June
10When Growing Pains Become Dying Pangs
All of us have endured growing pains. But dying pangs are excruciating to witness.
I’m referring of the Los Angeles Times. Every week brings some new chapter in its ritual of self-destruction. The Tribune Company has appointed a guy named Randy Michaels to orchestrate the ritual and here’s why: Having presided over the decline and fall of radio, Michaels presumably is qualified to transfer that knowledge to newspapers.
With Sam Zell’s background in real estate and Michaels’ in radio, the future of what was once a fine newspaper is suddenly in doubt.
Here are the newest elements in Michaels’ formula: By invoking a 50-50 ad-edit ratio, the paper plans to eliminate about 82 pages of news a week.
Applying a unique metric, Michaels figures that the average writer for the Times turns out only about 51 pages a year compared with 300 for a journalist at the Baltimore Sun. The copy-counters, of course, don’t make accommodations for investigative reporters, bloggers, columnists, reviewers or other journalistic hangers-on.
The Times admittedly faces some severe problems. Tribune as a whole suffered a 16% drop in cash flow in the first quarter and revenue was down 8%. But if Sam Zell thought the newspaper was a money machine, he made a bad business decision. And by letting his radio man slice news pages and eliminate reporters, he is compounding his errors.
I’m referring of the Los Angeles Times. Every week brings some new chapter in its ritual of self-destruction. The Tribune Company has appointed a guy named Randy Michaels to orchestrate the ritual and here’s why: Having presided over the decline and fall of radio, Michaels presumably is qualified to transfer that knowledge to newspapers.
With Sam Zell’s background in real estate and Michaels’ in radio, the future of what was once a fine newspaper is suddenly in doubt.
Here are the newest elements in Michaels’ formula: By invoking a 50-50 ad-edit ratio, the paper plans to eliminate about 82 pages of news a week.
Applying a unique metric, Michaels figures that the average writer for the Times turns out only about 51 pages a year compared with 300 for a journalist at the Baltimore Sun. The copy-counters, of course, don’t make accommodations for investigative reporters, bloggers, columnists, reviewers or other journalistic hangers-on.
The Times admittedly faces some severe problems. Tribune as a whole suffered a 16% drop in cash flow in the first quarter and revenue was down 8%. But if Sam Zell thought the newspaper was a money machine, he made a bad business decision. And by letting his radio man slice news pages and eliminate reporters, he is compounding his errors.
Subscribe to Peter Bart's Blog Feed
Post a comment