Dagwood lives to see another day
The bleak state of the newspaper business has managed to penetrate the sweet spot – the comics. Now, in addition to legions of journalists and pressmen, Dagwood is feeling the heat. A few weeks ago, the bumbling hero of one of America’s oldest comic strips leaned back in his chair and predicted that the way things are going, he’s a goner. Poof!
If he wants a life, the blithely ageless Mr. Bumstead will probably have to reinvent himself. He’ll need to be a new, improved multi-platform cartoon character available instantly in a variety of mediums to the on-the-go iPhone generation.
“Death spiral” seems to be a popular term for describing the drastically shrinking size and plunging revenues of America’s dailies. When I decided to write this column, my brother asked why I’d “walk out on that plank,” given the doom-and-gloom predictions about the newspaper business and the stories that keep rolling in about layoffs and cutbacks across the country.
Sam Zell, the turn-around investor who bought my hometown newspaper company, declared “this is the worst ad environment ever” and has axed 1,100 people thus far from the Chicago Tribune Co., mostly from the newspapers. This summer, the Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Palm Beach Post have each announced plans to eliminate about a quarter of their staffs.
Last month, the Los Angeles Times cut 150 people. It reportedly happened so fast that one editor said he didn’t know whether to nod sadly or smile to his own staff members in the hallway because he couldn’t recall who was on the list.
For all the hand-wringing about declining profits in the industry, there has been ample room for movement, at least for the publicly traded U.S. newspaper publishers. Historically, they have had operating profit margins of around 20 percent. By comparison, hotel companies average 11 percent, makers of office supplies 7 percent, and grocers less than 4 percent. Perhaps because of these healthy profit margins, newspapers were able to stave off major changes far longer than leaner enterprises. Ultimately, the glacial rate of change has proven to be a liability.
This newspaper is facing its own challenges in the loss of circulation and ad revenue. The staff is smaller. The paper is smaller. Sky-high newsprint and fuel prices are taking their toll.
Luckily, the Spokesman enjoys some advantages in these turbulent times. Among other things, it’s privately owned and not subject to the vagaries of Wall Street. Being independent from corporate bureaucracy allows it to change quickly. A slew of awards testifies to its knack for innovation and transformation to a multimedia operation.
The Spokesman’s newsroom is about to undergo its fourth reorganization in six years. The amount of space devoted to news will probably shrink yet again, which will beg questions about whether the cuts engender a self-fulfilling prophesy. The late columnist Molly Ivins referred to it two years ago as “suicide by a thousand cuts.”
From what I can tell, only a couple of things seem certain. First, no one in the industry seems to have a magic bullet to fix the problem of declining revenue. While there is still a healthy demand for excellent journalism, the fickle tide of ad dollars has shifted to the internet, and newspapers haven’t yet been able to recapture it.
Because the problem is bigger and more chronic than any ordinary business cycle, big changes will keep coming down the pike. Newspapers will continue to evolve in unknowable ways, and the inevitable job losses will be painful.
Even though I am new to the newspaper business, and don’t have the accompanying insider cred of a veteran like Ivins, I have a more sanguine view of the whole tumultuous affair. I’ve lost my job four times – twice in radio, and twice through major reorganizations at Fortune 500 companies.
Like many American workers, I’ve been through the meat-grinder of reorganization and reinvention. And I’ve lived to tell about it, right here on the printed page of a medium-sized daily newspaper. It’s no picnic, but it ain’t all bad. Dagwood’s in the paper today, too.