The regular blood-letting at daily newspapers shows no signs of slowing in 2008. Editor and Publisher reports today that The Star-Ledger, in New Jersey, has informed its employees that it’s lost of millions of dollars in advertising, and must tighten its belt. What’s that mean for Cleveland newspaper readers? Hopefully nothing. But if you visit the Ledger’s web site, you might notice that the impossible-to-read design of its Web site looks familiar. That’s because the Ledger, which won a Pulitzer in ’05, is owned by Newhouse, the same company that owns The Plain Dealer. “As a result of several years of such trends, your newspaper is losing money — a lot of money. If you’ve attended any of my employee meetings, you’ve been hearing about this situation in detail for some time,” Publisher George Arwady wrote in a letter to employees, excerpted in Editor & Publisher. “Fundamentally, the Star-Ledger cannot continue to operate the way it has. We need to cut our expenses drastically, and we need many new sources of revenue.”
Fittingly, the letter was included with some employees’ holiday bonuses. – Lisa Rab
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2008.
Okay, I thought it was me. The Plain Dealer’s website is the most eye-crossing, mind-boggling mess I’ve ever seen online.
The PD has become the “feature” paper of record. Girl Scout cookies on the front page. How about these front page stories this week: Cleveland has confirmed 100 cases of the flu…No shit. We live along Lake Erie…More fat people are going to the hospital because of GERD..Big deal…We have ass kickin sausage stands all over the area and pierogies by the bushel and lets not forget Slymans….Editors at The PD call their work journalism…Any idiot can write a story recap of a report published in a medical journal….Come on!!!!!!!