Sentinel Newsroom To Become Movie Set

• Yes. Thank you. I found it absurd that the paper couldn't put a number to it and flesh out its own story with specifics. It's good that the newsroom wasn't directly affected but the other functions are important, too. Bob's cutting and pasting the McClatchy story was nice but a weak response, if it was, indeed, intended as one.

• "Undisclosed" equals about 50 people who were laid off. Marketing, human resources, finance, etc. Lots of hard-working people cast out into the street. It's strange that a newspaper, which demands detailed information from everyone else, won't provide any on itself. If this were another company, the Sun-Sentinel would be writing a long, tear-jerk story on how these people's lives had been disrupted by poor management of a major company.

• A movie set. How apropos. Hollywood is nothing likr real life. And that's nothing like a real newspaper or real newsroom.

• This from today's Sacramento Bee on Miami Herald owner McClatchy: McClatchy takes $1.47 billion write-down By Dale Kasler Published 12:00 am PST Friday, February 29, 2008 The McClatchy Co. announced another big write-down of its assets Thursday, this one totaling nearly $1.5 billion, a sign of a difficult business climate and the drop in McClatchy's stock price. The $1.47 billion post-tax write-down was an accounting charge and won't actually cost Sacramento-based McClatchy any cash. But it's a reflection of the state of the newspaper industry and the troubles McClatchy has encountered since buying fellow publisher Knight Ridder Inc. in 2006. Although The Bee's owner said it remains optimistic about its long-term future, the write-down signals a diminished value of the company's assets, especially the 20 papers acquired in the Knight Ridder deal. The entire industry is suffering because of the real estate slump, a weakening economy and the migration of advertising and circulation to the Internet. McClatchy is particularly vulnerable because it gets one-third of its revenue from California and Florida, where the housing market is especially soft. The write-down "reflects the downturn in advertising that has hit us, particularly in California and Florida," said McClatchy Treasurer Elaine Lintecum.

• real estate bust, credit crunch, recession -- oh my!

• Very exciting but there was a layoff yesterday at the paper. An "undisclosed number" of non-newsroom staff, according to the brief in Business. The story is not online, as far as I can tell.

TotalComments: 6