'nother one bites the dust.

tommangan · **Posted:** Fri Feb 21, 2003 8:02 pm

San Francisco Examiner laid off most of its staff today. Details: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/02/21/financial1909EST0133.DTL

jmcg · **Posted:** Fri Feb 21, 2003 8:18 pm

This is a bit different from the tale
of most papers going belly up. That is,
the Examiner wasn't supposed to make it.
An understanding of the "sale" from
Hearst to the Fangs, makes that clear
enough. It was within the Fangs' interest
to fold up about now. To have continued
publishing would have been foolhardy,
even by the standards of money-losing
newspapers. The more typical death of a newspaper
story came when the owners of the much
larger San Francisco Chronicle put
that paper up for sale a few years ago.
When Hearst, then owners of the then, as
now, smaller but then-better Examiner,
bought the Chronicle in 1999, the Examiner
was effectively dead already.

tim · **Posted:** Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:16 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jmcg:
This is a bit different from the tale
of most papers going belly up. That is,
the Examiner wasn't supposed to make it.
An understanding of the "sale" from
Hearst to the Fangs, makes that clear
enough. It was within the Fangs' interest
to fold up about now. To have continued
publishing would have been foolhardy,
even by the standards of money-losing
newspapers. The more typical death of a newspaper
story came when the owners of the much
larger San Francisco Chronicle put
that paper up for sale a few years ago.
When Hearst, then owners of the then, as
now, smaller but then-better Examiner,
bought the Chronicle in 1999, the Examiner
was effectively dead already.<hr></blockquote>I doubt any of that is comfort to the people who lost their jobs, then were given one hour to clean out their desks and a whopping eight days severance pay.

rumymommy · **Joined:** Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 138

I can almost picture all of them figuring out the route for their coast-to-coast job-hunting trips now.

rlbynum · **Joined:** Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:01 am **Posts:** 7

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Associated Press Writer
The publishers of the San Francisco Examiner laid off most of the staff on Friday, and planned to continue publishing the storied daily paper with only a handful of employees.

-----------
How many employees can you get in your hand, anyway?[ February 21, 2003: Message edited by: Scribe ]

jmcg · **Posted:** Sat Feb 22, 2003 12:43 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Tim Hathcock:
I doubt any of that is comfort to the people who lost their jobs, then were given one hour to clean out their desks and a whopping eight days severance pay.<hr></blockquote>I hate to sound so callous, but the truth
is that anyone who went to work for the
Examiner once the Fangs owned it knew, or
should have known, what a shaky venture
it was. Again, it was essentially set up
to fail. That said, it of course sucks to be
unemployed under such circumstances.

tim · **Posted:** Sat Feb 22, 2003 4:45 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jmcg:
I hate to sound so callous, but the truth
is that anyone who went to work for the
Examiner once the Fangs owned it knew, or
should have known, what a shaky venture
it was. Again, it was essentially set up
to fail. That said, it of course sucks to be
unemployed under such circumstances.<hr></blockquote>Maybe you're right. But there are those who didn't get the message, and I think the now-unemployed can be forgiven for believing the Examiner could be viable.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 22, 2003 9:17 am

all the more Reason to put it out of its misery?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Feb 22, 2003 11:06 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:
all the more Reason to put it out of its misery?<hr></blockquote>I was going to make a reference to "Zelig," but, upon reflection, I'll go with the "bad penny."

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Feb 25, 2003 12:20 am

Bob Gower, then-art director of the San Francisco Examiner, couldn't get into his e-mail from home on Friday afternoon. He called the tech guy at the paper, told him the problem and joked, "Have I been fired?" "Well, yes," said the tech guy. Forty employees of the Examiner were fired, with a half hour's notice, by James Fang, son of publisher Florence Fang. Manufacturer's disclaimer here: Among those fired was my wife, columnist Debby Morse, through whom I met many of this small band of enthusiastic, mostly young journalists who worked hard to cover this city. Now there are only seven Examiner newsroom staffers left to put out what the ownership says will be a free paper -- and surely worth every penny. One of those survivors was quoted as saying, "This is a reorganization. It's certainly not a death knell." A reorganization? Yep, like that reorganization at the Little Big Horn. But without the dignity. (Rob Morse, San Francisco Chronicle)***Maybe so, Rob, but we don't use our columns to bash our wives' former employers.***

jmcg · **Posted:** Tue Feb 25, 2003 12:49 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
***Maybe so, Rob, but we don't use our columns to bash our wives' former employers.***<hr></blockquote>We just bash everyone else.

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'nother one bites the dust.

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