_wor.php http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004063063 Moody’s Investors Service, the big credit rating agency, said Wednesday it is reviewing The Miami Herald parent for a possible upgrade of its corporate credit rating. Moody’s said the $875 million refinancing McClatchy is proposing could improve its liquidity and ability to handle debt in an rebounding economy. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004063063 http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/the-ipad-quick-publisher-scorecard.html I’ve well used the Moses metaphors; others prefer the Jesus Tablet. But the dramedy around The Apple Launch has been as much Mel Brooks as Biblical. It’s just more interim technology after all. In fact, it’s become a tabula rasa for all our digital hopes and dreams, with the silliness merging with the real import. (And will we remember where we were when the announcement was made?) http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/the-ipad-quick-publisher-scorecard.html http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004062377 The McClatchy Co. CEO Gary Pruitt said Wednesday there is "some evidence that classified advertising is recovering" as the nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher reported it swung to a profit in the fourth-quarter. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004062377 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/technology/26apple.html?pagewanted=2&emc=eta1 With the widely anticipated introduction of a tablet computer at an event here on Wednesday morning, Apple may be giving the media industry a kind of time machine — a chance to undo mistakes of the past. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/technology/26apple.html?pagewanted=2&emc=eta1 http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/01/next-for-medianews-rolling-up-ailing.html Ailing newspapers in Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul and San Francisco eventually could shrink or shut down after MediaNews Group emerges from bankruptcy. The prospect of future seismic shifts in the newspaper industry from Salt Lake City to York, PA, were signaled last week when Affiliated Media, the parent of MediaNews, filed for bankruptcy to eliminate all but $165 million of its $930 million in debt. http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/01/next-for-medianews-rolling-up-ailing.html http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/01/medianews_group_bankruptcy_sto.php A blog published last week noted that the Denver Post had managed to report about an impending bankruptcy filing by the holding company of its parent firm, MediaNews Group, without using the word "bankruptcy" in the headline — a neat example of spin. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/01/medianews_group_bankruptcy_sto.php http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061870 An in-depth study of the Kindle as a newspaper e-reader finds it comes up short in reader satisfaction. But the study out of the University of Georgia also suggests tablets with color, photos and touch screens — all features, no doubt, of the highly anticipated Apple tablet — could find a market among newspaper readers. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061870 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061624 The printed Wall Street Journal and its digital counterparts including the online newspaper and MarketWatch, will be in separate business groups under a corporate reorganization outlined Monday. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061624 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061538 The financial outlook for Q4 of 2009 and beyond is not looking so sharp as traditional media — especially newspapers — are expected to suffer from an economic downturn despite easing comparisons. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061538 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061508 In a vote over the weekend, unionized employees at Newsday overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract that would have cut all employee wages by 10% and driver pay by 15%, increased the workweek and reduced paid vacation time. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061508 http://www.twincities.com/minnesota/ci_14249716?nclick_check=1 Members of the Newspaper Guild at the St. Paul Pioneer Press voted Friday to go down to a 37.5-hour work week and take an unpaid week of furlough in exchange for a no-layoff agreement. http://www.twincities.com/minnesota/ci_14249716?nclick_check=1 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061423 A Delaware bankruptcy judge is ready to approve Tribune Co.’s request to pay bonuses of up to $45 million to hundreds of managers, including the media conglomerate’s top 10 executives. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061423 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061331 NEW YORK The holding company for newspaper publisher MediaNews Group filed for Chapter 11 protection Friday and expects to emerge from bankruptcy in a month or two. Affiliated Media Inc., the privately held parent company for the owner of The Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News and 52 other daily newspapers, had said Jan. 15 it would be making the move. It said it had a deal with creditors that will cut its debt to $165 million from $930 million. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061331 http://www.cjr.org/feature/a_thousand_cuts.php?page=all "...it wouldn’t hurt the web triumphalists to acknowledge that there is something more than jobs being lost in the process of newspapers dying... Whether you liked the way they did it or not, monopoly newspapers often performed civic functions." http://www.cjr.org/feature/a_thousand_cuts.php?page=all http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/01/22/fcc-is-on-the-hunt-for-ideas-to-improve-the-news-media/?blog_id=24&post_id=16245 The agency has launched an investigation into the "Future of Media," and released an 11-page request for information about the state of the news business. It plans to examine the current state of the news industry, industry trends and what the agency could do to change its current rules. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/01/22/fcc-is-on-the-hunt-for-ideas-to-improve-the-news-media/?blog_id=24&post_id=16245 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061123 A federal bankruptcy court judge approved a new deal in the Freedom Communications bankruptcy that sets aside far more money for unsecured creditors than a previous plan, and leaves nothing for the members of the Orange County Register’s founding Hoiles family members. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004061123 http://eandpinexile.blogspot.com/2010/01/newspaper-guild-loses-3000-members.html It has been some 18 months since Linda Foley left her post as president of the Newspaper Guild after a 12-year reign. And in some ways, she is glad to be out at such a difficult time. http://eandpinexile.blogspot.com/2010/01/newspaper-guild-loses-3000-members.html http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/a_new_chapter_for_new_west/C559/L559/ Late last year, I was engaged in a conversation by a group of people who are creating a major new non-profit news organization for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a very interesting venture, and they have recruited me to be the editor in chief of the project. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/a_new_chapter_for_new_west/C559/L559/ http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2010/01/21/15194/union_pioneer_press_the_only_medianews_paper_losing_money When Pioneer Press holding company Affiliated Media announced a pre-packaged bankruptcy Friday, the press release noted that of its 54 dailies and more than 100 non-dailies, "all but one of our newspapers is profitable." Turns out the unprofitable one is the Pioneer Press. http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2010/01/21/15194/union_pioneer_press_the_only_medianews_paper_losing_money http://cronkite.asu.edu/mcguireblog/?p=151 I think Craig Silverman of Regret the Error fame had it right when he called for significant innovation to address quality control. Silverman has developed a franchise around amusing us with corrections, but his weekly column forces anyone who cares about factual accuracy to pay close attention. http://cronkite.asu.edu/mcguireblog/?p=151 http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/talk-to-the-times-answers-about-charging-online/?hp I am in a difficult position. I buy and read the physical paper every day religiously; have done so for over 50 years. I also have the Times website as my home page for internet access, where I read a few articles every day. I would love to subscribe to the paper and have delivery, thereby saving my 16-mile round-trip drive each day, and giving me free access to the website, but you do not deliver to my rural location. I will be forced to stop using the website. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/talk-to-the-times-answers-about-charging-online/?hp http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/the-times-meter-why-2011.html That’s a compelling question about the New York Times’ metering announcement, one that I somehow missed in my list of nine ("Nine Questions: New York Times Goes Metered"). http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/the-times-meter-why-2011.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-bay-area-news-project-appoints-lisa-frazier-as-ceo-and-jonathan-weber-as-editor-in-chief-82279622.html The Bay Area News Project, a new nonprofit public media organization based in San Francisco, announced today the names of its two senior leaders, Chief Executive Officer Lisa Frazier and Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Weber. In conjunction with The New York Times, the media non-profit also announced it will supply news for the Bay Area sections of The Times. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-bay-area-news-project-appoints-lisa-frazier-as-ceo-and-jonathan-weber-as-editor-in-chief-82279622.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html?hp&emc=na Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html?hp&emc=na http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/nine-quick-questions-new-york-times-goes-metered.html It’s a big bet. The New York Times, which has been thrashing about every possible kind of business model in the last six months, is making the bet on metering, meaning readers will get some number of free articles per month, then be told to pay up to get more. http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/nine-quick-questions-new-york-times-goes-metered.html http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703405704575015362653644260-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwMDEyNDAyWj.html With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry—and expand Apple’s influence and revenue as a content middleman. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703405704575015362653644260-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwMDEyNDAyWj.html http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004060492 Thirteen months after filing for bankruptcy reorganization, Tribune Co. said Wednesday its cash flow in 2009 will approach $500 million. That’s double what Tribune had estimated coming into the year, and more than executives had estimated in November. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004060492 http://www.su-spectator.com/opinion/editorial-online-p-i-failing-to-provide-community-oriented-journalism-1.1078696 It was only a year ago that Seattle still had two daily newspapers, and the now defunct one was running compelling investigate journalism about the Boy Scouts’ cozy relationship with loggers and the hidden dangers and shady dealings of the honey industry. http://www.su-spectator.com/opinion/editorial-online-p-i-failing-to-provide-community-oriented-journalism-1.1078696 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004060397 At a meeting Tuesday afternoon, The Commercial Appeal informed representatives of the Memphis Newspaper Guild that job cuts announced last week would affect nine specific employees in four departments: one in accounting, one in information technology, one in advertising, two in customer service and four in editorial. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004060397 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004060171 Aggregator sites — especially Google — really are hurting newspapers as more people increasingly simply skim the news headlines without bothering to click to linked newspaper Web sites, a new report finds. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004060171 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/1190391.html Faced with shaky advertising revenues and lingering economic uncertainty, the Charlotte Observer will eliminate 25 full-time jobs, the latest in a string of cuts, the company announced this morning. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/1190391.html http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004059964 Morris Publishing Group formally filed its prepackaged reorganization plan with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Augusta, Ga., Tuesday morning. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004059964 http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/media-news-bankruptcy-and-the-fog-of-media-war.html Who will be next? And is the mating of banko companies the look of the next year? Dean Singleton bit the bitter bullet last week. After staving off bankruptcy for all of 2009, telling MediaNews execs that the company would not need to take that route, the company succumbed. MediaNews is following Morris into bankruptcy, both taking the neater, pre-packaged route, allowing quicker movement through the courts and, importantly, a continuity of leadership. http://www.contentbridges.com/2010/01/media-news-bankruptcy-and-the-fog-of-media-war.html http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/01/singletons-next-chapter-can-he-steer-medianews-to-a-digital-future/ In August 2006, as part of a deal that netted MediaNews Group the Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Hearst Corporation agreed to make a $300 million equity investment in MediaNews. At that point, the peak of MediaNews’ company’s expansion and with revenue and cash flow at an all-time high, the holdings of the principal stockholders — the Singleton and Scudder families — net of debt, were arguably worth more than $500 million each. http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/01/singletons-next-chapter-can-he-steer-medianews-to-a-digital-future/