Why the Boston Globe needs to go bankrupt

At BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis says the New York Times should force the Boston Globe into bankruptcy:

[The Globe is] losing $85 million a year. They saved only $20 with recent concessions. It could bring The New York Times down. Time for radical surgery.

Speaking of bankruptcy (and layoffs, and pay cuts and out-of-print): The Wall Street Journal maps the decline of the nation’s top newspapers since 2006.

New York Times' Bill Keller tells it like it is

At least he was honest. When New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller addressed his newsroom earlier this week, he had to deliver the bad news that 100 people on the business side had lost their jobs and then asked staff to take a 5 percent pay cut for the remainder of the year in order to avoid another round of layoffs.

To Keller’s credit, he didn’t offer any of the happy talk common to editors and publishers who insist that their papers are somehow stronger for their cuts and that they remain as dedicated as ever to quality journalism. In fact, he said just the opposite:

Layoffs are an even cruder instrument than furloughs or pay cuts. Even if we are as careful as possible, as we were in last year’s staff cuts, the reality is we end up losing some valuable people, and cutting into our journalism. With each subsequent cut, it becomes harder to keep the scalpel away from vital organs. Moreover, you almost never get those slots back.

Newspaper execs lack vision

So says David Mehegan, who took a buyout from the Boston Globe after 33 years of service:

There’s a lot of innovation that’s going to go on. I just don’t think it’s going to be done by the management of papers as we now know them. I don’t think they have the imagination. I shouldn’t make a sweeping statement, but so far, what I see is just cutting and cutting and hoping some kind of miracle happens. I don’t mean that that’s the character of this company more than it is the character of any other. I just think that, for the most part, most newspaper management is in a state of shock. They’re not really going to be the ones to do it.

But Mehegan is being a class act as he leaves:

Hooray for Hollywood and Greg Hernandez

With the seemingly neverending stream of bad news about the newspaper industry,  journalists who fear for their job security can be forgiven if they feel like the victims in a horror movie.  But amidst the casualties, there are a few feel-good stories being written.

When Hollywood writer Greg Hernandez was laid off by the L.A. Daily News the day after he covered the Academy Awards, he didn’t hang his head and mope.

He’s got busy:

It's the newspaper economy, stupid

According to a Politico report, conservatives are seeing proof of liberal bias in the media as reporters leave the journalism industry to take positions in the Obama administration.

“Obama bails out more media water-carriers,” conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote upon hearing that the Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman is taking a job with the Obama administration.

Blogs at both the Weekly Standard and the National Review are pointing to a “revolving door” that spins between the media and the Obama administration.

Let’s get some perspective here:

Houston, we have problem

So the publisher of the Houston Chronicle sent out the dreaded memo. You know, the one that, if you’re a Chron staffer, makes you want to kick yourself in the ass for not starting your job search six months earlier:

As our newspaper continues to report the condition of the economy, we read about companies in all business categories adjusting their size to match current and projected revenues. The Houston Chronicle must do the same in spite of your diligent efforts.

I believe this is what’s known in literary circles as “foreshadowing.”

Consequently, over the next 60 days, we will be reorganizing our employee base in all divisions around a reduction in force of at least 10 percent.