Weeks after completing its latest round of penny-saving layoffs, which were preceded by pay cuts and benefits trims, A.H. Belo this morning reported its first-quarter ’09 results — and they are significant. The publisher of The Dallas Morning News reports a first quarter net loss of $103.1 million, some of…
By now, perhaps you’ve heard that earlier this week, Addison-based American Community Newspapers –publisher of the Plano Star Courier, the McKinney Courier-Gazette and the Frisco Enterprise among dozens of papers scattered across four states — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said there would be “no change in…
Two follow-ups in this particular radio round-up. First, I exchanged a few messages with Alan Ayo via Facebook, and the long and short of it is, he’s not at all upset that Clear Channel gave him his walking papers yesterday. Writes the former midday host and music director at KDGE-FM:I’m…
Back in January, Clear Channel laid off 1,800 employees, several of whom were good Friends of Unfair Park and most of whom worked in ad sales. Today comes news that the San Antonio-based conglomerate has laid off more folks in a second round of budget-cutting — and gone even deeper…
Jeff Catlin, operations manager for Cumulus Radio Dallas, says it took all of “five, six weeks, maybe” for station management to decide to drop The Bone and rechristen its classic-rock outlet as “FM93.3 Quality Rock.” Says Catlin, The Bone “had needed a face lift for some time” — because, well,…
This morning, The Dallas Morning News released its circulation stats covering the last six months, and, as to be expected, they’re down: “Daily circulation in the same period was 331,907 and 474,923 for Sunday, representing a reduction of 9.9% and 8.7% respectively, compared with the six-month period ended March 31,…
George Gimarc called yesterday — and, look, if you would have told me when I was 13 that one day I’d grow up and be friends with the voice behind The Rock and Roll Alternative … well, anyway. He told me about something he’s been planning for months now: a…
If nothing else, the paper version of Unfair Park has a most devoted reader in one George Rodrigue, the Dallas Morning News managing editor who, yet again, tears himself from the ads in the back of the Dallas Observer just long enough to read Schutze. As Jim’s out of the…
Silly me, somehow thinking that the sports content of a sports talk radio station mattered. In the midst of America’s most recognizable sports brand taking its product to a new radio station, a lot of Sportatorium readers clamored merely for monthly ratings. I aim to please. Did it for January and…
Richie’s just returned from Jerry Jones’s EnormoDome out in some place called “Arlington,” and he brings news: Your Dallas Cowboys have a new radio home. (Which, sure, is very old news to anyone who reads Sportatorium, as Richie will remind you.) He’s got all the details, but this note seemed…
True story: Back in 2004 I was preparing to go to the Summer Olympics in Greece as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In preparation for what was potentially a hostile, dangerous, terroristy, post-9/11 environment, all Knight-Ridder newspaper chain employees headed overseas were required to undergo special security training. CPR…
Morning-show hosts, beware: Lucy Rose does not take a prank call lying down. (Well, she might — I wasn’t there when she answered the phone … hi-yo!) But, seriously. Yesterday, Rose had her attorney go down to the federal courthouse in Fort Worth and file this 11-page suit against one…
Thanks to Google’s new News Timeline — seen here with a simple Dallas-by-the-decades search — consider the day lost. Thanks, Google!…
Tom Huang, a Dallas Morning News assistant managing editor and Poynter Institute ethics and diversity fellow, posted this morning an essay titled “Living with Layoffs at the Dallas Morning News,” which speaks for itself. This excerpt seems particularly relevant a week after A.H. Belo Corp. laid off some 200 News…
Belo Corp. — the Dallas-based broadcaster that, of course, counts WFAA-Channel 8 among its 20 owned-and-operated TV stations around the country — announced this morning that on April 30, it will release its first-quarter earnings. Bloomberg today reports it could be an especially interesting read for investors, who so far…
With the Rangers over and the Mavs resting and the Stars playing a meaningless hockey game – ugh, is there an uglier phrase in the English language? – I flipped around DirecTV for a moment last night before wondering aloud: If I had my choice, who would I watch right…
I’m confused by the Rangers and their uncharacteristic 2-0 start. I’m confused by the Mavs and their 270 combined points and back-to-back victories after pratfalling in Memphis. And I’m confused how new Britney morphed from horrible Britney into bad Britney into a Britney that’s just as good as even original…
At the end of March, The Washington Post ran a piece in which some National Public Radio hosts and higher-ups discussed the idea of having NPR member stations raise funds on the mothership’s behalf. Because, after all, NPR’s struggling like every other media organization: In December, it axed two popular…
Dallas Morning News insiders and the merely curious have no doubt spent the better part of the day watching the comments pile up on the DMNcuts blog, which has documented the layoffs taking place inside 508 Young Street. Condolences have been extended, tempers have flared, those let go have said…
‘Bout a month ago, we mentioned Chuck Norris’s column in which he kinda, sorta suggested that just maybe it was time he ran for president of Texas. A sentence from that piece — in which Norris wondered, “Will history need to record a second American Revolution?” — prompted this Charles…
Last time Friend of Unfair Park PeterK directed our attention to a vintage Dallas photo for sale on eBay, we drove up the $9.99 opening bid to a whopping sale price of $23.50, what a deal. This one’s not quite so action-packed as a four-alarm fire in the Wilson Building,…
This morning, A.H. Belo Corporation announced that layoffs at The Dallas Morning News will begin promptly, with “the majority of the actions [taking place] today and tomorrow.” By the time the company’s done with its so-called “cost-cutting measures,” it will have eliminated 14 percent of its total workforce, as A.H…
