The mourning was not only for the colleagues who had rudely plunged into unemployment. Rather, it was clear to the journalists that this step would mean the end of a journalistic institution. The most important New York tabloid, which will be 100 years old next year, has been the voice of the working class in the city for decades. She has won dozens of Pulitzer Awards for exposing abuse of power and corruption in New York. Most recently, she made a name for itself with fearless and humorous criticism of Donald Trump.
According to publisher Grant Whitmore, this tradition is not in jeopardy – the deletions would position the paper for the future. The fired editor-in-chief Jim Rich saw it differently. “If you hate democracy and believe that the powerful should operate in secret, today is a good day for you,” he tweeted.
There is enough cause for skepticism. The layoffs were announced without the parent company Tronc – a much derided abbreviation for Tribune Online Content – coming up with a concept of how to proceed. When asked by a reporter why there was no such concept, Whitmore answered succinctly: “That is a good question. That was not our approach.” Tronc clearly has no plan to run profitable journalism. The only discernible strategy, according to New Republic media expert Alex Shephard, is “to loot the companies Tronc has while they can.”
Shortly before the layoffs in New York, the successor company to Chicago Tribune had sold the Los Angeles Times, also a traditional American newspaper, to the South African investor Patrick Soon-Shiong for 500 million US dollars. 327 million of this was used to pay off bank debts, 75 million was paid out as dividends. To make the deal more attractive, 80 editors were laid off.
Not much remains of the cocky statements that Tronc made when it was founded in 2014. Instead, history has degenerated into one of the worst examples of what non-industry investors can do to oversized personalities in the news business.
BBefore Internet billionaire Michael Ferro took over the over-indebted Tribune publishing house with traditional newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun, he had already given up on the Chicago Sun Times. His great innovation plans ranged from an aggregator for local news from across the country to launching new magazines on celebrities, sports and business. But none of these ideas worked, circulation and sales plummeted – not to mention the reputation of the newspaper. Nevertheless, he still believed that he could shape the future of journalism when real estate mogul Sam Zell had to sell the Tribune Company at a ridiculous price.
Innovations included the introduction of artificial intelligence in the production of videos as well as the creation of “content removal robots”. In a promotional video that became the mockery of the industry, the company’s technology boss talked about funnels into which content is filled and distributed to a global market.
Ferro also struck when the Daily News came onto the market in September 2017 for the symbolic price of one dollar along with assuming the liabilities. But he never got around to doing his experiments with the news. He was forced to resign in March this year on allegations of sexual abuse. Nevertheless, he kept a consultancy contract $ 15 million at Tronc. And he voted, among other things, for the payment of the dividend from the sale of the Los Angeles Times. As a major shareholder, this move also benefited him directly.
In New York, even those who most feared the Daily News see these developments with horror. “This is a disaster for journalism and a disaster for New York,” commented Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Tronc should sell the Daily News to someone who cares about journalism.”
The group had this opportunity. Last year the publishing house Gannett, which publishes USA Today among other things, bid for the Tribune Company. However, Ferro did not want to sell, he still believed in going down in history as the savior of journalism. Whether Gannett is interested in what’s left of the Tribune Company remains to be seen.
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