Tribune considers design, copy editing functions to be ‘manufacturing’
Yesterday’s statement by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild makes an interesting point. You’ll find it in the second sentence of this quote by Cet Parks, the guild’s executive director:
Tribune, through careless management practices, has saddled itself under $13 billion in debt and now Baltimore is paying a price. Tribune is siphoning good jobs from Baltimore and sending work that talented editors, reporters, photographers, copy editors and designers have done here to its home base in Chicago. That is not right.
Oh, it’s worse than that, Cet. A staffer at another Tribune paper — who wishes to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons — tells us copy desks all over six Tribune-company papers are being gutted:
Reporters and line editors are being told that their copy has to be clean enough to publish because it may not get another read. Word is the copy desk is only going to read copy for the section fronts, and they’ll get to the rest of the paper if time permits.
As if newspapers didn’t have enough problems retaining readers as it is. One big advantage newspapers — and newspaper web sites! — have over a common blogger is their fact-checking, proofreading and accuracy safeguards.
And now we’re cutting back on those. Abso-effin’-lutely insane.
Word out of Orlando was that half the design desk and two-thirds of the copy desk was laid off. An anonymous tipster at the Sentinel told us two weeks ago:
Hardest hit was the copy desk with 14 staffers cut. That leaves about nine people left to edit the paper.
The Sun copy desk reportedly took a huge hit this week. Editor & Publisher’s Joe Strupp reported Wednesday:
Brent Jones, a Sun reporter and vice-chair of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, told E&P after this report that at least one-quarter of the layoffs affected copy editors and other production staffers.
And this is just the beginning. Shoes have yet to drop in Fort Lauderdale — the Sun Sentinel will be hit in May, we’re told — Hartford, Allentown [UPDATE: Oops, spoke too soon] and Newport News.
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Tribune’s “T6″ papers:
Baltimore Sun: 232,300 (Average weekday circulation)
Orlando Sentinel: 227,600
South Florida Sun Sentinel: 226,600
Hartford Courant: 164,300
Allentown Morning Call: 108,900
Newport News Daily Press: 83,000
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So how is it possible the Tribune’s “T6″ papers — basically, the entire chain minus the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune mothership — can operate with so few copy editors and designers?
One T6 insider tells us:
Shared modules for every section of the paper. That’s what’s making these cuts possible. It’s been going on for a few months and ratcheted up in the last couple of weeks.
Nation and World pages, built in Chicago and sent as PDFs began running in Baltimore in early February, we’re told. An internal memo leaked out of Orlando later that month gives us an idea of how the modules were phased in:
- Features pages (about four per day) will start coming from Chicago in about 10 days.
- Business pages (about three per day) will start coming a week or so after that.
Also in that memo was this chilling note:
- Templated newspaper is expected to be up and running in 60 days. Once that goes up, watch out.
The memo was dated Feb. 17 — Precisely 59 days before the Sentinel laid off 19 copy and design desk staffers.
[A similar memo from Ft. Lauderdale was leaked to Bob Norman's Palm Beach blog.]
The modules are built mostly in half-page and quarter-page increments, we’re told, that fit with the new standard company-wide advertising sizes. Everything is tightly formatted:
We have a set number of pages every day, depending on the amount of advertising. We won’t go up on space.
At one prominent “T6″ paper, two-thirds of the A section consists of modules, we’re told. Nearly all of features is modules.
One source tells us:
Up to 75 percent of the paper in places like Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, Hartford, etc., is to be produced in Chicago.
A source tells us:
Business is completely templated. Reporters have to write to fit. But what happens if stories don’t fit the spaces? We have to find a way to pad it out.
Another source recounts spending a recent Saturday night… building inside advance Monday pages.
No breaking news appeared in that section, other than what Chicago sent us in the modules.
Line editors are dragging and dropping copy into pre-formatted pages.
Once CCI Newsgate is fully implemented to link the “T6″ papers, the source says:
Then the pages will automatically typeset.
How long before this happens?
They’re still working out the logistics. When it happens, it’ll be a long way down the road.
Another source tells us:
They are working hard on plans and introducing technology that will ultimately allow reporters to place stories directly onto pages, perhaps with one edit or maybe with none.
I have seen flow charts of Tribune’s newsroom of the future that includes basically just reporters and section editors. The only reference to visuals workers or leaders was one “editor” who would “process” all graphics, photos, video, etc. I think they ultimately envision section editors doing everything — writing, editing stories, photos, video, managing the web site, etc.
Frankly, if I was a section editor at a Tribune paper, I don’t know what would be worse, being laid off or having to stay on the job and be part of their newsroom “of the future.”
Hey, wait a second. Just last fall, Tribune corporate had all the chain’s papers perform extensive — and rushed — redesigns, including typography and color palettes. If each paper looks freshly different, how will the Chicago-built modules blend in smoothly?
A source tells us:
You can imagine how frustrating it is for all the folks who worked so hard and put in countless extra hours and weekends to create redesigns to see them tossed aside months later because they suddenly decided it was expendable manufacturing. In [the source's paper], for example, they will eventually have to adopt all Chicago type and Chicago styles and throw out the type and styles from the recent redesign.
The early-adopting “T6″ papers have run into quality issues with the modules themselves, a source says:
The point of the whole thing, of course, is to get rid of copy editors and designers. But the modules come over with all sorts of errors that need to be fixed. Misspelled headlines. Photos cropped badly — not just badly, but cropped so that part of the picture frame shows white space.
Another source agrees:
The design and editing of these packages is sloppy and is being done by inexperienced designers in Chicago with minimal oversight.
The sad thing is when you combine the circulation of the “T6″ papers, more people will see these modules than the circulation of Chicago and L.A. combined.
One source tells us:
We made the argument — without the copy desk, who’s going to save your ass every night from these kinds of mistakes?
The answer came back: The Oxycontin series. Remember that? [A flawed five-parter that published in October 2003. Four months later, the Sentinel ran a 2,000-word correction.]
The company is saying, “well, copy editors didn’t catch that. That happened because of copy editors.”
A source explains:
Internally, Tribune is referring to copy editing and design as “manufacturing.” And they want to eliminate as much of the manufacturing costs as possible.
So, bottom line, they are going to copy edit and design as many pages as possible in Chicago, regardless of quality or relevance for the local markets they are going to, in order to lay off a whole bunch of desk people at each site.
What’s left running the copy desk, another source tells us, is called “production editors.”
We design and copy edit. We also edit photos and wire copy and blog a little bit.
We had four working Saturday night. That’s all we had to put out the Sunday paper. Four.
—
We asked editors and visuals managers at the “T6″ papers to answer questions about the modules and the process behind them.
No one — and we mean no one – was willing to talk with us about it on the record. Not the modules. Not the modules’ effect on the redesigns of last summer — redesigns most “T6″ design managers were only too happy to promote. Not the layoffs. Nothing.
One Tribune company design director responded to our queries:
I am sorry Charles. I love your blog and check it several times a day, but I am not in a position to comment.
A “T6″ AME wrote:
I’m sorry I can’t comment on your other questions.
Another AME replied:
It’s probably best not to comment specifically about internal operations. Wish I could be more helpful.
Another highly-placed newsroom manager writes:
Here’s the thing. Charles, I’m just not in a position to comment on a lot of things these days.
And so on.
We dislike using anonymous sources. But in this case, we understand. Thanks to the four kind folks who shared information with us, plus the one who leaked the Orlando memo.
If you have a piece of this puzzle we’ve not yet seen, please e-mail us or leave a comment below.
For the visual journalism field, this is news. And it’s high time we reported it.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:38 am
As a now former editor at the Orlando Sentinel, I can tell you that the flawed Oxycontin series was not because of the copy desk. In fact, questions were raised, by content editors, copy editors and others not directly involved in the series that the story just seemed too good to be true. But by that time, a “rising star” editor had seized control of the series, threw all the elbows necessary, and manhandled the series into the newspaper. Unfortunately, that editor was not among the people “shot in the head” for the flawed project — that editor shifted the blame to editors who started out with the series (and who weren’t moving fast enough for Rising Star because they were raising questions).
April 30th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Assuming they’re still publishing next year, enjoy your copies of the Baltimore Tribune, Hartford Tribune, etc.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Charles, you’ve nailed what’s going on at Tribune papers, abso-effin-lutely! Thanks for your investigative journalism and getting this news out there. Tribune, obviously, isn’t unique in cutting the size of its papers and newsroom staffs, but it seems to be ahead of other publishers in getting rid of the fact-checkers, the last line of defense.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
….and a year down the line, the Tribune will send these operations overseas to India, where pages will be assembled each day for the T-6 papers at a tenth of the current costs. You should also be aware that Gannett is copying this innovation for its community newspapers, and I can see McClatchy will not be far behind. You have an industry trend here, involving rationalization of costs by all of the chains. Copley tried doing this a decade ago, but failed because one-size-fits-all pages failed to take into account an array of niggling differences, from the differing size of the presses at various newspapers, to the differences in advertising volume.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Penny-wise, pound-foolish. Wanna keep the Foul-Up Fairy from sprinkling dust on your newspaper? Copy editors and designers are the last line of defense from said fairy and from everyday human errors. You can’t have enough sets of eyes on stories and pages in that part of the process.
The “manufacturers” know the local impact of the wire report and non-local-news stories, and tailor them accordingly. That’s what adds local value to local newspapers, outside of local reporting.
Sure, you can consolidate the design of inside pages in Tribune Tower, but at some point, it’s going to bite ‘em in the hind quarters.
If it works, I’ll backtrack on what I’m saying. But I sincerely doubt it’ll be anything more than an idea borrowed from one industry (radio — think of voicetracking) and appropriated in the wrong place.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
THANK YOU for posting this. Lots of us have known this is going on, but can’t really say anything (partly in fear of loosing our jobs). I’m not a designer anymore, I’m a box-filler. This is not the journalism I used to know!
April 30th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Great post Charles. I know you’re aware but for other readers, the UK is full of this kind of thing too:
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080819shakeup.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/local-newspapers
April 30th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Even if they had it to spend, there’s not enough money in the world to get me into a Tribune Co. newsroom — if there’s one left outside of Chicago to get into.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I think it’s time for the newspaper industry to phone hospice. Die with a little grace, for God’s sake.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
This sounds completely terrible.
April 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I was a newspaper junkie - I loved spending Sunday reading various papers. Something about the feel of the paper and the newsprint on the hands, I think. Now it takes me less than 3 hours to read 4 Sunday newspapers. And I read_everything_. Until I realize that I read the same story in the last newspaper I was reading. This is a pattern with all 4 papers, despite the fact they come from different areas.
Newspapers are ruining themselves. There is no indepth reporting, no reference to history in the articles. I would be better off just surfing the net. But I wouldn’t have the feel of the newspaper.
*sigh*
April 30th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Well, obviously whoever made this decision has never received ‘raw’ copy from a reporter or ‘line editor.’ I wonder how many lawsuits will be waged against these new companies since there will be no one with time to actually read the stories in case some harried production person doesn’t notice the spelling is wrong on the criminal’s name and is now the same name as the latest local hero…When you dump crap into a template and shove it out on the internet, what separates us from the uneducated morons who are already doing that? Don’t we stand for anything any more?
April 30th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
You’ve spoken too soon about the Daily Press in Newport News, also. They’ve done it as well, though I don’t know the numbers. We heard rumors a couple of months ago, but the layoffs just happened the other week. I had heard it would be Tribune-wide but that seemed insane. How naive, I guess. I’ve been surprised I haven’t heard more about it. My understanding (so don’t take it as gospel) is that reporters are assigned a spot for their story, when they pull it up, it comes with a layout, they type the story into the space to fit, write their own headline and then a city editor serves as a slot and that’s the only edit it gets, with the exception of a proof later on. At least for inside stories.
For the sake of copy editors, designers and readers, let us hope this experiment goes down in a giant ball of flame.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Visual journalism? Nope, visual manufacturing.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Many of the cuts described here are happening at papers in the UK - and elsewhere - and are deplorable. Removing editors from the process will inevitably lead to a sharp decline in quality, and a lack of questioning that will surely land newspapers in more legal trouble than it’s worth.
However, there is also an assumption in this post that shared national and world pages, and shared designs, are a bad thing. Why do these six little markets - average circulation 160,000 or so - need distinctive designs, and distinctive coverage of national or world politics? What does the reader lose by having those sections produced centrally?
April 30th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Look for medianews to do this soon, too.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
The Courant, too, had its massive purge a few weeks ago. Almost the entire copy desk is gone, most of the photo editors are gone, but also reporters and others were shown the door. I was told Hartford was the first Tribune paper to have this purge — the one that is occurring in Orlando and Baltimore right now. The Courant also has been using “modules”. They are detested. Editors think the story choices are poor. For a paper known for its photo journalism, photo choices are especially humiliating, most choices obviously for decoration. The reversed out headlines plopped into the middle of them are such a nice touch. The rumor is that another purge will happen later in the year. I didn’t used to pay attention to rumors, but I do now. In the Tribune Company, the more wacky and outlandish the rumor, the more likely it is to happen.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
manufacturing? Probably so they can claim it as a tax credit
April 30th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Charles and readers of this post,
First, as always, we all appreciate the news that you bring to us, every, single day.
Second, I want to set the facts straight on some of the reporting from the Orlando property.
There were no formal memos, only transparent communication … and it was handled face-to-face. The “memo” that is referred to here is an e-mail exchange between co-workers. Believe me, I save every e-mail communication, so I can tell you that we always heard this type of news straight from Bo.
The truth of the matter is that every Friday, for months, Bo brought our entire production team (copy editors, designers, photographers) together to talk about what was happening so that everyone was aware of the looming changes. She wanted no surprises.
I take offense as a current staff member at the suggestion that we were not all informed, nor treated with the utmost respect. This process is easy on no one, be it those that leave or those that stay behind. Yes, one is employed and one is unemployed. But everyone hurts…including the person that has to make those decisions and deliver that news. As an industry, we don’t respect the hell that puts those people through.
But, Bo kept us informed and was compassionate through the entire process…despite the tough process she had to administer: layoff friends and colleagues.
What we are going through as a staff is not easy, and it is taxing. To read
misinformation on a blog that is read by impressionable college students and other respected journalists is furthermore discouraging. Obviously, people are speaking with emotion, as I am here. But, let’s make sure it is grounded in fact, not “sources” that are in “the know.” As we continue to preach about how we want to save journalism and our ethics, let’s make sure we start with ourselves. We need to get it right or not print it.
Thank you.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Brian is correct about Newport News — reporters are given a box to fill and that’s it. No more, no less. So reporters are now as demoralized as the copy editors. Last week the Daily Press combined the copy desks and cut loose another round of folks, some of whom had been at the paper more than a decade. Now 0nly those doing section fronts do any “design.” The rest of the desk is just filling the modules on the inside pages.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Oh, Nick. Please tell me you didn’t go there.
Let’s see if I keep this civil…
1. I’m very, very offended — and I suspect many current and displaced Tribune company staffers will share my feelings — that while Tribune managers won’t answer ANY questions or talk on the record about the modules or plans for the modules by the Tribune company, you CAN take the time to criticize the information my sources gave me.
You want to see better information in this report, Nick? Talk to me. On the record.
—
2. You write:
> There were no formal memos, only transparent
> communication … and it was handled face-to-face.
> The “memo” that is referred to here is an e-mail
> exchange between co-workers.
Call it what you want. It was a memo. In fact — funny thing — I received this same memo via two different sources. The second time, I got all excited, because I thought I had corroborating information. No luck, though.
I quoted maybe five percent of the memo. I’d like to have quoted more, but I was bending over backwards to not quote enough to reveal the identities of the writer or the recipients. You have to understand — folks were TERRIFIED that I would identify them in some way. TERRIFIED.
You’re a T6 manager, Nick. What the hell are you doing to these people to scare them so much?
I called it an “internal” memo because it was written by a Sentinel staffer and aimed at Sentinel staffers. What I didn’t say, admittedly, that it was an informal memo. That adjective didn’t seem important to me when I put my story together. If you want to quibble about that one word, then quibble away.
But a memo is a memo. And just because a memo was written doesn’t imply that Bonita Burton didn’t keep her staff informed or was less than respectful. That’s quite a leap in logic you’re making there, my friend.
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3. You write:
> I take offense as a current staff member at the suggestion
> that we were not all informed, nor treated with the utmost respect.
At what point, precisely, did I make that suggestion? I wrote nothing of the sort.
I’m a huge Bonita Burton fan. If anyone makes that kind of suggestion, I’d be one of the first to leap to her defense.
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4. You close:
> But, let’s make sure it is grounded in fact, not “sources”
> that are in “the know.”
Oh, my “sources” are most DEFINITELY “in the know.”
But because you and your fellow Tribune company supervisors won’t speak about this project on the record, that basically means I wouldn’t be able to write about it all. Right?
—
You’ve really disappointed me here, Nick. Greatly.
-C
April 30th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Wow, Nick. I can actually hear the sound of your sucking up!
Do you consider it “respectful” to tell people there will be layoffs that will happen quickly and then make them wait three months? Do you consider it “respectful” that people were laid off who had way more online skills than most of the reporters that were kept? That these same people were trained to post online giving them the false hope this may save their jobs?
Do you consider it “respectful” to the Sentinel’s readers that the company kept all these changes under wraps even though the paper reports everyone else’s bad deeds and misfortunes? That’s why there were no “formal memos.” They didn’t want a paper trail that would show up on Romensko.
And by the way, aren’t you a “production editor” now just like everyone else?
May 1st, 2009 at 12:20 am
Charles, I’m only trying to clear the air and help you keep your blog credible. I’m not trying to attack anyone here. Since none of your “sources†are at a supervisory level, how highly placed can they be? For the record, let’s please correct a few mistakes:
Wrong: I am a manager.
I wish. See my signature above, I am a senior designer.
Wrong: There were “watch out!†memos issued.
All communication from management was face-to-face, sensitive, open, informative. An email between two low-level staffers is not the same thing as a “leaked memo.â€
Wrong: There will be shared modules in every section of the paper.
Nope, not even close.
Wrong: Orlando began phasing in modules in February.
We’ve shared content with Chicago and other Tribune papers for years. Orlando has run pages from Lauderdale and Chicago for years. Orlando has been out front of broadening the effort for months – read about it in last December’s Presstime magazine.
Wrong: Templated papers that don’t shrink or grow:
Way off.
Wrong: 75% of T6 papers are produced by Chicago:
By whose math? That’s just beyond hyperbole.
Wrong: Newsgate will auotmate all our jobs:
Yeah, and don’t forget the flying car.
Wrong: Tribune’s newsroom of the future has no visual workers:
Orlando’s structure IS the newsroom of the future. At last count we have more than 30 visual journalists working under five design & photo editors plus Bo, who reports directly to the editor.
Wrong: The design and editing of these packages is sloppy and is being done by inexperienced designers in Chicago with minimal oversight.
Wow, didn’t know Jonathan Berlin, Steve Cavendish and Joe Knowles and crew qualified as “minimal oversight.â€
Wrong: We had four working Saturday night. That’s all we had to put out the Sunday paper. Four.
Not sure which Saturday you’re talking about. Our Saturday staffing is eight designers/content editors in the newsroom, plus three reporters and two photographers in the field.
Wrong: The company is saying, “well, copy editors didn’t catch that (Oxycontin). That happened because of copy editors.â€
Oh, c’mon. The copy editors who said goodbye last week deserve MUCH better than this kind of anonymous crap besmirching their value to this company. There’s not a single “company†person who would ever say otherwise – you really think they’d keep them on for six years if they felt that way?
Bottom line: You can mischaracterize things all you want to get sexy headlines. It doesn’t make them true.
Thanks for all that you do for the visual journalism community, I read your blog every day. It’s unfortunate you took the previous post personally, but I do feel it is necessary to come forward with the complete facts … on the record and holding myself accountable for them.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:46 am
Can we plan some kind of large funereal bon fire where we all bring big, fat, new heavy A-sections (if we can find any in a morgue somewhere) and beautifully sculpted feature fronts and send them to Valhalla? We can sail little burning newsprint boats on a lake and all wear paper hats, and cut one last cake with a pica pole.
Who’s in?
I mean, I can go. It’s not like I gotta work. :)
May 1st, 2009 at 2:58 am
nick,
by accusing Charles and his sources of spreading falsities while also suggesting these folks, inside and out, deserve respect, smacks of hippcracy and suggests the sources, anonymous yet still journalists, have suddenly thrown the tenant of truth out the window. and for what? a sexy headline? methinks not. I’m proud to say I agree with Charles and his sources’ assesments of new tribune protocal that has been developed and implemented during the past four months. I believe during that time we were respected and informed, and Charles did not imply otherwise, but there was a reason for lack of memos–tribune-wide–and I, for one, am glad the details of this preposterous excercise have finally come to light.
Nicole, former Orlando sentinel employee
May 1st, 2009 at 3:20 am
Charles,
Thank you for exposing a troubling trend that Nick fails to acknowledge. While he may not be a manager, he certainly acts that way around the Sentinel newsroom. He’s totally swallowed the Kool-Aid and will never criticize the basic underlying principles behind these decisions. For whatever reason, he considers criticism a personal attack on Bonita, who he feels the need to defend.
Whether it’s misplaced hubris or not, I applaud him for being the only person in all of Tribune willing to go on the record about anything, but you don’t have to be a high-level staffer to know what is happening. You just have to show up for work.
I’d like to see SND Update or Design Journal address what’s happened to the Tribune papers, but considering the SND people who could make that happen are Tribune managers, I’m not going to hold my breath.
To rebut Nick’s rebuttal, there are shared modules in every section of the paper except Local. Well, actually, Business, which has been folded into the back of Local, has shared modules. What is in Local are templates that reporters have a fixed space to write to. No story will run longer than 15-20 inches. Reporters are getting longer versions of their stories on the Web.
As for the shared content, it goes beyond running the same Sunday books page that the Sentinel has been doing for years. It includes high-profile content like the nation and world report on A2 and A3. Those pages are being designed and edited in Chicago, which basically threw out the redesigns that debuted at the Sentinel and other T6 papers less than a year ago.
And Nick knows that the content and design of those modules have been problematic despite Berlin, Cavendish and Knowles. Those guys have had bigger problems to attend to, and it’s obvious in conversations that the Sentinel copy desk has had with the people who design and edit the pages in Chicago, that they aren’t on the same level of expertise as other staffers in the Tower.
To tell the truth about the module experiment, the Sentinel started the experiment back in the fall designing wire pages for a couple of the T6 papers and used a PDF workflow to make it work. Now, it’s all automatically flowed onto pages through some CCi hocus pocus. The downside is that the copy desk cannot make corrections directly on these pages because it has the potential of bringing down the entire CCi network. The slightest change requires back-and-forth phone calls and e-mails to Chicago eating up precious time the desk no longer has. And we’ve been told that the when Newsgate hits, that shared pages will roll automatically without anyone glancing at them (especially Features pages).
Back to the innovative designs of the Sentinel and other T6 papers. It’s a shame all the redesigns were trotted out to a lot of fanfare only to be scrapped like yesterday’s old newspaper. One problem with the designs coming out of the Tower is that they’re very pedestrian. There’s not much in the way of alternative story forms, and Bo instructed the staff to get ASF’s on whatever wire pages we still have control over. But there isn’t a lot of room left in the paper to begin with.
The level of staffing that only allows for cursory copy editing cannot be defended. Nick wasn’t here during the Oxycontin fiasco and is clueless about what’s been said as recently as January by a very senior-level editor (who wasn’t here, either) about how the desk failed to raise the red flag. The Rising Star who pushed the story through was re-assigned to the library and was laid off three years ago, but that doesn’t stop some high-level people from using the copy desk as a scapegoat. If it’s something that really wasn’t said, then that’s the perception. Perception can be reality in a newsroom where people have witnessed so many unreal things in the past five years and are scared to death of rocking the boat.
As for the flexibility for shrinking and growing the templated paper, Nick is not being totally upfront about that. The paper has a finite ad stack that the ad folks sell against. No more 2×2 ads stacked in a pyramid or last-minute ads requiring a section to go up a couple of pages. Space allotted each day of the week is different but does not vary from week to week. The A section has some wiggle room, but the Sentinel has never achieved the 50/50 ad-to-editorial ratio that was mandated out of the Tower last year.
I find the math laughable about the number of visual editors at the paper. No offense to the staff, but Nick achieved the number of 30 by lumping what some would consider three departments or at the minimum three disciplines (copy editing, photography and design) into one. Using that logic, there used to be more than 60 visual journalists on staff 2-3 years ago. Really, while former copy editors are picking up some design duties, there’s only a core of 11 people left who exclusively did design before the layoffs. Not that long ago, there used to be nearly that many doing graphics.
Nick fails to see that the Holy Grail for the company is to have no one on staff who can claim to be a member of ACES and SND. Even if that is hyperbolic or that there are some financials that made these “difficult” cuts a must-do, I’d like to see Nick claim how the paper is better off without half the production staff it used to have. That’s what’s so sad and insulting about the current situation because most of the watchful eyes and creativity has been sucked out of the newsroom. No amount of fresh paint on the walls will cover up that fact.
May 1st, 2009 at 4:29 am
one more thing…this is getting a little Orlando-centric. let’s remember Charles has sources from several T6 papers and that this is about a corporation that values profits and slash-and-burn cost-cutting measures over real innovation and reinvention. it’s about the hastening of the demise of what once was a true, quality journalism empire. let’s not miss the forest for the trees. carry on.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:50 am
How is this cookie-cutter design approach about true innovation? Whatever the details are about what’s happening in Orlando or elsewhere, the end result is wrong. A newspaper’s greatest resource is its people, and if Tribune had made these adjustments to the print side in order to shift copy editors and designers to do more content creation for the Web and print, then I’d say it’s a good thing. Instead, years of expertise and knowledge have been squandered while Tribune doles out $13 million in bonuses to managers. Nick, if you see any real innovation in journalism going on that isn’t about degrading the quality of either the print or Web side of the newspaper, please let everyone know and stop defending the indefensible.
May 1st, 2009 at 9:54 am
Putting aside the horrible decision Nick made in speaking out on this despite apparently not being a manager — perhaps he should realize that if he in fact isn’t a manager then he shouldn’t be publicly defending a process that is costing hundreds of employees across the country their jobs.
P.S. Tribune is so fucked that sucking up to your boss on here won’t get you a bonus.
P.P.S. Perhaps you should use some more tact next time.
P.P.P.S. My only consolation is that you work at the Orlando Sentinel and if what’s happening at my friends at Baltimore is any consolation to me it’s that you will soon be out of a job.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:45 am
Daaaamnn, it’s getting hot in here …
Eye-poking over the particulars aside, shall we all agree that this is horrific, insidious and all around Not A Good Thing?
What truly disturbs me about this (and Tribune is merely the current poster child) is when economics turns this into a game of Survivor, Visual Journalism is clearly losing. At the highest levels of this industry, it’s beginning to seem the belief in VJ was never really there — or perhaps it was a luxury that was nice when we could afford it during The Happy Times. Now that we get down to brass tacks (and brass knuckles) of whacking staffs, we’re all seeing where priorities disproportionately lie.
I’m not saying there’s a good way to lay off 30% of your newsroom if that’s what you’re forced to do. But if an Atlanta paper thinks they really don’t need even one graphic artist, they need to roll up their redesign and smoke it.
Back on consolidation and modules and so on: I think SOME of this consolidation of some production makes sense, in this economy or any other. But like anything where Cutting Costs is involved, it is being and will continue to be taken way too far.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Here’s the deal as I see it: Pile together enough good stories, eventually you get a good paper. String together enough good papers, you become a great paper, which starts to heal the bottom line. Quality begets quality, which, in turn, begets increased profits. I’m not a beancounter, but it seems that simple to me. Create a product that sells by investing in good, quality journalists who make differences in their communities, and the advertisers will come. Just as you can’t spend your way to prosperity (although you can invest in your future), you can’t cut your way to it, either.
It’s not just visual journalism that loses; ALL journalism loses.
That’s going to be the most painful lesson of all this. For all the slash and burn in the industry, none of it is going to make a damn in the end because our leaders can’t see past the bottom line.
Irony: My Captcha words I have to type in to post this are “lovers” and “promise.”
May 1st, 2009 at 12:54 pm
As the Sentinel’s then-AME/Metro who was centrally involved in the flawed series mentioned in this thread, I’m compelled to set at least part of the record straight here. Accountability for the various levels of mistakes and misjudgments related to that episode was assigned and accepted on the newsgathering and content side, up to the highest levels of the newsroom, myself included, and beyond. But I can recall no time during the lengthy and painful process of post-mortems that anyone in the newsroom ever suggested that this was a copy desk issue. No one ever hinted that any copy desk in the world could have been expected to flag the complex technical problems deeply embedded in stories that I and other senior editors had approved. Some of those problems were unraveled and understood only after weeks and months of directed research and reporting in the aftermath by both reporters and lawyers. For someone to come along now – five years after the fact — and use that gut-wrenching episode casually to flog the fine professional journalists on the Orlando Sentinel’s copy desk would be preposterous and simplistic. Even worse, to use such a fabrication as a convenient counter-argument to justify eliminating jobs on the copy desk would simply be disingenuous. I hope no one in any position of authority at my old newspaper is actually doing that.
May 1st, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I would hope not either, Sean. But that report came directly out of Orlando.
Interesting how some folks there say that was talked about and how others say it wasn’t.
I found it shocking that the copy desk would be blamed. Which is why I reported it.
For those coming in late: The Oxycontin series ran in 2003.
-C
PS: Oh, and while I’m at it — I was in error. Nick is not a manager at the Tribune. I was probably flashing back to his previous position as managing editor for visuals in Lewiston, Maine.
I stand corrected. On that one point.
May 1st, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Now that page design is outsourced to Chicago, what will guys like “Nick Masuda, Senior Designer” do, exactly?
Serious question.
Nick
May 1st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
It’s one thing to consolidate classified advertising operations. A call center can serve several newspapers, as it’s doing for The New York Times Co.’s regional newspaper group. Local jobs are affected, but for the most part, quality isn’t.
But it’s quite another thing to consolidate newsgathering or news editing operations.
LOCAL NEWS SELLS LOCAL PAPERS. Local insights also sell local papers. It’s the judgment of locals who edit the wire report that makes wire stories relevant to local readers. Centralizing the “manufacture” — the story selection, editing and presentation — for several far-flung papers smacks me as only a short-term benefit. This consolidation will hurt the local newspapers it’s intended to help.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Nick Dupree: Most likely Nick — and any remaining designers — will design whatever remains to be done outside the modules. That would include local pages and section fronts, especially.
I might point out that certain folks are disputing the “75 percent” number my sources mentioned as will one day be produced in Chicago. None of those folks, however, have given us new percentage estimates. I’d welcome any data. Or guesses, even.
There will still be design and editing work to be done locally. Just certainly nowhere near the amount that was done in-house even a few months ago.
-C
May 1st, 2009 at 2:31 pm
(Bit like a fistfight breaking out at a funeral. All us “grandkids” need to remember that not one of us is remembered in “grandpa’s” will.)
Those of us who want to continue to perpetrate journalism are going to have to do it ourselves. The dead-tree industry’s not going to indulge us. Join us at http://smartnewsnc.com and help us figure out … what are we up to, now, Plan D?
May 1st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
MediaNews is already doing it.
I remember the days when, during rounds of layoffs, people would tell me, “You’re fine. you design, you copy edit, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” So much for that.
May 1st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Huh? Copy editors in Orlando were trained to handle the Web site and then laid off? What a waste. Maybe they picked up a marketable skill they could take to the many other papers hiring……
May 1st, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Nick M –
The next time Lee Abrams offers you a brownie, take a pass.
May 1st, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I get that there’s a lot of anger and fear in this community right now. And passion for the craft of visual journalism, and anxiety about the role designers and copy editors can play in the future. Believe me, I get it.
Having said that, there’s nothing nefarious about a company’s leadership declining to comment on proprietary projects or internal personnel matters - especially to bloggers who facilitate forums for anonymous vitriol.
If you can all set aside the cheap shots, hyperbole and indignation for a minute, I’ll tell you what Tribune is really up to:
Tribune is trying to stay in business.
So, if any of you have the economic solution that would help in the fight to save journalists’ jobs - and not put everyone out of work - now is the time to let me know.
You can reach me - anonymously or not - any time at the Sentinel. Like my counterparts at other Tribune papers, I’m here pretty much around the clock trying to figure this out. If I’m not in my office, you can find me at Nick Masuda’s desk, working on A1 with one of the best hires Tribune ever made.
Seriously, aren’t there enough people already dancing on newspapers’ graves? Is this what VizEds has become?
May 1st, 2009 at 9:15 pm
…or you can find Bo painting the walls while what remains of her staff struggles to keep their heads above water while Nick practices his putt. Best hires? That made me laugh out loud. Best at sucking up, yes.
Seriously, Bo. I think the point here is that sacrificing copy editors and designers isn’t the economic solution. I don’t think blame you. I doubt it was your idea to lose half your staff.
Want the economic solution: Let not keep managers around who don’t know a URL from a hole in the ground. I won’t name names, but we all know who they are. They’re running scared — afraid of those of us who actually know how to USE the Internet. Someone needs to step in (or have the balls to step aside) and get some real innovators into positions to exact change.
(In fact, were any managers laid off at the Sentinel? No, the exact same people who helped RUN IT INTO THE GROUND are still calling the shots.)
May 1st, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Until you’ve been escorted out of the building by a security guard, you will never know how much vitriol and indignation one can have toward a company. Especially when you’ve stayed ahead of the curve on the Internet, social media and technology and none of that is taken into account when your name is put on the list.
I don’t see any dancing here.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:02 pm
There are a lot of ways to stay in business.
One way is to take a once-proud chain of papers, hire people who treat journalism like a car manufacturer, and then embrace that concept to your benefit. Then fire a lot of great journalists along the way.
I think all people are saying here is, “there’s got to be a better way”.
You can debate the details here and hide behind the “we’re trying to stay in business” argument, but it’s apparent the basic idea is to eliminate most of the journalists who design at the company, in favor of magic templates and low-wage paginators. The bad economy is a cloak behind which great damage to visual journalism is being done.
The reason the Trib ideas stand out and get such a visceral reaction is because they seem so extreme compared with anything else going on. Especially for a company that has had such a rich tradition of visual journalism and that, less than a year ago, hyped that vision as the solution to all of its problems.
And it’s not that other papers aren’t cutting production in the name of retaining “content producers”, but I think most of those papers seem to have have actual remorse about it. That seems to largely be lacking from the Trib cuts. Or even worse, any criticism is met with condescension.
At one point does participating in these decisions become self-preservation for the managers, who are eliminating the people they need to produce the paper?
May 1st, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Oh, Bo, really? Nick — do you have any self respect at all?
Bonita let crocodile tears drop during those weekly meetings, fooling nobody with a triple-digit IQ. And given that she was tone-deaf enough to have a meeting announcing the end of layoffs within the view and hearing of terminated employees who were still cleaning out their desks, she should probably be shunned forevermore.
Speaking of tone-deafness, it seems to be a pattern with her. The newsroom whispering about the painted walls reminds me of the balloon drop from last year. On the other hand, maybe it’s not tone-deafness; she may just be determined to alienate nearly everyone in the newsroom.
Look, this sucks. It really sucks. For all of us. Don’t make it worse by pretending innocence.
It’s also particularly ridiculous that Bonita is in line to be president of SND, given that she’s had a direct hand in the destruction of anything resembling design and a coherent visual philosophy at her own paper.
If anybody on SND’s board had any stones at all, they’d demand her resignation.
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:11 am
Well, this has been quite a ride. Really, what the hell is going on?
What I do know is I don’t want to get bogged down in hyperbole. I’ve read that more than once. And where it really stood out for me is when Nick was called one of the best hires the Tribune has ever made.
Wow.
I don’t know Nick. Could be a great guy. However, I do know guys like Steve Cavendish, Michael Whitley, Derek Simmons, Bill Gaspard, Jonathon Berlin, Josh Crutchmer, and on and on and on and on and on that are some pretty studly current or former Tribune employees. But, again, I’m trying to avoid hyperbole. So, I want to be cautious when I say that Nick may not be in the top 1,000 in the company’s all time hires. It is, after all, a pretty big company with quite a rich history. (Psst, Bo, if you like him just say “Hey, I like Nick.” Don’t get carried away because he’s got your back.)
The point here, I think (and keep in mind I now get paid to watch people punch people in the face … so what do I know) is that this is a VISUAL site keeping watch on all things VISUAL and when a company starts to threaten the very existence of what those VISUAL people stand for, well I guess it’s cool for those people to question back. There’s no harm in that. It’s call self preservation. Right? And Charles acts as this group’s watchdog. He’s sniffed something out that smells kind of sour and one of the owners of your watchdog just rolled up the paper and swatted him on the nose. That’s not cool at all.
In the end, it’s going to boil down to who is leading this philosophical change — visually — in newsrooms around the country. Will it be one chain? Will it be one person? And, where does SND fit in all of this? Moving forward, SND’s leadership — including future presidents — need to know they should be speaking for its membership and not against it.
Are we there yet?
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
Thanks again, Charles, for posting ‘em as you see ‘em. This whole newspaper nosedive disturbs me to the core. The inmates are now in full command of the asylum.
I thought newsroom morale was abysmal 8 months ago when I left the Tower after a decade as an editor and designer. Yet I’ve found with each successive bloodletting that the remaining crew is crushed harder and flatter. God bless them all. I know they’ve done their best to adapt and keep up standards. Things can only get worse for them while fear and misguided strategies lead the way.
I saw this day coming when CCI loaded via Citrix, so that our paper could be produced from literally anywhere. I had already seen skeleton crews putting out the Houston Chronicle and Red Eye, so I knew what it looked like. But this BS of prefab content for other metro dailies is so extreme and foolhardy. No one benefits, least of all the local reader.
Hope the T6s enjoyed finding their “local voice” during the “reinventions.” You have been assimilated. The “World’s Greatest Newspaper” will now have its largest circulation ever thanks to this Faustian arrangement.
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
This may not be an appropriate discussion for a student to weigh input on, but, I feel pretty confident in saying that nothing productive will come out of fighting amongst one another. I’m not suggesting holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” but what will perpetuating this heated argument accomplish? Surely it won’t save jobs and it won’t produce newspapers.
…Just an outsider’s perspective for what it’s worth…(and I know that isn’t much)
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 am
I’ve been flamed for saying this elsewhere, and I’ll get flamed for saying it again, but here you go.
Enough with the negativity.
And shame on those of you turning on your own.
This is the hand we’re dealt. Can we make the most of it? Can we uphold as many of our prized standards as possible in our new world order? Can we still serve our readers within these business parameters?
Not in virtual rooms like this one, we can’t.
Think forward. Channel your anger, vitriol and disgust into finding a better way. Think about *solutions* instead of dwelling on our downward spiral of problems.
It’s times like this that I realize why we’re in such a bind in the first place. Because we don’t think about innovation nearly as much as we tell ourselves we do. If we did, we’d have figured out a lot of the answers before reaching this hopefully-rock-bottom point, watching so many good friends and true pros be ushered out the door.
And one more thing…
What disgusts me is that so many journalists (whether copy editors, designers or hybrid production editors) — who should prize themselves on dealing in objectivity and fact — venture onto chat boards like this one and insult their colleagues with an attitude of “might as well just shut us down yesterday.” How professional.
We all know newspapers’ collective business situation stinks, both in Tribune Co. and in plenty of others too. Thanks for the pointless rehash.
With that… to those I see here who have the right mindset and also to those who need help finding it…
I say best of luck to all. We f***ing need it.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 am
The operative word here is ‘differentiation’. Businesses and services survive and thrive because they offer something substantially different from other things on the market that people want to pay money for. Moving to this pre-fabricated content strategy puts newspapers up right against blogs and online news sources, where they are guaranteed to fail [if not immediately, within the next twenty years] because of the growing proliferation of portable internet devices [of any kind: netbooks/laptops/smartphones]. The one thing that differentiated a newspaper from a blog or was the fact that their stories were weighty, well-researched, and unique to the newspaper.
I hope it’s not the case, and a few newspapers will probably survive [that don't have these types of cuts], but this move, from the outside looking in, looks like willful suicide.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 am
Bo, “Dancing on people’s graves?” How original. Didn’t your boss, Charlotte Hall, use that poor choice of words in her goodbye memo as president of ASNE this week? Don’t you two know that Sam Zell calls himself the Grave Dancer for what he does to companies he buys up. Geez, between you and Ms. Hall, how does the Sentinel newsroom function.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:34 am
The sad thing is I don’t think people were angry at Bo and the other T6 managers for not commenting publicly on the process. They were angry at Tribune management for forcing this on them.
And then she goes and makes that statement and comes out looking worse.
She must have taught Nick Masuda everything she knows — including how not to make public comments after being involved in laying off a ton of talented people. And then to act stunned when people are angry after being fired is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever seen.
But seriously, enjoy being SND president and sitting with your heads in the clouds while your entire fucking organization is rendered completely irrelevant by both the Internet and your bosses at Tribune who are destroying six quality newspapers, including your own.
But, hey, good job on that redesign that will rendered completely moot by this time next year. Do you think Tribune will still let you put stupid celebrity gossip cutouts on A1 with your refers?
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:38 am
The sad thing is I don’t think people were angry at Bo and the other T6 managers for not commenting publicly on the process. They were angry at Tribune management for forcing this on them.
And then she goes and makes that statement and comes out looking worse.
She must have taught Nick Masuda everything she knows — including how not to make public comments after being involved in laying off a ton of talented people. And then to act stunned when people are angry after being fired is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever seen.
But seriously, enjoy being SND president and sitting with your heads in the clouds while your entire fucking organization is rendered completely irrelevant by both the Internet and your bosses at Tribune who are destroying six quality newspapers, including your own.
But, hey, good job on that redesign that will rendered completely moot by this time next year. Do you think Tribune will still let you put stupid celebrity gossip cutouts on A1 with your refers?
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:46 am
The climate difference between now and a year ago, when we were all redesigning, is that our company has since gone bankrupt. That’s not where any of us wanted to be.
Greg and Rob are absolutely right that designers (and I would add copy editors and photo editors) need fiercer advocacy than ever. Does that mean fighting for the right to build the same sports agate page, Wall Street summary or national news report in multiple markets every day? To me it means energizing my remaining staff against the core local report and positioning people to innovate online.
If you want a reliable understanding of what Tribune newspapers are doing visually, just pick one up. We all have e-editions you can see from anywhere.
I want artists, designers, copy editors and photojournalists to have meaningful jobs. I want the craft of visual journalism to have a meaningful future. I want my newsroom to be a creative atmosphere where both can happen.
And hey, I do like Nick. I am personally invested in every member of my staff. I wish there wasn’t a need to pile on the people who are left. My tears through this process were real, and I do feel an agonizing remorse for every job that was lost.
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:45 am
this was never about Bo. this was never about Nick. Can we leave them alone and focus on the real issue in this post? it’s not even about VISuAL journalism. or lack of innovation. people in newsrooms have been fighting for years to make changes that will keep readers. we tried to do it when I worked at the sun-sentinel and we tried to do it in Orlando too. I can give you reasons why I think those things never went anywhere, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been said before. what this post is about is a shocking decimation of journalism caused by people way higher up the ladder than Bo and even charlotte hall. people ruling with fear because they can, motivated by money instead of preservation of the fourth estate. am I angry I lost my job. yes I am. am I mad that nick kept his? I am not. am I angry at bo? nope. if I see Sam zell when I get back to Chicago will I punch him in the face? probably not, but I know my anger lies in the right place, and I know I’m angry because someone values my measly salary over a noble profession I believe in. we’re not angry cause we’re bitter grave dancers; we’re angry cause we care.
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:48 am
Why do I get the feeling the debate on this is just starting? Bill Z.’s pollyanna attitude of maybe if we think positively that somehow innovation will come is naive. Innovation came to newspapers by the way of the Internet. They ignored it and let all these other companies cherry pick the business model newspapers relied on. Game over. It’s not coming back, and no amount of design gymnastics is going to bring it back. It’s always been about the content, and design decisions are hurting the content. And too much credit is being given to Bonita for her role in this.
I think Greg brings up a good point about the future and SND’s role in it. Who are the people coming up with solutions? Are the solutions even print-based? Who are the SND leaders who are involved with the Web? I’d like to know Bonita’s take on Web design? What has she done personally with her staff to prepare them for the Web. Sure, it’s stupid to devote resources to building agate pages, but did the changes free people up to do innovative things elsewhere for the Website or print? Matt Mansfield has started the Revenue2.0 project to address some of the unique issues that newspapers face. Are we biting off more than we can chew by ourselves? Where are our marketing and ad guys on the other side of the wall?
Since what is happening to Tribune designers is happening simultaneously to copy editors, what are our colleagues at the ACES conference this weekend doing to address the issue? Should SND and ACES take a joint stance on Tribune’s new philosophy? Do either of these organizations have effective leadership? I don’t know about ACES, but I’m worried about the incoming leadership of SND. Bo, you tweeted today about being told when you got your position to “be prepared to lose all your friends.” Boo-hoo. A lot of people are losing their careers and financial stability because of decisions Tribune was working on long before Zell and the technology to make it happen even came on the scene.
It’s well-known that student members played a large role in the last SND election (a high-school popularity contest). It’s great to see students involved, but the result seems to have ushered in an era of irrelevancy. The days of tabloid vs. broadsheet, universal desk vs. split desks, serif vs. san serif are over. Allow me room for hyperbole to suggest that it’s now a matter of life or death.
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:10 am
>>Think forward. Channel your anger, vitriol and disgust into finding a better way. Think about *solutions* instead of dwelling on our downward spiral of problems.<<
In response to Mr. Zimmerman: Plenty of people at the Sentinel and other T6 papers (I’m sure) have TONS of ideas and have presented to those ideas to their managers to years only to be TOTALLY ignored. Why? Because the managers are scared because they know so little about technology. They’re too proud (and fearful of being found out for complete frauds) to actually listen to the people who understand the changes that are going on in the media world.
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
>>difference between now and a year ago, when we were all redesigning, is that >>our company has since gone bankrupt.
Bonita is being totally disingenuous with that comment. The bankruptcy only hastened a project that had been the works back when the Sentinel enjoyed 30% profit margins instead of the current 10-15%. Ask anyone in the tech department how long they’ve been working on this Newsgate setup. This was the brainchild of an executive who I think came from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago years ago. His whole career hinged on the idea of a central desk for all the papers. Anyone know this guy’s name? Like all good journalists, let’s just follow the money.
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
The Morning Call in Allentown, PA has just laid off 38 Tribune Company journalists today.
Pls. Remember that Tribune managers asked the bankruptcy court last week for $13.1 million in bonuses to reward themselves for schemes like this.
They are paid to make the lists and they are paid to keep quiet about it.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
One word that keeps coming up is innovation. But how can Tribune (or any other paper, for that matter) be innovative when the same people keep making the decisions? Especially those who are afraid of technology?
But look at history — there has been no innovation that has saved newspapers. Good writing hasn’t done it, design hasn’t done it, nor have poster fronts or blowing out the latest Hollywood blockbuster because some focus group said they wanted to see more entertainment news. Redesigns don’t do it, although there are plenty of folks who say they will.
Here is the cold, hard truth: Publishers consider design a luxury these days. In some ways, they’re right. I know if I was the person in charge of the newsprint budget I would want to see the newsroom wring every inch out of every page. It’s just a matter of economics.
Is it appalling? Yes. Is it going to get better? I wouldn’t count on it. All we can do is keep doing the best job we can inside the box we’re handed until it’s our turn to be escorted from the building.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Roofball,
I don’t know who had the idea for the central desk, but I remember the idea. It has been floating around Tribune since there were only four papers in the chain. (I worked for Tribune for 13 years, escaping just before the sale to Zell.) I remember it gained enough traction that those of us on the desk in Newport News were worried that they were going to be forced to move us to Florida.
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I have a few thoughts on this discussion and the fate of designers at newspappers, but they got too lengthy, so I turned them into a blog post instead. See them here:
http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/05/02/more-thoughts-on-latest-layoffs-at-tribune-co/
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Let me throw a little more kerosene onto the blaze. This from The Yelv, who’s been following our, eh, conversation: http://www.yelvington.com/obsolete-jobs-wire-editor-features-editor
“As a medium, print is on an irreversible decline relative to digital. We are headed for an inflection point at which print newspapers as we knew them in the past will be unsustainable.
“Like it or not, print must change.
“For print newspapers to continue to exist at all, their production must become radically more efficient, and for journalism to thrive, energies and efforts must be redirected at digital media and new products.”
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
This Tribune-manufacturing thread has initiated quite a dustup.
Warning: corporate chiefs are pretty good at the divide and conquer
approach to staffing loyalty issues that are most prevalent during operational
shifts. What is evident with the Tribune dailies, is that newspapers
produced by living breathing news people can not be machinated and
centralized with out becoming increasingly irrelevant and shoddy.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
When we were looking back at the 2008 year in news design for SND Update, I wrote a piece on on how skills sets must change that started with this sentence: If you’re not seeing how to move beyond print, you’re already behind.
That was true then and it’s increasingly more important with each passing day. Many of the comments here acknowledge that’s a component of what must happen for news designers, that learning new digital skills and engaging with the audience on its terms is not only a survival instinct; rather, it’s a crucial opportunity for shaping what it means to be a visual journalist at this moment in the evolution of media.
That’s an essential element in this discussion, once we can get past the questions about economies of scale and the use of templated pages by Tribune and, let’s hasten to add, many other major print players who are certainly working on similar strategies. The larger questions are the ones we all see surfaced in changes like these, rolled out in increments as news organizations grope for answers that will sustain journalism while waging a war for attention against a struggling economy. Not an easy place to be.
Here’s what to remember as we work through this revolution: Standing still — or incremental, small change — is not an option. We must look at the craft of news design (indeed, all of journalism) with fresh eyes. To be pioneering, you have to travel some rough terrain.
So this is all likely to be a painful process, especially as we see wonderfully talented journalists (and their work) being challenged. We have all felt it and it’s a harsh reality. There’s no doubt that the downsizing of the industry has left many people pondering whether it’s all worth it.
It’s why we have to help each other work through the rapid pace of change moving through newsrooms of all shapes and sizes. It’s why an organization like the Society for News Design exists at all. And it’s why SND started changing how it approached the craft at the start of this decade.
The Society’s volunteer leadership has been working hard over the last nine years to develop new training and development programs to assist all of us as we stake out new roles and respect for design thinking in the journalism of the future.
SND’s efforts have been helped along by places like this blog, where Charles Apple does a terrific job of chronicling the daily ins and outs of a profession squarely in transition, and Visual Editors as a whole, where conversation brings spirited debate on priorities. SND also has worked closely with the Poynter Institute, the American Press Institute, and the Online News Association to demonstrate ways we push ahead to a journalism future that serves the public.
Those of who were starting to see around the corner in 2000 knew that we were lucky to be part of a diverse membership, from print page designers to photojournalists to online designers to graphic artists to design managers to educators, editors and publishers. One of the most amazing things about SND is how people come together to make cool things happen.
A little more than a month ago I was helped along in the Revenue 2.0 project because Alan Jacobson was passionate enough to keep pushing for action — and the SND network of smart people who came to that first event (tune in for more as we go along this year) was able to get beyond how things might have been. No nostalgia there.
That all brings up what some of you have been asking about, namely what SND’s doing. There’s a lot going on, which I’ll happily spell out in as much or little detail as you like. Is it enough? Not nearly. Can we do more? Of course. Any and all ideas are welcome. Remember that it’s the network of all of you that helps anything happen. That’s the strength of SND and why I’m happy to give my time, as so many of you I know out there are.
Here’s what SND does, in addition to all the things you know about with competitions that reward work across platforms, student outreach that helps a new generation see how they can make a difference, and annual workshops that bring disparate parts of our big tent together to learn from each other so we can be energized about how to define what’s ahead:
* Training in multimedia and Web design
The “why” behind this should be apparent, since we all can see how what we all do is evolving (sometimes not fast enough and, yet, at other times with a pace that feels like whiplash). Don Wittekind, Scott Horner, Tyson Evans, David Wright, Denise Reagan, Laura Ruel and Stephen Komives have changed the training to be hands-on, with attendees able to come up with usable skills. Our new education director, Jennifer George-Palilonis, the journalism graphics sequence coordinator at Ball State, will help spearhead more efforts that address digital media, as well online classes.
* Training in alternative story forms
The “why” here matters when you consider that getting consumers’ attention will be the key to survival. Media 
must find and develop valued, differentiated content that engages the audience. That’s why story forms are important as never before. Technology and tools shape everything, so they must be understood to explore what it means to be a journalist. That’s where real innovation starts to happen.
* Outreach on the revenue side
We continue to believe that design thinking can help frame the issue.
We thought that by approaching the question differently we would come up with some new potential solutions. Enter this idea of Revenue 2.0, which pulled together two dozen innovators, editors and designers with a wide variety of experiences in newspapers, Web sites and management. They were all challenged to consider how user experiences with advertising (and, thus, the context of content) might be different.
The invited participants worked from a collective understanding of all the regular studies and reports that we’ve all read. They also drew on their own experiences and research.
They generated some compelling ideas around four main areas of opportunity:
* Display advertising solutions: Reinventing the homepage
* Classified solutions: Taking back territory
* iPhone solutions: Paying for functionality in news apps
* Small-business solutions: Beyond the click
There are more steps to come. I’m working now on getting a news organization or two that will let us try these ideas, build more working models (Matt Waite is right: demos, not memos), and generally see if any of this stuff can help us understand what makes a successful online news operation. That’s a question that can be answered by looking outward to consumer needs, then seeing how to answer. (Will we involve advertising and marketing later? Sure. You bet.)
* Outreach around the world
The Society established SND-Chinese in 2008 to help fill the growing thirst for news design in China. And SND affiliates in Scandinavia, France, Spain, Russia, Germany and Latin America are going strong. Another amazing aspect of the global nature of the Society is how we can learn from each other on a worldwide scale. The breaking down of walls because of this shared conversation has pushed along many stunning collaborations.
This year, the annual workshop will be in Buenos Aires (a tricky trip for anyone in this economic environment) because we all believed that it was important to keep the faith that we can learn from each other by leaving North America every few years for the fall event. The organizers are planning to take on all the issue we’ve been discussing about how visual journalism stays vital, thrives even, in the future. We’ll have a site that can help you attend virtually, even if you cannot be there in person. It’s a big world, but we can all share in what will happen in Argentina.
* Outreach around the United States
The Society’s regional directors recognize that getting together in person has helped many of us see new concepts and builds networks we can count on. Those are a couple of the reasons we’re doing free meetups in cities with enough critical mass of membership. It’s also a way for anyone who cannot afford to take hands-on training or spend the cash to travel to an annual workshop to get exposure to critical new thinking.
In March, Jon Wile organized a free event at The New York Times (more than a hundred people showed up). There’s another meetup (all about digital media) slated for May 16 at the Chicago Tribune, organized by Chris Courtney. And there’s one in the works at Adobe’s headquarters in San Francisco this summer, organized by Nanette Bisher and Pai.
There are sure to be more. And if you have an idea for one where you live, start it up. The self-organizing aspect of these meetups makes them easy, and there’s a real benefit to the in-person aspect of being around others who want to chart a course for the future and talk about the evolving place for visual storytelling in journalism.
So … There are other things that SND wants to take on. But this note is probably long enough as it is. Just wanted to chime in since I saw my name mentioned in one of these comments. Wanted you all to know that I believe SND has a big role to play and that we all do, too. Helping each other create a future seems, at least to me, the best path to making this struggling industry hear our voice.
- Matt
May 4th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
FWIW, The Morning Call (in Allentown) went from 21 copy editors down to 8.
May 5th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Name calling and false hopes fail to describe what is at stake with the industry.
Great journalists are being let go because of failed business models.
The same people who decided not to charge for online, years ago, are the same ones depending on cost cutting and poor quality to save the business.
Democracy hangs in the balance.
The truth will be harder to find.
The future will be much like this blog.
May 5th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Remembered this quote by Arthur Miller carved into a wall in Tribune Tower: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”
Great reminder. I guess the execs didn’t pass that way much.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:16 am
For those who would criticize Tribune or any other organization for making difficult decisions under extraordinary circumstances, I would ask: What’s your solution? Should we just fold the papers altogether, or do whatever we can to ensure their survival? I am solidly for the latter.
Is it good business, for example, to have seven people in seven cities coding up the same Rockets-Warriors box score, or should we do it once and share it? These are the economies of scale we always thought we could realize when we merged with Times-Mirror, but sadly — because of ego, complacency, stubbornness, you name it — we never found them. It may be too late now, granted, but don’t blame this on the people who remain to fight the fight. Blame it on those who walked away under their own power, pockets filled with buyout money.
It saddens me to see good people get laid off. As someone who had to deliver the news to many of them, let me assure you that there is no joy in it, on either side. But what would our critics have us do? Keep the staff at the same level as it was before our revenue dropped 50-60 percent? That’s not a survival strategy. That’s suicide.
We have a very outdated business model to support — it’s based on printing hundreds of thousands of papers every night and basically distributing them by hand. Are we surprised that this is not sustainable in 2009? As for a digital way forward, I’m ready… as soon as someone shows me how we can support a first-rate news-gathering-and-distribution operation on the shoestring of revenue generated by the web.
I would ask this of my good friend Charles Apple: If the evil Tribune empire offered you a job now, would you take it, or would you tell your family that you were turning it down in order to stand on these principles?
Everyone needs to understand that these are good people trying to do their best with the cards they’ve been dealt. Nobody asked for this. If there’s some big idea out there that can reverse our decline, I’m waiting to hear it. I don’t think it will arise from this sort of gripe-a-thon, however. I’m sick of all the sanctimonious judgments and criticisms from the sidelines. It’s not helpful, not at all.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Of course it’s not helpful to you, your job wasn’t deemed “unnecessary” or “outdated”.
You’ll have to excuse Charles for speaking for the employees who have been discarded while you sit high atop Tribune Tower.
I just hope you have the same outlook when you join your former colleagues in the unemployment line.
May 6th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Nothing will change, for the better, until News corps. start charging for online content…
The whole discussion is mute until online pays their bills.
Print is suffering more than needed because everyone and anyone can get our content for free. It’s a terrible business model…
Ad revenue is too fragmented in web the world for us not to charge.
May 6th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Joe writes:
> I would ask this of my good friend Charles Apple:
> If the evil Tribune empire offered you a job now,
> would you take it, or would you tell your family
> that you were turning it down in order to stand
> on these principles?
Oh, no, Joe. Please tell me you didn’t say that.
Do me a favor. Please show me where in my report I called the Tribune an evil empire?
My intention is not to call out the Trib or its managers. My intention was to report the news. I spent a LOT of time over the past three months making that happen.
My hearts go out to Joe and Bonita and all the others who have had to oversee the reduction. But my hearts go out even more to those who can’t make their mortgages and their credit card payments. And their readers.
Hang in there, all.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
There’s a lot of pain out there. And it’s crippling. The sad truth is that for now, at least, Visual Journalism and F-Checking Journalism as we know it is being targeted in favor of keeping “feet on the street.” Why? The people running the newspapers perceive no value in looking competent or reading competently. And they think they can breed error-less reporters.
Here’s what’s likely to happen:
Copy editors: They’ll make a comeback after enough newspapers wind up running huge front-page retractions and defending enough lawsuits that they’ll reconsider having reporters file directly into the newspaper. That won’t come, though, until they fire enough reporters at least once for alleged incompetence to finally realize the old adage is true: Everyone needs an editor.
Designers: This is a little fuzzier. Making cool pages isn’t enough anymore. Here’s what we need to trade on. We’re freakin’ creative! We need to come up with creative ideas that make the newspaper money. Become possibility thinkers beyond just the printed page or the web page. Look at ways that what you’re doing can have profitable offshoots. Think like a mercenary. Right now your value isn’t in what you’re producing day to day. No one besides you understands it. You make it look too easy. Your value isin how you think. Shamelessly promote that.
Is your paper doing a greatest players of all time series? Maybe you can turn them into baseball cards and sell them. Are there ways to create extra value on the web with optional pay? One of our assistant managing editors came up with the concept of turning a series on an orphaned orangutan into a children’s book. It sold. A lot. I didn’t make huge money, but it made money. He’s now a deputy managing editor in charge of projects and new products. A designer should have come up with that idea. Wish I had.
Become fearless purveyors of the possible. Look for niches. Get in your editor’s face (nicely) with ideas, good things that are happening in other places, ways to adapt ideas from other fields (not radio, please), whatever it takes. Send an e-mail. Be a positive pest. Brainstorm with your colleagues. Sure, be dark if you need to. Be negative if you need to. Vent and let others vent. Then see if you can’t find something useful out of the rubble.
Yes, this is really hard to even consider when all around you your colleagues are falling and you’re struggling to get your pages out and you don’t know how you’re going to handle the extra 10 days everyone is going to take off in exchange for a pay cut after a bunch of them have already been laid off or bought out. Here’s how I’m approaching it: Maybe one good idea will save a colleague’s job. To hell with mine. It’s a pain in the … anyway.
And then, for relaxation, you can make cool pages.
You don’t want to know what happens if newspapers never figure out they need copy editors.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I love when there is passionate debate on visuals and our role in the future, but honestly, calling out Charles on his principles and the way in which he would provide for his family. Are you kidding me? Stay focused folks
May 6th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Joe, I don’t know how the decisions were made in the Tower about who to let go, but in Orlando, several people let go had the digital training and skills that surpassed some of the people left behind. I think people would be less critical of the shared pages if there had been an honest effort to move “redundant” people to the Web. Those of us left behind to copy edit and design the paper are too busy to even think about learning these new skills.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
As for putting out digital content, if you decimate the newsroom, as we have in Baltimore, what the heck is going to be put online — or in the newspaper? (Which is still the driving force behind the money.) The biggest problem, after all, is the “burden” of servicing the ginormous debt that burdens all of the papers.
But, that said, many people were trying to make inroads onto the “Information Highway” back in the day, and were told, by Times-Mirror and Tribune people alike, to keep their stinkin’ hands out of it; they knew best for all. Well, time and ideas (eBay, Craigslist, Google and others) swept past them and pulled away like that roadrunner from the coyote (Beep-Beep!) as he continued to fail using Acme products over and over — a sign of insanity because the outcome never changed.
After years of classified losses and losing the technology high ground, in 2005 the enlightened powers that be in the tower on Michigan Avenue realized “Oh, we need to ramp up our offerings on the Internet,” relaying the message to the outlying fiefdoms.
That’s arriving for the prom after the tables have been cleared, the chairs put away and the dj packed up and gone.
Lastly: “Blame it on those who walked away under their own power, pockets filled with buyout money.” That is one if the most disingenuous things I have read online in a long time — many, many of those people were left no choice and forced out. Let’s think instead of those who did not put profits back into the technology and the company as a whole to combat these problems years ago; those who placed a titanic debt burden on the company; those in upper management who took bonuses in pay and stock despite the declines — which started, at least, in 2000 regarding classifieds — and those taking $13 million in court-approved bonuses despite the company in bankruptcy and the slaughter in the “factories.”
May 6th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Joe, unlike Charles, my heart does not go out to you or Bonita or other managers, mostly because you still get paychecks and can pay your bills, which should go a long way toward easing your sadness. The people you laid off in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression are going to have trouble with that (from our newsroom, I am heartbroken about the people Bonita laid off who have young kids or a kid on the way).
All of us recognize that the industry is changing and painful choices have to be made. It’s simply infuriating that the painful choices must be so extreme in part because of the debt burden and other poor Tribune decisions.
Despite our fancy, ill-advised and ill-timed new paint job (metaphorical whitewashing of the bloodbath?), morale in Orlando’s newsroom is abysmal, and I can only imagine it’s the same at the other T6 papers.
Good point about the $13 million in bonuses, Tribune person. Will the names of the people receiving those bonuses show up in bankruptcy papers? As fellow employee-owners, we should know their names and the amounts of their bonuses.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
While doing laundry earlier this week (because that’s what laid-off journalist housewives do), I came across one of my son’s favorite towels. It’s a beach towel that I got in j-school at the University of Florida for helping to organize a new-media convention sponsored by the state’s biggest newspapers … in 1984.
Newspapers knew this day was coming back when legwarmers were cool but had their heads in the sand (or up their butts), ignoring the scary “emerging technology” that they couldn’t immediately monetize. To quote my favorite philosopher: “I’m a caveman. Your modern ways frighten and confuse me.”
No amount of nooz you can use or gigantic headlines or cool graphics are going to make people return to newspapers. People in their 20s and 30s never got into the habit of reading papers and never will. I once had a grocery store bag boy ask me where coupons came from.
So where is the future? It’s not on paper. It’s not on a big ol’ fugly Kindle. It might be on our phones and handheld devices for short-form breaking news and definitely on the Web for everything else. And designers should put their talents toward figuring out ways to make media Web pages better looking and more functional. (I know, I know, try explaining that to the online side, whose only concern is getting more photo galleries of “hot celebrity moms” on the homepage.)
Bottom line: The wrong people are in charge of everything (sweeping, eh?).
May 8th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Darkly ironic that SND is holding a showcase design meetup at the Chicago Tribune next weekend. Twitter #SNDChicago to see more.
SND, it appears, prefers to change the subject because this ‘event’ will not include a discussion of this plan to cheapen visual journalism at Tribune newspapers.
Shouldn’t SND instead be taking a hard and very public stand against this company’s effort in this area to replace design and copy editing with poorly-conceived ‘modules?’
I am glad that the SND brass is responding in this thread but they need to explain to dues-paying members why SND as a global voice is not rallying against this company practice and why as SND officers they are enabling this plan from within and also supporting the Tribune company by letting it avoid a discussion and honest examination of this new scheme at their May 16 event at the Chicago Tribune.
May 10th, 2009 at 3:03 am
As a former newspaper copy editor (I left newspapers, including a now-Tribune-owned paper, two years ago), I cannot wait for newspaper owners to learn what I predict will be very expensive lessons. Without copy editors, every day will be a financial opportunity for people wronged in print by unknowing reporters and line editors who will soon be entrusted to get the stories \clean enough to publish.\ I can’t tell you how many times I caught in stories people being arrested \for murdering\ someone, versus, of course, being arrested \on suspicion\ of murder. It was \interesting\ trying to explain to reporters and line editors the very important difference. So, now they are supposed to be the gatekeepers? Ha! I can just see defendants and their lawyers lining up to file lawsuits. Why newspaper owners and editors think they can put out quality papers without copy editors is beyond me. Most reporters are conscientious and take pride in their work, but there are, sadly, too many who think NOTHING of spelling and grammar mistakes. And let’s not enough talk about the facts. The few crappy reporters and line editors will continue to be crappy. The difference? The copy desk won’t be there or will not have enough time to save their asses.