Syracuse's daily tightens belt, promises to keep publishing
SYRACUSE --
Syracuse's Post-Standard has had a rough 24 hours. This morning's paper distribution was delayed by printing press breakdowns, as workers were finding out their benefits are changing. The two are not related, but that has not made it any easier as yet another source of community information faces the realities of doing business amidst changes.
"The perfect storm," SU Newhouse School Dean Emeritus David Rubin calls it. Pressures of the internet's competition, combined with the big drop in advertising revenues, because of the economic downturn. Media watchers have predicted changes in how content is delivered---but the expectation was it would play out over the next decade. Because of the economy, it's been telescoped into the past couple months.
At Syracuse's newspaper, publisher Stephen A. Rogers promises to keep publishing, in print 'for a long, long time' unlike several major dailies that are cutting back or switching to internet-only operations. He does say, however, that workers will be taking ten unpaid days this year and the company will no longer contribute to the pension plan, though it will double company 401K contributions.
Rogers says the paper is withstanding competition from electronic media, but the recession has taken advertising money out...he hopes for a recovery when the economy turns.
Rubin says the face of journalism is changing---and that has implications not only for our daily habits, like finding a newspaper at the door or turning on for a newscast---but also for how journalists keep track of public officials, community events and daily life, and that has a direct effect on our democracy.
