The Dallas Mourning News

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Sep. 6 2011 at 4:53 PM

Categories: Media

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All day long the emails have come in, each wondering when we'll note the layoffs currently taking place at The Dallas Morning News. Says here that 38 employees have been given their pink slips and this severance agreement intended to fend off age discrimination lawsuits like the one filed following the '04 layoffs. From what I've been told throughout the day, many of them are revered veterans and recognizable names, even to non-media types, from throughout the newsroom. And some are old friends. I will not name them here.

Early this morning I asked Jim Moroney, the paper's publisher, if he'd have a moment to talk about this latest round of cuts. So far, there has been no word from 508 Young. When I broached the subject in July, upon the shuttering of Quick, he said, "We are continuing to find new ways to line up our expenses with where our revenues are." Of course, this has happened before: In '04, then again in '06, then again in '08, then again in '09, when layoffs were announced in a press release. This afternoon, on FrontBurner, someone posting under the name "One of the victims" wrote that "this isn't about managers or executives trying to fatten their wallets at the expense of the employees. It's about executives in a failing industry trying to hang on as long as they can."

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Originally the company(ies) said the "split will make it easier for the investment community to measure and analyze each company’s performance separately" 'cept they named the newspaper side "AH Belo" and kept the "Belo" name for the broadcast side. -No wonder folks like BCulbreath & Wall Street analysts are confused. Might have been better to have named the print side "Ye Olde Newspaper Company" - but that ship has sailed.
Aside from its vast real estate holdings, AH Belo (TDMN corp. parent) has no other operations to downside aside from newspapers (TDMN, al Dia, & Denton, Providence, Riverside dailies). The broadcast side & the original debt of acquisitions (such as ProJo, Denton, Riverside etc) plus pre-2009 losses from CueCat & the newspapers remain w/Belo Corp. Newspapers/AH Belo were split from Belo Corp in late 2008.
There are people who still enjoy reading news paper.I hate to see employees laid off,President Obama will be blamed for this also. Maybe Belo could downsize on all its other operation
The part where the DMN guy says that the news business is a "failing industry" shows just how out of touch with the times the folks at that newspaper are. There's still plenty of demand for news - just not for the garbage DMN puts out.
Every city needs independent news outlets and not Yet Another corporate house organ. It's a shame about the DMN; I bought it every day for years, until they wore me down with their relentless self-serving Trinity project bullshit.
And yet the harm he did goes on and on. The day that conservatives stop holding up Reagan as The One True prophet of the salvation of America is the day we'll stop wanting to dig him up and kill him all over again.
I relalize the folding newspaper is going the way of the Dodo, but man I'm going to miss it. My morning coffee just won't be the same without being able to turn the page of the daily newspaper. Before the avalanche starts, yes, I am fully aware I am in the minority.
For the love of god, he's been dead for 7 years. He hasn't been president for over 2 decades. Get over it.
I used to advertise rental properties in the DMN. It was $80 for two, maybe three lines that would run for ten days. I would be lucky to get 2 or 3 calls in those ten days. Back in about 2002 or so I tried Craig's List. Got free unlimited copy and 4 photos, email option and easy interface. I still use CL and get great results. You can't beat free, great results and convenience. Nothing against DMN but CL figured it out and executed quickly and effectively. I still think there is room for more, such as DO Backpages but I don't know if it would bring much revenue to DMN on only local basis. I quit the DMN as a suscriber the day DSL was available in my neighborhood. Even their on line presence is lame compared to DO. Keep up the good work.
Tell me about Truett's deep, dark secret. I tutored both there and J. T. Saldivar in the 90s as part of a research program, and the difference, if not black and white, was certainly night and day.
To solve the Disqus paragraph break problem, you have to go in and edit your post after you save it. Kind of a pain...
I am reminded about the “improvements” that the paper has made over the years. In the business section they axed the stock price quotes. If you track stocks then you won’t get any information from the business pages. I recall the “new and improved” comics—less comic strips at smaller size. And of course with all the improvements a higher price. Not to mention using the editorial page for their (Belo’s) personal benefit.
The paper as we know it is a dinosaur that still roams the earth. Soon though, they will all be dead. The technology of instant access to information, the practical end of classified ads, the less reading and more television society are several of the key factors. What is very concerning in the big picture is that these old institutions had a set of journalism rules and ethics they usually followed. The microwave information sources that are becoming more prevalent do not hinder themselves with second independent source rules and often spew more opinion than information. Most concerning of all is that so many of these alternate information sources are really nothing more than distribution channels for the political parties propaganda and big business spin machines telling us how to think about things. In the age of more access to information than ever, most of it is pure garbage yet a significant number of folks eat it with a spoon and spew it out on their "friends." It is hard to imagine a city/county/area as big as this without a major newspaper, but seems inevitable of it the DMN doesn't reinvent itself.
TDMN needs to change.. Apparently, those in the position to accomplish this, are incapable (or un-willing) to do so. STEP ONE..something needs to be done.. about just that. STEP TWO.. realizing what it is, that TDMN has... that the internet doesn't.. ( I'll give you a hint..It has 6 letters and starts with a "D" )
Sell off the business news section contacts, staff contracts, and ad revenue clientele list/contacts to Dallas Business Journal. Spin off the sports section (the only good reporting in the paper -- which I can recognize, even though I myself am not a sports fan) into its own publication (with a Spanish version). Shut the rest down. It's over. All things come to an end.
Amen brother or sister. You said it, and said it well. The whole deal in a nutshell!!!!
Should read: Did the DMN ever do an expose of the conditions at Truett Elementary?
It's terrible when people lose their jobs; I am so sorry for the people who were let go. I am not surprised to see the DMN going under, though. Not only has the DMN stayed more or less silent regarding the terrible state of DISD (did DISD ever do an expose of Truett Elementary?), they actually tend to endorse incumbent school board members like Edwin Flores who were huge cheerleaders of "rock stars" like Michael Hinojosa. DISD kids deserve better. Shame on the DMN for not doing right by them. Other DMN employees need to get out while they can.
If you believe everything you read in the DO, I'd like to talk to you about an investment opportunity.
Disqus wiped out my paragraph breaks, sorry for the readability issues.
Radio and Cable can break news just as fast as the internet so that is not an accurate parallel. But I do understand you were also getting at the difference between the decimation of classified advertising (paper) versus brand awareness advertising of radio and cable.But the loss of classified ad dollars isn't a blanket excuse for the woes of the DMN. People will pay for quality editorial, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, all of these will continue on despite Craigslist. True the Post has closed some regional offices but it will continue to exist, a possibility that is not guaranteed for the DMN. Pay walls can work when when the content is worth paying for (http://www.businessinsider.com/time-for-a-lot-of-people-to-eat-crow-the-new-york-times-paywall-is-working-2011-6)I'm sure the DMN is staffed by decent people but it's editorial quality is to blame for the lack of options now that the paper can't cruise on classified ad dollars. Once the Herald closed in 91 the DMN was the only real show in town, so they could let their journalistic integrity get sold down the (Trinity) river as it became a mouthpiece for the city establishment. They could order hatchet jobs on dissenters like Angela Hunt for not toeing the line. This is why the pay wall won't save the company now, because the DMN isn't a trust worthy news source.Jim Schutze and the Dallas Observer are required reading for anybody that really wants to know what is really going on in Dallas. The only reason I know the names of DMN writers like Lindenberger, Floyd, Blow, etc... is not because I read their editorials, it's because year after year I've read as Schutze and the DO writers have dismantled the deceptions in article after article. DO and VVM sell a little skin in the back pages so they don't have to sell their souls in the news room, that's why if tomorrow the escort ads stopped paying the bills and they threw a pay wall up I'd be the first reader to join. It's a damn shame when anybody has to get laid off, I've been there myself, and I hope all those rif'd get back on their feet ASAP. But the Dallas Morning News as a "news source" won't be missed at all.
The Dallas Morning News management has rendered the news source "irrelevant". People figured out some time ago that DMN was not really "reporting"........it relegated itself to broadcasting propaganda from politicians. That's why so many of us shifted to the Dallas Observer a few years ago. The pay wall was the final desperate act to try to restore revenues.............NOT! It is unfortunate that those who have lost their employment probably had very little to do with the "direction" management decided to take, but they have now paid the ultimate price for someone else's poor decisions.
The DMN bet on the wrong horse, now they have to live with the consequences and sadly, that includes the employees. Think of all the DMN officers/owners that hurt taxpayers by assisting in leading all to the slaughter with this corrupt political machinery they aligned themselves with...............................the employees and you, should blame those truly responsible, not people pointing out the issues. If your truly the political animal that you claim to be, then quit missing the point.
Oh...and when you say that you get no joy...sorry but you said and I quote "I love seeing this..." yep, that would be joy. I am extremely political. I hate that the executives etc take advantage of the system but those aren't the ones that are being laid off...nope, it's the poor working stiffs like you or me. We're the ones that get trampled on. These people lost their jobs today and that needs to be the only thing said. Politics stays out! This brings me no joy whatsoever! I've been there and it sucks.
Healthy Darwinian bloodthirstiness there. I didn't say anything different, only corrected the idea that the internet's "faster journalism" was hurting print. it ain't. The ad drain is. As for your dog-eat-dog capitalist approach: Some things are worth preserving, above and beyond such forces. Like quality journalism. And so much of the 'free journalism' on the internet is just about worth the price.
DMN may be a corrupt political machine...have no idea...but the people that staffed and staffs the DMN are not. There is no joy in their being out of work. Absolutely horrible anyone would even say that. That tells me a lot about the person who said that. These poor people are now out of work and most probably are over the hiring age...they'll have to retire early. I feel so sorry for their situation and really hope that the ones who can still work and provide for themselves and their family find jobs soon. This is a tragedy.
birds gotta eat, same as the worm.........
anyone remember every lookin for a job in the classifieds of the DMN. Im sure losing corporate job ad money was huge thanks to all the online job search websites. Ive seen those invoices and even small companies pay big dollars for the job ads
That sucking sound is the standing wave.
Naw, it commited suicide after 8 years of Reagan.
The suits are obviously planning for year end executive bonuses, set to exceed last year's 7 figures.
I guess that the DMN pay wall is working well and that things are going just as planed. Wonder if any being laid off are in the editor’s department? Hear that sucking sound (like water going down the drain)—that is the DMN. Too bad but when you use your editorial page to further bad decisions…..
Wow, if you met me, you'd think even less of me.
You're an awful person.
I get no joy out of people losing their jobs, but DMN caused that, not me. The DMN is getting what it deserves, and I hope the employees find work elsewhere.
Everyone in every industry has had to learn to adapt to the new internet age, or get eaten. They get no free pass. This is in addition to my aforementioned point.
Sorry, actually, what is killing newspapers is the fact that so much advertising vanished to the internet. Why pay for a want ad when there's Craigslist and eBay? The "collapsed news cycle" should be killing public radio, but it isn't. It should be killing cable news, but it isn't. It's the money, kiddo.
DMN could save a ton of money AND reduce littering in my neighborhood by ceasing publication and distribution of al Dia.
I think that the Snooze got into a death spiral with the classified ad rates. They needed to increase revenues so they upped the rates, lines of advertising went down, so the rates went up and the lines went down ... I used to advertise a bit in the classifieds and always perused them ... I wonder if they slashed their rates that the actual revenue goes up .... For me Craig's List and all the others just don't hold a candle to a daily newspaper's classifieds in term of looking for things.
There are good talented people out of work in a crappy economy. There's not joy in that. I started reading the DO in earnest when the times herald went under. Competition makes the DO a better paper.
True as it may be being part of the corrupt political machinery of Dallas isn't why DMN is slowly going under. Newspapers are a business model that has been on the decline since the internet came and collapsed news cycles down to minutes or hours. Papers can't compete when they start everyday talking about what happened yesterday.
Cable TV has already killed reasonable thought and open discussion.
I love seeing this. The Dallas Morning News gets exactly what it deserves, by being part of the corrupt political machinery that has set Dallas back 50 years. I hope they go out of business and the DO has to expand into the sole News Source. At least we can trust what we read................
I hate seeing this, I read the DMN every day and enjoy the mix of opinions and information. You know, it's good for you to read some stuff you don't agree with. The internet and cable TV is going to kill reasoned thought and open discussion.