Big Changes ahead at the DMN?

[gc]

from the frontburner...

BIG CHANGES AT THE NEWS
WARNING: Here comes another example of the sort of irresponsible, no-calls-returned-yet, new-media-frontier journalism that Uncle Ed Bark hates.

I have it on good authority that a massive firing is scheduled to go down at the Morning News next Thursday, April 29. Many, many heads will roll. In the days following, publisher Jim Moroney will do a dog and pony show at the Hyatt to explain the big changes and where the paper is headed.

Moroney is out of town this week. Tried his cell. It appears to be turned off. Left a message at his office. Stay tuned.

Tim Rogers · 01:35 PM

[mikedsjr]

WOW! Now even the paper seems to have problems.

[JBB]

I love FrontBurner, but don't get too excited about their rumors. They took the Ashleigh Banfield to Channel 5 rumor and the W at Northpark instead of Victory and ran with them.

[gc]

I love FrontBurner, but don't get too excited about their rumors. They took the Ashleigh Banfield to Channel 5 rumor and the W at Northpark instead of Victory and ran with them.


me too....and yes they have been known to get carried away from time to time then again....hasn't this forum?

[gc]

I t gets better.....

WAS BOOZ ALLEN COMMISSIONED TO DO THE CITY--OR THE NEWS?
What follows is pure speculation. A major metro newspaper's publisher is quoted in Editor & Publisher as saying he's comfortable with a future that includes no printed newspapers--"I'm not about to predict when it will be, but if I live as long as the mortality charts would indicate, I'll live to see it." He hires a top consulting firm to help chart a course through troubled waters. A part of that study involves the newspaper's market, which the newspaper has the consulting firm expand upon and turns into a special report. But the major focus of the study is the newpaper itself. And the results of that study lead to a major restructuring that Jim Moroney will announce to News managers at the Hyatt.

Wick Allison · 02:33 PM

[rantanamo]

hmmmmmmm

[mikedsjr]

Will I still get my newspaper sent to work? Well, its not my newspaper. ;)

[F4shionablecHa0s]

Why are they firing so many people? They're the only newspaper in the eigth largest city in the USA, and they're the number one newspaper in the state of Texas. They're probably not hurting for money.

Maybe they're just paying for their worthless TXCN. Half the time, all they do is replay the WFAA news. I mean, come on! Do they honestly expect people all over the state to watch a DFW-local news broadcast?

[JBB]

If you listen to the announcement before they play the newscast replays, you'll hear the anchor say that the repeat is for WFAA viewers. It isn't played outside of the immediate Dallas area.

[rantanamo]

The other big cities actually have their own news channels like TXCN.

[Lakewooder]

Well, I hope they don't fire anymore native Dallasites. They have so few, in fact the only one I can think of is Doug Swanson (and two Highland Parkies).

It gets frustrating when the DMN can't even identify a neighborhood or part of town correctly.

[drumguy8800]

hrmm. lets hope that.. it doesnt.. i dont know. I love the DMN, and I'd hate to see it go.. but I really don't think that's what this is implying.

We do need a second paper. Belo is like the DFW's area media monopoly.. hands down

al dia
dallas morning news & quick
denton record-chronicle
TXCN
WFAA

[JBB]

I don't think DMN is going anywhere, just moving in a different direction. Possibly toward more web-based subscription content. Maybe the print version will be scaled down to look a lot more like Quick.

I'm not surprised that newspapers would move toward web-based material. In the past, I always made a point to get up early enough in the morning to read my copy of the Star Telegram at home. More recently, as my schedule has gotten more hectic, I usually leave the print copy in the yard and scan the articles online when I get to work. I've considered cutting my subscription to weekends only because that is usually when I do read the print copy, but I would save less than $5 a month by doing so.

[F4shionablecHa0s]

Let's just hope they haven't been bought by ClearChannel. heh.

It would be a copy of the New York Times with a two page "Dallas" section stapled onto the back as an afterthought.

[mikedsjr]

I think this is about moving forward and trying to be ahead of the rest of the world.

Maybe they are going to outsource printing their paper in Singapore.

[gc]

update....

MY SOURCE IS BETTER THAN YOUR SOURCE
Once again, Tim is completely wrong, this time about a bunch of people being fired at the News. With the financial results and all the activity over there--just got word that Get It has been green-lighted under a new name and targeted against PaperCity--they need everyone they can get. Here's what is really happening:There is going to be a massive reorganization—they don’t anticipate any firings. People will be shifted about. This restructuring has been in the works for a year. They are going to bring George Rodrigue (VP) in from the Belo bureau in Washington to be the new executive editor. Guessing that Gilbert Bailon will become publisher of El Dia. Don’t know if there will be a new managing editor (although there is a reason to believe Stu Wilk will stay). Keven Willey is rumored to be a strong candidate if they move Wilk upward. Several of the other departments will get new department heads.

Moral: Don't believe everything you read. Especially if it has Tim's name on it.

Wick Allison · 09:08 AM


This is all junk. I should have never started this thread. sorry folks.

[JBB]

Tim Rogers response to that post from Wick is pretty funny. One of the reasons why his column in The Met was a weekly must-read for me about 9 or 10 years ago.

[mikedsjr]

Just go to show you that maybe the internet is a bad thing.

....ummm....I'm not...uh...here.

[gc]

Tim Rogers response to that post from Wick is pretty funny. One of the reasons why his column in The Met was a weekly must-read for me about 9 or 10 years ago.

lol...he is a witty fellow.

[clipper]

Well, since their profits were up 43 PERCENT in the first quarter, they aren't cutting jobs because of financial problems. More likely they would get rid of people make even more $$$$$$$$.

[gc]

Staff Changes Abound at 'Dallas Morning News'
By E&P Staff - Published: April 29, 2004 4:28 PM EST
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000500249

NEW YORK The Dallas Morning News announced several staff changes today, including the reassignment and hiring of several key newsroom personnel.

Al Dia's Gilbert Bailon has been appointed its publisher/editor. Bailon, who will continue to help build the Morning News' Spanish-language franchise, told E&P in February, "There are too many people who are not reading the Dallas Morning News in English." His other title, vice president/executive editor, will no longer exist.

Stu Wilk has been appointed vice president/associate editor. Wilk joined the paper in 1980 as night city editor, and worked his way up to the position of managing editor in 1996. Wilk currently serves as president of the Associated Press Managing Editors association.

On July 5, George Rodrigue will become vice president/managing editor. Rodrigue joined the Morning News in 1982 as a city hall reporter, and served as city editor, European bureau chief and Washington correspondent before leaving in 1998 to become executive editor of The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. He last served as vice president of Belo's capital bureau in Washington.

Walt Stallings will become senior deputy managing editor on June 1, overseeing a newly created local news operations team.

Sharon Grigsby is now the second ranking editor in the Morning News' editorial department, promoted from assistant managing editor/metro -- a position she has held for five of the 20 years she has been with the newspaper. Grigsby also has served as national editor, political editor and Today editor, and was the founding editor of the paper's Religion section.

Collin County editor Leona Allen has been promoted to assistant managing editor/suburbs/Collin County.

Mark Miller has been hired as assistant managing editor for Sunday/Page One enterprise/topics. Miller most recently worked as a senior editor for news development at Newsweek magazine and is a former Newsweek chief of correspondents.

Gary Jacobson joins the newspaper's Sports Day as a senior writer and editor. He last served as Sunday and Page One enterprise editor.

Political Editor Mark Edgar has been named assistant managing editor/national/foreign/state and politics.

Pam Maples has been appointed to the senior news management team as assistant managing editor/projects/investigations.

Keith Campbell becomes the Morning News' assistant managing editor/news and copy desks, overseeing the paper's newly combined visual departments of news art and design.

Investigative editor and reporter Maud Beelman joins the staff as assistant metro editor of specialty/investigations. Most recently, she has been director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists at the Center for Public Integrity.

In a staff memo, Bob Mong, the Morning News' president and editor, said, "For each person involved, these moves represent important opportunities to unleash journalistic energy and advance our mission of excellence."

[gc]

Not much...the frontburner has some other stuff as well...

[drumguy8800]

I love how the apparant location is 'New York' on that article..

Interesting, no?

[Foucault]

I noticed that too...
Bizarro.

[clipper]

That's because Editor and Publisher magazine is in New York.

[sterling]

Yep. So what about the blood and guts part of it? Or is it just a shuffle of nameplates on doors?

[gc]

No blood and guts....it was just a shuffle. However, with new people in new mgmt positions, I'd expect some other changes here and there.

As someone said earlier, the Frontburner isn't always 100% accurate.

[clipper]

Yes, looks like a shuffle to me. A couple of outsiders coming in but just the same old folks with new titles and raises no doubt.

[gc]

more from the Frontburner...

THE SECTION NOBODY LOVES
Ran into some Dallas Morning News brass over lunch and it was interesting to learn that in the recent shake-up—with all sorts of opportunities flying around and editorships available—the Metro section was the one job nobody wanted.

As the "Dallas metro area" continues to sprawl in every direction, it's a daunting task: finding the biggest and best stories from a collection of wildly diverse communities. For years the section became a dumping ground for all the "bad news" pieces; nary a day went by without the headline, "Man Shoots Wife, then Self." Stanley Marcus used to promote an idea that I thought was brilliant: put all the crime-related stories in one section, call it Crime & Misery, and make it as gory as you want. Readers could devour it all or toss it. Then Metro would be free to cover the rest of civic life. As things are now, it speaks volumes that Metro Editor is a job even the journalists don't want.
Reid Slaughter · 02:15 PM

[MustangMonkey]

Are you reffering to the metropolitan section? That's my favorite.

[gc]

Yes, it is one of my favorites as well. However, it does seem to lack valuable content sometimes. As big as DFW is, it should be loaded with stories IMO.

[drumguy8800]

metropolitan is always the first section that i read! It and business have all the development news in em... :D..

[freewaytincan]

metropolitan is always the first section that i read! It and business have all the development news in em... :D..

No way man. Business is the best. Considering it's the only section I read now, I think that says it all.

[Lakewooder]

Well everyone reads the Metropolitan section -- gotta check the obits.

That's the section also most guilty of mis-identifying an area or neighborhood of Dallas. My personal gripe is they'll put a crime from Far East Dallas under East Dallas. I know Oak Cliff has the same problem.

[drumguy8800]

Metropolitan had "About Downtown" in it, though, Urban. Can't argue with that.

If I ever worked for the DMN.. I think that I would ask for a job in the Metropolitan section.. I don't really think "the scope is too broad" is that good of an excuse. It has to focus on like.. what.. a 10 county region.. the rest of the sections have to focus on the world.. (but of course, finding local news about some lady knitting or something is a little more boring than writing news about Iraq or Afghanistan or something..)

[RobertB]

Just got this email from the folks at the Blue Skies Alliance (http://www.blueskiesalliance.org/), a local clean air activism group with a strong focus on the Midlothian cement kilns and their effect on Dallas' air. Apparently, among the many laid off at the Morning News in the wake of the circulation scandal were two reporters that Blue Skies Alliance considered among the best at reporting on these issues. In response, the group is contacting the paper directly to petition for the reporters' reinstatement -- and putting the editors on notice that they expect the paper to continue to cover the issue with full diligence.

Dear Breathers,

Yesterday the Dallas Morning News lost two of the most dogged editorial
board members covering DFW air quality issues: Tim O'Leary and Jim
Frisinger. The Dallas Morning News released them during a massive
layoff.

O'Leary and Frisinger were a breath of fresh air desperately needed in
DFW's choking smog. Both worked tirelessly to cover this complex issue
in a fair and honest manner. In fact, it was Jim Frisinger who coined
the phrase "Smokey Joe."

The release of O'Leary and Frisinger couldn't have happened at a worse
time. Smokey Joe has already announced his plan to overhaul the clean
air act beginning in January 2005. Based on Barton's past actions, this
doesn't bode well for DFW breathers. I fear that the quality coverage
of clean air issues will suffer as the Dallas Morning News now faces a
void of experience to deal with this complex issue.

Please write a letter urging the Dallas Morning News to reconsider the
release of O'Leary and Frisinger. Tell them that you will still demand
and expect the same high quality coverage of DFW's air problems. (Note:
A copy of the letter sent on behalf of environmental groups is pasted
below. Please feel free to edit and write your letter in your own
words).

Your letters are vitally important to remind the Dallas Morning News
that coverage of DFW's air quality matters to you.

Sincerely,
Wendi Hammond
Executive Director
Blue Skies Alliance



####





October 28, 2004

Mr. James M. Moroney, III
email: jmoroney (at) dallasnews.com
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Robert W. Mong, Jr.
email: bmong (at) dallasnews.com
Editor

George Rodrigue
email: grodrigue (at) dallasnews.com
Vice President, Managing Editor

Keven Ann Willey
email: kwilley (at) dallasnews.com
Vice President, Editorial Page Editor

Stuart Wilk
email: swilk (at) dallasnews.com
Vice President, Associate Editor

c/o Dallas Morning News
508 Young St.
Dallas, TX 75202

RE: Air Quality Issues and Former Editorial Board
Members Tim O'Leary and Jim Frisinger

Dear Mr. Moroney, Mr. Mong, Mr. Rodrigue, Ms. Willey and Mr. Wilk:

On behalf of our organizations and their members, we are writing to
express our utmost dismay regarding the release of Mr. Tim O'Leary and
Mr. Jim Frisinger. Both men constantly pursued the vitally important
stories affecting the DFW area, especially clean air issues. Both men
raised the public awareness and understanding of the highly complex
issues surrounding the DFW smog problem. They broke new ground for
excellence in coverage by always approaching the issue fairly and
honestly.

Losing O'Leary and Frisinger severely weakens the high journalistic
standard expected of the Dallas Morning News. Air issues are highly
complex, and it takes years to understand all of the intricacies
involved. Moreover, the Dallas Morning News does not have the luxury of
time to find or train others to fill these men's enormous shoes.
Congressman Joe Barton has already announced his intention to overhaul
the Clean Air Act beginning in January 2005. Interest and concern
surrounding these actions will be foremost for most, if not all, of your
readers. To lose the vast experience of both O'Leary and Frisinger will
leave a void at the Dallas Morning News during the most critical time
period for DFW air issues. We strongly urge you to reconsider the
release of O'Leary and Frisinger.

We appreciate the past coverage and hope the future will bring more in
depth coverage and editorials about DFW's air problems to which the
public has grown accustom. Your readers demand, deserve and expect the
best coverage of this public health crisis.

Sincerely,

Wendi Hammond, Executive Director
Blue Skies Alliance

Rebecca Bornhorst, Co-Chair
Downwinders At Risk

Tom Smitty Smith, Director
Public Citizen, Texas Chapter

Karen Hadden, Director
SEED Coalition

[freewaytincan]

Dear Breathers...

If I had seen that, it would have gone in the trash. You know, breathers, as opposed to that particular race of humans that have gills?

[trolleygirl]

This is really sad news. Jim Frisinger was a great environmental reporter. I thnk it really shows where the priorities rest with the DMN. And we're a city who does not care about our environmental issues.

[noelamador]

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/11/08/story2.html

Belo's growth slowing/ from DBJ

[gc]

^ Very interesting

[gc]

At the Ripping Point
Dallas' only daily finds itself losing a war for readers' eyeballs and the heart of its staff
BY ERIC CELESTE - eric.celeste@dallasobserver.com
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-11-18/news/feature_1.html

The maintenance workers were pulling down photographs from the wall when a Dallas Morning News staffer stopped to watch. Piled on the floor were several frames, each housing a picture of a DMN employee who'd worked there 25 years or more and had just been laid off. "Tell you what," the staffer said. "Why don't you go stack those on [Publisher] Jim Moroney's desk?" Such is the bitterness that still fills the hallways on Young Street in the wake of last month's layoffs. The sullen lifer mentality that dominated the newsroom for so long has given way to a barely contained seethe, an omnidirectional anger that disperses blame for the depressed state of the paper. Dozens of newsroom staff, editors and writers alike, say morale has never been so low.

With good reason. The Dallas Morning News has undergone a series of setbacks the past several years that have rocked the faithful and enlivened the cynical. Yes, Belo is still a strong overall media company. It owns, in addition to the Morning News, 19 television stations (including WFAA-Channel 8) and three other newspapers. The company brings in $1.4 billion in revenue, and analysts say that Belo, as a whole, is doing fine. But growth at the paper, the jewel of Belo, has been relatively small in recent years and is projected to be flat next year. At least some of its problems, editorially and financially, can be traced to its parade of follies.

It began in the late '90s with a declaration of war against the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when the DMN launched the now-defunct Arlington Morning News--a war Belo lost handily. It extended to the $37 million investment in the spectacular technological failure known as CueCat. (It's the screw-up that keeps on giving: Complaining staffers referred to CueCat in almost every conversation with the Dallas Observer.) The multimillion-dollar launch of the Texas version of CNN, TXCN, soon followed, a mistake that Belo says it will sell off or close down. These were followed by an expensive expansion into Collin County that has yielded almost no new readers, a push to cover suburbs that is being scaled back and a hurried launch of a blurb-filled free daily paper, Quick, to capture readers who don't read.

Wait, there's more: a debut of a Spanish-language paper, Al Dia, that is performing well below expectations, despite management's insistence that it is "on plan." (They do admit Quick revenue is down.) This was capped off earlier this year by a circulation scandal that has cost the paper nearly $30 million in settlements to advertisers. A scandal in which management places the blame on the drivers who delivered the paper. But, according to management, the scandal had nothing to do with this month's layoffs--250 people Belo-wide, about 150 at the News alone--a ridiculous statement that the paper's editors would never let someone get away with in one of their news stories.

The weight of these wrongheaded moves has all but crushed the spirit of the Morning News. In casual and on-background conversations with dozens of reporters and editors during the past five years, I've seen the staff depression build and wane. Occasionally the paper would produce something to be proud of--its series on how the Catholic Church protects many of its sex-shamed clergy, or its special section examining whether the city of Dallas was "at a tipping point," ready to fail--and the loyalists would shout down the staff naysayers. But the past two weeks have brought an onslaught of condemnations from all corners. A funk has filled the place. Like Democrats or Dallas Cowboys, the entire team seems ready to admit its fear for the institution's future.

"One of the reasons the DMN won its first newspaper war versus the [Dallas Times] Herald was a willingness to spend money on a good product," says a longtime manager, summarizing the feeling of many. "Its reversal on this very point is one of the reasons it will eventually lose its fight for its life. It's far too easy to go online and get most of the kind of coverage that the DMN will now offer. It has gutted what made it a unique reading destination and drastically drained its talent to boot. I've heard so many people say, 'Who would have thought the paper could fall so far, so fast?'"

Even Moroney, the wunderkind publisher who most recently was heard shouting that he was leading a revolution, admits he's depressed. In a companywide meeting held two weeks ago, he told the room as much. "Someone stopped me in the hallway and later e-mailed me and said I looked sad," he told the throng. "And I e-mailed back and said yes, but it's OK to be sad. Everyone has to go through this grieving together." And, if you need someone to be angry at, he said, "be angry at me. I won't get angry back at you."

This is good. Because despite his closing statements of optimism--"We're going to make this better," he said--the blame for the paper's decline is being placed squarely on Moroney. In fact, the staff is most upset because it feels duped by him and his talk of "revolution," which, in their eyes, means half-ass attempts to capture light readers and an increasing dumbing-down of the rest of the paper. Worse, they worry that the quality of their journalism is secondary to the financial health of the company, because Moroney constantly ties together the financial and editorial aspects of the DMN's performance. Ties it together in a backassward way. To the staff, he seems to be saying that only a robust, growing, highly profitable DMN can produce a great newspaper and everyone must work hard to see that this happens. Left unsaid is that the old way of thinking--we're profitable only because we're a great paper--is gone.

But even if you buy that management has its priorities screwed up--and Moroney and Editor Bob Mong say vehemently this is not true, that everything begins and ends with putting out a great paper--you're missing the point. The DMN will never be what it used to be. Everything the paper is today is designed to make it something else, something altogether new and exciting, something to fit into Belo's plan for convergence, the buzz word that has been floating around the place for years. That means that all Belo employees--WFAA-Channel 8, Belo Interactive, Quick, Al Dia, the DMN--are working for one media company that gathers information and disseminates it a hundred different ways. That is the company's vision, and everything that the employees bitch about is integral to that vision. Under this plan, they don't write great stories. They gather information to be processed and fed into the Belo conveyer belt, and all the media properties can use it when it's spit out the other end.

Why would they want to do this? Because Moroney believes it is the only way the paper will survive.

Why does he believe that?

The answer to that question gets to the heart of who is really running the Southwest's largest paper.

Moroney believes this because that's what the consultants tell him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I feel like a failing student," Moroney told his employees at the companywide meeting. A meeting that was more sparsely attended than in years past; not a good sign.
Moroney told the staff that he took full responsibility for the poor performance in every area--circulation, readership, customer focus, financial performance, profit from the zoned editions of the paper. "When you review down the line, we were not successful" in 2004, he told the crowd.

It was a less than inspiring speech.

"Look, it's on me," Moroney says from his car phone the following week. He is, as always, polite and forthright, willing to take tough questions and answer them without rancor. It's what makes so many staffers like and respect him when they deal with the publisher face-to-face. It's also why so many of them are upset at him personally as well as professionally. "If you're the CEO of a company," he continues, "you are responsible for its results. There may be very good reasons things are where they are, why you're struggling. But at the end of the day, I feel responsible for the operating results of The Dallas Morning News."

Taking responsibility is not enough for some. "I like the guy," one manager says. "But let's look at this dispassionately. Name one thing--one thing--he's done right. One thing that has worked. I can't." "What I wanted to hear at that meeting," says a longtime newsroom employee, "was very simple. I wanted my leader--who I thought was [Editor] Bob Mong, but I guess it's the publisher--to tell me all you have to worry about is putting out a fucking great paper. Just do that. We'll do our job. We'll make enough money so we don't have to fire anyone else. I won't even tell you how, because you don't need to know. Just write great stories. End of meeting.

"Instead I was asked to help think about distribution and utilizing new technologies. And I don't even know what that means." Moroney laid out his vision for the paper's future thus: He said the paper would have to restructure and re-examine what it has to offer, with more "customization" in mind.

Why?

Because the era of mass customization is what lies ahead for all newspapers.

Huh?

Well, that means that there will be one core product--presumably The Dallas Morning News--but that the paper must customize itself beyond that for people's individual needs and interests.

What?

There will be maybe six or seven or eight or 10 versions of the newspaper, he said.

Why?

Because readers are different now. Presumably because they're readers who don't read. They demand that the paper "shift content" to what they want to know.

Inspired yet?

"What this tells me," says a news reporter, "is that we're giving up on telling stories. We're moving toward TV--headlines and summaries. Like our new back page thing." The reporter is correct. The "back page thing"--the summaries found on the "At a Glance" page on the back of the Metro section--is one step in the paper's movement toward capturing what management calls "the light reader." They're not the only paper doing this, of course, but again, many people came to the Morning News because of its long-standing commitment to in-depth reporting and storytelling. Not to engage in an experiment in capturing new eyeballs with a summary page. In fairness, the paper did manage to wall off its best hard-news and investigative reporters from the layoff wave that landed a few weeks ago. In searching for good news, several reporters I talked to said they were somewhat heartened that none of the paper's "best and brightest" were let go. One staffer even rejoiced to me that the people laid off were dead weight and claimed the only thing making her happy was that at least management knew to get rid of hangers-on.

The layoffs, however, showed an incredible lack of understanding for what readers grow attached to--trust me, Larry Powell's pet column or a Doug Bedell video game review is more thoroughly read than any investigation the paper has ever or will ever produce. And it's true that the biggest stars remain. There are many top-notch reporters at the paper who can produce top-tier journalism. Pete Slover, Lee Hancock, Holly Becka, Brooks Egerton, Reese Dunklin: These people will not let the paper slide into mediocrity without a fight. But their battle is a losing one. Because the forces they can't control--the forces Moroney continues to marshal--are more powerful than any person who types for a living can battle. Heading the fight is the Harvard MBA army known as McKinsey & Company.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scan the Web site of McKinsey & Company, one of the oldest and largest consulting firms in the world, and you find this headline: "Example of Our Work: Newspaper Gets a Rightful Share of the Marketplace."
"One of the oldest and largest general circulation newspapers in the United States needed help reorganizing its advertising sales effort in a recession," the explanation reads. "The McKinsey team stressed the need to make big changes." It's impossible to know for sure if they're talking about the Morning News, because McKinsey has a no-comment policy to the media. Which is just one reason someone should be wary of paying the firm, which commands millions of dollars for its consultations from clients as diverse as United Airlines, TXU and the city of Dallas (see "Surrender Now!" by Jim Schutze, November 11). If they're so distrustful of the media, why were they hired to help remake a media company?

But hired they were. Internal memos show that Moroney asked McKinsey & Company to evaluate his entire business operations--advertising, marketing, circulation. He says, quite reasonably, that any company going through changes must take both internal and external advice if it's going to realize what needs to be done. It makes sense in just about every business. Except, say many disgruntled staffers, in the unique world of journalism. According to people who've worked with and for the company, here's the standard McKinsey game plan. They march in a bunch of young Harvard MBAs or similar clones. They interview managers and staff and observe same. They conduct efficiency studies--what they'd say about a reporter waking up at 4 a.m. to finish a story due at 10 a.m. is anyone's guess, but let's just suppose they would call this "inefficient"--and report back to management. Then they take their findings and put them in context with that industry. How is this done? Why, by looking at the latest reports on the state of that industry--done by McKinsey industry researchers, naturally--and determining if the client is following the path these reports suggest. The reports they wrote. In other words, they come in and tell you if you're doing what they've said you should be doing, and if they find you're not, they tell you to get off your big arse and start doing it.

On the biz side, this was fairly innocuous. They revamped the way salespeople get paid, made it easier for folks to suggest changes, yada yada. Fine. After that, McKinsey's people did something that is also standard operating procedure. They got themselves hired by the client in hugely influential positions. In February 2003, 30-year-old Jason Kays, a management consultant with McKinsey, was named vice president of advertising marketing with the DMN. Moroney said at the time that "Jason's experience with McKinsey makes him an ideal person to lead this organizational change process." The one suggested by McKinsey. Last month, in the wake of the circulation scandal--the one that somehow evaded the watchful eye of the McKinsey MBAs--Kays, 32, was again promoted. His new title: vice president, circulation. This was announced the same day that Editor Bob Mong was stripped of his title of president in the company. The symbolism couldn't be clearer.

Or maybe it could: Four days later, Moroney named Cynthia Carr, 32, to replace Kays as vice president of advertising marketing. She had been director of business development for a short time before that. From 2000 to 2004, she was a consultant for McKinsey. Granted, there's nothing inherently sinister about working for McKinsey. It's where Chelsea Clinton works. It's where consultant Jeffrey Skilling was employed before he became Enron CEO, before he was indicted for fraud and insider trading. But I digress. The point is that if you think these consultants and their cousins, the people who run focus groups, aren't also determining the direction of the paper's editorial product, you're not paying attention. Remember when Moroney talks about circulation and building readership and better financial performance making the paper stronger? Where do you think that comes from? The sports section? Texas Living? Page 1 stories on how mean Dallas is to the homeless? Steve Blow columns on how we should, post-election, hold hands and sing "Kumbaya"? The former editor and president who is now just an editor?

No. It's the advertising staff. The sales staff. That's who's buggering this cat.

If you're not clear on this yet, consider a recent example.

Weeks ago, Walt Stallings, the senior deputy managing editor, told the Metro desk that they were reducing the number of zone sections (news from the 'burbs, where those new eyeballs are) they produce each week from 20 to 11. (One per week per zone, except Collin County, which produces 48 or somesuch.) This was announced to the staff. Before we go on, understand that this is not something that Stallings, a well-respected editor, thought up at Starbucks that morning. This decision was not determined by shipping in an idiot savant to read the sports agate and determine the best course of action for the paper. This was a Big Decision. It involved circulation, marketing, advertising and editorial. There is one person at the DMN who oversees all these departments: Moroney.

The Metro staff, by the way, was quite relieved. It had been begging for zoned-edition cutbacks for months, because it didn't have enough reporters to keep publishing 20 sections. Then, after the layoffs, which took out another half-dozen or so zone reporters, it seemed impossible. So they welcomed this new strategy for that reason, but also because of what it said symbolically: The emphasis needs to be on the grown-up paper, what we like to call the core product, doing great downtown stories about the city's important issues. On Monday last week, in what was described as "an emergency meeting," Moroney said, uh, actually, that isn't going to happen. He said the cutback would be only to 16 sections produced a week. According to accounts of the meeting, he told those assembled that the advertising department had raised hell after the change was announced because they hadn't been consulted. Even though the sections are losing "in the ballpark of $2 million a year," says one manager, the ad department says they'll lose even more if they're cut back. Then Moroney said he'd never signed off on the plan. The Metro staff felt like they'd taken a swift kick to the 'nads.

The idea that the publisher hadn't already OK'd that decision--and then retreated in the face of the ad department's pressure--is prevalent. "Can't be true [that he didn't sign off on the deal]," says a manager. "Either that, or Mong signed off and now he loses face. Doesn't matter in the long run. Metro is fucked over in a big way. Work schedules changed, now changed back. It's more grist for those in the newsroom who wonder, with some justification, if anyone knows what the hell we're doing."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, there is someone who knows. Some thing, actually. McKinsey & Company.
Maybe that's overstating it. A bunch of consultants from McKinsey aren't sitting in a big conference room on the fifth floor telling people how to run the paper. At least, I can't prove they are. But if you listen to Moroney talk about being "consumer-driven" and changing the paper's marketing strategy and bringing in consultants who, like himself, were not brought up in a newsroom--the heart of the core product--then the seemingly desperate, willy-nilly attempts by the paper to capture new readers make sense. It's what the people who aren't newspaper people say a newspaper has to do to survive. It's not just Moroney. Mong, who was raised in newsrooms, says that a strength of the paper is that it is strategic- and goal-oriented, two things he says consultants like McKinsey help bring to the paper. "Whatever consulting they've done has been value-added," he says. "They have not determined how to run the company."

Still, given McKinsey's (debatable) influence, the paper's wrenching changes shouldn't surprise anyone. Ten years ago McKinsey put out a paper called "Navigating the Multimedia Landscape" in which it said, in typical Harvard MBA-nese:

"Businesses that assemble content into products for specific markets and that provide marketing support and access relevant distribution channels...will undergo significant change as new formats compete for consumer and business customers...As these technologies provoke technological, market and competitive discontinuities, they will inevitably alter the set of skills needed to compete successfully." Translated: As people start getting their news on the Internet and through wireless phones and mobile devices, other products like your ol' newspaper may experience a "discontinuity." So what is a media company publisher to do? "Senior managers of many companies need to make choices--often 'bet the company' choices--about opportunities for value creation and, even more frequently, about the threat of large-scale value destruction."

That's what Jim Moroney is doing. He's making a "bet the company" choice. A choice that by hell or by high water, he is not going to oversee the financial decline of his newspaper. And he's convinced that the way to do this is to "shift content." Do market research. Get the hausfraus to tell you what they want to read. Get the consultants to tell you how to package, seal and deliver it. And if all those people tell you they want little blurbs and funny cutlines and pretty color pictures and community news and stuff that isn't so mean and more funny pages and a bigger TV guide and not so many big words all wrapped up in a nice little high-energy eye-pleasing kiss-my-sweet-butt-that's-pretty design, then dammit that's what they're going to get.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The problem with a bet-the-company choice is that you may lose the bet.
Maybe it's a gamble worth taking. Moroney certainly thinks so. He told the staff, "We won't be the same paper." When someone criticized the "At a Glance" sideways monstrosity and the paper's out-of-control quest for light readers, he countered that it was the right thing to do. "This was researched heavily," he said. Of course it was.

This gets to the core problem with the core product.

Nearly two years ago, Bob Mong was ready to lead the DMN to new journalistic heights. He was invigorated and aggressive. He confidently declared that he had a challenge for the staff. It wasn't something that he'd "researched heavily." It was a challenge based on a lifetime in newspapers. He wanted to know the answer to the following:

"Do we really have enough people who believe that we can get better? A lot better? We're a very good paper. Can we become great? What I'm betting on here is that's what most of them want. Most people come in here wanting to make a difference and be the best at what they do...So I'm betting. I'm betting that the energy level is there and the aggressiveness is there, the collaboration is there, the willingness to do more is there. That's the big bet."

Turns out, that wasn't the bet. As a reporter told me last week when I recalled this quote, this is now the challenge:

"Can we be a kick-ass newspaper if we're trimming staff, scaring good people from coming here, making the good people who are here send out résumés, and generally demoralizing the staff? That's what we're gambling with here. We're bluffing at a pot with all the talent we have. And if we're more worried about putting out Quick and picking up readers in Plano than covering City Hall, we lose that bet. We're called on that bet. Whatever. I don't play poker. But you get my point. George [Rodrigue, Mong's No. 2] and Bob say that's not the case, and maybe it's not for them. But I think it is for the publisher and [CEO Robert] Decherd."

Moroney says that analysis is silly.

"It's ridiculous to say that we can't be a great paper because we've only got 500-something people in our newsroom," Moroney says. "How were we great 20 years ago or 30 years ago? Look, our number-one challenge is to get the morale of the employees where it needs to be...And the second is to restart the circulation growth of the newspaper." Again, whether one feeds two or two feeds one is the question for the staff. A vital one. Moroney also points out that even though Belo's many different content providers reuse information in many different ways, each of these entities has its own staff. It's not as though a DMN reporter is being asked to be an anchor and write HTML. He or she still must produce great journalism, he says, and there are enough people in place at other organizations to take his or her content and repackage it as needed.

While the many staffers I talked to acknowledge this, they say he doesn't understand the mental drain that takes place when you feel your managers see your work that way. Management's lack of focus stifles creativity and dampens morale, they say. Moroney, the staff says, in his fevered efforts to find something, anything to fix the paper, is indeed making a big bet while holding few cards. For one simple reason: Convergence doesn't work in a newsroom. Not without turning a newspaper into something that isn't a newspaper. This isn't just the staff's opinion. The Online Publishers Association earlier this year published a telling article by New York Times technology contributor Mark Glaser that looked in depth at the real and overblown effects of convergence for media companies, the grand idea that says you can do more immediate journalism dispersed through TV, print, the Internet and cell phones with fewer people, so long as you combine your media forces.

"Instead," Glaser writes, "the early convergence experiments combining print, broadcast and online operations are finding that they need more people to do more work." He goes on to debunk several myths now held dear at Belo, including that convergence will save you money or jobs and that you can increase circulation without adding more staff. (It does help you, he says, in terms of PR and "branding," hardly a reason to bet the company.) Why won't these principles of convergence work in a newsroom when they work at a cereal company or a tire manufacturer? Any journalist can tell you. You just have to ask them instead of the suits. Because newspaper reporters and editors are stupid people who got into this business for silly, romantic notions. They wanted to help people. They wanted to tell great stories. They wanted to call themselves " a writer." They wanted to use their ego for good instead of evil. True, along the way, they usually forget that. They spawn and they acquire a mortgage and they start to become bitter about the fact they know people who are dumber than they are making sweet money as a lawyer or a real estate agent or, heaven forbid, a consultant. They start to ask why they're still trudging to work, buttonholing city officials who hate them, asking mean questions, struggling to make enough sense out of a shooting or a drug bust to write 18 inches of copy that tries desperately to put it in perspective.

Then, one day, surprisingly, they remember why they got into the business. Because, a few days a year, it is noble. Once in a while, you help someone. You write something nice about a family member. You put life in perspective for those who grieve. You shine a light on scandal and corruption. You make someone laugh. You discover a story untold. That's the reason the best people in a newsroom stay. Not because circulation is growing. Not because new eyeballs are reached. As soon as you take away their belief that the small, occasional joy will some day come from their work, they will leave. Most other crap jobs pay better. Those who take their place will be younger, will not drink or smoke, will talk of brand identity and repackaging content, will wear nice shoes. And the good paper will die.

[drumguy8800]

That's way too long of an article. Major problem with DMN? That would be dallasnews.com.

[gc]

^ Yeah, it is an extremely long read, but pretty interesting, especially since we are a one paper city.

[rantanamo]

Call the Dallas Times Herald classifieds. Get results like you've never seen before. 748-1414. 748-1414. The good ole days of competition.

[freewaytincan]

Call the Dallas Times Herald classifieds. Get results like you've never seen before. 748-1414. 748-1414. The good ole days of competition.

You seem...different.

Man, seven digit numbers alone will do it for me. It's so crazy down here in Huntsville, with the lack of area codes on signs.

[gc]

News expects drop in preprint revenue
11:10 PM CST on Wednesday, January 12, 2005
From Staff Reports
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/011305dnbusbelo.708e9.html

The Dallas Morning News will see its revenue from distributing preprinted material go down $7 million to $9 million in 2005, an executive for parent Belo Corp. said Wednesday. Dennis Williamson, Belo's senior corporate vice president and chief financial officer, said the lower revenue is a direct result of the newspaper's lower circulation. After a company-sponsored investigation into its circulation practices, The News lowered its circulation figures by 5.1 percent for daily editions and 11.9 percent for the Sunday newspaper as of Sept. 30, compared to a year earlier.

Mr. Williamson also said that from September through December, advertisers used about $8 million in advertising credits given them to make up for the incorrect circulation figures. He estimated that 80 percent of that advertising would have been revenue. Advertisers are expected to use about $5 million to $7 million in credits in the first quarter, most of which would have been revenue, Mr. Williamson told analysts at a Smith Barney Citigroup conference in Phoenix. Mr. Williamson did not discuss anticipated revenues or income for The News or other Belo units.

He also offered no update on Belo's previous guidance that its fourth-quarter 2004 earnings will be 43 to 44 cents per share. That compares to a per-share profit of 36 cents for the same quarter of 2003. Belo said it would report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Feb. 10. Belo shares fell 13 cents, closing at $24.75. Besides The News, Dallas-based Belo owns WFAA-TV (Channel 8) and 18 other television stations; three other daily newspapers; and a number of cable properties.

E-mail businessnews@dallasnews.com

[DFWCRE8TIVE]

Newspaper circulation dips 2.6%
12:01 PM CST on Monday, November 5, 2007
Associated Press
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110607dnbusabc.ef2230.html

NEW YORK – Circulation fell 2.6 percent at major U.S. daily newspapers in the six months ending in September, according to figures released Monday, the latest decline as readers continue to migrate to the Internet for news, information and entertainment.

...

With print circulation on the decline and more of their readers going online, many newspaper publishers have been seeking to emphasize their online reach. Revenues from online advertising have also been growing at many publishers, but not enough to make up for the declines in print advertising.

...

TOP 20 U.S. NEWSPAPERS

The average paid weekday circulation of the nation’s 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in September, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.

1. USA Today, 2,293,137, up 1.04 percent

2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,011,882, down 1.53 percent

3. The New York Times, 1,037,828, down 4.51 percent

4. Los Angeles Times, 779,682, up 0.50 percent

5. New York Daily News, 681,415, down 1.73 percent

6. New York Post, 667,119, down 5.24 percent

7. The Washington Post, 635,087, down 3.23 percent

8. Chicago Tribune, 559,404, down 2.90 percent

9. Houston Chronicle, 507,437, down 0.13 percent

10. Newsday, Long Island, 387,503, down 5.62 percent

11. The Arizona Republic, 382,414, down 3.75 percent

12. Dallas Morning News, 373,586, down 7.68 percent

13. San Francisco Chronicle, 365,234, down 2.29 percent

14. The Boston Globe, 360,695, down 6.66 percent

15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 353,003, down 2.78 percent

16. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 338,260, up 2.31 percent

17. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 335,443, down 6.53 percent

18. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 334,195, down 0.81 percent

19. Detroit Free Press, 320,125, down 2.61 percent

20. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 318,350, down 9.08 percent

NOTE: The Chicago Sun-Times has not yet resumed reporting following being censured in 2004 for misstating circulation figures.

SOURCE: Audit Bureau of Circulations.

[tamtagon]

Monday, November 5, 2007
Associated Press
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110607dnbusabc.ef2230.html...
With print circulation on the decline and more of their readers going online, many newspaper publishers have been seeking to emphasize their online reach.

SOURCE: Audit Bureau of Circulations.

I wonder if anyone has attempted to produce and track an aggregate of print circulation plus online reach.

Splitting up Belo's TV and Newspaper entities might just be the best thing for the Morning News. Near the top of my Metroplex wish list is that one of the region's daily print media evolve into a nationally read publication.

[tamtagon]

The cord has been cut:

PegasusNews: Dallas-based Belo completes spin-off of newspaper businesses (http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/feb/11/dallas-based-belo-completes-spin-newspaper-busines/)
By Pegasus News wire

Belo Corp. has completed the spin-off of its newspaper businesses and related assets into a publicly-traded company called A. H. Belo Corporation. The spin-off was implemented through a special tax-free stock dividend to shareholders on all outstanding shares of Belo Corp. common stock. Shares in A. H. Belo will begin regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange on February 11, 2008, under the ticker symbol "AHC." The new company will have approximately 17.6 million Series A shares and approximately 2.9 million Series B shares outstanding.

"Completing the spin-off marks the beginning of an exciting new period in Belo Corp.'s history as it becomes one of the largest pure-play television companies in the country," said Dunia A. Shive, president and Chief Executive Officer. "As a stand-alone television company, with a strong management team and a best-in-class collection of television assets, Belo is ideally positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities. We would especially like to acknowledge our employees for their continued hard work and dedication throughout this process."

Belo has approximately 3,200 employees and annual revenues of approximately $775 million. The Company owns and operates 20 television stations, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW and MyNetwork TV affiliates, reaching 14.3 percent of U.S. television households, as well as the stations' associated Web sites. Nearly all Belo stations rank first or second in their local market based on audience reach. Belo owns stations in seven of the top 25 markets in the nation, with six stations located in the fast-growing, top-14 markets of Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Seattle/Tacoma and Phoenix.

Belo additionally owns or operates six cable news stations -- Northwest Cable News (NWCN), Texas Cable News (TXCN), Arizona NewsChannel, NewsWatch on Channel 15 (New Orleans), 24/7 NewsChannel (Boise) and Local News on Cable (Hampton/Norfolk) -- and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement.

The majority of Belo's management team remains intact following the transaction. Dennis Williamson will continue as executive vice president/Chief Financial Officer; Guy Kerr continues as executive vice president/Law and Government and Secretary; and Marian Spitzberg continues as senior vice president/Human Resources. Joining the Management Committee is Peter Diaz, executive vice president/Television Operations who has more than 30 years media experience. Shive and James M. Moroney III will join the Belo Board of Directors joining Robert W. Decherd (non-executive Chairman), Henry P. Becton, Jr. (Lead Director), Judith L. Craven, M.D., M.P.H., Dealey D. Herndon, Wayne R. Sanders, William T. Solomon, M. Anne Szostak and Lloyd D. Ward.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. acted as financial advisor and Locke Lord Bissell & Liddel, Baker Botts, Jones Day and Wiley Rein served as legal advisors to Belo Corp. and A. H. Belo Corporation for the spin-off transaction.

Source: Belo

Makes me wonder whether or not the newspaper company will be able to be one of "newsprint" media that surfaces intact after an industry consolidation/reorganization. I think it would be totally cool if A. H. Belo Corporation can stay independent rather than being taken over by one of the big fish. As the population and culutral influence of the Southwest/Southcentral region increases, all media will adjust and adapt.

I think it is vital to the area's charasmatic evolution and cultural identity that information media sources are generally independent from the New york, Chicago, Los Angeles, D.C. media decision makers. As responsibly as The Times may direct from a NYC boardroom the reporting of local events, any event will be more accurately reported when everybody that has a role in disseminating information lives in the area.

[Mballar]

If we can just get them to live by the words engraved on the Morning News' building, I'll be happy.
It seems as if the Managed News' editors and staffers pass by the following words everyday without giving them much credence, at all.

Build the news upon the rock of truth and righteousness. Conduct it always upon the lines of fairness and integrity. Acknowledge the right of the people to get from the newspaper both sides of every important question.