Mobile Press-Register Rumor: 100% Layoffs

[road2000]

From the rumor mill of fellow former Press-Register reporters comes this: total layoff of staff is imminent, with packages to offer two weeks pay for every year served. If you don't accept it, you get canned anyway. I can only find a few rumblings about it by Googling. Anyone know anything about this?

[Syrinx]

1. I'm not sure I understand

Are you saying the P-R is going out of business? From what I understand, the Mobile daily is a terrible, right-wing propaganda sheet, but I would hate all those people to lose their jobs. Plus, I can't imagine Mobile without a big-time daily newspaper.

[road2000]

2. That's my question, Syrinx.

My "informant" doesn't think so. She speculates the P-R will pull stories off the wires. That still doesn't cover local news. It may be some variation of the story she heard. This sums up what I've found. Mention of P-R is near the bottom.

http://mediaofbirmingham.com/2009/12/08/exclusive-birmingham-news-offers-buyouts-to-employees-across-the-board/

[Syrinx]

3. thanks for the reply and the link

It seems the newspaper business is in a heap of trouble nationwide. A lot of it is their own fault. They're responding to the competition from online news sources, by cutting their budgets for local reporting, and regurgitating more and more wire reports. Maybe I'm missing something, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. They should be beefing up their local coverage, in order to provide a product that the big boys aren't necessarily in a position to duplicate, instead of asking me to pay a few dollars a week for information I can get online for free from a million different sources. It seems almost like they're trying to commit suicide.

I'm in Tuscaloosa, and I'm still buying the T News, for the time being. But I'm not sure how long that brand loyalty will continue to exist. Apart from the local sports coverage, which I think is still great, thanks mostly to Cecil Hurt, there is hardly any local news content at all, apart from the police and fire logs, and the obituaries (which are mostly PAID these days).

I'll miss sitting down in my recliner with some inky newsprint, but maybe not as much as they think. If the math in my head is correct, the local newspapers I buy just about everyday, cost about the same as my woeful dialup internet connection. And my woeful internet connection give me infinitely more information. Including your OP.

:patriot:

[road2000]

4. This is so true.

"They should be beefing up their local coverage, in order to provide a product that the big boys aren't necessarily in a position to duplicate, instead of asking me to pay a few dollars a week for information I can get online for free from a million different sources. It seems almost like they're trying to commit suicide."

I'm no longer in Alabama, but I follow the state news and check the P-R on-line, but one finds the same stories by the same few writers all over the state. I get a similar amount and quality of news from old reporter friends via e-mail.

[misanthrope]

6. If you think the daily is right wing, you ought to see Mobile's...

..."alternative" newspaper. It's like FOX News boilerplate.

[trof]

5. Can't get Baldwin Register online for about a month now.

Most mornings I read the Register online for local and state news. There used to be a sub-site(?) for Baldwin county, The Baldwin Register.
Can't find it any more.

[misanthrope]

7. Not exactly true...

...They are reducing to a minimal metro crew. If you'll look at their site, they have started emphasizing speed of their news delivery. Stories are posted as soon as they covered, not waiting until it's ready for print the next day. There's also a greater emphasis on consolidating statewide coverage, easy enough since the Mobile, Birmingham and Huntsville papers are all owned by Newhouse.

Truth be told, the Press-Register Website is better now than it's ever been.

[topspeed]

8. what

I'm in Tuscaloosa, and I'm still buying the T News, for the time being. But I'm not sure how long that brand loyalty will continue to exist. Apart from the local sports coverage, which I think is still great, thanks mostly to Cecil Hurt, there is hardly any local news content at all, apart from the police and fire logs, and the obituaries (which are mostly PAID these days). http://methoo.com

[Syrinx]

9. ?