Grumpy Editor

Times-Picayune, New Orleans, will drop daily publishing

New Orleans is joining the growing list of cities without a daily newspaper, as The Times-Picayune will reduce publishing to three days a week in the fall, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Major staff reductions will accompany the move. 

Insiders expect the newsroom staff to be chopped by a least a third, to 100 from 150.  Remaining workers will face sharp salary cuts. 

With the shift to non-daily, the focus will be on boosting online news. 

Along with the change, NOLA Media Group has been formed to oversee coverage on the Internet. 

The newspaper will be published on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.  Management considered those the “most valuable days for the newspaper’s advertisers.” 

Ricky Mathews, incoming publisher of the newspaper, established in 1837, said the changes were necessary by the upheaval in the newspaper publishing industry. 

A recent circulation tally of U.S. newspapers placed The Times-Picayune, in the Advance Publications Inc. family, at No. 55 with about 141,000 daily.

 

Nevada nixes state-based ad agencies to promote tourism

Nevada-based advertising agencies are grumbling about the Nevada Commission on Tourism selecting four out-of-state finalists for a two-year, $3 million contract to sell the Silver State as a tourist destination, finds Grumpy Editor.

Eight of the 19 companies that submitted a proposal for the job were Nevada agencies. 

Getting an early nod, with interviews expected to start this week --- with a final decision due during summer --- are out-of-staters Aristotle Inc. of Little Rock, Ark.; Daniel J. Edelman Inc.'s Los Angeles office; Fahlgren Mortine of Columbus, Ohio, and Burson-Marsteller, New York. 

“All things being relatively equal, there should be a process in place to use some common sense that would lean toward supporting businesses in Nevada,” says Valerie Glenn, CEO of Reno-based Glenn Group, adding “especially given our economic situation and our governor’s stance on promoting economic development and job creation.”

Bill Marion, principal at Purdue Marion & Associates, Las Vegas, another Silver State firm washed out as a contender, says advertising and public relations firms in Nevada are used to marketing to a global audience and thus have the knowledge to sell the state. 

With the contract destined to go to a non-Nevada firm, Marion reminds that’s $3 million leaving the state. 

He points out a contract to a Nevada agency “would mean the creation of jobs in Nevada, not only for the firms that are selected, but also the firms that they would contract out for printing, for distribution, for other services because you know a Nevada firm would use other Nevada partners that they’ve worked with in the past.” 

Nevada’s unemployment rate for March was 12 percent, 3.8 percent above the national level.

Bethany Drysdale, Nevada Commission on Tourism’s public relations director, trumpets:  “We are looking for the best and the brightest to represent our agency based on the criteria that we ask for. We’re not necessarily looking to market just to Nevadans, we’re looking to market to the entire United States.” 

Adds Drysdale: “It would be wonderful if we could have a Nevada firm.”

 

Children can continue driving tractors on family farms

Credit the Labor Department’s withdrawal of a dopey 85-page proposed rule that would have affected children doing routine duties on family farms to a report by The Daily Caller’s Paul Conner, mentions Grumpy Editor.

 The planned regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on family farms and learn valuable skills.

Editorial writers on major city newspapers --- far from rural farms --- were quiet on the development, apparently unaware of the planned rule.

As Conner explained it:  “The rule would have dramatically changed what types of chores children under the age of 16 could perform on and around American farms. It would have prohibited them from working with tobacco, operating almost all types of power-driven equipment and being employed to work with raw farm materials.”

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) said the proposal would “ultimately undermine the very fabric of rural America.”

The Labor Department said the decision to withdraw the rule “was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms.”

Appearing Friday on Fox News, Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) said “farming is a family operation” and that’s where “kids learn the work ethic.”  He said 18,000 comments went to the Labor Department last week.

In a statement from his office, Moran said, “If this proposal had gone into effect, not only would the shrinking rural work force have been further reduced, and our nation’s youth deprived of valuable career training opportunities, but a way of life would have begun to disappear.”

 

Media jump on Wal-Mart’s alleged bribery in Mexico

Word that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was caught up in allegations of bribing Mexican officials to speed up growth south of the border, then trying to cover up the situation sent most broadcast/print media into overtime yesterday --- as if such activity is unusual in a foreign country, notes Grumpy Editor. 

That sent Wal-Mart’s stock down 4.66 percent to $59.54 a share by Monday’s New York Stock Exchange close. 

A New York Times story Saturday mentioned executives from Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiary reportedly used systematic bribery to receive building permits across the country. 

The article reported Wal-Mart executives learned in 2005 about allegations of  “widespread bribery” designed to smooth the path for rapid expansion in Mexico.  

Getting a jump on others, CNBC had Michelle Caruso-Cabrera on scene yesterday in Mexico City reporting live from the parking lot in front of a Wal-Mart store. 

While broadcast/print media --- and Washington officials --- expressed shock at the happening involving the world’s largest retailer, she summed up the matter succinctly in six words: “That’s how business is done here.”

In Washington the focus will be on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

Enacted in 1977, it makes it a federal crime for any company, officer, director, employee or agent of a company to pay or offer anything of value “to any foreign official for purposes of influencing any act or decision of such foreign official in his official capacity, inducing such foreign official to do or omit to do any act in violation of the lawful duty of such official, or securing any improper advantage.”

 

Century-old Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call stops presses

With the final press run yesterday of the century-old Laurel Leader-Call, Laurel, Miss., another small-town is left without a newspaper, observes Grumpy Editor.

The publication covered Laurel, population about 20,000, and Jones County.

Founded in August, 1911, as the Laurel Daily Argus, the Laurel Leader-Call was owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., publisher of about 90 daily newspapers and more than 200 non-daily newspapers in 22 states, mainly in the eastern part of the country. 

The Laurel Leader-Call, which operated with a slim staff of 18, saw tough publishing times ahead last September when the daily went to a four-day schedule:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. 

It bowed out with a front page “Special Commemorative Final Edition” with a headline reading:  “Thank you for welcoming us into your lives and sharing your memories.” 

The farewell opening page reproduced 30 front pages from its century of providing news to the community.

 

Stock market slips: ‘China fears’ or simply profit taking?

Sensitivity of the stock market these days, since the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently moved above 13000, was illustrated when wire and broadcast reports throughout yesterday mentioned stocks slip "on China fears” or “worries over China’s economic outlook,” sending the market tumbling 68.94 points to 13170.19,” observed Grumpy Editor.

So what were those worries over China that sent the Dow lower for the second time in 10 sessions?  

The “China fears” stemmed from a comment Monday in far-off Perth, Australia, from Ian Ashby, president of iron ore operations of Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton, Ltd., the world’s largest mining firm (and listed on the New York Stock Exchange).  He said his company was seeing signs of "flattening" iron ore demand from China.

But then, Ashby went on to say iron ore demand would ''grow strongly'' in the next decade and consumption would advance more than 3 percent globally over the next eight years. 

And what about the softening in China demand?

That would not happen until after 2025, said Ashby.

Yet, what investors heard triggered concern, said news reports, sending the Dow averages lower.

In the past, a drop in the Dow from a series of major gains would be attributed simply to profit taking.

 

Other Tribune Co. workers fidgety after Chicago staff cut

Editorial employees at some Tribune Co. newspapers may be a bit edgy today (after all, it is Friday), following yesterday’s release of 15 Chicago Tribune staffers, including reporters, editors and managers, figures Grumpy Editor. 

The downsizing action in the newsroom continues at the Chicago Tribune, where a buyout last month reduced the payroll by about 10.

That follows about 20 editorial positions cut at the Tribune Co.’s flagship newspaper last July. 

Other newspapers in the Tribune family include the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Hartford Courant, among several others. 

The Chicago Tribune, founded in 1847, is aiming for a leaner staff in efforts to slice costs and revive profits as the operation gears up to exit bankruptcy later this year. 

 

Obama visits Vegas, still reeling from his 2009 comment

Most curious stop on President Barack Obama’s two days of speeches in five cities is today’s stop in Las Vegas, the place where three years ago he scolded companies that planned to hold meetings or events in the gambling mecca, which now ranks as the foreclosure capital of the U.S. as thousands of casino and allied workers were laid off, notes Grumpy Editor.

Unemployment in Las Vegas last year:  13.3 percent, among the highest in the nation.

In reporting from Sin City today, it will be interesting to observe if  national print/broadcast correspondents, some with fuzzy memories, work in the president’s February, 2009 line aimed at business gatherings, “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Soon after that statement, Wells Fargo Bank and Goldman Sachs, among others, shifted major meetings from Las Vegas to other cities.  Tourists also shunned the famous Las Vegas Strip. 

Prior to that, Obama made 20 visits to Las Vegas during his first campaign, grabbing attention by saying he wanted to help “not just the folks who own casinos but the folks who are serving in casinos.” 

So today’s nationally-televised speech in Las Vegas will not be from the casino-lined Strip but rather at a United Parcel Service hub near McCarran International Airport. 

Soon after the mid-morning delivery, mainly to UPS workers, the president heads for Denver, then Detroit.

 

Missing from the Las Vegas Strip: outcry from PETA

While casino patrons from around the world are welcomed on the famous Las Vegas Strip, pending legislation by Clark County Commissioners would ban some dogs on public and private sidewalks plus pedestrian bridges along the five-mile stretch, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Behind the anti-pooch measure, slated for further action later this month, is commissioner Chris Giunchigliani who also drafted a proposed ordinance that seeks banning pigeon feeding in Clark County. 

The dual actions --- not generating media excitement beyond Nevada --- also have not attracted the attention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). 

Giunchigliani a few years ago pushed an ordinance that promoted the capture and spaying/neutering of feral cats. 

One resident asked in print, “After attacking hungry birds and starving canines, will she (Giunchigliani ) target the poor defenseless rodent?” 

Pigeons come up for further discussion by commissioners next Tuesday.  Rules could lead to pigeon feeders (that would include unknowing tourists) getting a stiff up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. 

While the major thrust now is on birds and dogs, commissioners for years have been unable to curb the growing number of unlicensed street vendors, panhandlers and adult news distributors that line the busy Las Vegas Strip --- cluttering up the scenery more than pigeons and dogs.

 

Globe takes on printing of competitor Herald in Boston

The Boston Herald later this month will add to long-time competitor Boston Globe’s bottom line with the latter printing and distributing a good portion of Herald copies in a deal hailed by Globe Publisher Christopher Mayer as an “advantageous business opportunity” for the New York Times Co.-owned broadsheet, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The Globe also will start delivering other publications that the Herald currently handles, including Barron's and New England editions of the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. 

In two weeks, the Globe will deliver the Herald's city edition Sundays through Fridays and print the tabloid’s full press run on Saturdays. 

Editorial department operations at the Herald and Globe will remain separate. 

Some Herald copies will continue to be printed at a Chicopee, Mass. plant and distributed by wholesalers, including some controlled by the Globe.

But the deal means about 50 Herald truck drivers and other workers will be laid off and paid severance. 

The agreement came as the Herald prepared to move its offices to Boston’s Seaport District. 

The Boston arrangement followed a year-end announcement that The Cincinnati Enquirer, a Gannett Co., Inc. publication, will be closing its printing plant in this year’s fourth quarter with The Columbus Dispatch taking over the printing.  About 200 jobs will be affected by that move. 

“Media companies are facing numerous challenges, and a streamlined approach to operations will ensure the economic viability of both newspapers and allow each of us to serve our readers and advertisers with a distinct voice,” said Patrick J. Purcell, president and publisher of the Boston Herald.