The wrong way to save newspapers

By Jennifer J. Foster

Much has been made about the decline of newspaper readership over the past 15 years, and there are plenty of sad examples out there wherein the prevailing wisdom about how to save them—by cutting them until they bleed, and then cutting them to the bone—is costing journalists their jobs.

Unfortunately, their lofty protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, the decisions of corporate suits to cut newspaper staffs are also costing Americans—not only in coverage of local events, but also their oversight of their government.

I didn’t major in business. I don’t have an MBA. I haven’t spent any time counting beans of any sort, so I just don’t get it. So let me ask you, my intrepid readers: Can anyone out there point to another industry wherein a downward slide in the quality of the end product actually helped said industry survive?

But corporate boards overseeing newspapers continue to demand more with less, continuing their dogged trudge into irrelevance.

Today’s example of this misguided principle comes to us from Florida, where Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.—the flagship of which is the Palm Beach Post—announced plans to cut 300 of its 1,350 full-time jobs. Publisher Doug Franklin said in a company memo that “roughly 130 of these reductions will come from The Post’s newsroom; with more than 60 each in Advertising and Production, and more than 40 in Circulation.“

Think about that for a minute. News will lose more than twice the number of positions that advertising will and more than three times the number of positions that circulation will.

Franklin delivered the usual company line in delivering the devastating news:

For all employees of PBNI, we will be evaluating the possibility of foregoing salary increases in 2009 ... We are among the last metro newspaper companies in Florida to announce staff reductions. We now face the reality of saying “good-byes” to many of our loyal friends and colleagues who have served PBNI so well ...

We should take this opportunity to salute our past, and recognize the many successes that we’ve shared in recent years as a result of the hard work and dedication of so many people here. We’ve been blessed with fabulous resources and great latitude to do our work-probably more than we should have expected for a newspaper of our size. We took those resources and produced a great slate of products with them-and this is something that we can be proud of forever. None of this would have been possible without many talented people working together to create the greatness we achieved.

Blah, blah, blah.

As usual, folks reading the news on a local blog saw through the kum-ba-yah BS:

Holy s**t! That’s basically half of the newsroom/second floor! How in the hell are they going to continue daily operations?

I think it’s safe to say they won’t be ‘continuing daily operations’ as you know it.

I am a former Postie. If they cut 130 positions in the newsroom, who the heck will be LEFT??

I just don’t understand how a staff that small will cover news in a competitive market of 1 million-plus people in the second largest county (physical size, that is) east of the Mississippi.

What I want to know is how those that are left behind will have any desire to work twice as hard later this year, even moreso now that the memo says they may not even bother with raises.

These folks are definitely NOT corporate newspaper management material. Too much common sense.

Read the full memo, and more than 140 angry reader comments, here.

Driving dummies

By Jennifer J. Foster

Driving is a big responsibility. When you get behind the wheel, you have to do it with a clear understanding that you are taking your life, and the lives of others on the road and along the sidewalks, in your hands.

A little intelligence—like, enough sense to get in out of the rain—doesn’t hurt when it comes to driving safely.

That’s why it’s scary to think that there are people like this out there:

A 24-year-old woman who was clocked speeding by Loop 101 photo enforcement cameras 22 times in less than two months was arrested and placed in jail.

Jennifer Bitton, of Las Vegas, described by authorities as a “habitual speeder,“ was arrested by Department of Public Safety officers at her parents’ home in north Scottsdale on Friday and booked into the Scottsdale City Jail on suspicion of two counts of criminal speeding, reckless driving and one count of endangerment, DPS announced Tuesday.

Bitton told officers she “didn’t know cameras were there.“ She was flashed 22 times in a 45-day period beginning in mid-May. The fastest speed she was clocked at in her Ford Mustang was 92 mph, according to the agency.

Unfortunately, Britton’s not alone in her idiocy:

From March 2, 2006, to July 31, 2006, Francesca Cisneros of Chandler, then 32, threw away more than 70 speeding notifications she received on Loop 101 in Scottsdale in her Honda Civic. At the time of her arrest, she told police she said she didn’t think anything would happen to her if she threw away the tickets.

What a couple of morons.

Sounds like the local DMVs need to develop a new component to the driving test—like only giving them when it rains.

Christina Aguilera rocks the vote

By Jennifer J. Foster

Christina Aguilera was a guest on Larry King Live tonight, and she discussed her involvement in this year’s Rock the Vote initiative to increase voter participation among young Americans.

Aguilera shot a forthcoming public service announcement with her infant son, Max, wrapped in an American flag.

I’m not usually big on celebrities getting involved in politics. I have usually found that their mouths far outrun their knowledge on—well, on pretty much every issue on which they have anything to say.

But I was pleasantly surprised by Aguilera’s comments.

On why she is involved with Rock the Vote: “In particular, for me, being a new mother, you know, it was really important for me to get involved and get excited about this election in particular, being such one of change and new development for our country and for the future of my son. You know, being a new mother, I just want the best possibilities for him so I was extra excited about getting involved.“

Asked whether she had any qualms about “displaying” her baby boy in the commercial, Aguilera replied, “What a great way to sort of subject him in such a positive way and in such a great time in history to do something as positive as getting people to vote and getting people to care about their country and get excited about this change?“

On plans for her to sing “America the Beautiful” as part of the project: “It was really, really nice to bring it down to a really intimate moment between me and my son and kind of symbolizing what this song means in the sense that it’s passing it on to the next generation. It’s trying to contribute in a way to make the future better for my son.“

Aguilera admits that, although she registered to vote “as soon as (she) could,“ it wasn’t until the last election that she actually did, a circumstance she calls “embarrasing.“

You know, I sort of grew up—as I’m sure a lot of people out there probably do the same. A lot of people give up on politics. A lot of people are like, oh, there’s so much dishonesty, I just want to wash my hands of the whole thing.

But I sort of grew up in a house where politics weren’t discussed. It wasn’t really something that was talked about, different issues, concerns. It was sort of a hopeless situation in my home. And as I grew up and became a woman myself, started caring about certain things such as domestic violence, being the background that I came from and whatnot, certain issues were brought up to me that I felt, you know, I can voice my opinion, I can change how the world is.

You know, it takes one person. And then, you know, it goes from there. And so the last election was the one which I had done Declare Yourself, the campaign there with Norman Lear where I really made it a point to get out there and really encourage others to vote and really exercise—and as a woman, that’s embarrassing for me that it took me that long just because, you know, we weren’t always give than right and I think it’s really taken for granted, especially with the younger generation now, you know? So it’s something that I really, really am adamant about getting out there.

Aguilera said she believes young people who don’t vote aren’t “seeing the bigger picture.

“I think when you’re young, you have the sense, too, that you’re sort of invincible and—or that you’re not taken seriously, and that it will matter later on, later on down, down the road maybe.

“But, really, you know, time goes quickly. I’m 27 years old, but already, you know, being a mother and ... things happen,“ she said. “And it’s so important to get involved. And I think now more than ever actually I think young people are really getting involved. I think with the Internet boom over the years and everything being so accessible at the press of a button at your fingertips, I think, you know, anything is available to you as far as information and whatnot. So I think it’s—now more than ever it’s a great time to get involved.“

Aguilera called this presidential campaign “a ground-breaking time in history. I mean, we had a woman running for president, which was pretty much unheard of. An African-American running for president. So it’s just exciting, the change that has come to our country and just to get involved and—and I think, also, that’s another reason why young people might be more motivated now to vote, just because they can see, you know, what might have been even unheard of or unthinkable even last election, it’s right here and right now and very present and this is the moment. This is the moment.“

The original Rock the Vote campaign, which featured Madonna in a spinoff of her hit “Vogue” in 1992, led to the registrations of “hundreds of thousands of young people” and “a huge increase in young voter turnout that year,“ according to the campaign’s director, Heather Smith. This year’s campaign seeks to register two million young voters—a drive Smith said would be the “largest youth voter registration campaign in history by about three-and-a-half times”—in anticipation of the 2008 general election, which she says she expects to draw “the largest increase of young voters at the polls in our nation’s history.“

An interesting aside: Smith noted that, in a great twist of irony, John McCain and Barack Obama each won Rock the Vote’s awards in 2005 for doing “great young voter outreach.“

The 44 million young people in America comprise one-fifth of this country’s voting population.

Let the games begin!