Freep cutting 20 newsroom jobs

**BShea** · May-21-09, 01:59 PM

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/shea

Just one part-time reporter position. Unsure how many of the 10 exemptions allowed under the contract were used. No word on non-newsroom positions yet, or any cuts at The Detroit News. Stay tuned.

Unfun times in journalism these days.

**Bobl** · May-21-09, 02:17 PM

Very sad, the position journalists are in. Soon, we will all get our news from cheap internet crawling sources in India or China. Future local politicians will no longer have to worry about Pulitzer Prize worthy journalism, and previous misbehavers will, indeed, be "set up for a comeback".

**oldredfordette** · May-21-09, 04:37 PM

People are going to be allowed to take a severance [[if you're in the bargaining unit) and go if they wish. The layoffs will happen in 30 days. There has been no word on non-bargaining Free Press employees yet.

The DMP and News are rumored to account for 150 job losses.

Stupid fucking stupid management.

**pffft** · May-21-09, 04:38 PM

You might want to double-check on that "one" part-time position, Bill.

**BShea** · May-21-09, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by pffft

You might want to double-check on that "one" part-time position, Bill.

Sorry, typo on my part. As the blog entry says, 4 part-time reporter jobs.

If anyone hears of folks volunteering to go, or who goes once the deadline hits, please let me know and I'll get the word out.

**oldredfordette** · May-21-09, 06:15 PM

A Free Press reporter of some repute told me it was much better than they thought it would be - the jobs losses they'll take are always bad of course - but all told it will be tolerable for those left.

Any nonsense about ML Elrick being laid off is, of course, nonsense.

Ravine · May-21-09, 07:32 PM

As far as I'm concerned, the Detroit Free Press is just about worthless, and has been so for quite a few months, now. I really don't even care if it entirely disappears, although I am very sorry about the job losses suffered by some folks who probably deserve better.

I think the honorable Neil Shine would be very sad, to see the current state of affairs.

And, don't anybody bother to caution me about the great value of a "free press" and how I might live to bemoan the passing of the Free Press and regret my words.
I already miss it. The lame piece of hamster cage-liner they print now doesn't count, and they can stick their E-dition up their, well, you know.

**oldredfordette** · May-21-09, 08:41 PM

Just don't try to sell me on the "honorable" Neal Shine. He fired my friends, he helped engineer the decline of the Free Press and the paper has never been the same.

I mourn the paper, I mourn the loss of jobs [[who knows? I might be next) and I mourn the watchdogs of our society. The recent Pulitzer-prize winning stories are a fleeting glance, we're left with cheerleader puff pieces about how great the incinerator is, or what a lovely misunderstood guy Matty Maroun is.

Ravine · May-21-09, 09:03 PM

Oldredfordette, your foot is noted, and taken under advisement.
Perhaps my respect for his old-style journalistic mien thrives in ignorance of his activities as a manager.

**oldredfordette** · May-21-09, 10:06 PM

Ravine, did you see David Simon [[The Wire) when he was on Bill Maher last week? He said he took a buyout from the Baltimore Sun in 1995 when he realized the newspaper business was more interested in making huge shareholder returns instead of taking care of business - R&D for instance. They were more interested in busting the unions in Detroit than they were on keeping the product current. There is no reason the papers couldn't have spent the 90's and half of the oughts growing and changing. This current state is completely due to greed and incompetence. But they had to fuck the dog, they just couldn't help themselves.

I hate being right. It's my livelihood too, you know. But these simple motherfuckers are reaping what they sow[[ed). Reaping it all over our heads.

Here's a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE6v-ZxlYlo

**detmsp** · May-21-09, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by oldredfordette

This current state is completely due to greed and incompetence. But they had to fuck the dog, they just couldn't help themselves.

really? you don't think the spreading of free news on the internet and cable TV had anything to do with it? and since newspapers all across the country are filing for bankruptcy left and right, they all just so happened to be incompetent? if that were the case, how come no bright entrepreneurs are snapping up these papers and buying them at rock bottom prices?

this isn't managmenet f-ing up.... this is an entire industry dying.

**Jimaz** · May-21-09, 10:28 PM

Skip ahead to 7:30 in oldredforette's link.

**Jimaz** · May-21-09, 10:51 PM

This is a much more important battle today: The Death of American Newspapers.

**Detroitej72** · May-21-09, 10:55 PM

One thing thats lost in the decline of the print media is that more and more people read what they think is news on the Internet. In reality, much of it is written by non-journalists, who have political basis, and aren't really interested in reporting facts, just interested in spreading their agendas, see Drudge, world net daily, Huffington Post, and the like.

The same can be said about journalism in television and radio. Gone are the days of Edward Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Paul Harvey. Now we have "commentators" and comedians like Rush, Hannity, Beck, Lavin, O'Riley, and Coulter who just like to give their warped spin on issues.

And then folks wonder why the nation is being dummied down.

**smogboy** · May-21-09, 11:52 PM

I saw a copy of the Freep at the neighborhood 7-11 a few weeks back and noticed that The Metro Times and Real Detroit were actually thicker. Sad. So sad.

**barnesfoto** · May-22-09, 12:08 AM

I like this quote in particular...

"Capitalism is a wonderful engine, but how we mistook it for a social framework is a mystery".

I don't remember a precise date when I became addicted to reading newspapers, but I do remember the Free Press being a world class newspaper that had people all over the world [[Tyson in Africa, David Turnley in Europe and Manny Crisostomo in Southwest Detroit...The last two guys won back to back Pulitzers in 89 and 90...It was nice that they somehow picked up M.L. in their long spiraling ascent into being [[mostly) a mediocre 2 minute read...

Are there any industries left for the Sick Cult's Gurus of Finance to loot?

Ravine · May-24-09, 05:26 PM

Barnesfoto, at your convenience, please do us the service of explaining your Pet Term, "sick cult." It seems to me that there are many cults, and that some of them are sick, in various ways. To which cult do you refer, and in what way is it sick?

Oldredfordette, I hear what you are saying, and there is much on which we agree, I suspect, but when we deride capitalism & greed for the fall of America and its culture, let's remember that greed is one of the Seven Deadlies, and that it runs a broad streak all through human nature.
Personally, I believe that The News Business should be, at least in some part, a vocation which one follows because it means something to them, and if that means everyone involved-- including management, of course-- drives to work in a fourteen-year-old car and carries a bagged lunch which includes a bologna sandwich and an apple, so be it. Not everyone can make The Big Money. It is not totally outmoded thinking, to believe that doing the work which one loves can be a self-rewarding occupation. However, if the thing you really love is money, well, that devotion fires up a whole different cycle of events.
But the greed thing? That ain't a Character Property monopolized by management, and when it comes to "reaping what you sow," the current anti-harvest in America was seeded by unions & management alike.

I just wanted a fuckin' newspaper, but no. Somehow, for over 170 years, "simple motherfuckers," as you say, were able to get a paper out into the streets while making enough money to continue... getting a paper out into the streets. Now, somehow, it can't be done.
And, I've had TV news and the goddam internet for a long time, but none of that lessened my interest in reading the paper. I'm not alone in that, either, so while Detmsp's "entire industry dying" remark may be correct in reporting an actual death, I think we might need the County Coroner to re-think the Cause.
Which-- I'll be damned!!-- brings us right back 'round to that Greed Thing.

**oldredfordette** · May-25-09, 09:24 AM

During the newspaper strike, I got to know a lot of different kinds of newspaper workers, from editorial to janitorial to pressroom to distribution centers. One thing you heard over and over again was a sense of betrayal and grief from these workers, that they were being thrown out [[and beaten and pepper sprayed and had trucks driven directly at them) of jobs they loved. Third and fourth generation newspaper workers. Tossed aside in a drive to achieve a 35% return for the shareholders. Not to make the papers better. That kind of loyalty is gone for the most part. The saddest thing, IMHO.

**Ray1936** · May-25-09, 12:10 PM

When the papers are gone, how are families going to clip out the obituaries/death notices of loved ones as keepsakes?

Sad.

**Diehard** · May-25-09, 01:00 PM

Really? You're blaming this on a strike from, what, 13 or 14 years ago? This is all about that, and not about a changing industry and a nation's economy being in the toilet?
This is much bigger than Detroit. Newspapers nationwide haven't had the luxury of being "greedy" for some time now; they're just trying to stay alive. Seattle, Denver and Ann Arbor have lost papers already and many more are on death watch. Both Chicago dailies are in bankruptcy. Chicago!! Are they in that situation because they suck, and their management is greedy, and they don't do quality investigative journalism, and they treat their unions badly, and the papers are thin, or any of those other red herrings being thrown around here?
No, it's a simple reflection of the economy - advertisers have pulled out because they don't have the money to spend. End of story. Readership is higher than ever [[online) but adverising revenue is down. People reading the news for free online, or even paying 50 cents for a print copy, don't pay the bills.
Of course, the Rush Limbaughs and Kwame Kilpatricks of the world are singing alleluia because it means fewer chances they'll be called out. Sad.

**EMG** · May-25-09, 01:40 PM

Right. The strike in the mid-90s isn't to blame.

What IS to blame, more than anything else, is the spread of Internet usage [[which really didn't seriously start taking off until about that time).

As was said, why pay for a newspaper when you can get it free online? The even better part is the ability to search directly for what's important without having to wade through endless ads or gossip trivia.

What's even better is no longer having to sit through televised news. Remember wasting a half an hour listening to sports junk just because before every commercial break they'd put out a teaser about some exciting thing that happened right in your own neighborhood, and then not show it until 11:28 p.m. and you were always so mad at yourself for allowing yourself to be duped into staying up that late? Well, no more. Just wait until the next day, fire up the browser, and zero right in on the video of the event you wanted to hear about, without having to sit through all the crap first.

There will always be people who truly think print is better. Then again, there will always be people who prefer to hang onto their old 8-tracks [[or keep that old '78 player running) rather than invest in an i-Pod. Reading a newspaper today is sort of like opting to do one's laundry with a rock and a scrubbing board.

**pffft** · May-25-09, 05:00 PM

Until the news generated by "print" journalism is no longer available to you free online, then you'll be crying out for that rock and scrubbing board. What will "Yahoo News" and "Google News' have for you then?

**Patrick** · May-25-09, 05:20 PM

True journalism is becoming a lost art. Plain and simple. Today, everyone thinks they are a journalist or analyst because they can set up a blog and take other people's data and manipulate in order to get their own point across. The older journalists, and yes, I have heard from the best, feel that recent journalism grads are not stacking up. They are more focused on Twitter than they are on geography and current events.

Sludgedaddy · May-25-09, 05:29 PM

The Orwellian prediction of mind control due to a reduction of words in the English language seems to be fast approaching. Newspeak is coming . Double Plus Good!!!

Or when you Twitter your Twat.....Dbl + gd.

**oldredfordette** · May-25-09, 05:59 PM

Diehard, did you read anything else that was written in this thread? Or are you just reacting to one sentence?

I'll repeat, so maybe you can understand. In the mid-90's, when you could get 35 cents on every dollar you invested in Gannett, they spent their time prosecuting a stupid strike instead of seeing how the industry was changng. Papers like the NYtimes and the Baltimore Sun and the LA Times were paying huge dividends instead paying for R&D. They are reaping what they sowed in those boom years. Stupid stupid stupid greedy corporate bastards.

Carry on.