February 19, 2009 05:16 AM UTC

Newspaper deathwatch, part XXXVI

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• by: DavidThi808

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

from the Boulder Daily Camera

E.W. Scripps, a partner in the company that owns the Camera and the Colorado Daily, told employees across the country Wednesday that it was instituting widespread pay cuts and the suspension of certain retirement benefits.

In an internal memo, Scripps CEO Rich Boehne said Scripps’ senior managers, from local managers to corporate executives, took pay cuts of 5 to 15 percent in January. “It is now clear that pay adjustments need to be broader,” he said. “You will be hearing shortly from your publisher how this will affect your newspaper.”

This is the kind of thing you only do when your back is to the wall. I worry that the daily newspaper may be going the way of the horse & carriage.

This is too bad but newspapers by and large have showed no imagination in how they have used the web and so I guess this has to happen. I hope they are replaced by a new company that will do local in depth reporting.