More details about the restructuring of Local news: Back to the future

Editors had a meeting this afternoon. Some details are filtering out. The plans sound more ambitious than scaled back. The idea is to better serve the "core readers" in those communities where we have the most of them. That means other communities will get less attention: NE Tarrant and the southern Dallas suburbs in particular.

What will the identified communities get? Small teams of reporters. A government reporter and a schools reporter, maybe. But there will still be GA reporters. There will also be an emphasis on analysis and context stories. Maybe some cuts in specialties, though there aren't many of those positions left.

One of my readers said the plans made him think of the scene in the movie Apollo 13 where the astronauts need to power up the command module but only have enough battery power for a couple of light bulbs. Getting it to work took very careful planning. How to "power up" local coverage while cutting the editorial staff will take very careful planning.

Questions from a reader

Some questions with what few answers I have:

I understand we should expect salary cuts and furloughs later in the year, on top of the job cuts. (I, for one, prefer furloughs to salary cuts.) What do you know about this?

I've heard that both are "on the table" where they were not a couple of months ago. Isn't a furlough also a salary cut?

I wouldn't be surprised by furloughs/salary cuts because I think our cash position is frightening. A drop in cash flow would presumably trigger a debt covenant, that could boost our interest rate cause big problems on the balance sheet.

I thought our debt position was better than other media companies? Better for sure than the other Belo? Or McClatchy?

Also, what's with the real estate reorg? Are they going to lease space in DMN building? Wouldn't it make sense to lease out space and make a little revenue? Or sell the building and move us to the Belo building?

I heard today that it's more likely we'll be seeing people from the Belo building filling space on the fourth floor that has been and is being vacated by lifestyles.

As always, anybody who knows better, please let me know.

What a rearranged Local operation might look like

Bob Mong indicated a change in the Local news focus in his house ad letter to the readers this past weekend. It was short on details. Here's what I'm hearing: That it could be a smaller-scale version of the zoned coverage the DMN has been working with for quite some time. Arlington Morning News, Collin County initiative, the series of zoned sections that were rolled out and back. Even NeighborsGo was an attempt to increase coverage of specific areas.

But instead of trying to increase coverage everyplace, a few specific communities would get the extra focus this time. The targets have not been identified to the staff, but the northern suburbs where the DMN still has significant "core readers" would be one logical direction. We're still selling a lot of papers in Dallas itself, so maybe there are parts of the city that would also get the team focus. How we do all that with a smaller staff, unless other coverage areas or beats get eliminated? I guess it's all in the plan.

If I'm off target, or if anybody has more to add, please e-mail me.

A worthy reminder that social networking tools may be of use

From a reader:

There is a DMN alumni group on LinkedIn that might help those departing the hallowed halls of Belo find other employment.

The direct link to join can be found here.

Or you can just go to:

www.linkedin.com

and search Dallas Morning News under groups.

To which I'll add: For those not familiar, LinkedIn is the professional/business equivalent of FaceBook. But it takes time to create a profile worth having. Start now.

(One other bookkeeping point: If you send me a note, let me know if it's OK to post your name. I think this contributor would not mind, but I'm assuming nothing.)

UPDATE: Bob Wasinger gave permission to give his name. He's the owner of the group.

One more thing we know: From Bob Mong's house-ad letter to readers

From Sunday March 15, on page 25 A:

"Based on your requests for more in-depth local coverage, we will assign specific teams to our communities -- including reporters who specialize in schools, government and community affairs, and investigative reporting."

That could mean a substantial redeployment of the Local news operation that will somehow happen in addition to the layoffs. Will this change of assignment affect how the layoffs will be done? Maybe editors have been told what this will look like. I'm not aware that the reporting staff has been informed.

What we think we know now

The last official information we had was from Jim Moroney's meetings. We were told that AH Belo would be cutting about 500 jobs. That Riverside would be cut proportionately worse than the DMN. That the DMN should hear by the end of February something about how many cuts we would have, and maybe something about how departments would be affected. And that the cuts should be completed by the end of March.

February came and went. We've seen cuts at some smaller departments at the DMN, notably al Dia. (If anyone who was cut from al Dia wants to use this blog to post a farewell, you are surely welcome.) But we have not been given any further official information about the size of the cuts.

Last week, we got semi-official word that the newsroom layoff has been pushed back at least a week, to April 7. We also heard that furloughs and pay cuts were now being considered in addition to the layoffs.

There was also a persistent rumor about the number of proposed cuts to the newsroom -- in the mid-60s. There was also a rumor that a preliminary list had been sent to corporate but was not approved.

That's all I know. If anybody has additional or better information, please send it to me.