The Wait is Over; Deseret News Comes Clean

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Announcement

"DNews has come out with a plan today to innovate and lead." -Deseret News CEO and President Clark Gilbert

After weeks of speculation, rumors and anxious anticipation, Deseret News CEO and President Clark Gilbert today finally made public his plans for the future of the 160-year-old Utah newspaper.

Step One of Gilbert's plan to lead and innovate: Address his entire staff at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and relay his "bold new direction to provide innovation and leadership at a time when daily newspapers throughout America are struggling to define a course for the future."

Step Two: Lay off 43 percent of his staff. On the spot.

Step Three: Send out a series of news releases announcing these changes via PRNewswire at the same time Gilbert is communicating them to his staff.

"The Deseret News Unveils Bold New Direction for Newspaper," my personal favorite of the three releases, carefully buried news of the layoffs at the end of the three-page release, following a proclamation of Gilbert's "pioneering content initiatives," the DNews' commitment to its (new) mission and values (ad naseum), and praises from "world-class" and "renowned thought leaders" across the nation.

The other two news releases indicated that editor Joseph A. Cannon and publisher Jim Wall had both chosen to "pursue other full-time personal and professional opportunities," facts that were not mentioned in the paper's own article ... which coincidentally, was also posted during Gilbert's meeting with staff. One could infer that posting this article was Step Four of Gilbert's plan.

According to said article, "Changes at the Deseret News announced," innovations at the news will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• An immediate reduction of 85 full and part-time staff members (43 percent of the current staff)
• Surviving staff will integrate its newsroom with KSL TV and Radio and will move in with them at the Triad Center location
• The paper will remain a daily print newspaper for the "foreseeable future"
• Content will shift to be digitally focused because, "innovation and technology have fundamentally changed the newspaper industry"
• The news will launch "Deseret Connect," which seeks content from outside contributors
• More online content will be produced to enable the paper's reach and influence to transition from local (Utah) to worldwide

Gilbert also unveiled a five-part plan, "to become a leader in the industry and a model for change." The plan's steps are to:

1. Integrate the paper's staff with KSL's staff
2. Increase coverage from "strong journalists" on issues audiences care about
3. Take direction from the newly formed Editorial Advisory Board ("industry and thought leaders")
4. Launch Deseret Connect, which will depend upon writers and editors, "across the nation with impeccable credentials and the highest respect of their peers" to provide content
5. Create a digital team that is up to the challenge of competing with "innovative new media companies in the country"

Gilbert made certain to re-emphasize (as he did with the formation of the Editorial Advisory Board), the Deseret News' emerging values: family, financial responsibility, excellence in education, care for the needy, values in media and faith in the community. Sounds more the mission of a non-profit organization, doesn't it?

Leading-edge Social Media?
Following his meeting, staff layoffs, news and article posting and lunch, Gilbert then held a less-than-successful, live Q&A session via Twitter. In his 30-minute attempt at an innovative "press conference" via Twitter, Gilbert managed to thwart legitimate questions and gave stiff, impersonal and boilerplate answers before leaving abruptly to attend a meeting.

During the Twitterfest, Gilbert kept religiously to his script and did not stray from prepared answers, leaving many participating in the Q&A frustrated, irritated and angry. Comments from participants regarding the Twitter session included, "A pointless exercise in propaganda," "What a strategic blunder," "Kinda entertaining -- for all the wrong reasons," and "As 'innovative' as the Deseret News wants to be, that was definitely a step backward, not forward."

You can read the Twitter conversation by searching the Twitter hashtag, #DNewsQ or following the link here. A few of the choice comments regarding the disaster include:

@LindseySine I wonder what "thought leader" decided #DNewsTweetQnA2010 was a good idea? What's that?...Make that 86 layoffs, folks. #dnewsq
@RobertGehrke Gilbert's Twitter Q&A was doublespeak train wreck. He can't explain how 85 cuts bolster coverage. Now he should be embarrassed AND ashamed.

@dilewis I am declaring #dnewsq a twittastrophe.
@Bill_Frost I will be holding a press conference on MySpace later to answer none of your questions. #dnewsq

Considering #5 in Gilbert's list of steps to "become a leader in the industry and a model for change," many of us were shocked at the failed social-media attempt.

Salt Lake Tribune blogger Sean P. Means wrote of the Twitter fiasco this afternoon, "Deseret News aftermath: Twitter fail," saying that, "If the Deseret News' future is online, the paper just learned a big lesson: Don't rely on Twitter for conversation."

Media Reaction

City Weekly

I mention City Weekly first out of shock and awe at Josh Loftin's investigative talents and gutsy posts concerning the Deseret News over the past several weeks (not to mention the number of times he's made me laugh out loud!).

Loftin's ability to write well and with wit was never more apparent than in today's post, "D-News F-U."

Credit where credit is due: The Deseret News executives have been amazingly consistent in their level of incompetence and arrogance. I won't even parse anything before today, because in the last 24 hours they have secured themselves a place in the Hall of Corporate F***-ups. ... They had a 10 a.m. staff meeting in which CEO Clark Gilbert told them that everything they feared was going to happen, but hey—the world would be better because of it, and by the way, the newspaper will live on. Because, you know, editors and reporters and photographers and paginators and feature writers and sports writers are pretty inessential to a newspaper.

... Gilbert went to the brave new world of the Internet this afternoon, which he preaches an affinity for, and basically got pantsed during a live Twitter interview. He fled the scene with zero questions answered and a whole lot of frustrated tweeters.

At last report (from both TV media and his own Tweets), Loftin, his staff and others bought drinks for now ex-DNews staff at Murphy's this afternoon and evening. Cheers and best wishes!

Salt Lake Tribune

Because the SL Trib has enjoyed keeping DNews rumors in the headlines lately, there is no need to expound on their generous coverage of this issue. 

I'm certain William Dean Singleton (aka, chairman and publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune and CEO of MediaNews Group, the Tribune’s owner), took pride in publishing a private, online letter to his employees as soon as DNews layoffs were announced. In it, he assured his staff (as well as his audience), that the Tribune would not be following in the DNews' footsteps.

The Salt Lake Tribune has carefully managed these difficult times without economic layoffs, instead reducing costs by attrition. When I became publisher on August 1, 2002, our newsroom had 146 employees. We grew the staff to 171 by early 2006, and through attrition we have reduced that to today’s 157. Let me assure each of you that The Salt Lake Tribune has no plans to reduce staff further or to change our current news direction. Our mission is to be the independent, unfiltered news provider of record for all readers. We will watch carefully for any voids created by the loss of staffing at the Deseret News, and do what is necessary to provide the state of Utah with comprehensive and editorial coverage. - William Dean Singleton

Deseret News

My award for "Most Authentic Reporter of the Day," goes to DNews editorial page editor, Jay Evensen for his post, "Changes at the Deseret News." Unlike the company's news release, other articles, Twitter messages and Gilbert's media interviews (where his responses were scripted corporatespeak and completely unsympathetic or even emotional), Evensen's post today was the only tell-it-like-it-is communication from the DNews I read all day. Not an easy thing to do, but the right thing to do.

I'm assuming by now you've read all the rumors about what will be happening to the Deseret News. Now it's time to hear the truth.

There is no sugar-coating the bad news. Like a lot of other newspapers in America, this one has to cut costs, and that means cutting people; real people with bills to pay and families to feed; people I've grown to love and respect through many years (I've been here since 1986).

The problem isn't a lack of readership. Far from it – print circulation is holding steady and on-line circulation is booming. Readership grew by 20 percent in 2009, the best of any paper in the country.

No, the problem is the Internet has sapped ad sales. It has put a big dent in the business model that has sustained newspapers for more than two centuries, and that's a permanent change.

So here are the awful numbers: 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees got pink slips today. That's 43 percent of the paper's workforce. Several of them will be asked to remain for a few months to help the paper transition, but then they will be let go.

Broadcast media did their due diligence with predictable reactive reporting. They stationed cameras outside of the Deseret News building, catching numerous staffers exiting after being let go and hounded Gilbert for interviews.

While Gilbert's talent walked off into the sunset (or to Murphy's) and he proceeded with Twitterific interviews regarding the bright future of the business, countless others of us mourned the loss of a wonderful group of people and a legacy begun by our forefathers more than a century and a half ago.

To all those who lost their jobs at the Deseret News today, you have my gratitude, my respect, my sympathy and my support. Thank you for a job well done and best wishes to each of you.

Stressed out?

At the end of a stressful day and week, there's nothing like unwinding over dinner at Pounders Island Grill with your best friend.

The Web is dead?

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Who’s to Blame: Us

As much as we love the open, unfettered Web, we’re abandoning it for simpler, sleeker services that just work.

-- Chris Anderson
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Wired magazine's August cover story is titled, "The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet."

This fascinating article by Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff examines in great detail how recent services (i.e., apps) have caused a decline in the web browsing.

Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to read this eye-opening look at how we are spending more time on the Internet and abandoning the World Wide Web.

August 2010 Ignite Salt Lake

I attended Wednesday night's Ignite Salt Lake event and had a great time! Thanks to all of you who made the night possible!!

Want to know more about Ignite? Here it is, in Ignite's own words.

About Ignite

"Enlighten us, but make it quick" is the slogan of Ignite--a community event celebrating the passion and creativity of geek culture, sponsored by O'Reilly Media. Ignite events showcase a series of speakers who, in rapid succession, give five-minute talks on whatever ignites their passion.

The format is half the fun with Ignite--speakers are allowed 20 slides that auto-forward every 15 seconds, whether they're ready or not. Organized by volunteers in the local community and presented free of charge to their communities, Ignite talks range from "Starting your own role playing game" to "The impending death of Internet Explorer" to "Zombie Defense for n00bs."

For more information on Ignite Salt Lake check out our Ignite Buzz page or watch the videos from past presentations.

In Our Lovely Deseret? The news behind the Deseret News

healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s been said that nothing is as constant as change. It appears that in the case of the Deseret News, Utah’s oldest daily newspaper, change is here to stay.

As many have no doubt noticed, the paper has been in a state of flux for the past few years. In May, Deseret Digital Media President and Chief Executive Officer Clark Gilbert, well-known as a specialist in disruptive enterprise, was crowned the first-ever president and CEO of the Deseret News.*

Salt Lake City Weekly's Josh Loftin has had his suspicions regarding the state of the DNews for quite some time. In his August 12 blog post, “Open Container: Deseret News Layoffs,” Loftin speculates that Gilbert is effecting a major restructuring of both organizational and business models. Loftin claims to have confirmed planned layoffs as drastic as 50 to 60 percent, beginning in the next few weeks.

While unable to secure public comment from DNews leaders, Loftin was able to confirm rumors of massive layoffs from his inside sources. He also questions the news’ future as a print publication, as do many in the print media.

In response to Loftin's August 12 post and increasing industry buzz, Glen Warchol blogged of the rumors in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune, "Bad news for DNews." He summarized rumors saying that significant layoffs were to be expected, remaining staff will leave their current downtown location and head to the Triad Center, and that the DNews will no longer publish daily, but perhaps a few times a week.

While Gilbert has remained silent on these issues, he did speak with media analyst Rick Edmonds of Poynter Online in April (see “From Harvard Business Professor To Deseret News CEO, Gilbert Leads Disruption”), remarking that future changes would address, “cost management and elimination of some ‘inessentials.’” Apparently Gilbert considers one-half of his staff inessential.

Edmonds predictably responded that inessentials generally include things such as, “outsourced copy desks [and] layout templates instead of a full-time production staff, and more freelance artists and photographers.” It is fast becoming apparent that rather than simply building audience and revenues, as was his original objective with Deseret Digital, Gilbert plans to change the DNews’ entire business model.

In fact, in a statement to ABC 4 Saturday, Gilbert said, “Like many newspapers around the county, we are examining how to enhance our business model. … We have not made any formal decisions about what model is best for our newspaper.”

The company is expected to release news of its plans shortly. Until then, speculation will continue concerning: how the DNews will subsidize operations if it ceases print distribution and embraces digital-only media; how it will generate organic, credible, timely and robust content, particularly if it loses half its journalists; how will traffic be attracted; and, whether or not Gilbert plans to cater exclusively to Latter-day Saint (LDS) audiences, opening up the possibility of a worldwide audience.

For the time being, we will have to wait and see what fate awaits the future of the Deseret News.

*Note: It is interesting that although Gilbert has been acting president and CEO since May 21, 2010, he is glaringly absent from the news organization’s website contact page.