Is the Flint Journal in a Death Spiral?

Freefromeditors, a blog that's been a font of insider dope in the past, has some unhappy news about the fate of The Flint Journal — layoffs, mandatory salary and benefit cuts, and a paper that only comes out three days a week.

You think G.M.'s got problems...

The Flint Journal — like many newspapers across the country — appears to be in a death spiral. And freefromeditors.com is continuing to do an excellent job chronicling its demise with insider info and analysis. In other words, he's doing the kind of reporting that used to be done at daily papers.

Rich with knowledge

Just how much do reporters at The Flint Journal make? Jim of L Town gives us a clue on his blog freefromeditors:

"When I joined the Flint Journal in June 1989, I was offered a salary of $610 a week, plus fully paid medical and dental benefits.

"When I left with the buyout in December I was making a base salary of $1,052 a week and still had my fully paid health, dental and vision benefits. We also had the option of contributing to a 401k plan (and I'm sure employees there still do). The company matched that contribution up to 2 percent (relatively low by corporate standards, but nice nonetheless). For the first five years I had two weeks paid vacation (It may have gone to three weeks after 2-3 years), but then jumped to four weeks paid vacation a year. Plus we received an annual 53rd week paycheck, which was basically a bonus. In my best year I made nearly $60,000 working a lot of overtime and holidays."

The Corrections

Freefromeditors has an insider's look at the Flint Journal's mystifying approach to reducing errors in the paper:

Just this past Sunday (Feb. 24), again, the Journal editor wrung his hands publicly in his column and told his readers how hard the paper was working to eliminate mistakes. Heck, when I was there he offered a semi-annual drawing for a $20 gas card among reporters who had gone six months without having to post a correction.

At the meeting where this "carrot" was announced I told him I thought the offer was demeaning and that any good journalist should avoid mistakes out of professional pride and that vying for a $20 gas card was insulting. But the offer remained and the only winners (so far) have been a woman who compiles the wedding announcements and a graphic page designer. Now that's really fair! You take people who handled pre-written copy into the mix of reporters dealing with complicated interviews, facts, figures and working under deadling and consider them equals.

Flint Journal Insider

Want to keep track of the financial and staffing woes of The Flint Journal and, by extension, the entire newspaper industry? Read freefromeditors, a blog from a former Journal reporter who recently took a buyout and retired.

While the Flint Journal cleans house of its reporting staff, there has been little reduction in the ranks of the editors.

Through attrition, a number of copy editors have left, but mostly, the management type editors are still intact. In fact, one good reporter was promoted to an editor spot despite the mass exodus of many reporters.

I did hear that two copy editors from another Booth newspaper were involuntarily assigned to begin working at the Flint Journal Monday, Feb. 4 so as not to overburden the management staff.

In the meantime, reporters are told they must produce as a quota, one news story per day, and a Sunday show piece every two weeks. So now newspapers have gone from a creative enterprise to the newest widget factory.

UPDATE: Here's an interesting big-picture analysis of what's wrong with the newspaper industry.