Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Times cuts

I love the Times, now more than ever. I took it for granted when I lived in New York. This hurts:

The New York Times Co. said Tuesday it would cut about 500 jobs, or about 4 percent of its work force, as part of an ongoing effort to reduce costs. The reductions come atop another 200 jobs that were cut earlier this year.

The Times said it expected 250 jobs at its main newspaper group to be affected, which includes the Times, the International Herald Tribune and the online operation of the Times. Of those job cuts, about 45 will come from the Times’ newsroom, the company said in a statement.

Another 160 jobs will be cut from the Times’ New England operation, which includes The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Boston.com. The company did not provide a breakdown of those job cuts other than to say that 35 newsroom jobs would be cut at The Boston Globe.

In January Business Week had an important cover story on the challenges the Times is facing. I quoted it then, including this on what makes the Times so good:

In essence, Sulzberger is doing what his forebears have always done: sink money into the Times in the belief that quality journalism pays in the long run. “The challenge is to remember that our history is to invest during tough times,” he says. “And when those times turn—and they do, inevitably—we will be well-positioned for recovery.”

[...]

THE CONSTANCY OF THEIR COMMITMENT to high-cost journalism has put the Sulzbergers in an increasingly contrarian position. Many of the country’s surviving big-city dailies once were owned by similarly high-minded dynastic families that long ago surrendered control to big public corporations that prize earnings per share above all else. Editorial budgets at most newspapers, as well as TV and radio stations, have been squeezed so hard for so long that asphyxiation is a mounting risk. The proliferation of Web sites and cable-TV stations has produced an abundance of commentary and analysis, but the kind of thorough, original reporting in which the Times specializes is, if anything, increasingly scarce.

In effect, the Sulzbergers have subsidized the Times in valuing good journalism and the prestige it confers over profits and the wealth it creates. In fact, for much of its history, the Times barely broke even. Recasting the paper into a publicly held corporation capable of pursuing profit as determinedly as Times editors chase Pulitzers was the signal achievement of Arthur Jr.’s father, Arthur O. “Punch” Sulzberger Sr.

Apple integrating video?

Apple Insider:

A recently published Apple patent application reveals that the company last year toyed with the idea of integrating a tiny video camera into the latch of a future laptop design, presumably with intentions of leveraging its iChat audio-video conferencing software.

[...]

While it’s unlikely that Apple will release a PowerBook with a built-in camera in the immediate future, reliable sources have recently reported sightings of a PowerPC-based iMac prototype that is said to sport similar functionality.

The sources describe the iMac G5 prototype as being marginally thinner than the current model and including a scaled down version of Apple’s iSight video camera that is built into the computer’s display bezel. The iMac design, which could see the light of day in coming months, is also said to sport a memory card reader and Bluetooth remote control capabilities.

Via Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing.

More on busses

Blanco wanted to use the school busses. FEMA said no:

Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes.

On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state’s suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview.

Even after levees broke and residents were crowding the Louisiana Superdome, then-FEMA Director Mike Brown was bent on using his own buses to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco said.

Via Republic of T.

Sports v news

Did anyone notice that there was an “abbreviated” 60 Minutes following the game on Sunday?

Then last night after Monday Night Football, the Atlanta ABC affiliate evidently skipped Nightline, in favor of Entertainment Tonight.

So if you want news, get it on the Internet! Broadcast television’s abandoning the space.