Hearst says cuts needed or SF Chronicle may be closed

[UpInArms]

Source: CBS Marketwatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Hearst Corp. said Tuesday that unless the San Francisco Chronicle can undertake "critical" cost cutting measures including job cuts within weeks, the company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper. Hearst said the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and added that, "this year's losses to date are worse." The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001, Hearst said. The closely-held media company said cost reductions including an unspecified reduction in union and non-union employees are needed to restore the Chronicle to health.

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/hearst-corp-may-s...

[XemaSab]

1. Why don't they try cutting out all the crap and focus on reporting news?

Get rid of the sports, stock quotes, entertainment, special Castro detail, travel, and all the other bullshit. For starters.

Oh, and try actually reporting NEWS instead.

I swear the Chronic has all the journalism value of the Sierra Star (www.sierrastar.com ) without even being able to get all the IMPORTANT LOCAL STUFF right.

[Auggie]

7. It's not a matter of content. Newspapers are becoming irrelevant.

The Internet has made them obsolete.

Besides, they sure aren't green, are they? Newsprint, delivery, ink -- one big carbon footprint.

So much my 5000th post.

[XemaSab]

10. I think there's an important role

for local news.

The LATimes and the Sacbee cover state issues very well, and the Chronicle has missed the boat.

[Auggie]

17. No doubt. The Chronicle hasn't been the same since the de Youngs sold it.

[XemaSab]

12. And to further expand:

If I wanted to know the best spots to go in Mexico, or what good movies are out now, or how the Diamondbacks are doing this season, or anything like that, a newspaper would not be the first place to head.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Print them on hemp paper. The Hearst corp knows why that isn't the norm.

[natrat]

18. yea and lying for the crime family for all those years lost it the intelligent reader

[shrike]

19. Most of what we read on DU is newspaper-generated

The issue is not newsprint, but newsrooms. Somebody's gotta gather the information. Print and television are doing a lousy job of both, granted, but somebody's got to step up.

Though Josh Marshall at TPM has reporters on-staff, that may be the future. Investigative journalism which bypasses the print stage.

[Auggie]

21. "Bypass the print stage" -- I think that's where we're headed.

[bemildred]

2. Well, I like the Chron, but Hearst can blow me. nt

[tanngrisnir3]

3. Is't teh sukc! Eamcrbe the Scuk!

Whenever shitball newspapers fold and/or the Hearst family loses money, there's twelve undertakers in Texas happier than an 8 Day Clock that's humpin' the gun.

[Suich]

5. I have no idea what your reply means,

but it still made me laugh!

[tanngrisnir3]

6. Oh, sorry. "It's the suck. Embrace the suck"

The Hearst publications can basically suck on it.

[Suich]

8. LOL! I kinda got that part.

However, 12 undertakers...Texas..8 Day Clock...humpin' the gun, not so much! Sounds like something Dr. Phil might say!

[tanngrisnir3]

9. Oh, that was bullshit I made up on the spot that sounded 'folksy' to me

Cuz I'm telling you, that's got less hair than a Alabama mooncricket on a Georgia fencepost.

[XemaSab]

11. Win.

[Luminous Animal]

4. It should be sold...

though I would miss Jon Carroll in the morning.

It is a crap paper and extraordinarily conservative in this liberal town. The Bay Area news section is a joke of mostly crime reporting and the national news is gleaned from other news sources.

[Grinchie]

13. It's because they suck.

Hate to say it, but the Chronicle, along with many newspapers don't have a clue.

They don't know whether to focus on Print media or Web. When they do the web, they make it so Advertisement laden that the news is restricted to 10% of the page, while all of these potentially Virus laden, Video and sound heavy Adbots infect your browser cache and overload your computer.

Hate to say it, bu it happens on DU too, only it's 95% less intrusive than the major media outlets.

For example, there are ad's on DU that proclaim "Is Obama Ready to Be President". Hello moderators, but Obama IS President. Abolish these ads and complain, or they will continue, Shaping Opinion like they are intended.

Opinion shaping takes many forms, and ad's like this are psychologically subversive, yet memorable attempts to cause people to lose confidence. It bothers me that people done't catch the relation, but that's why these ad's work in shifting opinion.

[XemaSab]

15. Donors don't see the ads

[ConcernedCanuk]

22. close - actually donors have the CHOICE to turn off the ads

.
.
.

I turn the ads on now and then, just to see what I'm missing

and what others have to put up with

then turn them off - "ahhhhhh"

[Peace Patriot]

14. Time for a worker co-op?

Just sayin. Cut out the rich bloodsuckers, and suddenly business--whether a newspaper or an auto manufacturer--becomes viable again. People need things--news, cars--other people (the people who actually make things and have the know-how) want to work to provide them. The only thing standing in the way of that trade--a real marketplace--are the super-rich vampires who are sucking out all of the profit.

So, re the SF Chron, I hope the Hearsts walk away. And I hope the people who actually know how to produce news get together and start putting out a better newspaper that doesn't have to support the luxury lifestyle of our modern royalty. Workers own the shares, and succeed or fail on their own smarts, skill, love of their craft and hard work. What did that little girl say, whom Obama quoted? "We are not quitters." That about sums up the American people who only need to be rid of the parasite class to burst forth with new creativity and can-do spirit.

[slackmaster]

20. It's already such a thin, weak paper there's not much left to cut

It's a real shame that a city the caliber of San Francisco hasn't had a newspaper worthy of its stature in decades. Every time I visit the Bay Area I'm astonished to see how lame the paper news has become.