Finally tonight, I promised you some first-hand reaction to the hatchet jobs going on in newspapers all over the country from one of my friends. He is a 25-year veteran of the business who is struggling to keep his department afloat in the wake of continuing cuts ordered by corporate. Some have called the last seven days “The Worst Week in Newspaper History;” my pragmatic friend says simply that it “feels like a new kind of bad.” I e-mailed him the post about Martin Gee, who documented in pictures the effects of layoffs at the San Jose Mercury News. Here is his response:

Yep, it’s really bad all over. We’ve been promised a number of layoffs, page reductions and reconfiguration, if not downright elimination of some sections by the end of the year. The figure bandied about is 20 percent of the newsroom. We don’t know if it will be that many (16) in the end, but everyone is preparing themselves for that.

People—readers or employees—are no longer a part of the equation ...

It’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better unless the industry and stockholders can get off their notion that this industry can continue to pull down 30 percent profit.

One of the problems with beancounters being in control is that they have no sense of history. Over and over and over again, business has demonstrated that you cannot cut your way to success. The only time it works is in corporate raiding. Ask “chainsaw” Al Dunlap, who would buy a company like Sunbeam, fire everyone, make it look profitable and then sell it. Worked for him, but no one else. Don’t get me started.

Of course, when someone says “Don’t get me started,” it’s your cue that he’s just then getting to the point of saying what he really wants to say. And so I sent my friend the other newspaper-related posts. You won’t believe what he said. Check this out:

To survive, the industry needs to do something radical to its product but doesn’t have the (guts). Oh, they are trying all kinds of radical things that have to do with cutting costs, but nothing radical to make the product something modern people want to buy. For instance, the latest scheme being seriously considered is having English majors in India copy edit and design the newspaper every day.

Let’s stop right there for a minute. Chances are, you’ve had to call your cell phone company for customer service and talk through your plan details with someone in Hyderabad. Now, can you imagine reading a newspaper that was copy edited—for accuracy in content, spelling, punctuation and style—by people in India?

I guess we should look on the bright side. At least they will have studied English.

We think.

He continued:

What I’m talking about is a radical product change. Oh, there are plenty of good uses for a newspaper printed on newspaper, but it has to have stuff in it people want to read about.

Here’s an interesting story. Last week, I led a class of high school kids at the visiting journalist summer program for the Role Models foundation. Talking to the kids in my session, I found many worked on their school newspaper. None had an online newspaper. This one girl wrote me and said their paper was online. It was a link to download the PDF version of the paper. I suggested she take that online with something more interactive and current. Her response was that the kids wouldn’t bother to look it up online and that they would rather spend the quarter, read the paper and throw it away.

That’s exactly the opposite of the direction the industry is thinking right now. Granted, it’s only one high school newspaper staff member saying this at one high school, but I thought it was interesting. What that tells me is that it’s not the vehicle, but the content, that the kids don’t like.

The newspaper industry has always been a follower that only changed at a tortoise pace. Currently the idea of change is slashing content and taking things away that readers want.

I’ve had lots of ideas that would save money and make the product more useful and interesting. All I get is, “Oh, we can’t do that because....” We just won’t try anything reasonable.

The other problem is that while we are busy slashing staff and cutting pages, corp execs are still flying around in company jets and taking up entire floors in office buildings.

Things will eventually bottom out one way or another. I guess the question is, after it is all said and done, will the resultant industry be one you want to hang your byline on everyday?

I guess it will depend upon what you are here for.

Wow.

For people who love journalism and newspapers, that last line is a punch in the gut.

For more on the outsourcing of copy editing, read this Poynter article (which was, coincidentally, published today).