Furlough for 20-page newspaper workers

     Gannett announced Wednesday that it was mandating a one-week UNPAID furlough for all its employees (FT & PT) to be taken within this quarter. This drastic move (perhaps stolen from Detroit’s sorry play book) is meant to save jobs, management says.
     What about saving the newspapers you’re, in essence, destroying with your illogical management?
     Two days this week the local newspaper has been but 20 pages in two scrunched-up sections. Features of the past in all sections have been dropped with oddly chosen basic representation of them. Most often dumped: commentary across all departments. There’s been a sudden drop in the use of color, too. That’s within the newshole, of course. The ads continue to be a mash-up of garish color.
     Today, Gannett Blog also reports that Gannett management is pushing for use of USA Today content instead of Associated Press.
     What a freakin’ disaster! What a tragedy for the American public!

What goes around, comes around…

     Just about a year ago, I wrote a post called 5 Ways to Kill A Newspaper. 
     Well someone out there was paying attention. In that post I noted that there were just 1½ pages of world/national news in the edition of my local paper that day. This morning, the newspaper that arrived (despite the fact that my subscription has been canceled since Jan. 1) had less than 25 pages. It looked more like the size of a pizza circular than anything claiming to represent true news gathering.
     In that post a year ago, I wrote

“All of this makes you wonder if the corporation that owns our newspaper is trying to drive it out of existence…”

     I think that must be its goal. It appears to be succeeding brilliantly.
     Every day brings more doom and gloom about the field I once loved. Layoffs. Cutbacks. Newspapers shut down. It’s so discouraging, so frightening.
     How can a democracy thrive when fewer people control the news we have access to?  The latest epiphany from the Mothership is a product called ContentOne. (That title would trigger all sorts of alarms in the ”Fear the New World Order” camp.) ContentOne translates to a national editor deciding local content, in respect to national and international news choices. Just think of the temptation that power wields: selecting the five or six main news stories that millions of readers find in their daily papers. Just think of the potential to sway public opinion. Add to the mix that certain chains are becoming annoyed at the Associated Press and will cut back on a larger pool of stories in favor of what their bureaus can gather. Even more shrinkage of accessible truth.
     I sure hope President Obama is paying close attention to this important issue.