From the SF Chronicle to Chrysler: Dislocation at Internet Speed
May 23, 2007The San Francisco Chronicle is making one of the biggest newsroom cuts yet; 25%, writes a Chronicle reporter(!) Eighty reporters, photographers, copy editors and others will be laid off.
“Analysts predicted the reductions at The Chronicle could have repercussions for readers. While an increasing number of people get news from online aggregators such as Google News and Yahoo, those stories are most often originally reported by print journalists. “
Then there’s the news website in Pasadena, that has unrepentently (and to great publicity) outsourced its city council coverage to India to reporters paid $7500 a year.
While I have sympathy for those cutback or outsourced, I’m not going to cry crocodile tears. As my Dad told me more than 30 years ago, you’ll never see pro-labor sentiment in a newspaper because they’re an employer. As the last person I know who owns three American cars, (a Ford, a Lincoln and a Jeep) where were these people and their publications in terms of supporting U.S. industries?
Still, it’s tough times, and for a communications person, the whirling scythe dumps more competitors into the pool.