Where Can I Go for Deal on the Milwaukee Journal

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Headquarters

Back in the fall of 2015, when the buy of the Milwaukee Periodical Sentinel by the Gannett concatenation was announced, I predicted significant cuts for the newspaper under the new buying. Looking at the staff count at other Gannett papers, and adjusting for market size, I predicted the Periodical Sentinel would lose 35 to xl editorial staff.

I was wrong. Back then the Periodical Sentinel had 117 editorial staff (editors, writers, photograph, design and online people). Today that'due south downwards to 88 staff, a loss of 29 staff, not quite every bit bad every bit I predicted. That may be considering the JS has always rated near the top amid newspapers in market penetration — the percent of residents subscribing to the paper — which makes information technology a slightly larger readership than its metro population might advise.

However, that was a 25 per centum reduction in staff, which is huge, and there is every reason to believe more cuts are to come. That's because Gannett is having financial problems which may force more cuts, and because it could be absorbed by GateHouse Media (under a merger programme where GateHouse would get slightly more stock — just over 50 percent — and thus control the new visitor). And GateHouse has a reputation for slashing staff fifty-fifty more than aggressively than Gannett has.

But that deal may not go through, because MNG Enterprises, the owner of Digital First Media, has but purchased 9 pct of the stock of the parent company of GateHouse Media, with the apparent aim of trying to impale the merger with Gannett. Why? Perhaps because Digital First has too had its center on Gannett, only back in February Gannett's board of directors rejected the buyout bid from the hedge fund that owns Digital First Media.

If Digital Outset ever got its hands on Gannett that would be disastrous. Every bit L.A. Times reporter Matt Pearce tweeted back when information technology was bidding for Gannett: "Digital First Media's hedge fund possessor slashes local newsrooms to the bone, soaks them for profits then spends money on things that aren't journalism. If they're knocking on the door, you should lock the deadbolt."

With luck Gannett volition avoid a buyout that ugly. Only it is difficult to come across whatever scenario — even if Gannett continues on its own — under which the JS doesn't continue to bleed staff. Even so I don't expect the JS to get out of business. From a market perspective at that place is sufficient reason to keep the paper going, nevertheless little reason to resist more cuts in staff.

A newspaper similar the Journal Sentinel has little marketplace ability in the digital ad world, which is dominated past Google, which makes nearly as much from advertising as the entire media manufacture. And that doesn't have into account Facebook'south massive touch on where advert dollars go.

Gannett's strategy has been to build readership, market place power and the ability to negotiate for amend advert rates by ownership upwards local newspapers, in essence trying to consolidate a declining manufacture. The visitor owns at least 104 local newspapers and more than 1,000 weeklies. Gannett's goal is to proceeds as many local markets as possible to wrap some local coverage around its national USA Today stories, which can be republished at little price in all of its local newspapers and weeklies.

It also consolidates costs past centralizing printing, apportionment and copy editing for its newspaper chain. The JS newsroom is managed by the Gannett corporate office in Virginia. The JS website is as well managed from the central function based not on the importance of a particular story, simply on algorithms measuring traffic and so highlighting the most popular stories.

In short, there won't be any sleepless nights at Gannett if a key story in city or county government is missed by the Journal Sentinel. First, because Gannet's management doesn't alive in Wisconsin. Second, because the most pop stories at the Journal Spotter are sports stories, typically seven to eight of the top ten nearly popular stories on any given mean solar day. And third considering covering city and county government is labor intensive and you lot can become as much (and probably more than) readership at jsonline.com past merely republishing lifestyle or sports stories from USA Today or any of its 100-plus daily newspapers.

When local and land news stories are published at jsonline, the algorithms have over: they might become buried by the website in half a solar day. The goal is to straight readers to the most popular stories and that'due south typically sports and lifestyle, particularly dining, weather reports and and then the national stories done by U.s. Today. It may as well mean grabbing a story from some other of its papers that did well and giving information technology prominence on the JS website.

The recent conclusion past the Journal Sentinel to put up a harder pay wall for almost local and state stories has blocked all the gratis riders, reducing the readership even more than for those stories, compared to those republished from other Gannett papers that have no pay wall.

And so if you're Gannett, from an online traffic perspective, whether it'south city, suburban or county coverage or education coverage, none of it matters much. The JS hasn't had a full-time county reporter since Steve Schultze took a buyout some four years ago. And it barely covers City Hall whatsoever more. When future cuts come up the 34 staff listed under News and Investigations will likely exist the almost vulnerable.

The staff you need to protect are sports reporters and the dining writer, because those stories get way more readership than news. The most important news beat is the state Capitol, because you lot take more potential readers impacted by state government, and there the paper has maintained two reporters. And then far. Meanwhile in that location are 17 staff handling sports for the newspaper.

All of which I'm certain is killing Journal Sentry editor George Stanley, who truly cares about covering the news, as well every bit the paper's news staff. Only when it'southward not a priority for the owners, and when a reporter's important merely not-so-sexy story is before long buried on the website, it begins to seem dizzy to go to all that effort.

Meanwhile, Gannett is doing all information technology tin can to push button readers to drib print subscriptions and switch to digital readership. When everything is centralized and nationalized, an ever-thinner local print edition is not actually a priority. Moreover print ad is dying: the Sunday newspaper still looks fat, but that's more often than not adverting supplements prepared by businesses who but pay an insert fee to be blimp into the newspaper, which generates much less revenue than a display ad published by the newspaper.

While I have been describing the approach of Gannett, anyone who takes over that chain volition operate similarly considering of the brutal dynamics of the online ad market. The media is at present competing with the massive international scale of monopoly companies like Google and Facebook, who can deliver ads to huge numbers of people, targeted to exactly the audience you lot want, say a immature urban female interested in rock music. Which means news publications need the most online readership they can get, to give them more than market place power when competing for advertisers.

Then Gannett or whoever buys the company has every incentive to go along every local paper going in those 100-plus cities. GateHouse does expect to combine papers in nearby cities, and should it take over Gannett would probably do some consolation of the latter visitor's iii newspapers in Wisconsin's Fox Valley. Simply Milwaukee is far too large a market and too far from whatsoever nearby urban center to consolidate with another newspaper. Ameliorate to keep the JS going and only trim its staff as needed.

All of which means the Journal Sentinel won't exit of business, but will never over again be what it once was. The paper is likely to go along losing staff and importance to readers who intendance well-nigh the news.

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If you retrieve stories like this are important, go a fellow member of Urban Milwaukee and assist back up existent, independent journalism. Plus you lot get some cool added benefits, all detailed here.

More about the GateHouse-Gannett Merger

• Baldwin, Dark-brown, Menendez Lead Senators Urging Media Companies to Recognize Workers' Unions - U.Southward. Sen. Tammy Baldwin - Nov 20th, 2019
• Spud'south Law: 10 Means Journal Sentinel Will Change - Bruce White potato - Nov 19th, 2019
• Another New Possessor for Journal Lookout - Erik Gunn - Nov 15th, 2019
• Journal Sentinel Braces for New Merger - Erik Gunn - Oct 25th, 2019
• Murphy's Law: Why the Periodical Scout Won't Die - Bruce Spud - Aug 13th, 2019
• What Does GateHouse Deal Hateful for the Journal Lookout? - Erik Gunn - Aug 8th, 2019
• GateHouse Deal Could Hurt Journal Sentinel - Erik Gunn - Jul 29th, 2019
• Eyes on Milwaukee: Periodical Sentinel Making Historic Movement - Jeramey Jannene - Jul 25th, 2019

Read more about GateHouse-Gannett Merger here

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Source: https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2019/08/13/murphys-law-why-the-journal-sentinel-wont-die/

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