As media giants continue to gobble up smaller competitors it is no surprise that the quality of journalism in the United States continues to decline. One reason, and maybe the simplest explanation, is that these megacorporations have an unquenchable thirst for profits.
Today, two major newspaper companies announced that they are axing more reporters and editors in order to keep profits up.
No wonder then that newspapers like the N.Y. Times and the Washington Post are hesitant to report on the failings of the White House: with a business strategy that emphasizes mergers and acquisitions over serving readers, these companies will not risk having a new administration take over that will restrain their appetite for media consolidation. (more details below).
New York Times Cutting 500 Jobs – 4 Percent of Its Work Force – in Effort to Reduce Costs
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times Co. said Tuesday it would cut about 500 jobs, or about 4 percent of its work force, as part of an ongoing effort to reduce costs. The reductions come atop another 200 jobs that were cut earlier this year.
The Times said it expected 250 jobs at its main newspaper group to be affected, which includes the Times, the International Herald Tribune and the online operation of the Times. Of those job cuts, about 45 will come from the Times’ newsroom, the company said in a statement.
In a memo to staff, executive editor Bill Keller wrote: “None of you will be surprised to learn that the economic pressures on our business have been unrelenting. While we’re in better shape economically (and much stronger journalistically) than our competitors, our revenues have not grown sufficiently to keep up with the growing costs of everything the company does.”
The New York Times Company reported a net income (profit) of $292 million for 2004.
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In the meantime, at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, 100 more editorial jobs will be eliminated. The newspapers are owned by Knight -Ridder a company known both for the excellence of some if its reporting, and the profits demands of its chairman, Tony Ridder.
Editor & Publisher, the trade journal for the newspaper industry, interviewed former Philly editor Gene Roberts concerning the buyouts.
Roberts, who ran the Inquirer from 1972 to 1990 — during which the paper won 17 Pulitzer Prizes — saw things differently. He called today’s plan “suicidal.”
“Long range, it will hurt both papers and cause immediate problems at the Daily News,” he told E&P. “They are staffed at rock-bottom already.”
In his book on the company, Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk, Davis Merritt explained some of the pitfalls of modern newspapering:
When newspapers become public companies, the business side sets profit goals, and editors have to meet them. They try: They plump up their “sof t” coverage of food, fashion, lifestyles, homes, and cars to appeal to baby-boomers and advertisers. They cut hard news, especially foreign news. They cut staff.
Ridder is known to be obsessed with Wall Street expectations. Notes Roberts in E&P: “It is not a question of losing money,” he said. “It is a question of operating margins.”
Knight-Ridder recorded a net income of $326 million dollars in 2004, up 10% from 2003.
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Politicians can sleep well tonight knowing the media companies are doing what they can to prevent the news from slipping out to the public.
