The Marginalization of the MSM

The long-term marginalization of the MSM continues. The Inky reports:

Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Inquirer and Daily News, said today it plans to eliminate 16 percent of newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs, blaming falling advertising revenues and circulation.

The job cuts, similar to actions taken by other major newspapers in recent years, will reduce the number of Inquirer reporters and other newsroom employees by about 75, to 425, roughly its level in the early 1980s, according to union officials at the Newspaper Guild.

The Daily News aims to cut about 25 positions, reducing its newsroom to 105 people, less than half the size at its peak in the early 1980s, according to former Daily News editor Zachary Stalberg.

The cuts amount to 15 percent of The Inquirer's newsroom staff, and 19 percent of The Daily News newsroom staff.

Read it here.

In a way I'm sad to see this. In an earlier life I lived and worked in Philly and the Inquirer and Daily News were part of my daily routine. But progress is progress as the makers of buggy whips can tell you. I just hope that my friends still have jobs.

RELATED:

And then there's this:

NEW YORK The New York Times Co. announced a staggering staff reduction plan Tuesday that will likely mean some 500 job loses at the company's many properties, including an expected 45 newsroom positions at The New York Times newspaper and 35 at The Boston Globe.

Read it here.

And then there's this:

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather said Monday that there is a climate of fear running through newsrooms stronger than he has ever seen in his more than four-decade career.

Read it here.

Dan, completely abandoning his tenuous link with the real world and flipping over into Kenneth frequency land, attributes this all to the nefarious influence of conservative Christians who are supposedly pressuring the newsmen's corporate masters.

Sigh!