Newspaper Deathwatch

Chief Administrative Officer Gerry Spector indicated yesterday in a memo about retirement plan changes that the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) was going to be killed. Ed Padgett has posted the memo on his Los Angeles Times pressmen blog, and we found the following excerpt especially interesting:

When we emerge from bankruptcy, we expect that the shares of Tribune stock held by the ESOP will be extinguished and the plan terminated. Duff & Phelps, a nationally recognized appraisal firm, recently determined that as of December 31, 2008, the value of a share of Tribune Company stock held by the ESOP was $0. Nonetheless, in keeping with the plan provisions, the company has made the initial allocation of shares to the accounts of eligible employees. You will receive a letter in a few weeks reflecting this valuation and informing you of the number of shares you were allocated, as required by the plan.

Wonder how much it costs the company to send notices to all those employees about exactly how shares of ZERO they own?

This summer, pressman Ed Padgett broke the news on his blog that on June 7, 2009, the L.A. Times Sunday circulation had dropped below a million for the first time in decades. Of course we covered it on FBLA. And then we all got a stern talking to from the LAT because of it. You see, *official* circulation numbers come from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

So Padgett must have been feeling vindicated when the ABC released the new circulation numbers today. From Editor & Publisher:

The Los Angeles Times reported its daily circ is off 11% to 657,467 and 6.7% on Sunday to 983,702.

Of course, it's wretched news - especially for employees of the LAT like Padgett. But when you've been given a hard time by your employer, who happens to be a newspaper, for doing accurate reporting about the newspaper - well, that pressman must be feeling a wee bit vindicated.

Previously on FBLA:

When Editor and Publisher's Greg Mitchell mentioned on his Twitter feed last night they were going to release the numbers of newspaper circulation decline, we thought,"This is going to be really bad." But 11.05% for the LAT is really bad, but way better than we figured. So there's the last bit of our Monday Morning optimism.

From E&P:

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,024,269 -- 0.61%

USA TODAY -- 1,900,116 -- (-17.15%)

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- 927,851 -- (-7.28%)

LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 657,467 -- (-11.05%)

THE WASHINGTON POST -- 582,844 -- (-6.40%)

For the rest of the numbers go here.

Not only are the former LAT scribes banning together online to get work, the shutter bugs are too. Matt Randall didn't want us to leave out those laid off "worth a thousand words" journalists.

They're at The Pro Photography Network. Their press release states:

"We will shoot anything, anywhere, for anyone," said Matt Randall, who worked at The Times for 22 years as a Photographer, Photo Dept Operations Manager and lastly Financial Operations Manager of The Foreign Bureaus. He left the company in September 2008.

Randall tells FBLA in the four months most of the almost all laid off former LAT photographers have gotten work. So if you're a bride or just want to look like one...call these guys!

Formerly Tribune owned, Long Island's Newsday is making the leap to asking readers (gasp) on the Internets (eep) to PAY. Like money and everything. For reals.

It takes some mind-boggling stupidity to make this a revolutionary idea. Yep, paying for content.

They call it a "pioneering Web model" because they are teaming up with the local cable company for distribution. You mean a company that charges for television when it's normally and for all intents and purposes available for FREE?!

ARG!!

In the wake of the slaughter fest that is the LA Times this week/month/year, we would like to remind everyone former LAT staffers have banded together to help each other weather the storm. They call it The Journalism Shop, where laid off LAT journalist put up ads making themselves available for work and also learn techie skills in new media. Refurbished reporters. It's not like a used car lot, it's more like the place in Silver Lake that sells Mercedes they've converted into veggie cars. Meaning: it's a clearing house of talent, yes, but it's also a place where seasoned journalists can learn some new tricks. And new gigs. News gigs, in fact.

They're actually getting some decent work. Like paying gigs and everything. Brett Levy, who runs the site tells us,"We're trying to get jobs from people who demand high quality and are willing to pay for it."

We hear they are launching a blog in the next week to keep track of the successes. Already there is a Facebook group of who's working.

They've been operating for two months now. Levy tells us they're considering launching sites for other journalists, not just those from the LAT.

Previously on FBLA:

We're waiting on the details and the names but we've heard from a couple different sources somewhere around 30-40 people are going to be laid off in editorial.

We'll update when we know more.

Erica Smith, staffer at St. Louis Post-Dispatch and creator and keeper of the Google Map titled Paper Cuts documenting jobs lost in the newspaper industry, gave us a couple of seconds of her time in the wake of the announcement by the New York Times they would be laying off around 100 people by the end of the year:

ES:Is it weird that when I see "FBLA" I still revert to high school and think first of Future Business Leaders of America?

FBLA: *Laugh*

ES: I'm a bit behind the times...I haven't updated the blog in a couple of weeks because of other projects, but the NYT is on there. they just hadn't made the number public.

FBLA:We were looking at Paper Cuts and it seems like this year will be the same or close to as 2008 as far as numbers. We're close to 14,000 this year by October.

ES:When the year started, I thought it would be worse than 2008 in the long run. But maybe there's just no one left to layoff. although I'm a little worried about 4th quarter layoffs -- there were a lot last year. Mostly Gannett.

FBLA:You're right, forgot about that. You're still employed - do you have survivors guilt yet?

continued...

This is Chris Ayers on SoCal Connected on the decline of newspapers. This is the first time we've heard the theory newspapers were "regional monopolies" and that's why the sudden competition from the Internets hit them so hard. Doesn't help the current cratering...but it's an interesting hindsight conversation starter.

Newspaper people are flummoxed by having more readers than ever and less money than ever. By some cruel twist of fate they now have an increase in demand and less means to shell out the supply. Go for a tour of Hearst Castle and wonder why they never saw that one coming. Because the concept doesn't make any sense. It's like a broke super star. How can you be broke if we're sick of hearing about you?

Anyway, Twitter has still yet to make money. The last time we saw Biz Stone speak he was optimistic Twitter would turn a profit "soon." Well, according to Yahoo news it's not yet:

Micro-blogging pioneer Twitter is still looking for ways to make money despite taking much of the world by storm, co-founder Biz Stone said.

Stone, a former Google employee who helped set up the social networking site two years ago, said on Wednesday the service is still "figuring out" the correct business model even with more than 50 million users.

Well at least there's "hope" of camaraderie for newspapers.