Unions at Texas papers: an update

Newsrooms at the Dallas Snooze, Fort Worth Startlegram and Austin Stateless all opted sometime back to join the News Guild and fight for unionization. Surprisingly to a degree on first read, by its past history, but really, not, negotiations are going best at the one-pony Snooze, versus Craphouse/New Gannett in Austin and McClatchy/hedge fund in Cowtown, reports Gus Bova.

The Snooze may figure, with the former Belo owning only it and its limping offspring like Al Dia, that it's got nothing to win by pissing off remaining staff as it continues to work to become 21st century digital first after multiple past failures on that front.

McClatchy, for all its good stuff on not following other major chains on all foreign policy reporting, appears to have been a bit red-ass on labor stuff even before the hedge takeover. Craphouse (Gatehouse), the real driver of "New Gannett," is notorious as a crappy workplace, so no surprise there.

The Dallas Snooze slouching further? Dodging NYSE delisting?

Earlier this month, A.H. Belo said it was leaving the New York Stock Exchange for NASDAQ. Specifically, it's headed for NASDAQ's Capital Market. Why?

Reading between the lines, and learning more about that Capital Market is, I think it was in danger of being delisted.

NASDAQ Capital Market, per Investopedia:

The Nasdaq Capital Market is one of Nasdaq's U.S. market tiers containing early-stage companies that have relatively lower market capitalizations. Listing requirements for companies on the Nasdaq Capital Market are less stringent than for the two other Nasdaq market tiers, which focus on larger companies with higher market capitalization.

More on the Capital Market here further confirms this idea.

In short, Belo, a one-newspaper (Dallas Morning News, aka the Snooze) with adjuncts like Al Dia, and a digital marketing agency that must not be doing THAT well, doesn't have much money on tap. This is kind of like NASDAQ's "penny stocks" wing.

One thing that I'm kind of curious about: why didn't it go to the former AMEX instead? Is the bottom tier of NASDAQ even weaker?

Sidebar: I've long speculated about a full JOA between the Snooze and the Fort Worth StarleGram. Between this by Belo and McClatchy now under hedge fund ownership, that day is probably yet closer — if the two owners see that as the next best step.

A LESS THAN 10 PERCENT adhole at the Morning News

 A week ago, I blogged about how the Dallas Morning News, aka the Snooze, had a 10-percent or so adhole in its issue the Thursday before that.

Today? Even worse. 

Despite MORE obits than the week before (and I count obits as part of the paid adhole), LESS THAN 10 PERCENT.

By my quick eyeballs, an even three pages on a 34-page paper.

What makes this even worse?

In today's world, if the Snooze still insists on printing this issue, it should not be distributed where I live. 

I live in the north exurban Metromess on the west side of I-35.

In other words, Fort Worth StartleGram territory.

What the hell the Snooze is even doing out here I have zero idea.

As I said last week, Belo's got more to worry about than A.H. Belo's Confederate past. With no papers outside the Snooze, Al Dia and anything else Dallas-based, and having hived off the digital marketing department ...

What's left there?

Their alleged paywall (third shot at doing one) is leaky, if it's even on half the time.

A 10 percent adhole at the Dallas Morning News

 And, on a Thursday, not a Monday paper (if Belo is still publishing the Snooze in print seven days a week).

Yes, you read that right — a 10 percent adhole on its March 25 issue, a week ago. That's on Belo's normal 34-page run on Thursdays. And, as usually with papers of any size, it counts obits as part of the adhole. 

They only had one-quarter page of obits. Still, a full page would have pushed the ad margin to, what? A whopping 12.5 percent?

With no other papers left besides the stable in Dallas, and with the digital marketing division now theoretically walled off, the "Rock of Truth" has truth to worry about far beyond A.H. Belo's Confederate past.

And yes, I know today's date, and no, this is no joke. 

The big question is, since investors forced the hiving off of the digital marketing division, how long before somebody either forces a sale or else swoops in? With all the other papers they sold in the past, Belo probably still has some cash reserves that would make it a tempting takeover target.

A.H. Belo is getting woke?

 The parent company of the Dallas Morning News, known here as the Snooze, of course, and parent company of not much else any more,  wants to officially rename itself because of its founder's Confederate Army past. Wiki, though, doesn't mention relatives' slave-owning past.

A renaming of a company like Belo, though, is like a renaming of a company like, oh, Monsanto, Exxon or Philip Morris. This is putting lips on a pig when it won't address that, through things at the Snooze such as an editorial page editor who used to work at the Shrub Bush Library, it remains part of the problem in contributing to factors that continue to contribute to adjuncts to racism, at least, today.

Nor will it address, per the likes of a Jim Schutze, its news coverage's continuing sense of paternalism toward South Dallas. 

Or real problems, like not selling newspaper ads.

McClatchy: On the clock and on the block

Chatham Assess Management has made an official bid for McClatchy as it currently sits in bankruptcy court.

Of interest here in Texas is that McC owns the Fort Worth StartleGram, which has looked primed to move closer and closer to an informal, if not formal, JOA with the Dallas Snooze for some time.

The big sticking point has been, in my guesstimate, that Belo owns nothing but the Snooze, a few Dallas print spinoffs and that's that. Basically, a JOA for these two papers means the end of Belo as an independent company. Yes, it's also got that digital marketing biz, but ...

It's unclear if and when McC will get sold and to whom. Per Chatham's bid, it's also unclear if it will be accepted and on what terms, or even officially let into the mix as a stalking horse bid.

But I would be seriously surprised if the Metromess proper (excluding Little D in Denton) has more than 1 independent daily paper by Jan. 1, 2021.

As I wrote on Tuesday, the Snooze probably should be snoozing print days.

The next step closer to a formal JOA, or something like that, would be it and the StartleGram deciding, between days other than Wednesday and Sunday, who's doing a print version and who's not, since they have a certain amount of distribution overlap beyond Dallas and Tarrant counties and the inner ring of suburbs.

The Morning News and the COVID demise of regional dailies: Why isn't the Snooze snoozing some days?

A couple of weeks ago, the St. Petersburg aka Tampa Bay Times announced it was cutting back to just two days a week in print. My take here.

Having looked at last Thursday's Dallas Morning News, I can't understand why it isn't doing the same.

First, the paper was less than 30 pages. I remember it wasn't too awfully long ago that Mondays crashed the sub-30 barrier. Thursday isn't a huge day, but it used to be decent, in part because some stores wanted to get a jump on weekend sales.

Second, I do understand that that includes not having sports, because there is no sports to cover. That said, that's a good reason why more regional dailies should be scrapping some print days, anyway. (Not to mention that sports pages long had near-zero advertising on them.)

OK, even without sports pages as a lead anchor on the ad percentage, and counting obits as part of the adhole, as I long have done with any paper from a decent semiweekly up that I know charges more than a nominal rate on obits? It was still less than 3 1/2 pages of adhole. About 13 percent.

You can't do that.

Plus, Belo doesn't have wiggle room. Its digital marketing services may make more than the Snooze, but remember, the Snooze and affiliated print products in the Metroplex are all the Belo owns, other than its digital marketing, which for a variety of reasons, investors and others don't totally like.

TINA, per Thatcher.

The Snooze slouches further toward Gomorrah

At the Dallas Observer, Stephen Young has the details.

Yea, it made a $17M profit in the second quarter, but that's including the sale of the Belo Building and its nearly $26 million in closing net profit on that, on which it took a haircut from its initial asking price anyway. So the faux silver lining itself is actually leaden.

So really, it lost $11 million this quarter vs one year ago where it lost $500K. Ouch. Here's the actual report.

Other teh sucks, or other faux silver linings?

Yeah, it saved money on print costs.

That's because it prints fewer pages.

That's because it sells fewer ads.

Out here in the hinterlands, where they apparently just yank the biz section but don't re-letter the comix or other sections that come after that, it's bad. Tuesday, July 30? A 13.5 percent adhole on 30 pages. Thursday, Aug. 1? Slightly better, with a 15 percent adhole on the same number of pages.

Outside printing revenue dropped from no longer printing ... the Observer, among other things. Maybe the Belo Bunch worried that printers were reading Young and Jim Schutze more than their own paper?

The Snooze is also, according to Young, ditching its current content management system for the website and adopting that of the Washington Post, which reportedly allows more flexible paywalling. Not that I'm going to pay for it in general. (Circ revenue, despite the Snooze having a hard paywall [IIRC it was still somewhat leaky in 2Q 2018] dropped 5.1 percent.)

Supposedly, using Arc, in partnership with the Post, will give the Snooze more digital ads, too.

Even as digital ad prices continue to fall. (Ad revenue was down 1.8 percent.)

Wait, wait.

All these new ads will surely mean new business for Belo's digital marketing shop, which Bob Dechard will spin in some nutty new way.

Denton Record Chronicle or Denton Wrecked Chronicle?

I've joked about newspaper names in Texas and elsewhere for ages.

I'm not alone on the "StartleGram" for the Star Telegram in Fort Worth, I know.

But, I had never heard the, I'm sorry, The Dallas Morning News called the "Snooze" by anybody before I did.

Before that even, in an easy one, the Wichita Falls Times Record News was the Times Wrecked News. I did that mainly for layout reasons. Back when small seven-day dailies had actual pages, I didn't get why it had op-eds, classys and other mish-mash all in the same section.

Riffing on that is the headline of this piece.

Several years ago, (it's been 20!) the Snooze bought the Wrecked, which actually wasn't such, from its previous owner, who stayed on, as publisher or general manager, I'm not sure which title.

Anyway, about a year ago, citing future vision decisions or similar, he his grandson bought it back under basically a no harm no foul reacquisition.

But ... it is Wrecked now on the ads side. Not sure if it was that bad when Belo still had it, or if it has slumped further downhill since.

But, a 20-pager on Saturday. And, 20 percent ads, IIRC. (This was the June 8 issue and I didn't write down the adhole percentage.) As usual, I'm counting obits as part of the adhole.

I know June is kind of slow in the biz, but still. If that's what a Saturday looks like, what is their Monday this time of year? About 16 pages at less than 20 percent? Or 14 or even 12 pages to keep the adhole percentage up?

Should it be moving to six-day territory?

Also, and this may be a relic from Snooze ownership, but why do the Snooze (and Startlegram) both circulate in Cooke County, and the DRC does not?

Snooze takes bath on resale of Belo building

Last fall, after moving out of the historic Belo Building, AND not even spending money to move "The Rock" to its rented digs, the, I am sorry, The Dallas Morning News sold the building for $33 million.

Although nobody would officially tie this to Amazon's national Grifting for Dollars work as it hunted for a second headquarters, which it eventually of course split into two parts and has now pulled back on the NYC part, everybody saw it that way, especially since KDC and Hoque backed out soon after Amazon said sorry to Dallas.

Well, the Snooze has now sold it again.

For $5 million less.

In addition, original buyer KDC said that if it resold to Amazon, the Snooze would get a cut. New buyer Ray Washburne made no such pledge, even though, technically, Amazon could come calling. He's also paying less than $6M of it up front.

There's that anti-Midas touch at work!

Per that second link, which is from D Magazine, it seems hard not to see a push by an activist shareholder for Belo to go private and/or sell the paper as being behind this in some way. A letter from said shareholder notes that Belo's digital marketing has tanked even more than the paper itself.

I think, re the digital marketing, what we have is a signature moment mix of Belo arrogance and Belo stupidity. That said, said activist investor could have found 15-20 straight years of semi-regular occurrences of that; nobody forced him to buy his shares.

Hypocrisy alert – Bob Decherd and Belo Corp

Only eight of Dallas-Fort Worth’s 50 largest companies had both a revenue decline in 2007 from 2006 AND negative value to shareholders in 2007.

One of those was Belo Corp, parent of The Dallas Morning News.

The News has been slumping even by the standards of seven-day daily newspaper declines. (Interestingly, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Orange County Register, two other openly conservative papers, have joined the Snooze at or near the bottom of worst-performing major dailies the last three or so years. The New York Post and Washington Times are perennial money losers.)

That did not phase the board of directors of Belo, apparently. Decherd, at $3 million, got the fifth-biggest bonus of those top-50 company CEOs. His total compensation for the year ranked 13th, at a shade over $10 million.

That $3 million bonus? What is that, about $60,000 each for the 50 or so editorial folks who have gotten the ax at the Snooze in the last three years or so?

Sorry I can’t find a link to the graphic box illustrating this that goes with the main story. I’d love to ask Pamela Yip, who wrote the main store and has seen dozens of friends and coworkers get axed over the last three years, how she felt about digging up that nugget.

If you’d like to ask her, here you go.

Google makes it easier to avoid Morning News website

First, let me say, as tens of thousands of others in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have said over the last three-plus years since the Snooze, officially known as The (don’t forget to capitalize that “the,” New York Times pretentiousness and all) Dallas Morning News, changed its website to its current form.

It sucks.

It sucks donkey dongs.

It sucks George Bannerman Dealey’s donkey dong, in fact.

It is probably THE WORST website of any major seven-day daily newspaper in the United States, excepting of course, other A.H. Belo papers in Riverside, Calif. and Providence, R.I. (Belo websites suck because Belo blows — the different papers’ websites are mirror images.)

One of the worst things about the Snooze’s website is the impossibility of finding any Snooze story that is not actually linked on the website’s homepage. The story may have been written in the last 24 hours; it may have run in that day’s hardcopy.

But, if it ain’t on the homepage of the website, you ain’t gonna find it.

Solution? After getting frustrated at the donkey-dong sucking Snooze website (see for yourself), I go to Google News, hit the advanced news search, enter Dallas Morning News as my search (don’t even have to use “the,” let alone the prissy-fit capitalized version), and then enter my normal Google search words.

Voila! Link(s) spit out to just the right articles.

Well, now, Google is going one step further.

This month, the company introduced a search-within-search feature that lets users stay on Google to find pages on popular sites like those of The Washington Post, Wikipedia, The New York Times, Wal-Mart and others. The search box appears when someone enters the name of certain Web addresses or company names — say, “Best Buy” — rather than entering a request like “cellphones.”

The results of the search are almost all individual company pages. Google tops those results with a link to the home page of the Web site in question, adds another search box, and offers users the chance to let Google search for certain things within that site.

The problem, for some in the industry, is that when someone enters a term into that secondary search box, Google will display ads for competing sites, thereby profiting from ads it sells against the brand. The feature also keeps users searching on Google pages and not pages of the destination Web site.

Tough shit. Your unsearchable website, with further editorial cuts ahead, certainly won’t get better. If anything, it will get worse.

Oh, and to throw you further under the bus… you have a paper always bragging about the APME awards it wins for sports coverage, then it outsources all its high school stuff to a third-party site, one that doesn’t have as much online high school sports as the DMN did five years ago.

You don’t like it? Make your own website better. Google is, indeed, just saving me more work now.