Or, why newspapers are dying a slow, agonizing death. Consider the Sacramento Bee announcement that its current publisher, Janis Heaphy, is being replaced by Cheryl Dell:

Dell, an 11-year McClatchy veteran and a native of the Modesto area, comes to The Bee with a reputation for finding new ways to engage readers and advertisers, particularly on the Web. For instance, the News Tribune sends out a daily business-news e-mail alert ("The Biz Buzz") to interested subscribers and just started a feature that lets readers post their own restaurant reviews online.

In recent years McClatchy has put pressure on its publishers to enhance their Internet operations, and "more often than not, Cheryl has been the first in the company to innovate," said Frank Whittaker, vice president for operations at McClatchy.

The Bee's revenue fell 17 percent last year to $211 million, according to McClatchy's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Tacoma paper's revenue fell just 2 percent, to $83 million.

Industry analysts say the Internet effect is hitting large papers like The Bee much harder than smaller papers like the News Tribune. According to SEC filings, The Bee's weekday circulation is 270,697; the News Tribune's is 112,370.

In addition, The Bee is suffering from a slump in real estate advertising and the overall softness in the region's economy. The Bee's troubles, along with similar woes at the Miami Herald, are a big reason McClatchy's revenue fell 7.9 percent last year and is down 13.2 percent so far this year.

Dell, though, said The Bee has a history of rebounding from financial problems.

"There have been peaks and valleys in revenue at The Bee over the course of 150 years," she said. Each time, the paper has emerged in better shape, she said.

Dell, who was born in Oakdale, had her picture published on the front page of McClatchy's Modesto Bee when she was 5. Her first daily newspaper job came at age 24, in the advertising department of the Contra Costa Times, and she began her McClatchy career as ad director in Modesto in 1997.

Her husband, Brad Dell, is a former teacher at Sacramento's Hiram Johnson High School and is coordinator of disaster response for Associated Ministries, a coalition of Tacoma-area churches.

"This feels so much like a homecoming for me," she said.

In Tacoma, she is known for extensive community involvement. Among other things, she chairs the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board, a public-private entity that recruits businesses.

"I've certainly been impressed with her sense of community," said David Graybill, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.

David Zeeck, executive editor of the Tacoma paper, said Dell has done an excellent job of navigating the often tricky path newspaper publishers must face – advocating for the community without compromising the editorial independence of the newspaper.

I can't help reading this without wondering whether the reporter, Dale Kasler, is an old school journalist in the vein of Sinclair Lewis. Is he or she skilled at getting satirical material past the literal minded editors on the copy desk? Perhaps, but we shouldn't ignore the possibility that the editor was complicit.

Let's look at the first paragraph of my blockquote again: Dell, an 11-year McClatchy veteran and a native of the Modesto area, comes to The Bee with a reputation for finding new ways to engage readers and advertisers, particularly on the Web. For instance, the News Tribune sends out a daily business-news e-mail alert ("The Biz Buzz") to interested subscribers and just started a feature that lets readers post their own restaurant reviews online.

Yes, the Biz Buzz, something right out of Main Street. Indeed, it is worth breaking this down even more. First, note the use of chirpy public relations lingo in describing Dell: . . . comes to the Bee with a reputation for new ways to engage readers and advertisers. Here, Kasler masterfully subjects her and this PR mentality to ridicule even as the recipients gobble it up as straight praise.

Second, let's carefully scrutinize Kasler's description of Dell's creativity: . . the News Tribune sends out a daily business news e-mail alert ("The Biz Buzz") to interested subscribers . . . We should assume that Kasler is well aware that newspapers have been sending out alerts connected to their news, arts, sports, and, yes, business coverage for years, and that most of us who receive them find them an aggravating nuisance necessitating immediate deletion from our account. Furthermore, discerning readers get extra points for recognizing Kasler's subtle implication that Dell is a proponent of using newspapers, in the tradition of Hearst and Chandler, as propagandizers for business interests.

It gets better. Let's move to the next paragraph: In recent years McClatchy has put pressure on its publishers to enhance their Internet operations, and "more often than not, Cheryl has been the first in the company to innovate," said Frank Whittaker, vice president for operations at McClatchy. Well, there is no way to politely translate it. Kasler is intimating that Dell is . . really, there's only one way to say it . . a kissass.

The key to understanding this passage is the reference to Whittaker's remark about Dell being the first in the company to innovate. For Kasler and his colleagues, this has meant a willingess to lay off or buy out experienced journalists and replace them with lower paid, less talented, more malleable ones. Just as there were young Chinese students who excitedly leapt at the opportunity to persecute others during the Cultural Revolution, Kasler implies that Dell enthusiastically volunteered to implement cost cutting measures while degrading the quality of content.

Time to move forward. In case you were reading the article too quickly to understand Kasler's subtlety in the earlier passages, there's this towards the end:

In Tacoma, she is known for extensive community involvement. Among other things, she chairs the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board a public-private entity that recruits businesses.

"I've certainly been impressed with her sense of community," said David Graybill, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.

Here are even more delightful nuggets. For example, how does a newspaper publisher purport to have any credibility while serving as chair of the region's Economic Development Board? There's no answer, is there? And, then, note how Kasler conflates Dell's sense of community to the promotion of local business, all through the surgical placement of a quote from the president of the Chamber of Commerce. There's no way an editor could object to that one, even if they recognized the cynical irony that Kasler was trying to convey to the reader.

Finally, there is this. One can read the article in its entirety at The Bee website, and fail to find a single instance where Dell is associated with a qualitative improvement of content. Not one. Of course, that's not very surprising as Kasler summarizes her background as devoid of what would commonly be known as journalistic experience: Her first daily newspaper job came at age 24, in the advertising department of the Contra Costa Times, and she began her McClatchy career as ad director in Modesto in 1997. There is nothing to suggest that she has ever served as a reporter, editor or bureau chief.

Conversely, look at this about Heaphy, the woman she is replacing: During Heaphy's tenure, The Bee won numerous journalism awards, started multiple Web sites and developed a Spanish-language publication. Record profits and revenue were the hallmark "for many of Janis' 10 years," Whittaker said.

Looks like Whittaker is part of the conspiracy, doesn't it? Maybe he was the mastermind that shaped the whole story, or, at least collaborated with Kasler. In any event, the prognosis is clear. The Bee is going to become more irrelevant than it already has become, as the McClatchy newspaper chain seems incapable of escaping its death spiral.

Labels: American Culture, Mainstream Media, Sacramento