PK, Sarah Pepper, Ivan Trujillo
on KKHH's "The Hot Show"

PK and Ivan have a new place to play: pop station KKHH in Houston.

In Portland, the two had been on Jammin 107.5 (KXJM)'s "The Playhouse" since 2000, when the station was owned by Paul Allen on the 95.5 frequency. Their entire show, including cohosts DuRyan and "Extra Work" Tony, was canceled on December 1 of last year.

Now, PK and Ivan are on "The Hot Show" in Houston with a new third member: Sarah Pepper, who's been with KKHH since 2008.

Topics on this morning's show included how long to date someone before getting married; interviews of random people in court; and a prank call to a radiologist, asking how to get on the radio. Portlanders can listen online from 4 to 8 am PT through the station's Flash player or MP3 stream.

On Clear Channel's Jammin, mornings now consist only of music and an occasional remark from a recorded San Francisco DJ, Dreena Gonzalez.

Yesterday, Moody's upgraded Clear Channel, a company saddled with billions in debt, from "imminent" restructuring to "inevitable."

A casual reader could have missed the announcement, which didn't even make the lead item in the publisher's note. Under the subheading "Beware the ides of March," Publisher Cornelius Swart wrote that there is likely only one more issue left in the life of The Sentinel, a monthly newspaper with a circulation of 27,000 in North, Northeast and outer Northwest Portland. The Sentinel began publishing as The St. Johns Sentinel in 2001.

From this issue's publisher's note:

I regret to announce that the March Street Edition of The Sentinel will most likely be our last. It’s an awkward way to announce this sort of thing. As publisher, there are thousands of readers, hundreds of businesses, scores of writers, activists and dear friends to consider. How does one impart this kind of news to everyone in a way that is fair? This is what I’ve come up with:

Last year was trying for most North Portland businesses. But for the past two years, The Sentinel has seen a steady decline in advertising revenue. This decline represents both the impact of the recession and the challenges of running an advertising-driven business in today's media-saturated environment. At present The Sentinel is 100% print advertising-driven, and it is now clear that we can no longer provide services to our readers and advertisers at our current level of quality. I hope I speak for all Sentinel contributors when I say we have worked exhaustively to provide the community with accurate, high-quality, professional news in a multi-media, interactive format. We hope that this paper served as a useful provider of information, an engaging tool for public discussion and a source for amusement and insight.

Swart and other members of The Sentinel's all-freelance staff have been involved in forming the Portland Media Lab with the intent of creating a local nonprofit news center. That project is now raising funds to create an archive of The Sentinel.

Robert Dove, general manager of Clear Channel's Portland cluster, says his company remains "committed to the format" of progressive talk on KPOJ (620) and has "no intention" of changing it following yesterday's bankruptcy of Air America and the dramatic decline in KPOJ's ratings now that Arbitron's Portable People Meter is being used in the Portland area.

Dove says that the station only learned of Air America's demise at 3 pm yesterday, after news of the bankruptcy went public, and that they are working with syndicators to fill programming hours. KPOJ was one of the original five stations to launch Air America on March 31, 2004, and it had long been the network's highest-rated affiliate. When the first ratings book came in after the format's launch, KPOJ was the #1 AM station in Portland and the city's #3 station among listeners aged 25 to 54, a key advertising demographic.

But following the progressive talk format's shift away from Air America's original network model and toward a more traditional syndication system, KPOJ is at a point where Air America's departure leaves the station's daytime lineup unaffected. KPOJ's morning show with Carl Wolfson and Christine Alexander is locally produced, as is Thom Hartmann's national program, which left Air America for syndicator Dial Global last March.

Midday host Ed Schultz has always been with Dial Global, while afternoon host Randi Rhodes left Air America in a messy 2008 breakup. She's currently distributed by Clear Channel syndicator Premiere Radio Networks.

The Air America shows that KPOJ does carry are Ron Reagan from 6 to 8 pm, Nicole Sandler and Rachel Maddow overnight, as well as several weekend shows: Ana Marie Cox, Lionel, Jack Rice, Ring of Fire and State of Belief.

Dove says the station hasn't yet made any decisions on replacement programming. They have until Monday evening to make a move, with Air America distributing "encore" shows until then. The station will be talking with Dial Global, among others, about filling the gaps. Dial Global distributes Stephanie Miller, a recent casualty of cross-town KCMD (970)'s movement toward more conservative talk, but Dove could not say whether her show might be added to KPOJ's lineup. He says a new syndicator, perhaps Dial Global, may end up distributing Ron Reagan's program.

As for KPOJ's ratings decline, Dove says that AM stations nationwide have been suffering under the People Meter, but that "part of the problem we have with KPOJ, being honest, is that we're competing with OPB." Oregon Public Broadcasting has a loyal audience in the Portland market. KOPB (91.5) had long been #1 in Arbitron's ratings, though the station dropped to #2 behind K103 (KKCW) under the People Meter. Dove says that converting that audience to KPOJ can be a challenge.

Air America has replaced its site with a farewell letter, while KPOJ's website has a statement thanking listeners for their support. Wolfson read a similar statement on the air this morning.

UPDATE (1/26, 10:45 am): Norman Goldman and Alan Colmes have replaced Ron Reagan (who has ended his show), Nicole Sandler and Rachel Maddow. Dove calls the changes permanent "for now."

In an interview on KINK's Sunday morning public affairs show, Speaking Freely, Alpha Broadcasting President Larry Wilson talks to KINK's Sheila Hamilton about taxes and Portland tax measures 66 and 67, as well as radio topics such as the importance of being local.

Also in the interview, which was posted to KINK's website on Christmas Eve, Wilson made what appear to be his first public remarks on the bankruptcy of Citadel Broadcasting, the company he founded and led until 2002.

He said that selling Citadel for $2.1 billion in 2001, nearly at the peak of radio station valuations, was more luck than genius. As for what led to the company's Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month, he notes the corporate culture imposed after his departure, but points chiefly to the $2.7 billion ABC Radio deal that Citadel made in 2006-2007. "That acquisition was their undoing," he says.

"It's the same with most of the radio companies out there today," Wilson explains. "They have too much debt. It's not their fault. They were on a spree and the game changed in the sixth inning and they didn't see it coming. Nobody really saw it coming. And so here they are, they had been paying these huge prices, which I had been doing the same. The only difference is, I got out when the getting was good, and they stayed in."

Following the Telecommunications Act of 1996, station groups exploded in size through newly possible mergers and acquisitions, consolidating into a shrinking number of giant companies like Citadel, Clear Channel and Cumulus. In a sign of the times, CBS Radio renamed itself Infinity after a 1997 merger.

But the debt that was taken on in those transactions has become a threat to radio conglomerates following the recent credit crunch and advertising recession, which have significantly devalued assets. For example, Wilson purchased KXL and KXTG for $11 million last year. But in 1998, Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen purchased KXL alone for a reported $42 million.

"It's a real tragedy," Wilson says of Citadel's bankruptcy. And, though he no longer has a stake in the company, Wilson tells KINK that "it's a personal tragedy for me."

More: Meet KINK.fm's new owner — KINK

(Via the Portland Radio Message Board.)

The only Spanish-language radio station in Eugene, as well as four other television and radio stations in the Willamette Valley, fell silent at the end of the year as Churchill Media ended business and sought to liquidate its assets, blaming the economy for a drop in ad revenue.

Churchill owned talk and music station "La X" KXOR 660 Eugene and Portland-area sister station KXPD 1040; low-power Azteca América TV affiliates KXOR 36 Eugene and Salem-area KXPD 52; and Eugene-area KLZS 1450, which switched from Spanish-language sports to smooth jazz in November.

The Register-Guard says 17 people lost their jobs in Eugene and Wilsonville, down from 45 employees in 2008.

The Eugene-area Spanish-speaking market is also served by the bilingual monthly newspaper Adelante Latino.

Citadel Broadcasting, the company founded and helmed by Larry Wilson until 2002, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today.

The Las Vegas-based company reported $1.4 billion in assets, but $2.46 billion in debt in its filing. Chapter 11 allows a company to restructure debts in hopes of emerging as a viable business, but creditors and bondholders would typically then own the company, as the Securities and Exchange Commission explains.

Citadel owns 224 radio stations and syndicates programs such as Imus in the Morning and, in cooperation with Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show. The company also distributes ABC Radio News updates and sells advertising on ESPN Radio. Citadel does not own stations in Oregon or Washington.

Another radio company on bankruptcy watch is Clear Channel, which owns five stations in Portland. Standard & Poor's recently raised its rating on the company to CCC-plus, seven steps below investment grade, but said it remained "concerned about the longer-term viability of the capital structure" at the company.

Wilson, who sold Citadel in 2001 for $2.1 billion, stayed out of the radio business until buying stations in Portland to form Alpha Broadcasting this year.

After a series of layoffs and furloughs in recent years, including the elimination of over 1000 jobs this July, Gannett Co. has announced another week of furloughs for its newspaper division, US Community Publishing, in the first quarter of 2010.

USCP President Bob Dickey sent this memo to all division employees, including workers at the Statesman Journal, earlier today:

December 1, 2009
To: All US Community Publishing employees
From: Bob Dickey

We are just completing the preliminary budgets for 2010. Thanks to all of your hard work and efforts to keep our costs down this year and create greater efficiencies across the division, we are heading into the new year with some solid improvements under our belt. We have seen some promising trends in advertising with ad declines slowing throughout the year and as we begin the holiday shopping season, we are also seeing some indication that retailers may be spending more on advertising.

While these trends are encouraging, the overall economy is still fragile with a number of business uncertainties. Therefore, as we head into 2010, we think it is prudent to take a conservative approach toward managing our business. Toward that end, we have decided to implement furloughs across USCP during the first quarter. This is not a companywide initiative though Corporate and some of Gannett’s other operations have also decided to put furloughs into place during the first quarter. No one on the Gannett Management Committee makes these decisions lightly and we understand and appreciate the difficulties furloughs have placed on many of you and your families. The furloughs we took companywide this year, however, saved Gannett a significant amount of money and helped us get through what has been unquestionably the toughest time we have ever faced as a company and division.

We are instituting the furloughs during the first quarter because it is traditionally the lightest time of the year for us. Non-union USCP employees, including me, will be furloughed for five business days during the quarter. We will be communicating separately with union representatives and asking for their support of the furloughs. However, those union-represented employees who recently negotiated pay reductions in their contracts will not be furloughed.

Exempt, salaried employees must take one full payroll week within the pay period, to be completed by Sunday, March 28. Non-exempt, hourly employees will also take five days at any pre-approved time, before the last weekend in March. If you are not sure which category you are in, check with your Human Resources representative or supervisor. The attached FAQ should answer any questions you may have.

I cannot stress enough how much the entire leadership of USCP and Gannett appreciate your hard work and many accomplishments which have helped us maintain the industry standard for excellence and leadership in many areas during extraordinarily difficult times. Our community publishing business is doing better and, with the organizational changes

The memo was published in part by Romenesko earlier today.

Revenue in Gannett's publishing division fell 18 percent in Q3 2009, better than the 26 percent drop in Q2.

Oregonian Managing Editor Sandy Rowe warns in an email to staff that "a layoff is inevitable," but that there's still time to take the paper's most recent buyout offer:

Colleagues:

I promised to update you regularly on the buyout and budget situation. Peter [Bhatia, executive editor] and I have done so in stand up meetings and scores of individual conversations over the past month.

This is where we stand now: 25 full-time staffers and 6 part-time have either accepted the buyout offer or have indicated to us they are going to sign the paperwork. A number of other employees have said they are seriously considering doing so. As you know, the deadline for accepting the offer is 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, and most taking the buyout will stay on payroll until Dec. 18.

Last week it became apparent that we would not reach an acceptable budget target. Sadly, I therefore believe that a layoff is inevitable despite our determination to avoid it. I do not know when a layoff would occur or the terms. But, the severance connected to an involuntary layoff will be less than the buyout package currently offered.

Understandably, throughout this difficult process you wanted to know the number of positions we need to reduce. Early on in this process, we had hoped the number would be lower than it now can be, given our revenue. I now know that will be about 70 positions, or within one or two of that depending on the PT and FT distribution. Without knowing the exact number taking the offer or how many staffers we will need to accomplish robust zoning in paper and hyperlocal sites online, we cannot today determine exactly what positions will be eliminated or all the jobs that will change. In some -- but not most -- circumstances we have been able to alert individuals that their jobs are likely to be eliminated. In the case of a layoff, staffing decisions will be based on the needs of the organization, range and depth of skills of the individual and seniority, with the needs of the organization in terms of future staffing being the most significant of those.

That is all I know at this point, and some of that is my best guess given the information we have now. If you are considering the buyout, I encourage you to complete that process. This is an excruciating time for all of us; I am deeply sorry and wish more than anything I could preserve more jobs and relieve that anxiety. We will go forward as quickly as we can to complete this and will be on sound financial footing once we have.

Thank you for all you do on behalf of our readers, this newsroom and The Oregonian.

Sandy

UPDATE (11/4, 3:34 pm): Willamette Week published this memo first.

The Oregonian's circulation is down 12 percent from last year, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published today. The paper sold an average of 249,163 copies of its Monday through Friday editions in the six months ending in September. That compares to 283,321 copies in the same period last year.

The numbers may result not only from reduced interest in print editions, but also from a price hike on single-copy sales in July. In the Portland Metro area, The Oregonian's newsstand price increased from 75 cents to $1.00. That increase is part of a national trend among papers to try to boost revenue from newspaper sales as ad sales slump.

The average US newspaper saw a 10 percent circulation decline. Reduced distribution and fewer editions are other factors that can negatively affect newspaper sales. But circulation does not reflect the number of readers per copy, online readership or the level of reader engagement with a paper.

We'll have numbers for additional Oregon publications when the full report is made public, and when the Audit Bureau website comes back online after failing this morning.

Last week, Bill Church, executive editor of the Statesman Journal, struck an optimistic note on the future of newspapers. That positive outlook for print has become something of a recurring theme in Church's weekly column. Church was also nice enough to mention OMC in his column, so I took that as an opportunity to ask him why he's sounding so confident these days.

I pointed out the trends we're all familiar with. Newspaper circulation peaked in 1990 and continues to slide. Inflation-adjusted ad revenue is now below 1966 levels. Despite large online audiences, online newspaper ad revenue fell last year and continued to fall the first half of this year. Print ads fell faster, yet online media still comprises only 8 percent of a shrinking revenue pie.

In the face of these numbers, I asked Church if he could make his case for optimism. He responded:

So you want me to make my case. Why, oh, why does it seem I’m so Pollyannish about the future of newspapers?

A little context.

I have my grumpy side.

And I’m biased.

I love my job. I love living in Oregon. And I’m protective of my staff.

I’m also passionate, competitive… and a realist.

Newspapers are changing, and it’s understandable why there are many doubts about our future. Industry reports point to decreased circulation, falling ad revenue and staff/expense reductions. I’m not arguing the economic realities. I’m not rationalizing why all the bar charts are going south.

Like any good news story, you’ve got to read more than the headline. You can’t solely take a macro perspective when we live in a micro world.

In my micro world, it’s not about what happened to newspapers in Denver and Seattle. It’s not about the financial hole that current owners created in Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

My perspective focuses on the Statesman Journal, readers in the Mid-Willamette Valley and, to a lesser degree, newspapering in Oregon.

The Statesman Journal’s most recent market study (released in January) showed our Mid-Willamette Valley audience increased. The aggregated audience for all Statesman Journal products reaches 73 percent of the market with a frequency of five times a week. No other competitor is even close.

StatesmanJournal.com is having a great year with double-digit percentage growth in page views and unique visitors.

Our journalists continue to focus on watchdog journalism and intensely local news. We’ve expanded coverage of state government this year. And our journalism has been recognized nationally.

And the bottom line? We’re profitable.

I know our story isn’t unique to Salem. The Oregon newspapers I track are creating cool things online and continuing to do relevant print journalism. I’m a fan of the journalism happening in places like Bend, Medford, Eugene and Portland. There are many smaller newspapers – from Astoria to Corvallis to Roseburg – overcoming the economic challenges by connecting with their readers, proving that the naysayers aren’t always right.

Why so?

I’d point out these factors:

• The Oregon newspaper industry fits the model for survival. State newspapers are intensely local and remain the dominant source of community news and information. Industry analyst John Morton offered a similar perspective in a recent column for American Journalism Review.
• There are a lot of smart editors in Oregon, and they’ve been strategic when forced to restructure. (That’s my argument why we shouldn’t fret about The O.) Notes David Beard, editor of Boston.com, in a recent Poynter.com column, “As newspapers shrink, the better ones are thinking deeply about who remains. … The staff may be smaller, but hopefully most of the news will remain.”
• Journalism.org’s “The State of the News Media” points out that most newspapers remain profitable and have grown audience. From the study’s summary: “Small papers, … are doing much better than metros and mid-sized papers.” (See http://www.stateofthemedia.org..., with emphasis on the “Economics” and “News Investment” sections.)

There’s also the matter of reality and faith.

In May, Arnold Garson, president and publisher of The Courier-Journal at Louisville, delivered a stirring speech about how newspapers are alive and well. His main point: Readers and advertisers still trust us.

And you can’t ignore the Media Management Center’s “Life beyond print” study, which touches on journalists’ faith in our changing industry.

Delivery methods will change; so will economic models. But good journalism will be around for a while. That’s the headline and our story.

But I still wanted to know more. I had provided industry-wide circulation and revenue figures. Church rightly argued that "you can’t solely take a macro perspective when we live in a micro world." But in what direction, then, is the SJ's circulation and revenue headed? Church referred me to the paper's publisher, Steve Silberman. I'll update this story if I hear back from him.

In the mean time, I looked up the Statesman Journal's circulation in Gannett's last two annual reports, and in the Audit Bureau of Circulations' current data for the six months ending March 31 of this year. Gannett's 2007 filing reported an average weekday readership of 47,961 and a Sunday audience of 54,399. By 2008, those numbers had slid to 44,975 and 50,958, respectively. ABC now shows audiences of 42,622 weekdays and 49,355 Sundays. New figures will be released on October 26.

As for revenue, Gannett doesn't break it down by publication, but the company released their Q3 earnings report today, which showed ad sales in their publishing division down 28 percent over last year. While that beats a 32 percent fall in Q2 and a 34 percent decline in Q1, year-ago comparisons are becoming easier to make. Revenue was already falling at this time in 2008.

But is such a hard focus on finance too narrow a view? Should measures such as total audience, the quality of the journalism and the trust of readers and advertisers have more weight in assessing a newspaper?

How would you predict a publication's future?

UPDATE (10/20, 12:10 pm): Publisher Steve Silberman responds:

As you noted, Gannett reported earnings yesterday that showed revenues were down companywide and for its publishing division. Even so, the company remains profitable. Revenues are down for many businesses across the country and here in Oregon and Salem. Like many other places, the state of Oregon itself has a significant drop in its revenues, has had to cut expenses, and has furloughed state workers. But that doesn't mean state government won't be around.

Circulation is down nationwide and we are not bucking national trends. Circulation measures newspaper sales, but not our readership and our audience. Our readership has grown and that's what is most significant. (I believe your posting online may have confused circulation with readership; you mentioned readership when I think you were talking about circulation.) Media consumption habits are obviously changing - for broadcast TV, cable TV, radio, etc. Our audience, however, is bigger than ever before and we touch more people than ever. We are seeing a healthy growth in our online traffic. We are still the best way to reach people in our community. No one else provides any where near as much local news coverage as we do. And people still clamor for news about their community.

Obviously, everyone much prefers a booming economy than a sluggish economy. But that does not mean it is all doom and gloom. There are reasons to be optimistic and it's important to share that perspective as well. Bill has tried to do that and I share his optimism.