Newspaper Roundup: Seattle Times; Journal Register; NYT-Google; Washingont Post-Pulitzers; Slate
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
-- Seattle Times: The Seattle Times Company has announced 200 job cuts at its flagship paper, 131 of which will come in the form of layoffs. Publisher Frank Blethen and President Carolyn Kelly told the staff via email that the move was part of a plan to cut $15 million in costs at the paper. (The memo is posted on the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild's blog here.) According to the paper, up to 30 newsroom jobs could go, with the rest coming in circulation and advertising. The Times has a total of 1,845 employees. Assessing the paper's financial picture, Blethen said it reflects wider industry trends, "particularly in areas of classified ad revenue and also a slowing of online revenue growth."
-- Journal Register: The publisher has confirmed previous reports that it has hired a bank to explore strategic alternatives. The news that it had hired investment bank Lazard Freres did not go over well: shares of the company fell over 57 percent to an all-time low. Release.
-- NYT: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is expanding its partnership with the NYT by connecting news stories to specific locations via its Google Earth maps. Readers interested in a particular place can click on the map and see a story from the NYT site pop up. Earlier this year, the NYT launched a branded channel on YouTube, which David Eun, VP for content partnerships, said reflects the greater involvement Google plans to have with the daily in particular and newspapers in general. Still, he told me that there are no plans to do a formal ad alliance with newspapers akin to the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium or the NYTCo-backed QuadrantONE. More about Google Earth-NYT in the official blog here.
-- Washington Post: The paper was awarded six Pulitzer Prizes, in the categories of Public Service, Breaking News Reporting, National Reporting, International Reporting, Feature Writing, and Commentary. It was the paper's biggest-ever one-year haul. The awards for Public Service (an expos of poor care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center) and for Breaking News Reporting (coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings), specifically cited online contributions. Full list of winners.
By Joseph Weisenthal