BULLDOG EDITION RETURNS TO SEATTLE

By: Joel Davis Papers Still Feeling Crunch From Strike, Economy


SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Amid some unrelated barking by former
strikers, Seattle's joint operating agreement (JOA) partners have
put the "bulldog" edition of their Sunday newspaper back on the
prowl.

The bulldog, formally known as the Advance edition of The
Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sunday paper,
returned to newsstands May 12. It offers readers a chance to
purchase the Sunday newspaper on Saturday morning, providing
early access to preprinted advertising inserts and popular
editorial features.

The bulldog was suspended in November during a strike by the
Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. The Times says
producing and distributing the Advance edition costs more than it
generates in circulation and ad revenue, but it has long-term
strategic importance, serving the needs of advertisers and
readers. "It's a real sales driver, an important vehicle for our
advertisers," said Times spokeswoman Kerry Coughlin.

Reviving the early edition is one of the few bright spots of late
on the Seattle newspaper scene. Late last month, the Seattle
Times Co. announced job cuts, as well as pay and hiring freezes,
to counter damage done by the strike and the economic slump. The
company, which has eliminated about 300 positions in a work force
that numbered as high as 2,500 prior to the strike, is trimming
bonuses, reducing page counts, offering early-retirement buyouts
to some employees, cutting the hours worked by others, and
canceling a major promotional campaign to increase circulation.

"We're never going back to where we were [pre-strike]," Times Co.
President and Chief Operating Officer H. Mason Sizemore
cautioned. "We're a leaner company as we go forward."

The Guild says some of the layoffs have an air of retaliation
about them against certain strikers. "There's definitely
retribution in the people chosen," Guild spokesman Bob Hoffman
told E&P, and, he added, the Times "gives favorable
treatment to scabs." Times spokeswoman Coughlin denied the
charges of retribution.

While the Post-Intelligencer (P-I) is doing some
belt-tightening, layoffs have yet to occur, Publisher Roger
Oglesby said. "We have a hiring freeze on, but have not announced
or are planning layoffs," he said. "We do have significant
expense cuts." (The Times is owned by the Blethen family,
50.5%, and Knight Ridder, 49.5%; the P-I is owned by the
Hearst Corp.)

Meanwhile, a little more than a year after it occurred, the
Times says its conversion from the evening to the morning
cycle is a success. The Times made the switch in March
2000. The conversion was without precedent because the
Times went head-to-head against the P-I, its JOA
partner. "By and large, the results have been the best they could
be," Sizemore said.

Despite warnings from consultants that the conversion could cost
the Times 50,000 subscribers, circulation actually rose
2.7% for the six-month period ending Sept. 30. The Times
did especially well in cutting into the P-I's share of
single-copy sales in the city.

"When the Times came into the morning market, our single-
copy sales dropped immediately," acknowledged the P-I's
Oglesby, who nevertheless said that the conversion has been good
for Seattle. "It's made both papers more competitive and
sharpened the journalism."

With the Times boosted by the switch in cycles and the
P-I energized by a slick redesign in response, Seattle's
circulation battle was in full bloom in the middle of last year.
Then, in November, the strike began at both papers. And while its
lasting damage is hard to gauge, the strike's effects can be
measured in many ways. A big one: Between Sept. 30 and March 31,
according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Times'
weekday circulation fell 0.2%, to 225,222 from 225,687; the P-
I's fell 3.9%, to 168,951 from 175,794; and their Sunday
circulation fell 3.6%, to 482,978 from 501,845.



Joel Davis (jdavis@editorandpublisher.com) is West Coast editor for E&P.



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.