The trade press has been full of stories lately about Newsday, the Dallas Morning News and other papers scrambling to compensate advertisers who overpaid for ad space because they were fooled by inflated circulation figures concocted by unscrupulous executives.
So it’s time to insert tongue in cheek, and repeat a modest suggestion we made last August in another forum.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the same news companies would offer rebates to readers every time they cut the budget for newsgathering or put together a buy-out and layoff package to slash newsroom rosters? Tribune Co., the owner of Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant, among other outlets, could start by rebating a certain percentage of subscription costs to those millions of its daily readers who are shortchanged every morning by the loss of newsroom employees sliced from company payrolls in 2004.
Somehow, we imagine the odds of that happening are pretty low. That’s not how things work in the wonderful world of newspapering.
Here’s how they do work: The same Tribune Co. told stock analysts yesterday that 75 percent of Newsday‘s largest advertisers, including the ten biggest, have accepted rebates the paper offered for overcharging based on the bogus circulation claims. Tribune has, in fact, set aside $90 million to pay rebates to advertisers in Newsday and the Spanish-language daily Hoy, which also inflated its circulation. And where exactly will that $90 million come from? Well, the company has already slashed expenses by $50 million per year at its papers in Los Angeles, Long Island, Hartford and Baltimore, each of which is now going to be operating with less staff, space and resources to gather and present the news — and more cuts may be just around the corner.
So not only do shortchanged readers get no rebates themselves, they effectively shoulder the burden of the rebates (in the form of receiving a lesser product) that are paid to advertisers.
Now, really, sports fans — where else could you find a sweet deal like that?
–Steve Lovelady
Steve Lovelady was editor of CJR Daily.