SPECIAL REPORT: Facing Cuts, Editors 'Relax the Rules' to Make Swift Changes

By: Joe Strupp The Record in Hackensack, N.J., may epitomize the changing newspaper in today's difficult business climate. In recent months, the North Jersey Media Group daily has redesigned with a "quicker-read" approach, eliminated two scholarship and grant programs, reduced its severance for future laid-off employees, and announced plans to vacate its headquarters and move in with its smaller sister paper, The Herald News of West Paterson. That move, expected before early 2009, will also include an increase in mobile journalists, or "mojos," who work out of their cars and homes.

At the helm for all of this is Editor/ Vice President Frank Scandale, who admits such moves are unusual, but notes that the industry is forced to enter unchartered territory to survive and compete: "I think all of the rules have been severely relaxed just due to the economic realities."

Scandale is one of many editors who are having to weather the latest cutback storm that has so far slashed 1,400 jobs at McClatchy, frozen Gannett's pension, and seen Tribune Co. direct both job cuts and newshole reductions. With the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post both reducing news staff by more than 100 bodies each in recent weeks, Scandale and others are seeing the state of newsrooms forever changing in the face of both economic demands and increased competition.

In Scandale's case, sending more reporters out to work remotely ? a trend anticipated by E&P's "Going Mobile" cover story in May ? is among the biggest changes. He claims such moves for his newsroom will not hurt the product, but admits they are a sign of severe times: "There is only so far you can cut the pages. At some point, if you are losing money, people stop buying the paper ? that is it."

Elsewhere, similar sentiments are heard from editors facing the prospect of staff cuts, fewer pages, and severe resource reductions. Some have resorted to sharing content with former competitors. Others are simply pulling back coverage that used to be a no-brainer.

"It is very rocky, and we know it will be rocky for a while," says Melanie Sill, editor and senior vice president of The Sacramento Bee, which announced plans in June to cut 86 jobs (about 8% of its employees). "There is an uncertainty. No one can predict what things will be like a year from now." Plans are in place to reduce her paper's size from a 50-inch Web to 46 inches. "When we said we would do that, we said we would dump everything on the floor and make some substantial changes," she adds. "We have to look fresh at everything, including our coverage." She said no other changes have been decided.

Sill adds that newspapers cannot be caught up in the unwillingness to change that has dogged the industry for too long: "Some of the things we thought were almost religious issues ? ads on the front page ? were not. Just because it is different doesn't mean it is bad."

David J. Butler, editor and vice president of the San Jose Mercury News, agrees. But he stresses the need to make sure some lines, such as those between advertising and news, not be crossed as new areas are explored: "It is not necessarily bad to consider everything and not be locked into the past," says Butler, whose paper is one of two MediaNews dailies planning to reduce the size of the Monday and Tuesday papers. The other MediaNews outlet looking at a smaller paper at the beginning of the work week is the Salt Lake Tribune. Butler says exact space cuts had not been determined, but Salt Lake editor Nancy Conway says prototypes have between two and four fewer pages.

Space cuts are also happening at such papers as The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and, most recently, the Los Angeles Times, which announced a 15% space reduction along with some 150 newsroom jobs. "There is a fundamental restructuring under way, and I don't know where that is going to end," says Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg, whose paper in June announced it will run approximately 32 fewer pages each week and cut four stand-alone sections, including Monday Business. "I hope we don't end up sacrificing the things that make us unique, playing the role the fourth estate plays."

Goldberg, a former Mercury News executive editor and vice president, says newspapers need to keep an eye on the core product but cannot be too stubborn to change. "You have got to stay in business in order to do the work we do," she stresses. "We are talking about the viability of these institutions."

David Zeeck, executive editor and senior vice president/news of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. ? a McClatchy paper that is cutting 84 staffers ? says he focuses on doing what he can, not what he cannot: "You have to try to cover your community with a different number. Accountability and investigative reporting is one thing we try to maintain."

Still, there is cause for concern among many editors as cuts and reorganizing occur. Margaret Sullivan, editor and vice president of The Buffalo News, cut 10 newsroom positions through a buyout last year, moved two suburban bureaus into the main newsroom since 2006, and earlier this year saw strip ads appear for the first time on section fronts.

"We are at a point in which quality is in danger," Sullivan, editor since 1999, says about the industry. "It is troubling to see the number of journalists decline at such a pace. The steady string of cuts endangers the quality of what we are doing."

Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe ? which is discussing a 10% pay cut with its unions ? adds, "There are a lot of things people are doing that they would rather not do. We are trying to do things sensibly, thoughtfully." He would not comment further on specifics.

Content sharing
Thom Fladung, editor and vice president of the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, which cut 33 newsroom jobs through buyouts since late 2006, says things are not all that different. "It is easy to get caught up in the crisis of the moment," he stresses. "What has to remain sacred is exclusive local news."

One change several newsrooms are making ? many of them reluctantly ? is sharing content. Among the first were a handful of Ohio papers, which began sharing stories earlier this year in large part to oppose new Associated Press rates.

Since then, however, more papers are sharing in reaction to reduced staffing or cutbacks in statewide coverage or travel. One example: "We are now talking about doing a statewide poll together," says Tom Callinan, editor and vice president/news of The Cincinnati Enquirer, referring to a presidential voter poll. "I don't think readers care who does it, as long as we localize it. There are a lot of ways to work smarter, and that is one of them."

The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., has created a number of content-sharing arrangements, according to Editor Steve Smith, which include sharing Washington State University and University of Washington football and basketball coverage with The Seattle Times, The News Tribune of Tacoma, and The Daily Herald of Everett. He adds that he gets Seattle Seahawks coverage from Everett and shares coverage of Idaho state government with The Idaho Statesman in Boise.

"When the economic situation gets as bad as it is, everything has to be on the table," says Smith. "You have to look at the dollars you can save. We're looking for synergy to save money."

Vicki Gowler, the Statesman's executive editor, says her shared content goes beyond Spokane to a statewide approach that includes other papers in Twin Falls and Idaho Falls. "We share whatever we have and it has worked out well," she states, noting such shared deals would never have occurred a few years ago. "People [in newsrooms] have not liked that kind of thing for a long time. But with this economy, you still have to be able to provide rich coverage."

Also sharing content in recent months are a number of Florida papers, including The Tampa Tribune. Executive Editor/VP Janet Coats, who is facing a 20% staff cut announced in July, believes that is just one of the new ways to combat today's tough times.

"I don't think it is a bad thing that we have to look at every little thing," she says. "Difficult times make for interesting partnerships." Tampa is one of several Florida papers that began sharing several months ago, according to Managing Editor Richard Maas: "We have been doing it on a spot basis, but we are looking to set up a more formal structure."

Coats says the Tribune is also looking at having a potentially smaller paper and a change in frequency, but offered no specifics: "We are going to get to a place where we look at format and frequency."

Would the Tribune ever get to the point of sharing with crossbay rival the St. Petersburg Times? "You never say never to those things as an editor," she says. "But it would be hard here given our different business models."

Show me the money
One approach by some editors is to push for new revenue in areas not before explored. Smith in Spokane says his paper recently built a radio studio in the newsroom and now provides hourly newscasts for a local news/talk station. "It is a joint collaboration," says Smith. "We split ad revenue [with the radio station] and this company will have an entree into the local radio market."

At the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, Editor and Vice President/ News Karen Magnuson points to new Web sites focused on local moms, dads, and even pets as a way to grow revenue instead of cutting resources and pages. She has also created nine online newsletters and the bi-monthly Rochester glossy magazine.

"I would much rather help my colleagues on the business side grow revenue than cut expenses," she says. "We have been able to close most of the [budget] gap through new initiatives."

Still, Magnuson, whose paper is among the Gannett outlets that saw pensions frozen, realizes the severity of today's economic troubles and harsh solutions: "None of us anticipated how bad the economy would be this year. Newspapers have to do something to continue to be viable as a business."

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this story, it was erroneously reported that Tampa Tribune Managing Editor Richard Maas had left the paper. He has not. E&P regrets the error.