Like many industries, traditional print and broadcast media outlets have been going through challenging times.

While the media are not immune to downturns in the economy, they also have their own set of challenges. Media outlets are cutting staff, eliminating services and making radical operational changes. The challenges are fueled by the growth in online alternatives for news, information and entertainment — and the subsequent drop in circulation and audience, as well as decreases in advertising revenues.

To meet the financial challenges, most Toledo media outlets have laid off news and other staff members. The Blade announced this month it was laying off 25 people by the end of the year, in addition to previous rounds of layoffs. FOX Toledo eliminated its weeknight sports broadcast and laid off two people. WTOL-TV and WNWO-TV have laid off employees. Cumulus’ Toledo operations recently announced nine layoffs.

Blade Assistant Managing Editor Luann Sharp told the Associated Press that most of the layoffs will be in the newsroom. Sharp said layoff decisions were made during a meeting with the Toledo Newspaper Guild.

Two Cumulus stations, Star 105.5 WWWM-FM and 93.5 WRQN-FM, realigned programming, moving Program Director Ron Finn from the midday shift to team with Lyn Casye for the Star 105 morning drive show, according to the source. Shifts with no live disc jockey scheduled will air syndicated programming or voicetracking — pre-recorded programming — including nighttime spots featuring Casye on 94.5 WXKR-FM.

Released from K-100 WKKO-FM were midday host Bill Manders, who has worked in Toledo for nearly four decades; nighttime disc jockey and 20-year station veteran Craig Snyder; and Buddy Carr, who also worked at Super Talk 1560 WTOD-AM and 93.5 WRQN-FM. Carr had returned to full-time status in May.

Star 105 cut morning producer and promotions assistant Ryan Young, who was a co-host under the name Jimmy Vegas, as well as evening drive host Dave Fuller. Part-time traffic reporter Tim McMahon, Tom Staudt, promotions director at four Cumulus stations; Matt Melzak, evening drive host for The Ticket WLQR-AM; and 106.5 The Zone WRWK-FM morning host Kevin Murphy also lost their positions to the cuts.

The moves reflect staff reductions at Cumulus and other broadcast media throughout the nation under unfavorable economic conditions. The Web site www.ohiomedia.blogspot reported similar cuts at Youngstown stations, while other Internet sources reported layoffs in Kansas, Mo., Fayetteville, N.C. and Topeka, Ka.

The Christian Science Monitor next year will become the first national newspaper to drop its daily print edition and focus on publishing online. The East Valley Tribune, a daily in suburban Phoenix owned by Freedom Communications Inc., is reducing the number of publication days of its print edition while posting news on its Web site daily. The Daily Tribune in Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb, recently cut its print edition to four days a week from six.

This week, Detroit News and Detroit Free Press newspapers, operated by the Detroit Media Partnership, announced drastic cost-cutting changes to drop home delivery to three days a week, while expanding their online offerings.

Downward slide

A recent report shows that advertising will not rebound any time soon. For 2009, total U.S. ad spending will decrease 6.2 percent, according to a Dec. 18 story by the Center for Media Research. The 2009 forecast is on the heels of an expected 3.8 percent dip in U.S. advertising for this year. U.S. spending on TV ads, the largest part of the industry, will fall 6.7 percent in 2008, according to the same report.

Daily newspaper readership has decreased continually since 1999, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s State of the News Media 2008 report. The biggest drop was for the 35-to-44 age group: 53 percent read daily newspapers in 2000; 43 percent reported doing so in 2007.

According to that report, local TV news audience for all 2007 sweeps periods decreased from 2006. In radio, the audience has remained relatively steady since 2000, showing a 1.6 percent decrease.

Not surprisingly, advertising revenue is down. The State of the News Media 2008 report showed that newspapers’ ad revenues were flat in 2006 and down 7 percent in 2007. While online ad revenue increased 20 percent in 2007, the rate of increased slowed from 30 percent in 2006, and is still a relatively smaller portion of newspapers’ ad revenues.

“The average profits for newspapers were about 27 percent or more from 2000 to 2007,” said Cathy Pratt, an Owens Community College journalism professor. “Now, it’s 17 to 20 percent. That’s still a good profit, but in the last couple of years, we’ve see drastic falls. Newspapers are not finding ways to maximize profits.”

In TV, ad revenues were down 3 percent in 2007, but still up compared to the previous non-election year, according to the report. For radio, overall ad revenues decreased 2 percent in 2007.

“People are going online, and that’s creating problems for TV, as well as newspapers for ad revenues,” said David Zamichow, president/general manager for WTVG 13abc.

In addition, Zamichow said that advertising for automakers is “way, way off,” which has been a significant source of advertising.

“We’ve been hit with the same advertising challenges everyone else has,” said Tom Pounds, Toledo Free Press president/publisher. However, he added, because much of his paper’s advertisers tend to be more institutional like banks and hospitals, the paper has been “sheltered” from a lot of the drop in traditional advertising.

“It all traces to ad revenue being down, and people are looking toward the Internet more,” said Jim Foust, chairman of the Bowling Green State University journalism department.

Increasing alternatives

“The Internet is changing the world that newspapers grew up in,” said Stephen Gray, managing director of the American Press Institute’s Newspaper Next project. Gray also is former editor and CEO of the Monroe Evening News.

He said there are many categories of news people used to get from newspapers that they now are getting online. These include national and international news, business news and politics, as well as sports.

The growth in citizen journalism and related news-focused Web sites, blogs, social networks and discussion boards has opened up the news business to literally everyone.

“News used to be a closed game,” Gray said. “You needed to be on staff [to report news]. Now, the Internet has created 10 zillion places and ways for people to get content on anything they want. It’s not journalism, but that buzz of participation was never before possible.”

Owens’ Pratt relates today’s online media options to the taverns of colonial days. “People used to gather and talk, discuss and debate the news of the day. Now, the Internet has the same sense of community. People select particular blogs to read because they either like what’s published or want to challenge it,” Pratt said.

BGSU’s Foust said this type of “a la carte model” is good and bad.

Traditionally, he said “journalism provided a shared sense of what should be important and what people were thinking about.”

While there are now a wide array of online media options, people tend to pick only what they want to read and don’t always see other viewpoints, Foust said.

Surviving or evolving?

To withstand the decreased ad revenue, WTVG’s Zamichow said his station is not filling open positions and “watching every cent we can to keep expenses down. Hopefully, we can ride it out.”

“We’re hoping that the second half of 2009 will be better.”

While providing no details, FOX Toledo’s President/General Manager Ray Maselli issued a statement, “We are adjusting to the needs of our environment and re-engineering the way we do business. WUPW’s ongoing investments in operational efficiency as well as our commitment to serving viewers and advertisers with optimal products and services are effectively positioning us as a more diversified, multi-media news organization.”

Maselli retired effective Dec. 19 after a 48-year career in radio and television. He has been with FOX Toledo since 2001.

Newspaper Next’s Gray said thousands of newspapers have taken up recommendations from his group to evolve into an “information and connection utility.” With the advantage of providing local information, Gray said newspapers “need to  expand their horizons and become a news and information provider.”

He said newspapers have the resources to be and should become the source for anyone seeking news and information on the communities they cover.

“Businesses want to get the right information to the right people at the right time. Therefore, newspapers need to be leading local provider of not only print or banners ads, but also e-mail, video and search advertising as online promotions,” he said.

While traditional media outlets have options to weather their current challenges or change their business model, the competition with online news-oriented sites will not get any easier, according to one long-time, local journalist.

George J. Tanber, a Blade reporter for 10 years, currently is a contributor to ESPN.com, and operates TheNewsMeister.com, a locally focused news Web site. Tanber said newsroom layoffs by newspapers are having two major effects.

“There’s a lack of institutional knowledge of the community,” he said. Typically, veteran reporters will mentor younger ones. But, if young reporters are being brought in as veterans are being laid off, the news quality suffers.

“It takes an experienced  reporter to go out and get the news and information, particularly when the story is complex and involves good investigation. Experienced reporters are invaluable to news organizations,” Tanber said.

In addition, as quality veteran reporters are laid off, they are likely to go to competing online or offline news outlets. Tanber cited MinnPost.com as an example. There, a former editor and publisher of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune newspaper took $850,000 in initial funding, with a small core staff of reporters and editors, and started an online media outlet.

Tanber was critical of The Blade and was let go after he authored a letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board questioning the daily newspaper’s Coingate series.

Future of media

While traditional print and broadcast media are looking to downsize, consolidate and adjust operations to meet the changing media world, ultimately, consumers will benefit by the changing and new media options, according to Newspaper Next’s Gray.

“We’re going through a very painful shakeout with a dramatic effect on a lot of people,” he said. “But, there will be so much more information available to so many more people, and the people will have more opportunity for participation.”

Toledo Free Press Staff Writer Scott McKimmy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Community, Featured, Media.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.