[UPDATE, 5:14 p.m.] Robert Smith penned a news article about the PD transformation, including a takeaway from the staff meeting in the newsroom today.
He touches on much of the same information from the release this morning, save for the input from top brass.
To wit, here’s Editor Debra Adams Simmons’ less-than-enthusiastic quote: “I think we’re still positioned to do quality work. I think we’re in a good place.”
And Publisher Terry Egger’s trip to the corporate workplace thesaurus: “We have to make sure our eye is on where the puck is going.”
And, probably most significantly, newly appointed Plain Dealer Publishing Co. General Manager Virginia Wang’s reference to readership: “It’s all for meeting the needs of readers. The readers have more ways of getting information. I think this is our chance to make it right.”
Any and all of the above remains to be seen as The Northeast Ohio Media Group looks toward the “end of summer” – that vague time frame during which these changes are set to take place.
***
With the grist of the rumor mill finally coagulating into a rather milquetoast press release this morning, Plain Dealer management announced several changes for the paper’s future:
a) Home delivery will be cut to three days each week. Sunday will be one of them. The paper, however, will continue to be printed everyday. It will be available at “thousands of outlets” across the region (just not anywhere near your doorstep).
b) The Northeast Ohio Media Group is being formed to usher in the digital renaissance playing out at cleveland.com. Andrea Hogben, senior vice president of sales and marketing at The Plain Dealer, will serve as president of the group.
c) Staff cuts were hinted at in the news release, but nothing concrete was announced. Last December, an agreement was reached that staunches the blood-letting at about one-third of the newsroom. If past experiences with Advance’s small- and mid-sized market choke-holds is any indication, positions will open up at Cleveland.com, and Plain Dealer employees will be encouraged to apply.
According to sources, staff members were not told of the news prior to the release being published on the home page of Cleveland.com. Others are on vacation this week, portending brutal surprises when their social media accounts blow up today. Columnist Mark Naymik also tweeted out similar information:
Plain Dealer to reduce home delivery to THREE days but keep printing 7 days. I’m disappointed the company did not tell the employees first.
— mark naymik (@marknaymik) April 4, 2013
In essence, the news comes off as a bit of a slap in the face of loyal readers.
To illustrate, the users who siphon off content from Cleveland.com for free will see little to no change in their reading habits. (Staff cuts will likely cause a setback in news coverage, but it’s unclear when and how that will go down). But daily subscribers will see their morning paper evaporate on the majority of mornings each week.
Sussing out the opinion of the customers, arguably one of many jobs for Terry Egger et. al., reveals a concern for e-edition costs and practicality, as well as journalistic quality. Cleveland.com commenters aren’t known as the most well spoken crowd in town, but their reactions to the news release highlight the steadily brewing backlash that’s become so visible in this city.
Here are a few voices:
5437: “The PD will struggle with this decision for a long time. Somewhere out there, possibly a current PD employee, there’s a person who will be creative, step up and start a business filling the news void in this region of the country.”
flueger: “‘quality journalism’ is why I ditched the PD subscription a long time ago. At least cleveland.com is free and serves up some entertainment value.”
gadgetking2010: “on top of hurting seniors without computer access, this will also hurt the people that deliver the paper daily.”
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2013.
Guess it’s finally time to cancel my subscription.
PD keeps making mistake after mistake…WTG Guys….
What a shame. Losing print journalism in this country is a scary prospect. All that is left is internet and TV. Which is mostly TMZ style junk.
This is exactly why I have been paying my home delivery subscription month to month for the past 6 months. They deserve to lose their entire home delivery base of loyal customers. Don’t you love how businesses treat customers these days? And yes, I read news on my mobile device, too, but still enjoy reading a newsPAPER as well. No thank you, Plain Dealer, from a home delivery customer of over 20 years.
Stick a fork in it.
I wonder if the newspaper boxes around town will still be refilled daily?
Guess I’ll have to use Scene or The Lakewood Observer to carve pumpkins and dye Easter eggs on.
Oh – Oh, Scene — “Reader Representative” Special Ted will take you to task for taking quotes out of the press release.
Well, on the bright side, at least they aren’t going completely online with the PD. So, technically, it could be worse…
so they still print 7 days a week, they just dont deliver the paper to you. so if you want a PD, you can get a new one 7 days a week if you drive out to a little paper box or store and buy one?
Here’s a side story to the Plain Dealer layoffs:
What sadly got no coverage was the recent unjust layoff of all employees of THE CLEVELAND CITIZEN, a 150 year old labor newspaper. The paper is owned by the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents the building trades unions. Subscribers of the paper are trade union members.
Former employees of the paper were denied union membership, yet the paper was required to be printed by union printers, and advertisers were carefully scrutinized to be sure they were using union labor if available. The employees of The Citizen were underpaid, getting much much less than union wages (a little above minimum wage), no health care, regular raises or other union benefits. They were let go after 10-15 years employment through no fault of their own, all because a company with union ties (BMA) took over their jobs. They were deemed ineligible for unemployment and did not receive any severance pay. How’s that for union hypocrisy? These people have been plunged into poverty, and are now desperately looking for jobs, but it is difficult if one has no income and cannot afford to keep the phone and internet on. Or put food on the table.
Unions are always complaining about jobs being shipped overseas, yet these jobs were shipped across town.
SHAME on the Building Trades and the unions who turned their heads when these loyal and hard working employees were discarded like yesterday’s trash. If these employees were allowed to be union members, they never would have been treated this way.