Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell Order Is Distrubing

President Barack Obama will issue an Executive Order on Monday to reverse the Bush administration's ban on the use of federal money to fund research on new embryonic stem cells.

President George Bush had permitted such research on already existing lines of embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cell research, which does not destroy human life, has been approved for more than 100 treatments, and has been used to reconstruct heart tissue, nerve tissue, a trachea, and other damaged body parts.

Nobody opposes scientific research. But what is troubling is the destruction of the embryo. Regardless of your feelings about abortion, and when you believe life begins, there is no debate in the scientific community that once an egg is fertilized, unless inhibited, it will develop into a fully developed human being.

To be honest, we do not know exactly when life begins. It would seem though that once the process is put into motion, aren't we obligated as a society to do all we can to honor that process? Are we morally responsible to protect the most vulnerable of our society?

Of course we are. My family and I have suffered from a disease that most likely might benefit from all kinds of research. But there is no guarantees that a cure can be found using this method versus using adult stem cells.

This action, from an administration that has been so concerned with our moral standing in the world, is truly disturbing.

Report: SF Chronicle Tells Union to Accept Concessions or It Will Cut 225 Jobs

Owners of the San Francisco Chronicle have told union officials that it would cut at least 225 jobs if the Northern California Media Workers Guild doesn't meet its demands, sources have told Robert Gammon of the East Bay Expresss.

Gammom is reporting that most of the jobs cuts would come from the Chronicle's newsroom, and represents about half the newsroom employees. His report says that the company negotiators have informed the journalists' union that if it decides to agree to the company's demands, then only 150 jobs would be eliminated.

From Gammon's report:

The company demands include giving up senority rights and slashing vacation, sick time, and maternity/paternity leave. The company also wants the union to allow it to oustsource some jobs to nonunionized employees. Senority is viewed as one of the key issues, because the company does not want to only lay off newer, lower paid employees.

Under the current guild contract, layoffs occur in order of length of service with the company. Typically, the longer a journalist has been with the company, the higher they are paid. The company's demands are sure to divide the newsroom between younger, lower paid journalists, and older, higher paid ones.

A Touch of Gray in the Post and Times

My friends who are not in journalism often ask me if newspapers, especially the major ones, confer on an agenda that they want to push on any particular day. Of course that's nonsense. Matter-of-fact, what The New York Times and The Washington Post are going to publish with their enterprising projects are closely held secrets.

Or are they????

This morning we were treated with not one, but two prominent feature stores about President Barack Obama's ever-so-slightly increasing touch of gray that he is developing on his scalp. One story was in the Post, the other was in the Times.

Helene Cooper of the Times wrote on the front page:

WASHINGTON — Well, that didn’t take long. Just 44 days into the job, and President Obama is going gray.

It happens to all of them, of course — Bill Clinton still had about half a head of brown hair when he took office but was a silver fox two years later, and George W. Bush went from salt and pepper to just salt in what seemed like a blink of an eye.

But so soon? “I started noticing it toward the end of the campaign and leading up to inauguration,” says Deborah Willis, who, as co-author of “Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs,” pored through 5,000 photographs of the first head over the last year.

Mr. Obama’s graying is still of the flecked variety, and appears to wax and wane depending on when he gets his hair cut, which he does about every two weeks. His barber, who goes by only one name, Zariff, takes umbrage with bloggers who alternately claim Mr. Obama, 47, is dyeing his hair gray (to appear more distinguished) or dyeing it black (to appear younger). “I can tell you that his hair is 100 percent natural,” Zariff said. “He wouldn’t get it colored.”

And for all of his 16 years giving Mr. Obama his “quo vadis” haircut — black parlance from the 1960s for close-cut locks — Zariff said he is not about to start ribbing Mr. Obama. “We do not tease about the gray at all,” he said.

Phillip Rucker of the Post had this to say on his Page C1 story "Obama's Other Gray Matter":

Are times so stressful -- a plummeting economy and two wars -- that our young president is going grayer a mere six weeks into the job?

Maybe 754 days is more like it. That's how long it's been, if you can believe it, since a baby-faced senator stood in the winter chill in Springfield, Ill., to declare his candidacy for president. With each debate, after every primary fight, it seems Barack Obama's tightly clipped hair became just a dash saltier.

"The gray, it's not a whole lot, but he has a few strands," explained Zariff, the president's Chicago barber for 17 years, who goes by a single name. "It's quite normal for his age group."

And it's an article of faith, backed by photographic evidence, that the Oval Office ages the men in it. Look no further than George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Obama, 47, foresaw his own arrival at a stage of hair life many men prefer to describe as "distinguished."

"Seniors, listen up. I'm getting gray hair myself," Obama quipped at a campaign stop in Indiana last spring.

"The gray is coming quick," he told supporters a few months later in Colorado. "By the time I'm sworn in, I will look the part."

Same feature, same day, and even the same source? Has Zariff ever gotten such great publicity on one day?

Fort Worth Star Telegram Lays Off About 120 People

It's the Fort Worth Star Telegram's turn today, as management announced that it would lay off 12 percent of its staff, or roughly 120 people, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

Publisher Gary Wortel also announced more bad news in the fact that they people who remain and making more than $25,000 a year will see a 2.5 percent to 10 percent wage cut.

Here is the text of Wortel's memo, as posted on Romenesko:

To: All Employees
From: Gary Wortel
Subject: Workforce and Wage Reductions
Date: March 5, 2009

As you know, the Star-Telegram along with other McClatchy newspapers have been working for weeks on expense reduction plans to deal with the unprecedented revenue declines due to the economic recession. Unfortunately, because revenue declines have worsened since January, our expense reductions will be more severe than originally anticipated:

We will reduce our workforce by about 12% of all employees. Please know that we did everything possible to minimize the impact of layoffs as outlined in the other expense savings plans below. Reductions will occur in virtually all areas of our operation. Although some of these job eliminations will occur through involuntary layoffs, there also will be opportunities for employees to voluntarily select a severance package where reductions are occurring in work groups of {two} or more employees. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced according to least tenure. All affected will be notified today and provided with information about a transition package. If a voluntary option is being offered to your work group you will receive written notification with additional information today. The package being offered is identical in terms to the ones that were offered last year.

We will implement a wage reduction for employees whose compensation exceeds $25,000 annually. $25,000 to $49,999 will receive a 2.5% reduction, $50,000 to $99,999 will receive a 5% reduction and over $100,000 will receive a 10% reduction. This applies to everyone, including myself, with the exception of some operational employees, who will rec eive reduced work hours. We will be providing you with a letter outlining your current pay and what your pay will be when the reduction goes into effect. The letter will be distributed no later than March 20th. These wage reductions will be effective with the pay period beginning April 6, 2009. Your first paycheck to have the wage reduction will be April 24, 2009.

Senior management bonuses have been eliminated for 2009 and advertising sales management compensation is being reduced.

We are also planning for a one-week unpaid furlough program in the 2nd half of 2009. We are hopeful that business will improve and we can avoid having to implement this, but we think it’s important you know it’s a possibility. If implement ed, details will be provided at a later date.

Finally, as a reminder, McClatchy announced on Feb. 5 its decision to significantly reduce operating expenses as a result of ongoing and unprecedented economic pressures and revenue declines. The company announced a freeze of the company’s pension plans and the temporary suspension of the 401(k) company match. Both take effect March 31, 2009.

These are difficult decisions, especially when it means saying goodbye to so many friends and colleagues. But we must make these expense reductions to protect the financial health of the newspaper, adjust to economic challenges and remain competitive.

We also must make major strides in growing revenues. Just last week we announced the launch of our new free entertainment publication, DFW.com Ink Edition. The product will publish weekly starting in April and is expected to produce significant ad revenues. We’re also seeing great success in our behavioral targeting sales efforts utilizing a new ad platform technology. More of these efforts are needed for us to succeed long term.

We know these repeated announcements about the need to reduce expenses and restructure our business are difficult and disruptive, but we ask for your continued focus during these challenging circumstances. Your contributions and dedication are the keys to our future.

Human resources will be setting up informational meetings in the next few days and will also be available to answer any questions about the severance program or wage reductions.

Gary Wortel
Publisher
Star-Telegram

Calderone: White House Press Corps Making Nice-Nice to Obama's Staff

Michael Calderone of Politico writes tonight of the White House Press Corps' ritual in gaining a welcoming ear in the West Wing: When a new administration gains power, write glowing features about the players, and hope that a soft feature now will pay dividends down the road when you need a source.

It's a great read into the inner workings of the White House press crops and how it operates:

In the early days of any administration, reporters reach out to the men and women who might become their sources over the next four years — then slather them with glowing profiles suitable for framing in their mothers’ bedrooms.

Even garden-variety government officials become political superheroes, each one harder-working and more down-to-earth than the last — and all of them enjoying the ear of the president.

Reading once again about Gibbs’ folksy ways, his pastel ties and his Alabama roots, a part-time political junkie might question the need for yet another profile of the hard-working press secretary who’s always within earshot when the president weighs a big decision.

But this proliferation of profiles isn’t about the reader’s need to know, or at least not entirely. It’s also about reporters’ need to introduce themselves to and ingratiate themselves with the White House officials they’ll need as sources over the next four years.

It’s far easier for a reporter to get time with a key staffer when both parties know that a flattering profile is coming. And it’s a lot easier to get calls returned from the staffer’s colleagues — especially subordinates — if they know it’s an opportunity to suck up to the subject.

February Newspaper Layoffs Total 1,492 People

Here is the breakdown of layoffs at newspapers in the United States for the month of February 2009. It totals 1,492 people. Forbes lists the total amount of people laid off in February 2009 in the top 500 compaines in the United States as 125,677. News Cycle's January list of 2,101 people is here.

Links to lists of other months throughout 2009 can be found below at the end of this post.

Feb. 28: The Signal in Santa Clarita, Calif., seven people
Feb. 28: Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, 34 people
Feb. 27: Boston Herald, 20 people
Feb. 27: Wilmington (Del.) News Journal, 40 people
Feb. 26: The New York Times, 19 people
Feb. 26: Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, unknown number of people
Feb. 26: The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, 231 editorial people
Feb. 26: The Commmercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn., 23 people
Feb. 25: Providence (R.I.) Journal, 100 people (part of the Jan. 30 Belo announcement of 500 layoffs)
Feb. 25: San Antonio Express-News, 165 people
Feb. 25: Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette and KCRG-TV, 100 people
Feb. 25: Hartford (Conn.) Courant, 100 people
Feb. 24: Arkansas Democrat Gazette in Little Rock, 60 people
Feb. 20: Los Angeles Daily News, 12 people
Feb. 20: Pacific Publishing Co. group of community newspapers in Seattle, six people
Feb. 20: Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic, at least four people
Feb. 20: Aspen (Colo.) Daily News, seven people
Feb. 20: Apsen (Colo.) Times, one person
Feb. 20: The Daily Record of Ellensburg, Wash., six people
Feb. 19: Denver Post, six people
Feb. 19: The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., 30 people
Feb. 17: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, nine people
Feb. 17: Columbus (Neb.) Telegram, 11 people
Feb. 15: Houston Chronicle, 10 percent of its workforce, which is at least 100 people based on figures in its Linkedin profile
Feb. 12: Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix, eight people
Feb. 12: Hunterdon County (N.J.) Democrat, 11 people
Feb. 12: Chicago Tribune, 20 people
Feb. 12: Lowell (Ind.) Tribune and Cedar Lake Journal, five people
Feb. 11: Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune, five people
Feb. 11: Maryland Gazette of Glen Burie, six people
Feb. 10: Journal Register Co. is closing the eight weekly newspapers in its Taconic Press group in New York, 35 people
Feb. 10: The Forum of Fargo, N.D., 21 people
Feb. 10: The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., 22 people
Feb. 9: Germantown (Pa.) Courier and Mt. Airy (Pa.) Times Express cease operations, unknown number of people
Feb. 6: The Independent of Hillsdale, N.Y., ceases operations, 30 people
Feb. 6: Waco (Texas) Tribune, seven people
Feb. 6: Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier, 25 people
Feb. 6: The Journal-Standard of Freeport, Ill., five people
Feb. 6: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 17 people
Feb. 6: Daily Reporter of Derby, Kan., is ceasing operations, six people
Feb. 6: The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C., 58 people
Feb. 5: Wisconsin State Journal of Madison, five people
Feb. 5: The Telegraph of Macon, Ga., 58 people
Feb. 5: Wall Street Journal, 14 people
Feb. 4: Bloomberg Financial and Data News Service, 100 people
Feb. 4: Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, 48 people
Feb. 3: Vail (Ariz.) Sun ceases operations, unknown number of people.

Here are News Cycle's month-by-month lists of newspaper job cuts this year:

December -- 752 people.
November -- 293 people.
October -- 375 people.
September -- 347 people.
August -- 425 people.
July -- 2,505 people.
June -- 318 people.
May -- 1,084 people.
April -- 1,350 people.
March -- 3,943 people.
February -- 1,492 people.
January -- 2,256 people.

Email me to report any job cuts in the newspaper industry.

January Newspaper Layoffs Total 2,256 People

Here is the breakdown of layoffs at newspapers in the United States for the month of January 2009. It totals 2,256 people.

Jan. 31: Observer Publishing Co. of Washington, Pa., 13 people.
Jan. 31: The Times of Northwest Indiana in Munster, Ind., five people
Jan. 31: St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, eight people
Jan. 31: The Wenatchee (Wash.) World, 12 people
Jan. 30: Rapid City (S.D.) Journal, four people
Jan. 30: Hershey (Pa.) Chronicle to close, seven people
Jan. 30: Los Angeles Times, 300 people
Jan. 30: A.H. Belo chain, 500 people
Jan. 29: Baltimore Examiner to close, 90 people
Jan. 29: Minneapolis Star Tribune, seven people
Jan. 28: The Rocky Mount (N.C.) Telegram, five people
Jan. 28: The Daily Reflector of Greenville, N.C., 23 people
Jan. 28: The Missoulian of Montana, six people
Jan. 28: Capital Gazette of Annapolis, Md., 111 people
Jan. 27: Valley News of Shenandoah, Iowa, three people
Jan. 27: Hutchinson (Kan.) News, four people
Jan. 27: Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, 15 people
Jan. 27: The Montana Standard of Butte, six people
Jan. 22: The Globe Gazette of Mason City, Iowa, nine people
Jan. 22: The River Valley Newspaper Group of Wisconsin, 10 people
Jan. 22: Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle, eight people
Jan. 22: The Journal Star of Peoria, Ill., 11 people
Jan. 21: Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftian, six people
Jan. 20: Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, 52 people
Jan. 18: Charlotte (Fla.) Sun, 30 people
Jan. 16: Napa Valley (Calif.) Register, two people
Jan. 15: Boston Globe, 50 people
Jan. 15: Muscatine (Iowa) Journal, four people
Jan. 15: The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, N.Y., 16 people
Jan. 15: Rutland (Vt.) Herald and Barre-Montpelier (Vt.) Times Argus, 14 people
Jan. 14: Ogden (W.Va.) Intelligencer, three people
Jan. 14: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, 15 people
Jan. 14: San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 people
Jan. 13: Billings (Mont.) Gazette, eight people
Jan. 12: Financial Times, 80 people
Jan. 11: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 156 people
Jan. 10: Newnan (Ga.) Times-Herald, 10 people
Jan. 10, Hanover (Pa.) Evening Sun, nine people
Jan. 9: Sun-Times Media Group to close 12 weeklies, 15 people
Jan. 9: Christian Science Monitor in Boston, at least 15 people
Jan. 8: Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal, seven people
Jan. 8: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 39 people
Jan. 8: Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, 38 people
Jan. 8: Wyoming Tribune Eagle in Cheyenne, two people
Jan. 8: The Daily Breeze of Torrence, Calif., 15 people
Jan. 8: Daily News and the Press Telegram in Los Angeles, 10 people
Jan. 7: Hanford (Calif.) Sentinel, 12 people
Jan. 7: Minneapolis Star Tribune, 23 people
Jan. 7: Hunterdon (N.J.) County Democrat, 25 people
Jan. 7: The Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn., 45 people
Jan. 6: Tulsa World, 28 people
Jan. 5: Westword of Vail, Colo., three people
Jan. 5: Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, 60 people
Jan. 5: Newton (Mass.) Record ceases operations, four people
Jan. 5: The Republican of Springfield, Mass., 36 people
Jan. 4: East Valley Tribune of Phoenix, 142 people. This was announced in advance in October of 2008.
Jan. 4: Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer, 50 people
Jan. 2: Sound Publishing of Everett, Wash., 44 people
Jan. 1: Asian Week in San Francisco, 11 people.

Here are News Cycle's month-by-month lists of newspaper job cuts this year:

December -- 752 people.
November -- 293 people.
October -- 375 people.
September -- 347 people.
August -- 425 people.
July -- 2,505 people.
June -- 318 people.
May -- 1,084 people.
April -- 1,350 people.
March -- 3,943 people.
February -- 1,492 people.
January -- 2,256 people.

Email me to report any job cuts in the newspaper industry.

Gibbs Responds to Limbaugh Speech

Robert Gibbs reposnds to Rush Limbaugh's speech before a conservative group.

Hearst Plans to Ration Some Print Content From Its Websites

Now it's a growing trend. Just days after Newsday announced it will charge viewers for its web content, Hearst Corp. revealed it is planning to hold onto some "paid content" from its newsprint.

Steven Swartz, Hearst Newspapers president, said in a staff memo that the chain would hold back some printed content from its free websites as online advertising slows sharply industrywide.

"Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day," Swartz wrote.

Here is the text of the memo:

Dear Colleague:

We are at the halfway point in our “100 Days of Change” program and I want to share with you the progress that we’ve made on ideas that fundamentally change the way we do business. Many of you have taken the time to write to me or to the various task force leaders with your thoughts and suggestions, and I’m extremely pleased by the level of energy and cooperation I’ve seen across our newspaper company.
One inescapable conclusion of our study is that our cost base is significantly out of line with the revenue available in our business today.

It is equally inescapable that during good times our industry developed business practices that were at best inefficient. For example, all newspapers look pretty much alike, and yet they are not similar enough to allow for efficient production or common content sharing. This must and will change. Another example is that while we have a tremendous opportunity to continue growing our advertising business with small customers, we cannot afford to do so by calling on every advertiser in person every other week and then having a team of artists build and rebuild their ads.

We must and will learn to use outbound telemarketing and self-service ad platforms more effectively. I’m confident we can move to rationalize our costs without impairing our ability to give our readers and advertisers the best news and information products in our markets. Even with the cost reductions we are making we have far more resources devoted to reporting local news and information than any other local media outlet.

Thus, each of our management teams is at work to complete a fundamental restructuring so we can turn our full attention to product innovation and revenue growth.

Next, we have a revenue and business model problem as opposed to an audience problem. Yes, it is true that fewer people read a newspaper on any given day today than they did in the past, but with the proliferation of media options, consumption of individual media types isn’t what it once was and probably never will be again. Our audience is still the largest of any local news and information media outlet. And when combined with newspapers’ Internet audience, our audience has actually been growing in recent years while our revenue has been declining. So it is our business model that must change in several ways.
We believe we must begin to provide greater differentiation between the content of our free Web sites and the content of our paid product, be that paid product read in print, on a digital device like Amazon’s Kindle, or online.

This doesn’t mean we wall off our Web sites behind a paid barrier. Our sites must continue to be the superior and dominant free Web sites in their markets. This means they must offer the best in breaking news, staff and reader blogs, community databases and photo galleries. In fact, we need to expand the number of reporters, editors and photographers who are running a truly great blog, creating a rich dialogue of opinion and data sharing.

We must do a far better job of reaching out to prominent citizens in our communities, those who already have a blog and those who don’t, and providing them a prominent platform to state their views. We must develop a rich network of correspondents to help us grow the deepest hyper-local community microsites in our markets.

We must do a better job of linking to other great sources of content in our communities. And we must put staff resources behind building those channels of interest that have the greatest potential: those built around pro sports teams, moms and high school sports, to name a few. Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day.

We must continue to ask readers to pay more for their subscriptions. Our print subscribers don’t pay us enough today that we can say they are actually paying for content. Rather, we only ask readers to pay for a portion of the cost of printing the paper on newsprint and delivering it to the reader’s doorstep. We must gradually, but persistently, change this practice. We ask our readers to pay for their subscriptions on the Kindle today, and we must begin doing the same thing on the iPhone and other advanced smart phones and reading devices that allow us to create a user experience worth paying for. We also need to make our paid product available through the Internet for those who prefer to read it that way. And we must innovate to constantly enhance the reading and advertising experience on these platforms.

Our sales forces must make a transformation similar in scope to the one that IBM underwent in the 90s when it went from a mainframe selling culture to a strategy of being true IT consultants to their clients, even selling them non-IBM products when warranted.

In our case, we must fully make the leap from simply selling pages to selling audiences, and in doing so be able to sell packages of products, some of which won’t be our own. The best of our Hearst Newspapers colleagues are already doing this, combining our offerings with those of Yahoo!, Google, MSN, AOL, Ask.com Yahoo! HotJobs and Zillow and networks of local Web sites that we have assembled. All of these products are in our portfolio today.

Our advertising task force has created a three-month course of transformational instruction built around a massive sales contest that each of your markets either has launched or is launching. I’m confident that most of our reps will emerge from this process set on a path to become topflight, consultative sellers of audience.
One final overarching thought emerges from our look at advertising sales: we must use third-party printers in all of our markets in order to significantly add more color to our products, not so much for our readers’ needs, but to be more competitive in the battle for advertising dollars in a high-definition world.

Finally, while our savviest advertising customers know that our products still work well for them, as do our most passionate readers, we have done a poor job of telling our story. This becomes even more important as we change our business model. Our communications task force has developed a wonderful new campaign that begins to put us back where we should be—on the offensive about the vital role we play in the politics, social lives and commerce of our communities. We’ll have samples of the campaign available next week on 100DaysofChange.com.

Please discuss these ideas with your colleagues, your managers, our customers and our readers, and let us know what you think. Our goal is to emerge from the “100 Days” with a cost structure we can build our future on and a business model that seeks, by 2011, to get more than 50 percent of our revenue from circulation revenue and digital advertising sales—two areas of our business that we know we can grow and grow consistently as this recession subsides.

I know these are difficult times for those in businesses like ours that are buffeted by so many forces. Yet I know that we have the wherewithal to emerge from this recession with a changed business, yes, but one that is back on a path of growth. Thank you again for your commitment to see us through this journey.
Best regards,
Steve