WHAT is up with Hearst's transnational outsourcing? And Gannett's?

 In a previous post, I talked about interviewing for Hearst's job as ME at its Midland, Texas paper.

Either the first or second interviewer mentioned they currently print in Mexico, and I'm tackling that in more detail.

I didn't think to ask him about printing in El Paso with the Times. Duck Duck Go's search says its been printed in Juarez for five years now.

OK, Lubbock? 

ALL of Gannett's West Texas papers — Lubbock, Amarillo, Wichita Falls, San Angelo and Abilene as well as El Paso, are now in Juarez.

Is Midland there? Well, at this point, Duck Duck Go's AI had a big old fail versus a humanoid from Hearst. It claims the MRT is still local.

Google actually did better. It said the MRT went to Lubbock in 2018. So, it's now in Juarez.

Question for Hearst: Since you now own the Snooze, which is still printed in the Metromess, have you thought of moving? (Shudder the thought, but would Hearst send the Snooze down to Houston? Doubly shudder the thought, but would Hearst send it to Juarez?)

Second question: How much are you saving? Ditto for Gannett? Since Hearst is privately traded, this is hard to know.

Third, without stereotyping, this IS Juarez. Even if you fly finished papers to your various sites, both Hearst and Gannett, it still takes trucks to get to the airport, whether that in Juarez or that in El Paso. Have you worried, or thought in any way, about hijackings? (I presume Hearst's other West Texas offings — Canyon, Plainview, Muleshoe — are also printed in Juarez.)

Fourth, in terms of staff trust, which is in the crapper for sure at Craphouse, the tail that wags the dog of Gannett, I'm sorry, "USA Today Co.," do you even care what this does to morale or perceptions of integrity? In a sense, that's even more true for Hearst, which is privately owned and not under the thumb of vulture capitalism debt. 

Sidebar: Neither Google nor DDG would tell me where the OA is printed. 

On Hearst's overall profitability? Wiki notes that it long ago got a 20 percent stake in Red Satan ESPN and still holds that, and that for the overall company, beyond newspapers and mags, this is probably a major income source. 

In addition, as I already thought in the back of my mind six years ago, when my current newspapers' owner moved from a local printing plant to one he owned, but 200 miles away — or even before that, as I pondered when I first realized that here in Texas, Jim Moser was becoming more and more the king of  long-distance printing ...

What happens when continually high gas prices kneecap you? Like COVID, on the flip side of 99 cent gasoline to 3.99 gasoline? (I'm including diesel and jet fuel.)

Who knows how long Trump will refuse to admit he fucked up (and that he lied about negotiations) on the Iran war? 

Once again, WHAT is up with Hearst's hiring process?

 Consider this a second payment on a piece of mine 3.5 years ago about looking at the assistant managing editor's position in Beaumont, Texas. I said then that Hearst's hiring process was worse than Gannett's.

OK, now to the current scenario.

Six weeks ago, while I was on vacation, a Hearst recruiter tagged me on LinkedIn. Position? Managing editor in Midland, Texas. Presumably she had seen that I worked long ago at Midland's twin city, Odessa, for the Odessa American. This was before Freedom's post-Chapter 11 breakup into multiple smaller entities.

I'm not from Odessa. I had never before worked for Freedom. Not enamored of the pre-breakup company. That said, its libertarianism in politics on the editorial page was social, not just government regulatory and fiscal.

Anyway, the disclaimer above is to note that back then, I, along with longer-term staffers, thought the OA was superior to the Midland Reporter Telegram, and with evidence. More than once, the MRT asked for OA editorial bailout on a story that was on Midland's half of the dividing line, though not in Midland itself. Both were seven-day print dailies back then; hold on to that.

(For a totally non-partisan background, the OA, and NOT the MRT, won a Pulitzer for "Baby Jessica" coverage, on photography, even though the well she was trapped in was in Midland.) 

With this background, I decided to agree to start the process anyway. Culturally, politically and sociologically, Midland is definitely not my cup of tea. But, it would have been a big pay raise. And, although not truly "West," would have gotten me enough further west to be worth it that way. I could have toughed it out three years and dealt with the future after that. 

Anyway, I was interviewed for the first round this time by someone directly at Hearst papers, not a person from Local Edge, in 2022 at least, a separate HR division for all Hearst properties, per the link.

OK, the usual questions both ways, and comments both ways. I said I was plenty familiar with Wilks and Dunn, as well as the oil patch. Per the above, I asked if there was any cooperation with the OA.

"We consider them a rival," said person said.

I later checked the annual Texas Press Association yearbook. Fifteen years ago, the OA was ahead in circulation. A decade ago, it was still in hailing distance. Today, it's one-quarter of the MRT. Yikes! (On the print side, MRT is now a five-day daily, while OA is a semiweekly. Yikes!) That said, TPA and Wiki don't 

OK, near the end, I ask about the interview process. I think he said nine or 10 rounds. I know he said at least six or seven, itself too many for a position at this level.

To me, that bespoke two things, which aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. You either have bureaucracy trying to justify itself, or you else have people scared of making bad hires, which in turn means they've likely made recent bad hires.

I am told the second interview will be in a couple of days. Before it happens, said recruiter sends me one of these "Predictive Index" bullshit items, which, when I get them, I've taken to deliberately Poe-ing them on answers. I didn't do it until after the second interview, a few days after.

Then comes "an invitation to officially apply." Did not address that immediately, either. I figured I'd wait until after not just the second, but the third interview if there were going to be six or seven, let alone nine or more.

There has been no third interview, not even after I completed the predictive index.

Let's get back to the first and second interviews.

In the second, especially, I asked more about workflow between ME and reporters, and it's "interesting." They lean into AI a fair amount. It doesn't write stories, but it does kind of frame them, especially on things like government reporting. Now, the ME can override its guesses as to what goes at the top of AP's inverted pyramid, and presumably staffers can, too.

I'm still old-school enough that that doesn't totally enamor me. Anyway, this is loaded into a system. The ME makes changes. Presumably they tell the staffer to look at the changes, and the "why" is explained, or else the staffer is flagged. But at that point, it's pretty much nonlocal. The pagination hub right then gets the edited version of the story. Eventually, they get the budget for A1 and inside, B1 and inside, etc.

Sports? It's Midland, home of Midland Lee, archrival (or they were at one time) of Odessa Permian. Friday night lights. Etc.

Second interviewer said sports interest is not high.

Figured out why.

They currently print IN MEXICO.

Used to print with Gannett — I thought he said the Valley, but teh Google said Lubbock — but when that printing plant closed, they hopped the Rio Grande. 

I'll tackle this part more in a separate piece, as that's still Gannett printing, in Juarez.

Anyway, there's basically a three-day time lag between when news and sports are sent to the pagination hub, then the printing press, and a print product comes to Midland.

SO, Friday night lights is Tuesday or Wednesday in print.

Given Max Preps, especially if they aggressively market themselves on the photo side, or even more if there's a third party "Basin Sports" website or something (hold on to that thought and a related one), well, no shit Sherlock, you're not going to have high interest.  

OK, pick up the thought.

First interviewer said there's no sports editor, just two reporters. AND, he indicated that he thought the new ME needed to justify having two sports reporters, even.

Well, definitely no shit Sherlock on second guy and why nobody is interested in Midland Lee coverage. It's late, outdated, maybe even in web version, it's outdated, with limited art.

OK, pick the thought up again. Everybody shoots their own on photos, both sports and news, and there's no photo editor to even help out, or to edit product.

So, if it's not one of the Midland public high schools? Submitting info and photos is the only way you get in the MRT, print or online. Back to Max. If they have good and aggressive local reporters, let alone if there's a "Basin Sports," nobody in Crane is reading your ass. Ditto for news; you're not sending a reporter there and if the city of Crane or Crane ISD doesn't have a live video stream, you're not writing.

Anyway, I'm good, Hearst. I semi-fooled myself the second time around. I'll do my best to avoid that happening again. 

As Gannett guts the Austin Stateless ...

 That's of course, in my media world of alt-naming, the Austin American-Statesman.

The Monthly notes how many other outlets are rushing in to fill the vacuum being left by the ongoing gutting. (That said, with the Trib headquarted in Austin, some have a leg up.)

I find it "funny," as in a mix of sad and disgusting, that the vacuum-fillers include Hearst, which cuts away at its own newspapers and hides how much it continues to make by being privately owned and not having to report to Wall Street.

The Monthly does note, contra newspaper union-hater Jim Schuetze, that the one thing that has stopped Craphouse (the tail wagging the dog of the "new Gannett") from even deeper cuts is that Stateless editorial staff is unionized. (Sidebar: Has there been a bigger wasted media space in some ways in the past five years than Schutze?)

That said, even as the union and Craphouse battle over a contract? That contract will almost certainly only cover full-time employees. Like I am sure will happen in Cowtown at the StartleGram, now that their union got a new contract a year ago, any fulltime employees who leave in the future will be replaced by freelancers.

Austin Statesman journos on strike

 Gannett New Craphouse (actually it was OLD Craphouse) journos at the Austin Stateless are on strike.  Good luck; in all likelihood you won't get a real win, and certainly not one that's long-term. Take the wage floor. Yes, the folks at the StartleGram got one from McLatchKey, as did Snooze staff from Belo. Know what? That was for full-time new hires only. That means one way around that one, of course. Nor, as far as I know, do such floors have a COLA for inflation. So, 10 years from now? Let alone 20?

Craphouse (new Gannett) really does suck

 I think most of us knew that already, but at Nieman Lab, Joshua Benton whlps out the numbers on circulation decline for 2018-22.

First, yes, COVID has accelerated problems at struggling big chains. But? Not like this, as Josh compares Craphouse to non-Craphouse medium and large regional dailies.

The real issue is that, even by modern media merger standards, the two companies took on a lot of debt, and bad debt.

That said, per one of the links in Joshua's story, did Gannett and Craphouse really have to merge after Alden's failed takeover? Probably each one could have acquired some smaller company instead. But, both — even though Gatehouse has vulture capital behind it, even if not quite as rapacious as Alden — were likely still worried about being acquired themselves.

Back in 2017, Ken Doctor talked about the "Gatehouse method" and added that he thought there wouldn't be much news left in 2022.

That said, the detritus is even worse.

Trying to find dimes under the couch cushions to service that debt, Craphouse/Gannett is now selling more and more of those merged papers. Here in Tex-ass, the most willing buyer is CherryRoad, which makes Craphouse look almost like a newspaper saint, as I told Josh. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they chase the craptacular southern New Mexico newspapers next. (Nothing I see about CherryRoad says they would also take El Paso.)

In other places, like Lafayette, Louisiana, as Josh notes, other companies are expanding to replace dying husks. In yet others, like Springfield, Missouri, digital-first or digital-only startups are launching.

Salinas should be next, if it isn't already. The Craphouse/new Gannett paper there has ZERO paid editorial staff, per this LA Times piece.

Didn't realize new Gannett / old Craphouse sucked THIS bad in NM

Per the Reporter, Santa Fe's alt-weekly, it has ZERO in-person reporters at its Ruidoso and Alamogordo, New Mexico papers. Alamogordo was a print daily pre-COVID. And, it, at least (dunno about Ruidoso) was Gannett's before the merger. So, can't even blame Craphouse.

Thankfully for Land of Disenchantment journalism, it sold off the Deming Headlight and the Silver City Sun-News to the owner of the Silver City Daily Press. It closed its old rival, but it has local reporters, which neither of those Gannett papers did. And, it's hired back a long-time Deming writer.

Oh, both those papers were also pre-merger Gannett; can't blame Craphouse there, either.

And Cruces itself sucks, as noted. The El Paso Times is also Gannett, so its lack of non-local environmental and border reporting is coming from there. Problem? Yes. They're in two different states, which affects reporting on Rio Grande and Pecos water rights, for starters.

And, barf me on El Paso staff titles.  There is is an "executive editor," still but NO "managing editor." There IS a "content strategist" and a "content coach." There's also NO "city editor." There's ONE government reporter. Two staff photogs, which means reporters are likely expected/required to shoot pix off smartphones.

Note this quote from Jay Rosen about Gannett et al:

“It’s more of a financial firm. It’s more in the category of a private equity company or a hedge fund than a newspaper company,” Rosen tells SFR.

About right.

Gannett sucked long before it became the new Craphouse

People in the newspaper biz will of course understand who Craphouse is, like they'd understand the reference to Alden's newspaper empire, Dead Fucking Media.

Anyway, the WaPost had a story this week about the latest round of editorial staff cuts at the new Craphouse. The writers noted how Gannett keeps cutting, cutting, cutting, and how this is nothing new, and went back to when it was just Gannett, not the new Craphouse.

But, they miss a few things.

They talk about this paper in Guernsey County, Ohio, for example, and mention that the only full-time editorial staffer at this daily paper was one of Gannett's latest cuts.

Now, for a real newspaper, how do you run it without a local-(ish, these days) editorial staffer? New Craphouse, like other groups big (Can't Nothing Help It [think about it]) and small (Cherry Road Media) just more and more resort to non-local staff mixed with regional content, or in Tex-ass, supplemented by the Texas Trib. (Not even supplemented; replaced would be a better word.)

BUT ...

That ignores something else, because I Googled Guernsey County.

If the "daily" is referring to print, why the hell does a county of less than 40,000, even allowing for the small geographic size and density of Ohio counties, still have a daily paper in the post-COVID world? The Daily Jeffersonian should be the Tri-Weekly Jeffersonian. But it has a circ of 12,000, Wiki claims. Yeah, and I've got palm trees on Lake Erie to sell you. That said, as I said on Twitter, community journalism in Ohio, both small daily and non-daily, puzzle me in many ways.

(Let's ignore the question for now of why many print non-dailies in counties that size still build a daily e-edition, or in CNHI's case, why they put a full week's worth of daily comics, puzzles, etc., into two days of paper and waste money on print costs and on syndication money, when surely COVID would have let them modify such contracts if they're still operational.)

That's the real biggie. 

At the time Dean-o Singleton had the half a light bulb come on with the idea of clustering (idea was good, could have been much better implemented and certainly not in a "Chainsaw Al" way), Gannett was one of the few other chains really positioned to do something like that, and it did bupkis.

That's of a piece, and a 15-years or more timespan with Guernsey County, Ohio, still having a daily paper.

That said, I tried to look at their adhole by e-edition. I forgot Gannett does one of those head fakes, offering to let you sign in with Google or Hucksterman, then telling you you still need a subscription. That's why I don't use my real name with Google.

Sidebar: I blogged last fall about the employee-cutting at the new Craphouse.

Don't apply at Hearst — process is worse than Gannett, at least in Beaumont

 And, I say that from experience with both in the last six months.

About six months ago, I applied to be managing editor of a fair sized Gannett weekly in NorCal: three staff writers. Pay, when adjusting for California cost of living, wasn't that much higher than here, but was a bit.

Anyway, Cal labor law apparently requires that jobs above base level fall into salary slots, so I knew what the pay was by default.

The interview process was long and back and forth, before the persons involved said that Gannett higher-ups had said that filling the position was officially on hold.

OK.

Last week, I applied for a Hearst job, assistant editor in Beaumont. No pay scale listed. (And, the job's now yanked off LinkedIn, so I can't get the full description.)

I was contacted by a Kyle Campbell of Local Edge, and asked a salary screening question. Said he needed to know that before going down the road of an interview.

Who is Local Edge? An entirely separate division of Hearst corporate, primarily responsible for branding and marketing. So, nobody at the local paper is involved in the start of the process, and nobody local. Mr. Campbell's area code on his phone is metro Buffalo, and I mean Buffalo, New York, not Buffalo, Texas.

(That said, even smaller chains than Hearts are doing this, having somebody non-local be at least the initial contact on hirings below the level of publisher. Old "friend" Wick is another.)

But wait, it gets better.

I could have bounced back the old "negotiable within parameters" but figured he'd reject that. 

Instead, I gave him this.

Ahh, we're at that "dance time" early. 

I could say negotiable per position parameters even while noting that, at least as listed on Indeed, there were no publicly available parameters. 

But, I'll give you a number, BUT ... 

Kind of like auction items on eBay, but with a twist, this is a "focal number." I could work off of it either way, either up or down, depending on a number of specifics about position requirements. 

Second, it's based on someone else's salaries, and my relation to similar salaries at my current location. That number? $54,102. Where did I get that exact number? Beaumont ISD.

Specifically, it's the starting salary for a first-year teacher.

He said that was more than they were offering.

So, noting my emphasis in the original, I said:

Well, what DO you offer, as in a range? As I said, I can pivot either way, and this was intended to start a discussion.

And heard back crickets at first.

There's three things that get me, and the crickets is only the second. The no local involvement at the start of the interview process is the first. The position already being yanked off LinkedIn is second. (The email exchange was on Sunday; I applied in, IIRC, the Thursday before.

But wait, it gets better.

He kept emailing me. I finally gave him a real bottom line. He said he'd forward my resume to the ME at the Enterprise. That's on a Tuesday. Kaitlin Bain emails me later that Thursday, asks what are good times to call I gave her times for the rest of the week.

No call.

BUT? Job is reposted on LinkedIn that Friday. And this time, I grabbed the link.

And, now that I have the job description? I work occasional evenings at city council meetings and school board meetings. Sometimes, grabbing a few sports photos. But, as an ME myself? My time is under my control. And, I VERY rarely work on a weekend and never on Sundays, unless I'm doing something at home.

But wait, there's more. The ad also mentions working with Hearst Community Media. Per Hearst's page on the Enterprise "group," there's two exurban (definitely, in the case of Jasper, probably in the case of Hardin County) weeklies, a biweekly real estate mag and two monthly "community" mags. It's shed three other weeklies plus a Spanish weekly since Wiki last updated its page.

And, more sadly? On the group website, the "key people" goes immediately from the prez of Hearst Community News to Bain. The only other "leadership" person is the circ director. No publisher listed, not even a general manager. That's cuz publisher Clarice Touhey fled seven months ago for balmy Williston, North Dakota, and the arms of Wick Communications, another newspaper company not high on my list. She was only there two years, having fled Craphouse to get to Hearst in Beaumont. The ad director fled for eastern Arizona a few months later. Editor Ronnie Crockett (not the ME) is not listed by teh Google as fleeing. OK, it seems that the Enterprise is "flattened" enough or shrunk enough it doesn't have a separate editor/executive editor and ME. So, the assistant editor is like a city editor, and it's still not paying enough.

And, it gets better YET. She's been in the business six years total, not counting college journalism and an internship, and was promoted from "digital producer" at that paper, and that overlapped with her being a local reporter.

Anyway, the city floods almost as much as Helltown while having an even more concentrated Cancer Alley. My bottom line will get moved back up if I get a phone call.

Which appears NOT likely.

Kaitlin Bain? You ghosted me. That's the way I see it.

(Update, May 5: Hearst is advertising this position AGAIN/YET/STILL with LinkedIn. I also consider it a semi-lie to post Hearst's total employment rather than numbers at the Enterprise.)

And, Hearst, if the Enterprise has gone that much in the crapper, or you've let it go that much in the crapper, or whatever? Hard pass. God, reporters there (the few that they have?) must make nada.

Reflecting this? I checked Texas Press Association circ numbers.

Now, most newspapers have been trickling off circulation for years, long before COVID hit. (But not all!) And, some have been bleeding, not trickling.

But, it's BAD at Beaumont. They've lost 65 percent in the last three years. 

Out of curiosity, I checked Odessa, where I was a bit over a decade ago, and as a comp, checked snootier twin city Midland, since that's also a Hearst paper. Odessa has lost about one-third its circulation. Midland? Nearly 45 percent, to the extent that its current circ is at Odessa's level if not lower.

So, some of it is the water in Beaumont. And some of it's the water at Hearst, perhaps. (From an area where I lived before, I also checked Waco. Down 40 percent over that same time.) As for the water at Hearst, the Chronic in Houston ran a Texas Trib story about the indictment of three staffers of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo .... and were tweeting it hours later. An eternity in modern big city media.

And, of course, Hearst is privately traded, so it could be wildly profitable, or, at a minimum, at least as profitable as the newspapers Alden Global Capital owns, and steals from because its other hedge fund ventures suck.

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.

What's to stop newspaper owners from pocketing money from the Local Journalism Sustainability Act?

 The Local Journalism Sustainability Act has been reintroduced to Congress. Full bill here.

And, given that it would use taxpayer money to help people buy subscriptions, and its pricing level is clearly targeted to help six-day community dailies of 3,000 circulation or above, up to small seven-day dailies, rather than focusing on smaller daily and non-daily papers, then sliding out to partial support of larger community dailies, my question is not facetious.

On the second credit, for hiring journalists? A 100-hour per quarter standard for an employee's work is WAY too low. Remember, there's 13 weeks in a quarter. A newspaper owner would get a tax credit for hiring any new employee that works more than 8 hours a week.

The advertising tax credit? There's a loophole there. I presume lawyers could use this money to run the "notice to creditors," "letters testamentary," etc. that they have to already.

I don't know what, if anything, could be done to fix the first credit.

Second credit, I do. 250 hours a quarter would be about 20 hours a week for an employee. I mean, 8 hours a week? That's an invitation to reverse-loophole your "independent contractor" delivery drivers for a print newspaper. And, yes, people who run hedge funds and also own newspapers would work on a way to do that.

Address the loophole on the third credit.

(I Tweeted America's Newspapers CEO Dean Ridings at his personal and the America's Newspapers Twitter accounts raising in brief the issues on No. 1 and 2. And, have heard bupkis back.

Update, Aug. 27: I have just tweeted this to the National Newspaper Association. We'll see if I get any more response.)

Also, "local newspaper" needs to be made smaller than "750 employees" on max size. That current definition would allow just about any paper up to Dallas Morning News size (and maybe including the Snooze by now) to qualify. Most Alden-owned papers, including Dead Fucking Media/Media Snooze papers would qualify. Most of New Gannett/Craphouse would qualify. McClatchy papers, now also also hedge-fund owned, would qualify. Yes, "regional or local" is in there, but, you know what? Per media analysts, anything smaller than the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today by default and just maybe the L.A. Times is considered by them to be "regional" and not "national." And, unless that number is moved down to, say, no more than 500, the Aldens of the world would use it as an excuse for further job-slashing to qualify for the payola.

I mean, in the ad credit section, it restricts THAT to small businesses of less than 50, the standard federal definition.

And, speaking of? I see nothing in the language of the bill that says something like: "This offer shall not include any newspapers owned by hedge funds." (Since this is not criminal law, it's not a bill of attainder and carve-outs are totally allowable.)

So, in the end?

Hard pass, as both an informed taxpayer in general AND an informed taxpayer who's also a newspaper editor. Because, the answer to my rhetorical question above is "nothing."

Besides, there's a much, MUCH better way to do this, and to actually target real community newspapers. (It's by no means original with me.)

And, that's to increase funding to the Ad Council and to require it to buy spots in community newspapers. This was first mentioned at the height of COVID. Could be done right now with things like reminders not to leave kids and pets in hot summer cars. Or don't drink and drive paid PSAs.

Sidebar: It IS interesting to see that the bill's cosponsors are almost totally Dems.

The "new Craphouse" whacks away

Yeah, yeah, the company is still called Gannett, but everybody knows the tail of Gatehouse, I mean Craphouse, is wagging the dog.

Well, the tail has started canning employees. And, please, media analysis websites like Poynter, these are firings, not layoffs.

Trump once claimed he could murder someone in Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue, and get away with it.

Well, he could now murder staff at Mar-a-Lago and it would go unreported.

New Craphouse whacked 10 editorial spots at the Palm Beach Post.

Meanwhile, Michael Reed, head of both old and new Craphouse, calling it the "integration plan," praised the number of jobs being whacked and other things.

At Nieman, Joshua Benton looks at the parts that Reed played down. Store sales dropped 10 percent over the year last year and the decline accelerated ... after the merger was announced. (That had jumped out at me in the info at the link immediately above, even before hitting Nieman.) And, digital and print advertising BOTH declined. Benton also noted that Reed turd-polished its digital marketing and events division, noting that other paper companies have also done this well in excess of reality. Having long lived near the Metromess, I can attest to this in spades with the Dallas Snooze.

The real ugly one on the job whack is the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader shit-canning its entire printing press. Beyond its own work, you can't tell me they didn't print small dailies or nondailies from places like Bolivar, Branson and Lebanon. And they're now going to print in Columbia, 160 miles away? Which surely has other papers it prints besides itself? 

So, Springfield readers? You'll have a paper that goes to bed before city council meetings are done, before high school or college sports games are done. In short, your print news will be day-old stale.

Given that Snooze-Leader PR staff have said the print paper will be delivered at "the usual time," stale news has to be the result. That paper has to go to bed by, what, 9 p.m.? Earlier yet?

And the corporate PR weighs in:

“As our industry continues to evolve and transform, we are forced to make changes that allow us to be competitive in the future marketplace. This is without a doubt one of the most difficult decisions we’ve had to make to date,” said Allen Jones, upper Midwest regional president. “We must strategically invest in quality, local journalism and the digital experience we provide our readers and business partners.”

Bullshit. It's not "most difficult decisions" for you. You're a regional president who maybe visits the Springfield paper once a year? Especially if you get performance bonuses as part of your pay, it's probably a delight for you.

I suspect this shit-canning is related to unionizing efforts by editorial staff. I don't know if the editorial staff recruited the pressroom or not (it seems like it did, per the announcement letter), but the news staff couldn't fire anybody anymore. A paper for a city of 160K, metro 300K or so and 17 staff?

So, how many $$$ will Gannett/Craphouse lose in Springfield from:
A. Further print subscription cancellations?
B. Advertisers dropping out of a crappier product that has fewer people reading?
C. No more job printing of other area papers, mags, etc?

Nathan Bomey, you're the brilliant biz reporter at the old/new Gannett/Craphouse USA Today. Instead of this:

"Print subscribers are highly profitable and would have to decline a lot" for the company to end print operations, Gannett CEO Mike Reed tells investors on an earnings call. "We don’t have any plans in the near future to do anything like that."

— Nathan Bomey (@NathanBomey) February 27, 2020

Wanna run some actual numbers for us?

And, you wanna ask Mike Reed why, if print subscribers are so highly profitable, he's so willing to screw Springfield ones in the ass?