Will the Daily News' E - Presence Ebb?

[XLFD]

As reported here and at WMOM on 12-31-11, the Ludington Daily News, Mason County's newspaper of record has significanly cut back on personnel including two photographers, Rob Alway and Lisa Enos, a staff writer, Jennifer Linn Hartley, and at least two office personnel who have lost their jobs as of last week.  Other indications have even more changes likely to happen, and these are likely to reduce the size and span of the LDN as we now know it.

 

The purchaser of the Daily News, Community  Media Group, is experienced in acquiring small newspapers and has a set philosophy in making them efficient and profitable.  A thorough perusal of their comprehensive web site shows that they seem to have a simple, cookie-cutter approach to their newspaper websites (available in the upper right of their page), most that have the same look and appear to be low maintenance in scope.  There would be no use for a full or part time web manager, any newbie reporter could quickly add content.

 

The Ludington Daily News website is very complex compared to normal CMG newspaper sites, and is high-maintenance.  This is good if you have someone dependable to run it, but it does cost a lot of money to maintain at a high rate.  It also has annoying pop-ups that fly under most security system's radars, something that other CMG sites do not have.  This could conflict with the uniformity that CGM seems to like.  As they say in their management strategies: 

The CMGMS operational strategy includes, among other approaches, a proven method of taking advantage of synergies within the operations to eliminate redundancies while improving operation efficiencies. This strategy has been repeated successfully in many markets, resulting in maximization of profitability while enhancing product quality.

 

This bodes ill for Andy Klevorn, the guru behind the City's website and the original local forum site, Ludington Talks (now operating as Picture This!, a local photo sharing site).  Many of us are indebted to LT, and indirectly to Andy, for getting us initially involved in computer chatting on local events.  I debuted back in March 2009 as XLFD on that site, and was routinely thrown off when I touched on such sensitive local subjects as proper riding of bicycles, placements of stop signs, and obscurement of traffic signs by trees all over town. 

 

The weird censorship, agenda, and rules of that forum was instrumental in getting the Ludington Torch started later in 2009 to offer a superior product for the locals to have a showcase for the free expression of their ideas (as free as the Ning platform allows).  By late 2010, Andy had discontinued three separate Ning franchises (Manistee Talks, Pentwater Talks, and Oceana Talks) and finally dropped the public forum on Ludington Talks.   All of these franchises had become laxly monitored, with little or no participation from Andy and his friends at the LDN, and even responses to reports of abuse were taken care of belatedly, for the most part.

 

Meanwhile, Andy's creation had backfired on him, making many people in the community angry at him.  The general populace became up in arms for the deletions and avoidances of controversial topics; the police were accused of many things, some unwarranted, like allowing drug houses to exist in the city; untrue criticism/praise of some businesses/politicians that were selectively moderated.  This is a short list, but at the end of the run, he was not well thought of by many folks.

 

These two factors makes him a likely candidate for Jeff Evans' next round of cuts to eliminate redundancies at the Ludington Daily News.  Come to think of it, Jeff was the one who threw me out of Talks back in April 2009, so take heart, Andy.  If this does happen, you're welcome  to come over here and share your experiences with us, as is any other XLDN employee.  

[Willy]

I think Andy will be staying. Every organization needs computer savvy people and I think the LDN web page will remain in some form or other and it will need someone to oversee it.

[XLFD]

But will the new media moguls in town choose to simplify the current media site into something more like what they already have, as most of the other newspapers they own?  A perusal of Community Media's other sites show that they favor simple websites that look like they exist on free platforms with few frills. 

If they do, they may look more closer at what Andy's job has been over the last couple of years, and whether he's needed if any reporter can easily add content to the site.  I have heard more than one person close to the newspaper wonder what Andy's job amounts to. 

Also note that the LDN has chose not to comment on their own downsizing at all this week, including the firing of the 5 employees over the weekend.  Once again, showing that the LDN is really not interested in writing about local politics.