Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "mcclatchy"

TubaChristmas in Town

2010-12-12T06:01:51Z

The walls of McClatchy High Auditorium vibrated mightily today when 150 tubas gathered for the 31st annual TubaChristmas concert. Big, bold, and brassy sounds of tubas, euphoniums, sousaphones and baritones filled the space and entertained an estimated crowd of 800. During the free Christmas music concert, the audience sang with gusto, asked questions about the different instruments and wanted to hear the very lowest sound that tubas can make.

Steve Iwata and others conducted the aural and visual feast for the senses. Powerful, yet melodic sounds arose from instruments decorated with garlands and blinking lights while the players themselves were adorned in red and green TubaChristmas knit hats.

TubaChristmas is an international event that began in New York City in 1974. Hundreds of cities sponsor TubaChristmas concerts with the largest one held at Disneyland in Anaheim where approximately 600 tuba players perform.

This year’s Sacramento event included players ranging in age from 10 to 80. Most were from the Sacramento area, but some traveled from Reno, the Bay Area and Washington State and multiple generations of families played together. TubaChristmas in Sacramento is held every year on the second Saturday in December.

A Warm Reception at McClatchy High School for Anti-Gay Protester Fred Phelps

2010-02-06T04:38:14Z

      A small group of people started gathering in front of McClatchy High School today, at 3 o’clock, to show their support for gay rights. Among the group, were protesters who had gathered earlier at the capitol, students from neighboring schools, and the press.
      It was nearing the scheduled time for the arrival of the notorious anti-gay protester, Fred Phelps and his clan, from the Westboro Baptist Church. They were scheduled to arrive at 3;15pm, according to their website godhatesfags.com.
      The high school was ready with a dozen staff members standing guard in the front drive way. A number of students chose to dine in restaurants across the street, having a nice vantage point to enthusiastically view the scene.
      At 3:20, the school bell rang and students began to flood through the front doors. As the front of the school filled with students, more supporters joined the group. Some were wearing pro-gay t-shirts and others were wearing rainbow colored ribbons. Several students identified themselves as members of the gay-straight student alliance at high school. Other students made the point that they were straight, but believe in mutual respect for all people.
      The mass of demonstrators became larger. As cars drove by, honking their horns, the crowd would roar with delight. What was planned as a counter-protest became a gathering of people with a love for freedom and equality. The diversity of the crowd was greeted with the smiles on people’s faces.
      People didn’t seem too disappointed that the guest of dishonor hadn’t arrived. The reverend had also missed his appointment at the Capitol, scheduled for 1:10pm. Rumors were circulating that their flight had been cancelled due to snow. These reports have not been confirmed.

Images:

1) Anthony is a student at McClatchy High School.
2) Mother and son, Kathryn and McClatchy freshman, Liam.
3) Two students from St. Francis High School show their support with a rainbow flag.
4) A girl in pink tape strikes a pose.
5) Students from Rio Americano High School,of Carmichael, show their support for gay rights at the State Capitol.

R.E. Graswich on why he left journalism for City Hall

2009-08-21T02:48:28Z

Sacramento journalist R.E. Graswich is not sad to leave his 37-year journalism career for a new job as special assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson.

“I figure I got one last shot in life here to do something worthwhile as opposed to what you guys do,” he joked while addressing reporters Tuesday.

Graswich, 54, left a 35-year career at The Sacramento Bee in 2007. In the two years following his departure from the Bee, he took up “wonderful chances” to work as a co-anchor at KFBK and commentator at KOVR CBS 13, he said. Now, though, he wants to work in the political arena. This is his first week working as a staffer at City Hall in the special assistant position with a salary of $80,000.

At Johnson’s office, Graswich will hold several roles. He will be a point-man in negotiations and discussions between the City Council and Johnson. While he won’t be the mayor’s contact for the media, he said he will provide assistance on communications issues and strategies. Graswich will work on policy issues relating to both K Street development and public safety in the city. In addition, he will work with community members on behalf of Johnson’s office.

Graswich told The Sacramento Press in an interview in downtown Sacramento on Wednesday that he achieved his goals as a Bee columnist covering city issues. “I ended up writing what I think was the top column in town. It was the most popular, the most widely-read column.” Additionally, he spent several years writing a sports column.

He also wanted to leave the Bee because he felt it had changed for the worse. “When you look at the decline of the traditional media -- and the Bee in particular -- I just didn’t want to stay around and watch that,” he said.

“I was there during the glory years,” he added. “I was there when it was a wonderful, viable, vital place to work. I thought it was a job for life, frankly...And here we are at this situation where it’s just not the same anymore. And there are a million reasons for it. But I just thought, it’s time to step away.”

Graswich noted that some people have told him that his move to Johnson’s office from journalism is like going to “the dark side.” But he argues that private sector media outlets are “the dark side” because they’re working for the sake of profits rather than for the public.

“The dark side?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m getting paid by the people. I’m working for the people.”

“You’re on the dark side,” he said, laying out his response to journalists critical of his career move. “Your boss is trying to make a dollar... Clear Channel and McClatchy — those are the two people I’ve worked for. They’re in it for the money. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m working for the people now. And they’re paying my salary. And by God, they’re going to get their money’s worth.”

He also said that he is taking a pay cut to work for Johnson's office.

Graswich freely acknowledged he has a hankering for politics. Though he’s considered running for local political office, he said he’s not able to run in the 2010 elections.

“In the back of my head, I always thought — if I could get into government,” he said. “I love the city issues; I love policy issues. There was some thought about me running for office.”

He said he would have needed three things to run for a City Council seat in 2010. One of those things was the backing of Councilman Robbie Waters. Graswich, who lives in Waters’ district, would have considered running for office if Waters decided not to run.

Graswich also said he would have needed the support of his wife, as well the backing of Mayor Kevin Johnson.

But Waters is running for office again in 2010, and Graswich’s spouse, Elizabeth, put her foot down. “Honest to God, I think it was that she didn’t want to be married to a politician,” Graswich said. “There was also a period of fund-raising -- the rubber chicken circuit, the stuff that you got to go through as a politician to get yourself elected...There’s a significant loss of income because I couldn’t work while I was campaigning.”

While Graswich denies plans to run for office in the 2014 local elections, he indicated that the issue could be raised again in a couple years. “It’s too far out there,” he said. “Talk to me in 2012.”

He also said he made an eight-to-10 year commitment to work with Johnson as a staffer. “In many ways, it’s better than being a politician,” he said. “You don’t have to run for office -- you’re already in there. You get to deal with all the same issues...I think it could potentially be more fun, though. All of that’s conjecture at this point because it’s only three days into it.”

Read The Sacramento Press Friday to learn more about what Graswich will do in his special assistant position and how he accounts for his changing views of Johnson’s performance as mayor.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

The business model of news

2009-04-06T12:39:57Z

The current fear goes something like this: "If the newspapers disappear, so does all the real original reporting with it." The basic charge is that there is no business model for "giving away" news online, because online revenue is too miniscule and newspapers spend an enormous amount to get us that amazing original content.

The trouble is that a lot of those assumptions are just plain false. Once you start delving into the numbers those assumptions begin to wash away.

For instance, what does an average major daily pay, in terms of a percentage of its overall budget, for its editorial department? While one's inclination may be to assume that it is a huge portion, the reality is that the number averages between 7 and 10 percent. That means the rest of the cost of running a paper is tied up in printing, distributing, marketing and selling that paper.

Considering those percentages, let's look at McClatchy's 2008 numbers. McClatchy as an organization reported total earnings of approximately $1.9 billion. They also reported online advertising revenue of approximately $180 million. Some quick math indicates that about %9.5 of McClatchy's total revenue came from online advertising. Sound like a familiar percentage?

But that's McClatchy, what about the Bee? While numbers haven't been published breaking down the Bee's costs specifically for 2008, we can make some estimates and compare those with revenue numbers. The revenue numbers can be broken out of the McClatchy reports. Of the $180 million that McClatchy makes in online ad revenue, approximately $30 million comes from California and of that, slightly more than half comes from The Sacramento Bee.

That means that The Sacramento Bee has about $15-16 million in online ad revenue. And if I had $15-16 million dollars I could provide Sacramento with one really stellar newsroom and mountains of daily reporting on the region. But you don't have to take my word for it. In fact the Bee already does provide stellar coverage for near that amount. With approximately $211 million in revenue, it is likely the Bee's editorial department costs in the neighborhood of $15-20 million.

In a recent Bee article Al Tompkins, a Poynter faculty member, was quoted as saying, "Who's going to cover the planning and sewer commissions?" The answer: Geoff Doughtery plans to. Geoff Dougherty of chitowndailynews.com is building a newsroom for approximately $2 million. Click on the link to check out his extensive coverage.

While this analysis is not done by a professional economist, or accountant, it is clear that in general, the news about news, is not as grim as some make it seem. My aim was to ground this panic with a few numbers that make sense of the world we live in, so that we will begin to be able to figure out the new world we are heading for.

Statistics sited in this story can be found in this press release from the McClatchy website.

The Sacramento Bee's crisis of relevance

2009-03-10T01:49:00Z

The Sunday, March 1, edition of the Sacramento Bee, included an article written by publisher Cheryl Dell entitled "It's not a lack of readers, it's a lack of advertising." The gist of the article was that despite the Bee's growing readership, advertising revenue has fallen, forcing the paper to reevaluate its business model. While it's never a bad idea to revisit policies when times get tough, I don't think Dell's column went far enough to acknowledge one of the biggest albatrosses hanging around the Bee's neck : the McClatchy Company.

I'm not trying to demonize McClatchy. The problem is that as a profit-seeking business, McClatchy has institutionally different goals and definitions of success than do its subordinate parts, including the Bee. McClatchy is a profit-seeking corporate entity, but the Bee is a member of our cherished free press, an institution enshrined in the Constitution and fundamental to our civil society. And though the Bee should be a civil servant in the best sense of the term, its expensive investigative reporting is going to create natural conflicts with McClatchy's profit motivation, beyond corporate editorial pressures.

For starters, consider that many papers nationwide, McClatchy-owned or not, are profitable in and of themselves but were required to make drastic cuts because their corporate owners incurred too much debt too quickly to maintain their business expansions. While the Bee may not itself be profitable, it is hard to believe that the paper has been so hammered by the recession that it had no choice but to eliminate half its staff and cut valuable inches from the printed edition. Not when its parent company, McClatchy, has watched its stock price drop from $74.50 in 2005 to $0.41 today. Sacramento's primary news source is suffering because McClatchy can no longer make the payments on its purhase of Knight-Ridder.

Consider also that though it is a sound business decision to save money by adopting corporation-wide platforms and standards, it undermines the ability of a newspaper to acknowledge and embrace its city’s character. Instead of a newspaper tailored to the unique interests and values of Sacramento, we readers are treated to mostly the same diluted content as other McClatchy readers. This is especially evident with McClatchy's web properties. Given an amazing and infinitely malleable digital distribution medium, Sacbee.com is a bland pixel-for-pixel rehash of McClatchy’s Charlotte Observer. Blank out locations and names, and you could not tell California from North Carolina.

Another sound business decision is to drop expensive original reporting in favor of cheaper, already-ubiquitous feeds. These days, there are more ways to receive an AP news feed than there are AP stories, and the same is true of nationally syndicated columns. Unfortunately, the Bee does neither itself nor its readership any favors by reprinting what is already widely available and eliminating what it alone can provide: local news, local opinions, a broad and diverse forum for community discourse, and public scrutiny of local powers.

A strong Bee would measure itself in its relevance to Sacramento, not its contribution to McClatchy’s share price. This means cutting back on wire and syndication reprints in favor of a renewed focus on local stories and local issues. This means celebrating life in Sacramento. This means redesigning the paper to reflect Sacramento’s unique character. This means prioritizing investigative pieces. Where advertising is concerned, this means pushing advertising quality over quantity and providing more column inches than ads.

As we've seen, good journalism can be severely undermined by the pressures of profits. If a for-profit business model is failing the Bee (and by extension, Sacramento), perhaps the paper should be excised from its corporate parent and given new life under a business model that would let it get back to journalism. That's something Cheryl Dell ought to consider.

Breaking the Buck at The Bee

2008-12-24T19:58:08Z

As Chuck D. of Public Enemy once asked rhetorically, "How low can you go?"

The stock of the McClatchy Company, parent of The Sacramento Bee (where McClatchy has its corporate offices, at 21st and Q), "broke the buck" for the first time Monday, and continued to slide Tuesday. The stock finished at 75 cents a share on the NYSE Tuesday, after dipping as low as 66 cents a share.

This, for a stock that was valued at $70.90 just four years ago this week. Stunning.

So, as Chuck asked: How low can it go? Presumably, it has to stop somewhere short of ZERO, but really: Who expected it ever to go this low? From $70.90 to 75 cents in four years? That’s a 99 percent drop, using my rough math. Imagine anything else losing that much value. Anything.

Granted, even mighty Starbucks has dropped 50 percent in just the last year. And we know all about other American giants, from banks to automobile manufacturers, teetering desperately. But still, even in these dire times, when newspaper companies are going bankrupt and everyone else is feeling the pinch, a 99 percent drop - again, in four short years - seems almost unimaginable. I mean, again, HOW LOW can you go? Can it go to zero?

I called Gary Pruitt, who as CEO of McClatchy is taking most of the heat on this - besides the people who are losing their jobs, of course - and he referred me to treasurer Elaine Lintecum, whose answering machine says she’s out until after Christmas.

And really, who needs a Christmas break more than the people who are watching this train wreck from the inside?

And besides, what are they going to say? Reassuring words have been plentiful all the way along a stock slide that looks like a black diamond at Squaw Valley. But the slide continues.

Dale Kasler, the Bee’s reporter on McClatchy matters, has had to fend off blog-posting cranks who think that The Bee is losing readers because of its “liberal bias.” But the story is much bigger than that, and much less easy to summarize.

In the meantime, just how this is all going to play out is anyone's guess, but at least one knowledgeable media wag here in town expects McClatchy to follow the Tribune Company into bankruptcy in the new year. That's just a guess, but based on a $70 to 75 cent drop in stock price, it doesn't seem like a bad call.

On the other hand, The Bee is STILL a good newspaper, particularly in its news pages, and while we are looking to scoop The Bee when we can – see Sonny Mayugba’s piece on the all-star local recording of “Happy Xmas,” which just posted - we have no desire to see The Bee go away. We are daily readers.

And so this is Xmas, and I for one am hoping for a big rebound in 2009 for The Bee, the housing market, the retail sector and everyone’s spirits.
And I’m especially excited about the possibilities for SacramentoPress.com, which faces the new year as something new, exciting and, above all, growing, with a whole new media world before us. Come join us, become a community contributor, and help create the next generation of Sacramento media!