Baltimore Sun to Launch Free Daily Publication Targeting Younger Crowd

The Baltimore Sun will launch a new free daily tabloid newspaper aimed at luring younger readers.

Called b, the publication will debut April 14 with an initial distribution of around 50,000. Sun officials say the publication will target Generation Y with its coverage of news, entertainment and music. The paper will be distributed at universities, coffee shops, restaurants, clubs and in bright orange boxes. The newspaper will come out Monday through Friday and initially contain between 40 to 48 pages. Sun executives hope to double the newspaper's distribution by the end of the year. [Click for MORE]

> Variety launches the Biz
> Layoffs at Ventura County Star
> Another Zell shoe falls: KTLA's GM out
> Bay Area News Group to cut "significant" number of jobs

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Media Work Force Sinks to 15-Year Low

Newspaper Slump and Shift to Digital Take Toll on Employment


Get out of media. Get into marketing.

U.S. media employment in December fell to a 15-year low (886,900), slammed by the slumping newspaper industry. But employment in advertising/marketing-services -- agencies and other firms that provide marketing and communications services to marketers -- broke a record in November (769,000). Marketing consulting powered that growth.

Since media employment peaked in dot-com-infused 2000, media companies have eliminated one in six jobs (167,600).

Newspapers, TV and radio all cut staffing last year. The only media sectors to add jobs: magazines (up a meager 400 jobs) and internet media companies (up 9,200). [Click for MORE] Sphere: Related Content

L.A.Times Editor Ousts Features Editor

The rumors were true that new Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton made getting rid of John Montorio his first big move. Montorio is/was the managing editor for features. He leaves at the end of the month. [Click for MORE]

> Montorio says he was 'surprised' at firing
> For publisher in Los Angeles, cuts and worse Sphere: Related Content

Can Newspapers Afford Editors?

Now that pending layoffs at the New York Times and Los Angeles Times have made newsroom cutbacks all but unanimous, some managers eager to maximize the feet on the street at their newspapers are wondering if they really need all those editors.

“How many people have to read a story before it goes in the paper?” asked a senior editor at a major metropolitan daily who is struggling to sustain the quality of his news report in an era of shrinking resources. “If we have to economize, the editing process is the place. Why do we have all these people processing stories after a reporter writes it? They are not producing anything that will get us traffic on the web.” [Click for MORE]

> Can journalism live without ads? Sphere: Related Content

High School School Newspaper Drops a V-bomb

Grover Cleveland High School Principal Bob Marks has his limits.

On Thursday, it was the labeled diagram of a vagina splashed across the front page of the student newspaper's Valentine's Day issue.

Flustered teachers rushed to confiscate the publication, but with some copies already in circulation and the Reseda campus in an uproar, it quickly became a hot read for the school's roughly 3,700 students.

And some of the contraband issues made their way home, getting a quick reaction from parents. [Click for MORE] Sphere: Related Content

How the Student Paper Covered the NIU Shooting

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Local Biz Sections Dying

The Denver Post becomes the latest large-city metro to eliminate its stand-alone business section (the Register made a similar move several weeks back). It's the predictable consequence of eliminating stock tables (they have become anachronisms in the online age) and then not having enough ad support to justify holding onto those pages. [Click for MORE] Sphere: Related Content