CSotD: Working dumber, not harder, and calling it chicken salad
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When it first hit the comic pages some 20 years ago, Dilbert was a breath of fresh air, attacking workplace targets that had previously gone more-or-less unassailed. Those targets having been shredded regularly by the strip itself and a host of imitators, it's become tougher for Scott Adams to come up with fresh work. But it remains a good part of the daily comic diet, and still gets some solid hits.
Today's struck me as particularly apt because of what happened earlier in the week when I visited the Editor & Publisher site. E&P is the bible of the newspaper industry, and that industry could really use a bible these days, either to provide a moral compass or to perform last rites.
However, the level of denial is so high that the industry clearly does not feel the need for either, as evidenced by the juxtaposition of these two stories on that day:
At the top of the page was this bit of glad tidings:
CHICAGO Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises
reported Tuesday it swung to a profit in the second quarter of its
fiscal year, helped by swelling cash flow, moderating declines in
advertising and easier comparables with the year-ago period.
Lee, publisher of 49 dailies including the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, said its earnings per diluted share were 7 cents compared
with a loss of $1.16 per share a year ago. The Q2 2009 results included
non-cash impairment charges and a non-recurring debt refinancing
charge.
Total revenue was down 6.6% to $185.7 million, which
represented another easing of the revenue slump. Revenue was down 13.8%
in Lee's first fiscal quarter and averaged 20% in the three quarters
before that.
Further down the page, in a much-less prominent position, was this Associated Press piece:
HELENA, Mont. The publisher of the Independent
Record says the Helena newspaper has cut two full-time and five
part-time positions as part of a reduction in force.
Publisher Randy Rickman says the continued slowdown in
the local and national economy led to the decision to reduce expenses.
The newspaper also cut other expenses.
Rickman says the newspaper laid off a copy desk editor,
three part-time proofreaders and a part-time sports reporter and will
not fill open positions in production and advertising.
Yes, you got it. The Helena Independent is owned by Lee Enterprises, which used to own me until I abandoned the creeping meatball. When I left Lee's employ in 2007, the company stock was worth about $40 a share. Today, it is up to $4.35. I say "up" because, in the past year, it has been down as low as 35 cents, which caused the company to nearly become unlisted.
The classic definition of "ambivalence" is watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your brand new Cadillac. In my case, I do revel in the struggles of a company that did so much to trash that Caddy, but I wish they'd left it alone in the first place.
And I especially wish they were the only corporation that was out there doing this to newspapers. I don't have a complete prescription for the future of the industry, but I know that cutting back on quality in order to bolster profits is not a long-term solution and it's even a pretty lousy short-term plan.
Since you're supposed to leave here smiling, let me leave you with this humorous observation: Editor & Publisher nearly went out of business last year. Part of the reason, I'm sure, is the large number of newspapers that used to have multiple subscriptions for department heads and other key personnel, but dropped them in the name of saving money.
And are now trying to figure out how to stop their own subscribers from doing the same thing.
Well, I think that's humorous, anyway.
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