The news that the Mercury News would have its fourth owner in four years came as a shock to Mercury employees, though not entirely a surprise. MediaNews’ debt service issues were well known, and a first quarter restructuring was anticipated. Unlike past announcements, however, the shoe-dropping came without warning. “This thing blindsided everyone in the newsroom,” one knowledgeable insider said.
The announcement arrived, along with an FAQ, at 4:30pm Friday, as the staff was getting ready to head out for a three-day weekend. There was laughter in the newsroom at the timing. It would ensure the report would land in the Saturday edition, the classic way to bury bad news. There was no opportunity for writers to make calls or conduct background research. While the Mercury News assigned a veteran reporter to discuss its previous ownership gyrations, editors decided to just republish the Denver Post’s story, which had “a lot of care and feeding” from corporate, without adding a single paragraph.
It ran on the business page, under a small headline, and soft-pedaled the story as a vanilla restructuring, rather than a bankruptcy or a sale. Competitors helpfully set the record straight.
On Saturday, Palo Alto’s Daily Post ran a big cover headline on the Chapter 11 filing, with a subhead pointing out the nearly billion-dollar debt. San Jose Inside highlighted the ownership change angle. The Denver Daily News pointed out that “creditors will only get 17 cents on the dollar.” And the Denver weekly Westword opined that MediaNews’ Denver daily “should have trusted its readers to understand these facts and put them into perspective. Instead, it treated them like children too naive to understand what’s really going on. And that’s as insulting as it is unnecessary—particularly in light of all those other articles floating around that use the word “bankruptcy” up-front instead of burying it.”
According to an internal memorandum obtained by San Jose Inside, any media inquiries should be referred to the New York office of Sitrick And Company, a firm which touts its skills in managing transactional and crisis communications, “best known for its work in sensitive, make-or-break situations.”
Dean Singleton’s letter to Mercury News employees
MediaNews Chapter 11 Press Release
FAQ – Will there be layoffs?
“No, Our decisions about staffing have always been – and will continue to be – in response to business conditions, not our finances. So while there is no guarantee that advertising or circulation won’t deteriorate fiuther and force us to adjust accordingly, there are no layoffs planned as a result of our financial restructuring.”
“Asked which newspapers or groups of newspapers might be combined, Mr. Singleton answered: “You can look at the map.”
After looking at Northern California map you can see upcoming newspaper consolidations and layoffs
” The company said all but one of its newspapers is profitable. ”
After Mercury recent large circulation drop can we guess which one?
Say it isn’t so Dean, say it isn’t so now again
Newsroom talk. Marshman is scheduled to quit Merc at the end of the month.
Newspapers have a long hypocritical history of not disclosing information that they demand / expect other companies and government to disclose and putting out Code of Ethics they themselves do not follow
Ask yourself as Mercury Reader – Does Mercury follow the Society of professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics ?
Mercury has many good people but also has a few who violated journalism ethics and many who know ethics were violated and did nothing
Newspapers are local and if they do not serve the local readers – they deserve to go out of business
Does Mercury deserve your business and are they ethical? – If so continue to read and subscribe, if not don’t
Code of Ethics – http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Journalists should:
— Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error.—Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
— Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
— Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
— Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.
Journalists are accountable to their readers, listeners, viewers and each other.
Journalists should: Be Accountable
— Clarify and explain news coverage and invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct.
— Encourage the public to voice grievances against the news media.
— Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
— Expose unethical practices of journalists and the news media.
— Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others.
Ethical Journalism
The Mercury News is as fair and balanced as an activist Supreme Court (left or right wing.) The law doesn’t matter so much as what we see to be right and what people need to be made to understand is right.
This is not new. Muckraking journalism elected and unelected sheriffs, council members, water district executive directors, city auditors, corporate ceo’s acting like they owned the company and not the shareholders and others over decades. It powerful, and an important part of the public life of a community. That’s why the first things the crooks did when they got some serious money was take over all the local papers and fold them into one they controlled. As wealth grew, so did newspaper empires like a syndicate.
Rupert Murdoch took them all to the cleaners and out-foxed the old-guard who were complacent and thought they still owned the papers they were only running. As the market changed and their complacency remained (aren’t monopolies grand) they gotten eaten alive by new media. As they cut quality and news to focus on core business (advertising not circulation) their ethical lapse became even more obvious as pro-growth developer leaning editorial policies went nicely with juicy real-estate add revenue. When they had time, the could still play public advocates, but like school children they went around picking on everyone’s favorite scapegoats (cops, wealthy well-run water district) and not the tough calls (pay to play approvals of land use and zoning changes that were totally against the general plan and the best interest of the community.) The looters have already taken their profit, and we’re onto the second or third wave of vultures still feeding on the carcass of civic journalism. Those that remain will continue to feel important and powerful, but in small and petty ways, and they’ll know deep down that they were as much a part of the problem as the corporate raiders and financial market manipulators that looted the company from the back-office inwards while they emptying the credibility out of the front office.
Here’s the should-be headline for the story.
“Merc Newsroom Blindsided – Women and Minorities in Newsroom Blindsided Most”
Good riddance to the Mercury. Hopefully in its place will emerge a more objective newspaper that will present both sides of an issue rather than a poorly veiled editorial.
Comments are so funny. I like how the people who write them don’t bother with even the simplest of facts, like the fact that the Merc is not going out of business. Why slow down your opinion with facts?
I’m also highly amused by the characterization of a document sent out to literally hundreds of Bay Area journalists as an *internal memorandum obtained by San Jose Inside.*
This made me happy!
“There was no opportunity for writers to make calls or conduct background research”
Thanks for the laugh. The idea of a Merk writer conducting background research or making calls is funny. Almost as funny as the idea of you folks doing it.
Here’s a hint – if someone was blindsided by a piece of information, they are not a “knowledgeable insider.” They are some one who was as clueless as the rest of them.
“Thanks for the laugh. The idea of a Merk writer conducting background research or making calls is funny. Almost as funny as the idea of you folks doing it.”
Yes we do. Many neighborhood and community volunteer groups in San Jose actually carefully research issues, make phone calls, check facts and make good recommendations for
– High Speed Rail
– City budget
– Park Impact fees
– Diridon Station development
– Ohlone development
– Liquor License applications
– Public outreach policy
– Strong Neighborhoods projects
– Riparian Corridor
– General Plan Update
– Neighborhood Commission