MediaNews Group CEO and Denver Post publisher William Dean Singleton has hired management consulting firm Bain & Co. to reshape MediaNews, and told an audience at the World Newspaper Congress in Sweden that the resulting changes mean, “We expect our business to look a lot different next year.”
The conflicting economic data continues: the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent information shows Colorado gained more private-sector jobs than it lost in the third quarter of last year (148,053 jobs added vs. 144,857 lost for a net 3,196 job gain).
KCNC/Channel 4 reporter Arturo Santiago, who was notified in March he would be let go, has landed an anchor position at KCOY covering the beautiful coastal towns of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The cutbacks at Denver area dailies continue. This time, it is the Boulder Daily Camera making the layoffs. The newspaper announced today that it has let nine of its 155 (six percent) employees go, including one unnamed “newsroom employee.” Alicia Wallace has the details (well, a couple of them anyway).
Ed Stein will claim Joe Nacchio was the inspiration, but was it really the Rocky’s own situation that inspired him?
KCNC/Channel 4 reporter Arturo Santiago was among six employees caught up in a layoff at the station this week. The station said additional cuts in the engineering ranks may soon follow, and that other open positions will not be filled.
First Data has long had a reputation as being a tough place for PR people to work, and it looks like the KKR acquisition hasn’t made it any easier. The Denver Post profiled the company this weekend and noted that additional layoffs are likely, and yet today Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List has a Director of Communications position open there. But typical First Data — they are lowballing the salary at $75-$100K.
Here is our free PR salary tip of the week: you should be able to negotiate $150K+ for a Director of Communications position at a sizable company such as First Data.
With that, the others hiring this week include Pure Brand, Xcel, Western Union, Arrow Electronics, Colorado Ballet, Digital Globe, Jackson Life Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, Regis Jesuit High School, Rose Medical Center, and U.S. Paralympics.
You know you are in trouble when a Colorado Avalanche beat writer calls you out for your public relations gaffe.
Veteran Re/Max public relations manager Jack Farrar was among 20 employees managing public relations and the company’s charitable operations who were let go this week as Re/Max continues to deal with the soft real-estate market. Re/Max Chairman Dave Lininger said the positions were vulnerable because they “did not affect the bottom line.”
Whew. We were concerned about Qwest’s need to layoff 700 of its employees, but it appears that the telecom giant has righted the ship thanks to out-of-the-box thinking such as this.
A significant decline in its traditional local telephone business — the result of increasing cell phone usage — means that Qwest will cut approximately 700 jobs. The cuts, totaling roughly 2 percent of Qwest’s workforce, will be in the form of buy-outs starting March 27. The Denver Egotist blames it all on bad karma.
Molson Coors plans to eliminate up to 390 jobs in its HR, IT and finance departments, and outsource the work to foreign Hewlett-Packard workers. Seriously. Roughly 130 of the soon-to-be-eliminated jobs are in Golden.
One of the great truths in Corporate America is that any memo from management that begins, “I know you are keenly aware that the economy is a major issue facing our country” is going to suck. And the good folks at Clear Channel Communications (CCC) — KOA, KHOW, KBPI, KRFX, KTCL, KBCO, KKZN and KFMD — are learning that lesson firsthand. CCC Market Manager Lee Larsen is softening the ground with employees now, so if you were planning to pitch any of your friendly local radio news anchors/producers, you’d better hurry. And then point them to The Jump.
Westword has the latest scoop on the continued departures of staff from the Post and Rocky. Among them:
After laying off nearly a quarter of its Colorado employees last week, ManiaTV announced it is relocating to Los Angeles.
KMGH/Channel 7 sportscaster Steve Gottsegen was let go after nearly a decade, part of a larger round of staff cuts at the ABC affiliate.
The Denver Egotist has the latest rumored number — somewhere near 75, which is more in line with the percentage of business that Qwest represented. Previous ballpark estimates had placed the number of layoffs at more than 100 and as high as 120.
Denver ad shop McClain Finlon is rumored to have notified more than 100 of its 170 staffers last week that they will be terminated in February when the Qwest account officially ends. The number seems a little high given that AdWeek estimates that Qwest represented 30 percent of the agency’s business.
News Corp.’s decision to sell eight of its Fox affiliates — including KDVR/Fox 31 in Denver — could result in cuts to the station’s management and news staff. Oak Hills Capital Partners acquired the eight stations to include in its Local TV LLC venture with the Tribune Co. The venture will provide “shared services” for all the Local TV LLC stations, and “produce savings in management, technology and other overhead costs,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Randy Michaels, who has been tapped to lead Local TV LLC, told Variety, “We are going to find new ways to operate smarter, cheaper and more efficiently.”
Jeff Smith at the Rocky Mountain News reports that Denver ad firm McClain Finlon is expected to layoff an undetermined number of staffers in February due to the loss of Qwest Communications’ consumer account. Chicago-based Draftfcb announced several weeks ago that it had won the Qwest account, which is reported to be worth $95 million annually. AdWeek estimates that Qwest represented 30 percent of McClain Finlon’s total business, so dozens of staffers could be affected.
Lynn Bronikowski, Mark Eddy, Anna Osborn, Ernest Gurule, Michelle Ames and Sharon Sherman are all Denver media types who successfully made the jump to public relations. They may have a lot more company from former colleagues at the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Westword reports on a group called “The Jump” that is helping journalists who fear continued downsizing make the move to PR.
Denver Public Relations Blog 