Mar 07 2009
The San Francisco Chronicle
Well it’s difficult to report but The San Francisco Chronicle has been hit by the economic hardships which have been plaguing our country. Layoffs and cuts are eminent with a proposal to cut up to 500 editorial positions. They are losing money for many reasons to include the fact that many people are simply getting the news they want by visiting the SFGate website which is owned by the Chronicle. They are also feeling the pinch by advertisers who can get free advertising with Craigslist rather than having to pay with the Newspaper.
Now it seems a very simple solution. If people are getting their news from SFgate which is owned by the same entity, then simply take down the website and people will go back to reading the Chronicle. Or, make the website a subscription type ezine. Only allow subscribers on the website. Why lay off hundreds of people?
As far as advertising they obviously cannot compete with a free service like Craigslist but they should look into some incentives for regular advertisers. Craigslist now charges for some business advertising so if the Chronicle could come up with a competitive plan equal to that of Craigslist they would attract more advertisers.
There are many approaches to this dilemna. With the unemployment rate at over 8% in San Francisco alone, if they have to make cuts with their employees just reduce their hours. They can put some of their employees on a part time basis or allow them to telecommute. There has got to be an alternative to cuts and layoffs.
My question is when there are tough economic times why is it that the first idea these businesses have is to cut jobs? Think out of the box people. Your thoughts?
It’s very sad. I think newspapers everywhere are pretty much doomed — the horse-and-buggies of our times — which upsets me because I am a big newspaper reader. The Chronicle might as well be dead already — the recent formatting change is awful — takes out most of the reporting, replaces it with short and superficial stories, and wraps it in a design that looks tacky and is almost impossible to read.
msterri - I know it is not very well formatted. We’ll see what happens.