San Jose Mercury News employees already know the drill—just stay home and wait by the phone. It took about two hours on Friday for Merc executives to call employees and inform them they no longer had a job. Between buy-outs and layoffs, the Merc lost a total of 50 positions in this round of cuts, half of which came out of the newsroom. Newsroom layoffs include City Hall vet Barry Witt, reporters Erik Olvera and Connie Skipitares, 49ers beat writer Dennis Georgatos, food columnist Carolyn Jung, photographers Joanne HoYoung Lee and Thu Ly and eight others. Film critic Bruce Newman and TV writer Charlie McCollum are being reassigned to general features. It’s a harsh blow for a newsroom that has already been hit three times over the last year with layoffs. But MediaNews Group executives declared last month they had no other choice. The only way to deal with declining revenues and a bad economy was to scrap its newsroom. “It was horrible,” said Sylvia Ulloa, president of the San Jose Newspaper Guild. “People were really stunned and sad.” In a bit of payback, features columnist Sue Hutchison reportedly resigned saying she “wouldn’t work one more day for this crappy newspaper.” Buyouts were taken by op-ed head Steve Wright, features editor Pam Moreland, deputy managing editor Matt Mansfield, state bureau chief Alvie Lindsay and assistant managing editor Rebecca Salner. The Merc was the only paper in the Bay Area chain to get hit with layoffs and buy-outs. In the East Bay, where MediaNews owns the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times and a string of other dailies, executives convinced enough employees to take buy-outs (107 exactly). Nobody is optimistic that this is the end, especially as newspapers continue to struggle everywhere. “The only way they respond to anything is to cut staff,” Ulloa said.
San Jose Inside
San Jose Inside (https://www.sanjoseinside.com)
“Sue Hutchison reportedly resigned saying she “wouldn’t work one more day for this crappy newspaper’”
I love it… Maybe she could post here in her spare time…
Also, I’m guessing they expand “Mr. Roadshow” to 2 or three pages each day to fill space…
This is why we need real enforcement of newspaper anti-trust laws. The Murky can oly get away with it because they bought their only local competition.
It’s always amusing that an industry so notoriously left leaning as the newspaper business is continually surprised by the hard times.
It seems that if the Merc would do one of their hard hitting pieces on the subject they might discover that conservative newspapers (Washington Times, NY Post, Wall Street Journal) are doing ok.
Maybe just maybe, instead of being just another Pravda-lite in a region already saturated with such, they should try playing the news down the middle to expand their readership.
It’s the same deal with these left wing hollywood types alienating half of their movie going demographic with their junior high level political rants. eg. The only way I go see a Tim Robbins movie is if I know in advance he’s going to burn up in space ala “Mission to Mars”.
The unfortunate terminated employees at the San Jose Mercury News can find inspiration from Kenny Rogers.
For over fifty years Kenny Rogers has maintained a career in popular music by adapting, innovating and growing, but always staying true to himself. Whether performing with the First Edition, or as a solo act, or recording duets with other artists, success has never eluded Kenny Rogers.
By re-inventing and adapting themselves to today’s changing newspaper/tv/radio/internet journalism environment, the terminated employees can turn this setback into an opportunity. They can have the success that Kenny Rogers has enjoyed for half a century.
Good for Sue Hutchison.
I don’t see why MediaNews Group bothered to buy the Merc if they’re only going to shut it down, which is where this is leading to. It’s not going to help the Oakland Tribune any.
I have already switched to the Chronicle because of the lack of content provided by the Merc. I can remember when it was a pretty good paper, but little by little it just lost more and more coverage until there was hardly anything left.
There was a time when the notion of an employee buyout was discussed, but I’m afraid it’s too late for that.
The Chron is not very good on South Bay coverage, I suppose because they don’t want to be accused of poaching in a rival’s territory. And even the Chron has started cutting corners lately.
I read about 5 newspapers regularly online, but I still really like to get my daily local paper, provided it has some content. The Merc is one of these, as it’s the only source for a lot of local news, but I must say it has one of the worst websites of any newspaper in the world.
The best we can hope for now is that when the Merc finally folds, the Chron takes on some of the former employees to put together a South Bay bureau. But we will have lost what was once an independent voice.
It’s rare that it rains such blessings as the departure of Barry Witt, Erik Olvera, Connie Skipitares, Carolyn Jung, Sue Hutchison, and Steve Wright. The Fly is performing a public service in exposing these names. Usually we readers have to play detective to see whose name is missing. But maybe we’ll get a newspaper out of this turmoil which reports the facts and allows both sides some rebuttal.
Ouch for all the fine reporters who got laid off. Special sadness, at least for me, is the loss of Barry Witt—a smart, evenhanded, no B.S. reporter with a great writing style who investigated and reported on community issues with big time professionalism. I’m sure he’ll land on his feet somewhere but boy, sj inside could use him as a regular blogger as well. Good luck,all in finding new gigs.
#4 – Kenny who??
#7 (Rose Garden Dad): I assume your special sadness for Barry Witt is tongue-in-cheek. (Or maybe you’re Witt’s dad?)
I feel bad on a personal level for anyone who is laid off, and that includes Witt. But I won’t miss him, and I know I’m not alone in this town. Witt was most definitely NOT evenhanded or professional in his coverage of stories—quite the contrary. I could not disagree with you more.
As for the Wittless version of the San Jose Mercury News, it is noteworthy on this San Jose Inside online blog that the paper is too ashamed of its San Jose roots to put the words “San Jose” on its online masthead. See, http://www.mercurynews.com. The paper has literally, as well as figuratively, abandoned this city—which goes a long way toward explaining the paper’s problems.
Lost in the Merc’s obvious slide has been the similar decline in the SVCN Group papers, including the LG ‘Weekly’ Times, Campbell Reporter, and the seventy-three “Neighborhood Residents” … most of which look just like each other now, except for advertising.
Any word on their staffs?
#13 Mr. Doten, The Merc has occassionally resembled the NY Post quite a few times over the past several years and now it’s much worse so I think we’re already there re: the final sentence in your post above.
#6 Mr. Warner, are you serious? Carolyn Jung wrote for the goddamn FOOD section! You never had much credibility with me but with this latest post of yours you have lost even that tiny amount. Get real!
#3 Novice, all I can say about your post above is that you chose the perfect handle.
3. The Washington Times bleeds red ink by the bucket-load. It only stays in business because of massive subsidies from its owner, Rev. Moon.
The Wall Street Journal provides excellent business coverage, so many people buy it in spite of its crazy editorial page. A good point here, the entire paper doesn’t have to be good if some parts of it are good enough.
The NY Post stakes out the sensationalist bottom feeding end of journalism, often a successful business strategy. But NY still has more than one daily paper. Would you really like your only coverage of local issues to come from something like the NY Post?
The Merc will not go away. Instead it will follow the Palo Alto Daily into lighweight news with reporters rewriting press releases. I have noticed more articles in the Merc from the Peninsula written by reporters from “MediaNews Group” aka Palo Alto Daily. Unfortunately San Jose residents still have to pay while those in Palo Alto get the Palo Alto Daily for free.
“Sue Hutchison reportedly resigned saying she “wouldn’t work one more day for this crappy newspaper’
Sue Hutchison gone? That at least is bound to improve the Merc. My wife and I will drink a toast tonight.
They should have just fired Barry Witt a thousand times, then bulldozed his home and built the Earthquakes stadium on the ruins.
Novice,
If someone standing in the newsroom at the Merc were today to shout, “Who’s left?” the response would be a lonely depressed, “Not many.” Just a few years ago the answer would’ve been a joyful and smug, “Everyone!”
#1—I want more “News of the Weird”.
Or he and Joe Rodriguez could do weekly updates on ride vs. bike. Roadshow’s paunch grows steadily—he needs to get on that bike; but watch out for sleepy cops.
#12—Yes, thank you David Cohen for destroying the valley’s competitive news landscape. The community newspapers, along with Metro, used to be true competitors to the valley news monopoly. This probably should have warranted a DOJ monopoly investigation, but no one really noticed.