Saturday, March 14, 2009

Links to posts on pending Booth actions

Some folks told me they are having trouble finding links or articles on the current topic of interest.

Here is Crain's article.

Here is the ABC-TV, Channel 12 story.

Editor and Publisher is here.
Posted by at

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is channel 5's story:

http://www.wnem.com/news/18914634/detail.html

Oh wait it's not there anymore.

14 March, 2009 13:10
Anonymous said...

That's because the publisher of the Saginaw News charged into the TV5 newsroom first thing Wednesday morning to complain about the coverage their "reporting partner" gave the story.

14 March, 2009 17:16
Anonymous said...

But the page title still works so thats proof that it was there...

15 March, 2009 20:56
Jim of L-Town said...

Here's the whole post from Crain's:

Hot rumor: Booth newspapers to follow Detroit's lead on limiting publication days
Hot rumor: Booth newspapers to follow Detroit's lead on limiting publication days
Posted 3/12/2009 3:04 PM EDT on crainsdetroit.com
Detroit's two daily newspapers are scheduled to drop seven-day home delivery on March 31, and scuttlebutt gaining momentum in the blogosphere is that the Booth newspaper chain will follow suit in a similar but different fashion.

Former Flint Journal reporter Jim Smith wrote in his blog earlier this week that the Flint Journal, Saginaw News and Bay City Times would print only on Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays at some point in the near future.

In Michigan, the Booth chain's dailies also includes the Ann Arbor News, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette and Muskegon Chronicle (along with some weeklies).

It's unclear if those papers face the same fate. Flint Journal publisher Dave Sharp declined to confirm or deny any aspect of the blog entry.

He did say Booth is still finalizing its restructuring plans, and expects to inform employees and the public in the next 10 days.

"We haven’t talked to our employees yet so it would be irresponsible to comment on it before that," he said. He also declined to say if the restructuring comes as a result of recommendations of outside consultants, as was the case of the Detroit newspapers’ cost-cutting efforts.

I also left messages seeking comment, confirmation, explanation, denial, whatever, with Ann Arbor publisher Laurel Champion, and with the Flint editor John Foren.

Smith also said in his blog some employees at the three newspapers he mentioned will be laid off, those who stay face pay and benefit cuts, and the lifetime job "guarantee" that Booth employees treasure is going away. Also, the relatively new production plant in Flint will be idled and printing shifted to the Bay City-Saginaw facility.

Sharp declined to comment any on specifics.

I know some people who work in the Booth chain, and they say they've been told nothing, but meetings are apparently coming up to brief the staff. Or what's left of their staffs: The Booth papers have been conducting round after round of buyouts in recent years (and four recent Booth ex-pats work in the Crain's newsroom today, along with a few who have Booth farther back in their journalism pasts).

Booth papers are a subsidiary of New York City-based Advance Publications Inc., which in turn is owned be media baron Si Newhouse (Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, etc.).

Booth's apparent changes appear to be modeled after what's going on in Detroit. The Gannett-controlled partnership that owns the Detroit Free Press and operates the joint business operation of that paper and The Detroit News said in December (after I first reported rumbling of it in July) that home delivery will be limited to Thursday, Friday and Sunday (News' readers will get the Freep on Sunday).

Subscribers will be e-mailed an electronic version of the newspaper on other days, and those days also will include a single-section, slimmed-down version sold in boxes and at newsstands.

It's unclear if the Booth papers will publish special e-editions or a newsstand-only edition on non-home delivery days.

16 March, 2009 07:44

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