In the wake of the Chronicle’s recent layoffs, editor Jeff Cohen sent a memo to his smoldering rubble remaining personnel. Here it is, courtesy of Banjo Jones:
Newsroom restructuring
I believe that journalism is a public service. But, also, it is a business. And as a business, this newspaper is not immune from market forces in a media world that has exploded with new voices and commercial options.
Market forces require the Chronicle to operate with reduced costs. All of you received this month’s memo from the publisher framing a downsizing. To achieve that, this week we begin to roll out a restructuring in the newsroom. This process has neither been easy or (sic) undertaken lightly.
We will go forward with fewer journalists and support staff. We need to thank those who are leaving. They have played a role in building the Houston Chronicle into a strong regional newspaper and superb Web site. Our reporting today is more aggressive, our writing is more engaging and our newspaper is more visually alluring because of them and you.
Thanks again, it’s been real, and please turn in your stapler and tape dispenser on the way out.
How are we going to do all these things with less staff? It is a logical question in light of the sheer volume of material we publish each day in print and online.
Remember, we will continue to have the largest news operation on the Gulf Coast and probably twice as many journalists as all other Houston news media outlets combined. Remember also that our competitors today operate with lean, agile staffs. Competition, as we all know, comes from every direction - to see it you only have to walk by the racks of free publications on the street corner or do a Google search on any topic that we cover. We, however, will remain bigger, more talented and more creative than all comers.
Our reorganization will require a short period of adjustment to new ways of operating and new assignments. Some of the changes are addressed below; others will be announced in the coming days and weeks. John Wilburn and I also will try to attend department meetings in November.
Barring other important committments, of course.
For now, please be aware of these new assignments:
- City/State Desk: The state operation merges with the City Desk and State Editor Laura Tolley reports to Metro Editor Tony Freemantle. Alan Bernstein becomes the local political writer. Terri Langford becomes the social services reporter.
- Foreign/National: The Foreign and National staffs combine into one department under the leadership of Chris Shively.
- Sports: Carlton Thompson is promoted to Sports Editor.
- Business: Mark Babineck moves to the business desk as an assistant business editor leading a team of reporters and running the department’s online efforts.
With all of this change, our strategy remains the same:
- Focus on scoops and enterprise in the master narratives that drive our community;
- Think Web first every day with 24/7 breaking news;
- Expand our multimedia content with video and online database initiatives;
- Develop topical Web channels that extend the reach of our Web site beyond news;
- Aggressively engage our readers with interactive journalism and community Web sites;
- Improve community coverage in our Spanish language publications in paper and online;
- Develop niche publications, as we have done with Gloss and Health, in areas with potential for building new audiences.
This is the most interesting time I can remember in 30 years of working as a journalist. I certainly wish that the enterprise did not require rigid cost control in order to stay competitive. But, in the end, I still believe that journalism is a public service, that the commerce of ideas will prevail in the marketplace and that our work will make an indelible impression on the greater Houston area and Texas.
I’ll be interested to read your comments. In related news, the Audit Bureau of Circulations will release its most recent circulation data for U.S. newspapers, including Houston’s Bleeding Information Source. My guess is circulation will be down about 3 percent.
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“…is not immune from market forces in a media world that has exploded with new voices and commercial options.”
What would that be? Hmmm……
Long live the internet!
Every Wednesday I read the comics at my Doctor’s office, otherwise I haven’t read anything the Chronicle has to offer for 2 years.
I feel sorry for those who lost their jobs, but by the same token, I can’t feel sorry for a highly biased politically liberal rag.
You aren’t, Jeffie.
“Focus on scoops and enterprise in the master narratives that drive our community;”
The thinking behind that makes me shudder.
“We, however, will remain bigger, more talented and more creative than all comers.”
Good luck with that…..
you would be more competitive with un-biased reporting. maybe some of us would buy the paper. after i first quit the paper once in qwhile i would buy a sunday for the coupons the wife wanted. eventually i talked her out of that.
GOOOOOOO awAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAy chronicle.
even the coupons suck….
Does Jeff Cohen really know where he works or does he just believe all of that drivel. Chronically biased doesn’t match anything he said.
So when is LST going to start publishing a weekly paper?
They don’t have the staff to detail out any of their stories posted online but somehow find someone to weed out all my most brilliant witticisms when commenting on an article. Reporting has gotten worse now that the middle schools are back in session.
Dang! This has never happened before! Where the heck are all of our suckers, I mean, uh, readers?
If only the gravy train was still a-rollin’… We can no longer depend on being the only news source in this godforsaken conservative town, and that sucks.
But we will continue to strive to inject our leftist views to the forefront, until the ignorant masses realize the errors of their ways.
…as I said before…
We will work until the layoff of our last employee to make this area a bastion of bleeding heart liberalism.
In some respects, the liberal papers are getting what they deserve, though political ideology is not the only reason for demise of newspapers. Nonetheless, I am sorry to see them go.
It wasn’t that long ago when Chicago had three daily papers. Even more recently, Houston had two dailies. It was fun having those choices.
I like the resources at hand on the internet. But, Sunday morning with a cup of coffee and the sports section just isn’t the same when the sports section is a screen.
13 RickG
Yeah, ya can’t drag the ‘puter into the crapper. Just ain’t the same…..
Craigslist, Ebay, Autotrader.com, etc have done more to sink the Chronicle financially than anything else. The Houston Chronicle was, at one time, one of the most profitable newspapers in North America with a classified section profitability that was the envy of every publisher in the industry.
The classified section paid the freight for all the deadweight, the extra bureaus and large reporting staff. These are all developments beyond their control, but the refusal to acknowledge the ship is sinking has been really shocking. It only revealed the cocoon of unreality they have lived in for so long.
Well, maybe a little objectivity would tend to make the paper less loathsome? I guess Jeffie boy never thought of that angle.
“Houston Comical?……….meet ‘Air America’…………yall talk amongst yerselves as you approach the bottom of the dungheap!”
The Chronicle was always more left than the Houston Post but it’s ship completely over turned to the Port side (left) when it bought out the Post and became the SOLE major paper in the Houston Metro. It no longer had to defend it’s views on a daily basis and basically quit covering any of it’s biased views/mandates.
BRING BACK ANOTHER PAPER… I miss the Post’s editorial page although it was still more liberal than I, I did not need Excederin to read it AND I could read it with my kids in the room. (Minimal bad language!)
The Chronicle is frustrating in what they do not report, I always am sitting there with tons of easily answered questions that the reporter never included in the story. (Previous arrests, convictions, legal status, insuranced?) It is very annoying…
The Chron keeps shrinking as the ads take up more space. Maybe the ghost of the Post is getting the last word after all. Still have a Houston Post tube at the driveway, and it must kill the Chron folks to stuff their paper in it–when they actually do that instead of it landing in the ditch.
The computer monitor is not very portable unfortunately.
New official circulation numbers due out shortly…..
get ready for the “spin” from Jack Sweeney, Chron President/Publisher, on how a 3 to 5% loss is actually a GOOD thing. He has plenty of experience, having had to do this for the past 4 or 5 years in a row.
They just don’t get it. The New York Times mentalatiy
doesn’t sell newspapers in Houston. Come to think
of it, it’s not doing so great in New York either. Sorry for those losing their jobs,the others should be looking.
I don’t see it getting any better as long as they are in denial.