C-J Cuts Eleven Employees

The Courier-Journal newspaper has laid off 11 employees in the circulation, advertising, finance, production and advertising departments.

The announcement comes amid employee furloughs and it follows a mixed earnings report from parent company Gannett. In a story on the Courier website, president and publisher Arnold Garson blamed the cuts on the poor economy. A call to his office placed at 4:55 pm on Friday has not been returned.

Update:

Garson has replied to WFPL with the following statement:

“The Courier-Journal laid off 11 employees on Friday. The employees worked in 5 departments; none of them worked in news.

A lot of good things are happening at The Courier-Journal and in the newspaper industry, and we are optimistic about the future. But the economy remains fragile and it’s necessary for us to continue implementing efficiencies that make good business sense.”

Flow Chart Leads To New Print Jabs (Updated)

Did you see the flow chart of the “power elite” in the Courier-Journal this week? The chart maps who reasonably powerful people in Louisville think the most powerful person in Louisville is.

Jake at the Ville Voice was the first to criticize the chart, saying:

A Kentucky Newspaper apparently asked a single family who the most powerful person in Louisville happens to be. It’s no surprise that they all named their family members or super-close friends.

Then LEO Weekly joined in, with a blog post.

These fleecers of the entity once known as “Louisville’s Economy” have been been compiled into one convenient and eminently printable dartboard courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal, whose own Matt Frassica posed to them the question, “Who’s the most powerful person in the city?”

That prompted this response on Twitter from the chart’s author, Matt Frassica:

What? No vampire squid?

That is a reference to Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi.

UPDATE: Insider Louisville has their own list of powerful Louisvillians.

We’ve seen LEO Weekly and the Courier-Journal at odds before over issues of journalistic merit, quality and integrity.

One of the chief criticisms of the chart is that it doesn’t explain why the people pictured are powerful and what influence they have in the city. It presents fact as fact, but leaves out analysis. However, it’s one of the few reports to acknowledge the power select wealthy, non-elected Louisvillians have in the city.

Without wanting to stir the pot, I attempted to start a discussion between interested parties, but no debate ensued. As with the last LEO/CJ disagreement, it may be best to bring some transparency to the matter. Neither paper has a public editor to explain why stories were pursued and published, but it’s hard to think insight from both sides would do anything but benefit the audience. The journalistic process isn’t always complicated, but it can be muddy, and isn’t clarity one of our goals as reporters?

Pool Reporters From C-J, WHAS-11 Will Cover Fischer’s Council Breakfast

LEO reports that the breakfast we reported on yesterday between Mayor-elect Greg Fischer and the Metro Council will be covered by the media…but only two outlets.

It was brought to our attention by a reporter with The Courier-Journal via social networking that the Saturday social would be open to the media. When asked if members of the press could attend the Fischer breakfast with council members, however, the mayor-elect’s spokesman said only handpicked media would be allowed inside.

“We are allowing a two pool reporters  — CJ for all print and WHAS for all TV,” said Chris Poynter, in an e-mail message. “Details to be sent later today.”

Other reporters have told LEO Weekly that they were informed by the transition team that they could stand outside the Fischer premises, but were discouraged from coming altogether.

The breakfast will be held at Fischer’s home, but if a majority of the council or a council committee is present, they cannot discuss city business. That would turn the social gathering into a meeting and make it subject to open meetings laws. If the breakfast violates those laws, then the case would go to the city ethics panel. Previously, the question about the breakfast was, “How will we know what is discussed?” It would be up to the attendees to not discuss official business or report that discussions took place.  The pool reporters will, presumably, share their information with other press (this happens in courtrooms all the time–a camera crew will feed audio and video to other reporters).

UPDATE: Here is the official release from the Fischer team:

Greg and Alex Fischer will be hosting members of the Louisville Metro Council and their spouses/partners for a breakfast at their home this Saturday morning at 9 a.m. This is social event and no official business will be discussed. However, since all council members will be present with the Mayor-Elect, two pool reporters will be allowed to cover the event. The pool reporters were chosen today by random draw.

The Courier-Journal will be the print pool representative and WHAS-TV will be the broadcast pool representative. The CJ and WHAS have agreed to share their information and footage with other media outlets following the breakfast.

More Cuts At The CJ

The Wall Street Journal (and now the ‘Ville Voice) is reporting that the Gannett newspaper giant will make more cuts this month.

From the WSJ:

The cuts will come from the U.S. Community Publishing division, which consists of Gannett’s more than 80 local dailies, the person said, and won’t affect the company’s flagship, USA Today. The exact number of jobs to be cut wasn’t clear. The cuts will be disclosed in the next few days.

Gannett, which like most newspaper publishers is suffering from steep advertising declines, cut about 10% of its work force last year. The company was expected to make additional cuts after a dismal first quarter, when net income fell nearly 60% from a year earlier as publishing ad revenue declined more than 34%.

I’m sure that advertising reductions are hurting newspapers, but reporters were being cut before the recession. Here’s an excerpt from David Simon’s testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee in May. Simon is a former newspaper reporter and the creator of the HBO series The Wire:

When you hear a newspaper executive claiming that his industry is an essential bulwark of society and that it stands threatened by a new technology that is, as of yet, unready to shoulder the same responsibility, you may be inclined to empathize. And indeed, that much is true enough as it goes.

But when that same newspaper executive then goes on to claim that this predicament has occurred through no fault on the industry’s part, that they have merely been undone by new technologies, feel free to kick out his teeth. At that point, he’s as fraudulent as the most self-aggrandized blogger.

Anyone listening carefully may have noted that I was bought out of my reporting position in 1995. That’s fourteen years ago. That’s well before the internet ever began to seriously threaten any aspect of the industry. That’s well before Craig’s List and department-store consolidation gutted the ad base. Well before any of the current economic conditions applied.

In fact, when newspaper chains began cutting personnel and content, their industry was one of the most profitable yet discovered by Wall Street money. We know now – because bankruptcy has opened the books – that the Baltimore Sun was eliminating its afternoon edition and trimming nearly 100 editors and reporters in an era when the paper was achieving 37 percent profits. In the years before the internet deluge, the men and women who might have made The Sun a more essential vehicle for news and commentary – something so strong that it might have charged for its product online – they were being ushered out the door so that Wall Street could command short-term profits in the extreme.

Such short-sighted arrogance rivals that of Detroit in the 1970s, when automakers – confident that American consumers were mere captives – offered up Chevy Vegas, and Pacers and Gremlins without the slightest worry that mediocrity would be challenged by better-made cars from Germany or Japan.

In short, my industry butchered itself and we did so at the behest of Wall Street and the same unfettered, free-market logic that has proved so disastrous for so many American industries. And the original sin of American newspapering lies, indeed, in going to Wall Street in the first place.

Read the whole thing here.