Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Kotz / Media Will The Tennessean Cut Its Home Delivery?
Posted by Pete Kotz on Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 2:16 PM
The American newspaper industry was in a state of collapse long before the recent economic meltdown. (Yes, we're trendsetters.) Over the past few years, it's been jettisoning employees by the thousands. And in recent weeks, the country's largest newspaper owner, Gannett (owner of The Tennessean) has laid off more than 2,000 workers alone.
Now comes word of further cost cutting that may soon hit Nashville. The Detroit Free Press (also owned by Gannett) and the Detroit News have announced that they're cutting home delivery to just three days a week--Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The idea is that they'll save a ton of money on labor, gas, etc.
Due to the Third World economics of Detroit, one might construe this to be an isolated incident. Think again. In recent weeks The Tennessean has laid off another 92 employees.
And since Gannett has long been regarded for its slavish devotion to the bottom line--margins over quality be thy name--it seems only a matter of time before the same comes to Nashville.
Comments (9)
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If Tennessean delivery people are independent contractors I don't see the savings unless they also stop printing the other days.
I went to Sunday only a year ago after 30 years of daily home delivery.
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P. S. I pay $2.50 per week for Sunday delivery. I could make a quick trip to Walgreens and get one for 99¢.
Hey Emmett: I don't know exactly how The Tennessean's delivery system operates, but you'd save on contract labor because you're drastically reducing your number of stops each week. Instead of delivering to a ton of homes, you just have to make bulk stops at the neighborhood Mapco. You'd also cut back on in-house labor. Once upon a time I was a truck driver for the Milwaukee Journal, and the majority of our work involved dumping bulk loads at regional depots, where the neighborhood delivery guys retrieved their papers. My guess is there would be big savings on truck drivers, maintenance, etc. They'd also save a lot of money on paper costs. If you no longer deliver to homes, chances are circulation will take a nosedive, and paper is a huge expense for any newspaper.
Pete, all good points. But it makes me wonder, if the Detroit papers are only delivering three days a week, isn't the start-up cost to print those other four days going to become prohibitive if they only sell a fraction of the number of papers they used to sell with home delivery? I'm guessing they'd be selling less than half the number of papers, no? And the cost per paper gets much higher when the circulation gets much lower.
The Detroit "plan" is unlikely to be followed in Nashville or anywhere else. Best guess is that this is the result of a battle between the Gannett owned Detroit Free Press and the smaller Detroit News, owned by MediaNews. Gannett presumably would like to buy out and shut down the News (the same way Gannett got rid of the Banner) but apparently the parties can't agree on a price. Now Gannett, which controls the printing and circulation of both papers, is playing hardball, essentially threatening to ruin both papers by limiting home delivery to three days a week. (On those days when there is no home delivery, an "abbreviated" version of the paper will be available in newstands.) In the short-run, the bigger advertisers may stick with the paper, shifting all their print adds to three days a week. In the long run, circulation will disappear as people lose the habit of a daily paper. Gannett must be hoping that before the end happens, the News will surrender, leaving Detroit a one newspaper town, and the Free Press will then resume seven-day delivery.
PS. it just came out today that Ken Paulson,the editor of USAT and former head of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, has abruptly quit. (His old Gannett buddies quickly arranged for him to take a soft job at the Newseum.) The Tennessean's Silverman is on the short list to succeed him, depending upon whether USAT publisher Moon thinks that Silverman has learned to put a trigger lock on his temper.
My wife and I received a letter from the Tennessean circulation department saying that home delivery in our area (S. Lincoln Co.) was being curtailed completely.
Ok per my previous post yes the Tennessean stopped home delivery in S Lincoln Co, as for the comment about stopping in at Walgreen's, the closest place the newspaper is delivered is 11 miles away.
Put on top of this the fact that Lincoln co is in the Huntsville, Al DMA and I have Directv, thanks to Congress, I can only watch Huntsville Al tv stations, thus I am totally cut off from all things Tennessee.
And yes I have tried to get Nashville TV stations with an antenna/preamp. It was a no go.
