Layoffs come at OC Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise

[alp227]

Source: LA Times

Significant layoffs hit the newsrooms Thursday at the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, a troubling sign for the Aaron Kushner-owned publications.

Exact numbers have not been released at the Register, although the cuts there are reported to number roughly 35 people. The paper’s editor, Ken Brusic, and most other top editorial managers have departed, according to multiple sources in the newsroom who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak. Rob Curley, deputy editor of local news, has assumed the editor position, at least temporarily.

Cutbacks at the Press-Enterprise, meanwhile, totaled 39, according to a memo circulated internally late Wednesday and reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. The reductions were not limited to the newsroom, but at least a dozen copy editors have been laid off, according to numerous individuals at the newspaper. Affected employees are being given severance of one week’s pay per year of employment.

A spokesman for Freedom Communications, which owns both papers, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither the editor of the Press-Enterprise, Michael Coronado, nor Curley at the Register returned calls.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-layoffs-oc-register-riverside-pressenterprise-20140116,0,7275152.story

[yeoman6987]

1. Newspapers

I think that Newspapers are going to continue to have lower subscriptions and purchasers. It is definitely a dying bread. They need to reorganize their staff using the internet more with the hopes on stoping all the lay offs.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. remember all the type-setting jobs.... how soon those vanished

and yet entire industries sprouted where those fell... hopefully the same is true as the world shifts gears into new media

[Kelvin Mace]

3. I remember a conversation I have with a Compugrahphic salesman back in 1986

soon after desktop publishing started to take off and the HP Laserjet II came out (Agfa-Compugraphic made photo-digital typesetting equipment). Our set up (2 workstations, typesetter and developer) cost about $200,000 ($400,000+ adjusted for inflation. Chemistry and film ran another $1 a page, and we cranked out around 10,000 pages a month (Oh, and $5K a month for service contracts).

I asked him what the company's sales plan was to counter the PC-based DTP systems coming out (an identical PC-based set up would have cost us $25,000 for the 2 PCs, software and a LaserJet, with consumable costing us 5 cents a page).

He told me there was NO chance that LASER printers would ever replace photo-digital typesetting since the resolution was too low (300dpi vs. 2400 dpi at the time). I reminded him that we were printing on newsprint and the average person wouldn't notice much of a difference except for photos, and that once the next generation printers came out at 600 dpi, even the photos would look good.

He insisted that the PCs and laser printers were not a threat.

We replaced all of his equipment 18 months later.

Ten years later I wrote an 8 page memo to my boss in a different company about why we should start offering web site services to our clientele, auto dealerships. At the time we sold them turnkey systems which did all the paperwork for selling cars (financing, insurance, titles, etc). I told him that our days were numbered in this field since at some point Detroit was going to figure out they had a "captive" customer base that they could sell a similar product to, and that would be directly plugged into their financing companies. Once that happened our customer base would vanish, so we needed to shift gears and offer something new, like shopping for cars online.

A couple of weeks went by and I asked about the memo. I got back the following:

"Thanks for the suggestion, but I really don't see people shopping for cars online."

The company went bankrupt four years later.

[tomm2thumbs]

4. omg - sounds like when the Swiss ignored the quartz crystal for watches

And then all the most accurate watches suddenly began being made in Japan (and now everywhere else). Nowadays I bet that scenario you described has happened to almost every product out there.

Gotta keep up with the changes in the world and stay ahead of the parade and not chasing the tail of it.

[Kelvin Mace]

5. I have to go and find

a tech column I wrote back in the early to Mid-90's where I said that the first tech companies that could offer individual song tracks for a $1 or less would complete alter the music industry and dominate it.

[tomm2thumbs]

6. a copy of it is probably in Steve Job's old inbox

what horse are you picking in the 3rd race at Del Mar?

[Kelvin Mace]

9. I SUCK at horse racing

My sole foray into betting on a horse was about 20 years ago when my wife and I were in Kentucky. One of the horses running was "Warp Drive", and we are two card-carrying, cos playing fans. Could there be a more prophetic happenstance?

We bet $10 to win.

He finished last.

[dogknob]

7. The only reason to read the OC Register is to be told "everything's just dandy!"

They should lay off their entire newsroom.

[Blue_Tires]

8. I read one of the Register's columnists on the aftermath of the Kelly Thomas case

and it was one of the ugliest cop-worship gloat pieces I've read in recent memory...

I know it's a small sample size, but as far as I'm concerned the OC Register can't close it's doors soon enough...