You get what you pay for: a lesson McClatchy Publishing is determined to learn the hard way

MGRR News Analysis -
SELL, recommends The Street, while the Sacramento Bee hunts for digital journalists at $15 an hour

Guadalajara -
MGRR has written before about the long, slow demise of the printed media, which includes many American newspapers. A sign of the times, as another U.S. newspaper proves it can read the writing on the wall.

The death bed vigil is far from over. There will be more. One just might be The McClatchy Company, which owns several dozen newspapers in the United States. Founded in 1857, it was once a powerhouse of American journalism. But like so many other rags, it has fallen upon hard times in recent years. And it's showing increasing evidence of boardroom desperation.

Most McClatchy papers now have a paywall installed. Readers or net surfers might get a few free articles, but sooner or later they have to pay up or go elsewhere. Understandably, most keep surfing.

In 2009 McClatchy appeared to be just one step out of bankruptcy court. On July 1 of that year the respected U.S. business magazine Forbes carried a not to be missed article entitled McClatchy Needs Mercy. Forbes pointed out that McClatchy "shoulders $2 billion in debt, much of it a result of the $4.6 billion acquisition of Knight Ridder in 2006."

It's hard to sleep well at night if you owe your creditors $2 billion. Even if you're McClatchy.

On Monday The Street, a U.S. financial news and services website religiously followed by individual and institutional investors, recommended that holders of McClatchy stock dump it. Said The Street:

"The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Media industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 171.4% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $42.01 million to -$30.02 million."

Today McClatchy shares closed at $2.60. That puts them squarely in the category of what the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission calls penny stocks. Some investors consider penny stocks to be junk securities.

Meanwhile, in California's central valley the Sacramento Bee is looking for a journeyman journalist. The second word is their's, not MGRR's. The starting wage for Digital Journalist 1 is $15 an hour.

The Bee is McClatchy's flagship newspaper, by the way.

Many who wait tables in the U.S. can do better than that. So can lots of other other workers, skilled or not. A digital journalist must have tons of technical knowledge these days, as well as basic writing and editing skills. The hours can be long and the pressure great. Ask anyone who works in electronic journalism, day in and day out, what it's like. McClatchy evidently doesn't want to pay a sustainable wage for the position.

Maybe it's all for the best, though. Old newsprint makes the very best window and glass cleaner.

May 31, 2013 - Chicago Sun-Times pink slips its entire photo staff

© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.

Once upon a time papers could hire superb journalists and photojournalists for pennies, like American photographer Dorthea Lange (1895-1965). But those days have passed. This is her iconic Migrant Mother (1936), shot in California's central valley at the height of the Great Depression.