The first anniversary of the current recession is this month. That's according to recent pronouncements by economists, who always seem to be at their best when predicting the past.
A year of recession was not news to us at the Daily News. Our owner, the McClatchy Co., has had a tough year, just like every other newspaper company in the country. McClatchy owns the largest newspapers in South Florida and Northern California, two areas hit first and hardest by the subprime mortgage meltdown that has since brought the world economy to its knees.
The recession came on top of the challenge of Internet news delivery and the migration of advertising from print to online. Print revenues, especially from classified ads, were declining before the recession. They have since plummeted.
We newspaper people were scrambling to adjust and redefine how we do business even before the economy went to hell.
The bright spot for the Daily News is that modest decreases in print readership have been more than offset by increases in online readers. The result is that our total audience is growing -- something our competitors in TV and radio can't say -- and our share of the market is larger than ever.
But unlike readership, online revenues have not increased as fast as print revenues have fallen. The Daily News and our 30 sister McClatchy papers remain profitable, but not as profitable as in the past. The drop in revenues has forced us to make commensurate cuts in our expenses. The adjustment has been difficult.
As the economy continues to implode, the trend line for our business becomes scarier. The same could be said of the auto, banking and home building industries.
The struggle here is playing out at every newspaper in the country. The Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times and The Baltimore Sun, as well as radio and TV stations and a Major League Baseball team, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week.
Closer to home, Morris Communications, owner of the Juneau, Kenai, Homer and Eagle River papers, the Alaska Journal of Commerce, KFQD and five other Anchorage radio stations, as well as Alaska magazine, is in danger of defaulting on its loans by spring.
Our company, which also has a substantial debt and has seen its corporate bonds downgraded to junk because of the revenue declines, is on sounder footing but still at risk.
I offer all this not to whine but rather to explain the context for some of the decisions we have made and changes we are preparing to make at the Daily News.
Longtime readers already know that the paper has changed more in the last two years than it did in the previous 20. The physical size of the paper is smaller. The number of pages is fewer. A wide variety of features, from comics to columns, have been eliminated. We have reduced the news staff by 40 percent, and the jobs of remaining employees now include producing an ambitious Web site in addition to the printed paper.
Still more changes are afoot, as we further tighten up on expenses to weather the worsening storm.
Beginning in January, the Monday through Thursday papers will be smaller and drastically reorganized. They will consist of two sections instead of the current four. The first section will include all local, national, international and business news, opinion and obituaries. The B section will start with sports, followed by features, classified ads, comics and weather.
On Friday, the paper will look much as it does now, with local news, business and obituaries in the A section. National and international news, opinion and weather will be in B. The main difference will be the elimination of the Life section. In its place will be the two Play entertainment sections. That's where you will find the comics, Ask Amy and Miss Manners. Perfect World will no longer appear.
The Saturday paper will be four sections: Local news, business and obituaries in the A section. National and international news, opinion and weather in the B section. Sports and Life, including comics, will be in the C section, with Classified in D.
On Sunday, the paper will be seven sections and only slightly reorganized. Local news, business and obituaries will be in the A section. B will be nation, world, opinion and weather. C will be Classified. D will be Sports. Life & Arts will be E. F will be Classified. G will be TV.
The two most significant changes in the Sunday paper will be:
• elimination of the standalone Outdoors section. Outdoors content will become part of the Sports section during the week; Travel and Science will move to the Sunday Life section, and
• reduction of the TV news from 24 to 16 pages, primarily by reducing the number of channels listed.
As the paper gets smaller, it makes less sense to have multiple sections of few pages. We can be more efficient with fewer, bigger sections. We recognize that this diminishes some of the convenience of the current organization of the paper for readers. For that I apologize.
Under our current circumstances, we simply don't have the choice of preserving the status quo. Our core mission is local news coverage, and the changes we're making in the paper are designed to preserve or enhance local news coverage -- in the paper and online -- and that is happening at the expense of other traditional elements of the newspaper.
I know that many readers will not be happy to see more changes in the paper. I've tried to explain why we must take these steps, but I know not all of you will be persuaded.
I encourage you to share your opinions and suggestions with me. You can do that, or ask questions about any of these issues, or other newspaper/Web site issues by sending them to me at editorsblog@adn.com, or by leaving a message on the editor's comment line at 257-4468.
Pat Dougherty is editor of the Daily News.
PATRICK DOUGHERTY
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