More Cutbacks Coming At Ohio's Largest Newspaper: Report Says Plain Dealer To Downsize By 20%

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Roldo Bartimole broke the story, which my colleagues at The Plain Dealer pretty much confirmed during phone calls today. I was part of a large buyout in 2006, and received a generous package when I closed the newspaper's Cincinnati bureau after a two-decade run. Many of those who left in 2006 were close to retirement age or had long tenures at the newspaper that had built up their pensions. This time, things could be different. Several of the newsroom people I spoke to said there were no details offered ( no who, what, where, when and how) about the coming cuts, just that they would be significant and were driven by the sour financial fix of the newspaper industry. Papers have been losing print subscribers and advertisers as the MSM shrinks and consumers shift from ink and cellulose to flatscreens and cyberspace. "We have been told it's coming, but not when," said one reporter. Added another: "It's kind of sad here today, like in 2006 before the buyouts that you took. You know people will be leaving and you are wondering about your future. You know something is coming. But what? It's scary and sad at the same time."

Ohio's Biggest Newspapers To Start Sharing Content: Toledo Blade Stories Coming To Cincinnati Enquirer?

AKRON (TDB) -- Editors at the state's seven largest newspapers have been pushing The Associated Press for speedier and more comprehensive statewide coverage. The editors also pressed the wire service for a rate schedule that doesn't sock them with excessive fees. And they've been perplexed -- Why is it that AP distributes Ohio news (often culled from an Ohio newspaper) to Google or Yahoo quicker than we can get it to our readers? The editors have seen how blogs grab their news from Google and Yahoo, redistributing it for free. Now, the state's seven biggest papers have agreed to create their own content-sharing program, which is scheduled for launch on Monday. Stories from Cleveland's Plain Dealer and Toledo's Blade should soon turn up in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Editor & Publisher, a journalism trade publication and Web site, broke the news about the content-sharing arrangement.

My own supposition is that this is more about the Web and getting news material online rather than in print. Newsholes are shrunken -- with fewer pages and smaller page sizes -- and space for large numbers of stories is not available in the ad-thin print newspapers of today. Meanwhile, staffs are smaller because of downsizing, buyouts and hiring freezes. So there are fewer reporters around Ohio producing news stories. The editors are trying to adjust by picking up content from other newsroom staffs to cover what they cannot get to. The editors also want readers to recognize that the work was produced by a journalist on the payroll of a newspaper. This is a sea change, because it signals an effort, at the highest levels, to downplay and partially bury journalism-rooted jealousies and rivalries in existence for generations, the ethos of the scoop. The Plain Dealer staff has always taken great joy in kicking the ass of the Columbus Dispatch on a big story, and vice versa. But soon Dispatch news will be appearing under The Plain Dealer nameplate. Unthinkable just a few years ago.

Akron Beacon Journal editor Bruce Winges noted in an internal staff memo that Cleveland and Canton content initially will not show up in Akron. The three newspapers are competitors in the NEO market. But stories from other corners of the state will be fully credited "with byline and dateline. The other papers will do the same with our content."

Said Winges:

"I am sure there will be bumps along the way as we get this exchange going. We will get through them. This idea of content sharing is not about cutting back what we do. It is about sharing our content with the other large Ohio newspapers and getting their content in return. The goal is to have stories that benefit the readers of all of our newspapers. A secondary benefit is that readers will know how much is produced by our newsrooms."

Size Doesn't Matter: Ohio Newspaper Pages Could Shrink This Year

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Get ready for smaller newspapers. Gannett Co. Inc. -- the national chain -- publishes the Cincinnati Enquirer, Chillicothe Gazette, Mansfield News Journal and several other newspaper in Ohio, along with USA Today. The media company says the broadsheets in its stable are probably going to become tinier this year in order to trim costs. In other words, the pages delivered to subscribers' homes and businesses won't be as large. The company is trying to maintain its profit margin -- but is planning to downsize the product sold to its customers. Gannett tucked the news into the annual report it released nearly three weeks ago:

"Challenges for 2008: Looking forward to 2008, the company faces several important challenges, including:

Advertising revenue for our newspapers will be affected by the continuing real estate crisis, softening national economic conditions in the U.S. and the U.K. and strong competition for ad spending;

Newsprint prices are expected to increase due to newsprint industry consolidation. We will continue to manage our newsprint cost carefully by further web width reductions and use of lighter basis weight paper;

We will continue to align expenses with revenue levels through further centralization and consolidation actions and other cost control measures."

Newsprint is the paper that newspapers are printed on. Earlier this month, the Tribune Company announced that it was shrinking the page size of four of its newspapers.