An industry turned on its side

On Monday, a friend of mine from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted the following message: "My heart and prayers go out to those laid off today at the Post-Dispatch ..."

Tuesday, it was a friend from USA Today: "Very grateful to keep my job. Very sorry for those who were not so fortunate. God bless them all."

Wednesday, the Times-Picayune in New Orleans announced it will publish a print edition only three days a week.

Thursday,  the Birmingham News, Press Register of Mobile, and Huntsville Times announced they will publish printed editions three days a week, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, beginning in the fall. A major reduction in employees is expected. 

I can't help but be a little heartbroken over this.  

Support your local Irish tavern

Last weekend I was sort of able to sneak away for a couple of days and attend a wedding in Fairhope, Ala. For those of you who have followed the blog and my articles, this was for my friends Alex Perez and Kathryn Lo Porto, who had their home destroyed by the April 27th tornado in Tuscaloosa last year. I'm happy to report that they had an amazing wedding.


A couple of quick well-deserving shout outs: McGuire's Irish Pub in Destin (as awesome as ever), McSharry's Irish Pub in Fairhope (home of the above photo), and the Rotary Steak Cook-Off in Fairhope -- thank you for the near heart attack, it was well worth it.


Here's the description: "Up to 25 teams of grill masters, both amateur and professional, compete in preparing rib eye steaks to tempt the palate of discerning steak fanciers. Patrons can vote for the People's Choice Award, and professional judges judge the commercial entries. Tickets are $40 per person in advance, $50 at the gate, and include all-you-can-eat steak, baked potato, and tossed salad, accompanied by wine, beer, and soft drinks as well as live entertainment. Proceeds benefit college scholarships, international service projects, and community service projects of the club."


It should be a law that every community has one of these ...

An industry on the move ...

This week’s “On the move” segment of the Associated Press Sports Editor’s newsletter includes an item that Dave Ammenheuser, the assistant managing editor/sports and administration at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside Calif., is leaving to become the sports editor of the Tennessean in Nashville.

Here’s the eye-opening part: A few years ago, the Press-Enterprise had a sports staff of 43 with four assistant sports editors. The staff he’s leaving is comprised of just eight reporters.

That’s everything you need to know about the state of the newspaper industry, and my aim here isn’t to be critical but to show concern for my remaining colleagues and further explain why I tell aspiring journalists that they shouldn’t get into this business unless that can’t not do it (I hope that makes sense). 

I’ll use my former newspapers as an example.

My first paper, the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press, went from a daily circulation of 88,159 in 2000, to 67,492 in 2010. During the same time period, my third newspaper, the Appleton (Wisc.) Post-Crescent, went from 54,901 to 41,104.

My second newspaper, the Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, now only has a scaled down on-line edition.  When it ceased printing on May 16, 2009, the daily circulation was approximately 17,000, down from a high of 60,000 in the 1960s. It’s listed in the RIP section on newspaperdeathwatch.com.

As for Alabama, here are the latest circulation figures:

Birmingham News 102,991

Mobile Press-Register 81,003

Florence Courier Journal 70,839

Huntsville Times 44,462

St. Clair Times 37,000

Montgomery Advertiser 31,495

Dothan Eagle 27,966

Tuscaloosa News 27,274

In 2000, the Birmingham News’ circulation was 148,851, and Montgomery was 53,500. I may be a little off with this, but when I started at the Tuscaloosa News in 2004 the circulation was above 38,000.

It’s pretty much like this everywhere, with advertisers departing faster than the readers.

The Council of Economic Advisors recently crunched data from LinkedIn’s nearly 150 million members about industry trends from 2007-2011 and found that newspapers are the United States’ fastest-shrinking industry (while the fastest growing were the Internet following by online publishing).

Further bringing the point home to me was an announcement in the News-Press a couple of weeks ago, that a number of employees had taken early-retirement packages and called it a career. Among them were the person who first hired me, Keith Gibson, and the person who followed him as sports editor, Sam Cook. I wish them well. 

Newspapers will always have a special place in my heart, but it's obvious that the whole industry is on the move, not just Ammenheuser.