“Bankrupt newspaper companies are following the lead of AIG and Lehman Brothers and rewarding executives with large bonuses. The Tribune Co. is trying to pay out $13 million in bonuses, the Journal Registers Co. is trying to pay $2 million, and Philadelphia Newspapers has already given hundreds of thousands in bonuses to its corporate officers.” [...]

Kent Fischer told me that about a year ago newsroom managers at The Dallas Morning News approached reporters looking for volunteers to learn to shoot video. The managers sold these reporters on the idea of learning video by telling them that it would increase job security. You know, video is the future and all of [...]

The Internet didn’t bring the newspaper industry down. Debt didn’t bring the newspaper industry down. Declining advertising rates didn’t bring the newspaper industry down. Complacency did. When an industry goes from so high to so slow, so fast, it’s ultimately because its leaders became complacent. They never thought that the monster profit margins would end. [...]