‘McClatchy massacre’ lays off 30 Miami Herald reportershttps://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/mcclatchy-massacre-lays-off-30-miami-herald-reporters-40583913/News of mass layoffs by media titan McClatchy sent shockwaves through The Miami Herald Thursday after 30 reporters, a third of its newsroom, found out their jobs were axed.
In an internal memo sent to Herald staff, McClatchy’s top brass said a changing media landscape cluttered with news options has led to a 41 percent decline in consumer revenue, prompting the company to slash newsroom positions across its papers. At some publications, nearly 40 percent of staff were cut, according to the Florida-based journalism institute and news outlet Poynter. Status, a news outlet that covers the media industry, dubbed the sweeping cuts the “McClatchy Massacre” The layoffs affected 13 newsrooms across the country, including the Idaho Statesman, Lexington Herald-Leader, Sacramento Bee, Charlotte Observer, and Fresno Bee.
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According to the memo obtained by New York Times media reporter Katie Robinson, McClatchy sent its staff a bleak message: “The local news market has changed dramatically. Audience have more choices than ever, distribution has fragmented, and content has become abundant. For the past five years, McClatchy made a deliberate choice to maintain our investment in local news reporters. We believed continued investment in our journalism would strengthen our relationship with subscribers and our business.
“We measured the results. Consumer revenue declined 41% while local news expenses remained largely flat. The results are clear and require us to make a different choice. Today we are reshaping our newsrooms and reducing positions as we align our resources more closely with what our subscribers value.”
The decline in consumer revenue - subscriptions and purchases - probably has a parallel decline in advertiser revenue.
Normally, I'd have sympathy for laid off people. However, the MSM were the, "Let them learn to code," crowd when the prospect of coal miners being laid off was being discussed.
