Rumor is that the Times-Standard is letting some folks go and outsourcing ad production jobs.
One source at the 158-year-old newspaper said two people are leaving but declined to say who or what they do at the paper. Others contacted at the paper said to talk to publisher Dave Kuta, group advertising director Shonnie Bradbury and Display Advertising Director Zach Harrington — none of whom have returned our calls.
However, Express KCS Inc., “the largest independent provider of newspaper advertisement production outsourcing” according to its website, announced on June 19 that it has expanded its contract with MediaNews Group and added more California papers to the 40-some for whom it already does some ad production work:
“The new agreement which runs until 2016, consists of five additional California based newspapers: The Monterey County Herald, The Chico Enterprise Record, The Eureka Times Standard, The Paradise Post, and the Red Bluff Daily News.”
This is the sort of news, though just one more paragraph in a growing-old story, that gives newspaper people the willies — well, except for those flush folks at KCS. Their outfit, which also does work for other U.S. Newspaper chains — McClatchy, Lee Enterprises — and a slew of papers in the UK, is growing. Their other news release headlines tell it:
“18th June, 2012 Express KCS wins contract to supply advertisement production to Penna plc.”
“9th May, 2012 Express KCS unveils new brand identity”
“24th November, 2011 Press Association and Express KCS collaborate to bring outsourced advertisement production to UK newspapers”
“16th September, 2011 Express KCS expands again: Express KCS expands into second India production facility.”
That last one notes that Express KCS’s main production facility in Gurgaon, India, is busting at the seams with 400 employees, so it’s built another ad and design studio in Pune, Maharashtra, and is building yet another. Said the company’s CEO, Robert Berkeley:
“The market’s appetite for outsourcing graphic arts production is bigger than ever.”
So, good for them. But sucks for the local folks. Outsourcing isn’t new, and the poor T-S is obviously doing what it can to stay alive. But at what point will all that belt-tugging shut off circulation? Already the company shut down one local paper – the Humboldt Beacon, born in 1901 and died in December 2011 — and this January ceased putting out a Monday print edition of the Times-Standard. Its staff has noticeably shrunk — just a few years ago, there were seven news writers, for instance. Recently we’ve only seen three bylines in the news section.
And MediaNews itself is now owned by a bank: It went Chapter 11 in January 2010 and by March its lenders — chief among them Bank of America — were in charge.
In a T-S announcement of those changes, back in November 2011, Kuta said the decisions to cut the Beacon and curtail the Monday edition of the T-S were locally made, not directed by MediaNews — although, he was told to “cut expenses.”
In that report, he was bleak about the paper’s profit margin: “We’re not where we should be, otherwise we wouldn’t be making these changes.”
This article appears in What’s Organic?.
Savvy businesses will pay a local designer for print ad design (and radio and TV ads). The other businesses will probably shrug and forgo advertising in the Times-Standard.
Does this mean we shall see ads for the Kwik-E-Mart, Simpsons style in the T-S?
I mean, if Apu is designing the ads…
Some how, some way, Walmart is responsible.
Perhaps stockholders should consider outsourcing CEOs. That could lead to some real savings with no loss in productivity.
I don’t feel sorry for the “journalists” among humboldt’s media who get paid to inject political propaganda in their featurettes (like zach st. george @ the NCJ and john chiv @ the times etc). For the others who keep their noses clean, this really sucks, and unfortunately they will probably be among the first let go.
The more problematic thing with the Standard is that at the same time it makes cuts it refuses to keep up with the times and has a crappy online edition designed for the eyeballs of my Grandmother. And I am not young.
The TS has been in a downward spiral as they continue to make the wrong moves in a changing media environment. If the news is just rehashed feed from a provider and the local news comes from politically motivated hacks who don’t bother to do some investigating before reporting, this paper will have a few years max before it folds. Smaller news outlets like the NCJ, Lost Coast Communications and (GASP) even blogs have been able beat the TS to a surprising number of news stories and gain relevance with their readers that can’t be earned with 3 day old rehashed stories. Maybe they should offer a deal to Arkley to buy the paper as the Eureka Reporter was the last daily paper that seemed to give a shit about putting out a quality daily paper. Even if you don’t agree with his politics, the paper was much better written and proofread than the TS. I guess that’s why the TS sued it out of existence.
Not only is those $10 an hour jobs outsourced to India, the classifieds are all handled out of their Chico office. For all intents and purposes, the T-S doesn’t really exist anymore save for 2 guys with a camera and an internet connection and some guy to unlock the door in the morning.
Funny how everyone hated Arkley and his Eureka Reporter so much….I bet a lot of folks would like their jobs back at it….if it still existed. Perhaps someone can pony up the $ and buy back the Beacon and restart it. It will be a cold day in hell before MediaNews sells off the T-S. It doesn’t have to be printed at the T-S either, as the Reporter’s old facility is still running jobs for all sorts of companies. Just time and money.
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