SI appears to be gone and the LA Times is headed in that direction. Unions protest.
The Union vs Sports Illustrated
Here is nearly a complete story in one headline: Sports Illustrated’s Entire Staff Told Their Jobs Have Been Eliminated After Authenic Brands Revokes License To Publish; Union Vows To “Fight For Every One Of Our Colleagues”
Following through on a warning earlier this month, Authentic Brands Group has revoked Sports Illustrated‘s license to publish due to a missed payment.
As a result of the move, the entire staff of the 70-year-old print and online publication was notified on Friday that their jobs were being eliminated.
“We appreciate the work and efforts of everyone who has contributed to the SI brand and business,” SI operator The Arena Group wrote in a memo to employees that prompted outrage and lamentation on social media.
In a statement, Sports Illustrated Union and The NewsGuild of New York vowed to “fight for every one of our colleagues.”
Transgender Models
This is the Big One
The Wrap notes LA Times Guild Calls Emergency Meeting as Layoffs Loom: ‘This Is the Big One’
The L.A. Times Guild called an emergency meeting on Thursday after leadership was told that the newspaper intends to “imminently execute another major round of layoffs,” according to a memo.
The Bargaining Committee told members that it can’t say exactly how many staffers the company is intending to lay off, however, in the memo obtained by the New York Times, the union says “This is the Big One.”
The Times “has asked the Guild to gut seniority protections in our contract so that have vastly more freedom to pick who to lay off,” the memo continued. “If we agreed to their request, they could choose almost any member they want; in exchange, management would add another layer of buyouts and told us they would lay off 50 fewer Guild members from an unspecified total.”
L.A. Times Guild Calls for One-Day Strike to Protest Looming Staff Cuts
The L.A. Times comments on the L.A. Times: L.A. Times Guild Calls for One-Day Strike to Protest Looming Staff Cuts
Los Angeles Times newsroom guild leaders called for a one-day walkout Friday to protest planned cuts to offset steep financial losses that owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family have absorbed since acquiring the paper nearly six years ago.
The Times disclosed Thursday that substantial layoffs were coming due to a widening budget deficit. The one-day strike represents the newsroom’s first union-organized work stoppage in the paper’s 142-year history.
The proposed layoffs will mark the third round of cuts since June, when more than 70 positions, or about 13% of the newsroom, were trimmed.
Soon-Shiong wants to make cuts while also retaining diverse staff members who have joined the paper in recent years as the organization has prioritized its efforts to boost the number of journalists of color to better reflect the community that it serves.
Let’s be real here.
Is this about retaining diversity or the lowest paid workers? Is everyone paid too much? Did DEI go overboard?
There’s lots of questions here, but smack in the middle of the mess are union seniority and DEI.
This paragraph helps explain the setup.
Managers have told the staff that relaxing seniority rules in the contract would save 50 newsroom jobs out of an undisclosed number. Managers would like the ability to spare more recent hires from the cuts and instead pull from a pool of more veteran staffers.
Union members were furious that they were, in effect, being asked to make an “impossible choice” to suspend seniority protections to make it easier to lay off people.
Impossible Choice
The looming choice will not be whom to save. Rather it will become “can anything be saved?”
“We need to show them that this place does not exist without workers,” L.A. Times Guild Unit Chairman Brian Contreras told more than 300 journalists who joined an emergency union meeting, held by Zoom, on Thursday.
OK go for it.
The union needs to understand the LA Times is on the verge of going broke.
Its a huge problem keeping unproductive employees just because they are senior. But that is precisely what unions demand.
Unions protect seniority, not skills. So go ahead and show em. Then if there are not enough skilled workers to keep the ship afloat, it will sink.
Given most zoomers and millennials don’t by print media, most print media will at best struggle.
Public vs Private Sector Unions
The saving grace of private sector unions is bankruptcy destroys the contract. GM went bust paying too much and it could happen again.
Public unions are another matter.
For discussion, please see Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That.
I’m shocked to find out that obese women and trans featured on the covers were not Sports Illustrated’s main demographic. But I will admit that print anything is a tough business to be in. When everything is at your fingertips for free. Why buy a sub to a magazine or news print?
I happen to know several writers for the LA Times. I also know the guy that ran their Internet division 20 years ago or so. When Sam Zell fired him and shut down the division I knew the LA Times would not make it in the long haul. The latest owner should of invested heavily on the internet side of the operation as a last ditch effort but instead it was a toy for his daughter who has since left to attend Oxford.
Keep the job losses coming, so “maybe” we get a recession by early ’25.
I read a report today that says 53% of the most two recent quarters of inflation is due to corporate “greedflation”. Companies could start cutting prices more, but they’re not. They don’t have an incentive to. And THIS along with several other important inflation floor setting inputs (e.g., millions of illegals pushing up all sorts of prices) is why inflation’s decline has hit a trough and is more likely to start to slowly begin moving upwards throughout most of ’24. Without meaningful and widespread job losses, the last mile of inflation isn’t going to be tamed. It’s just not. And the Fed pivot party will come crashing down over the next 3-4 months.
I’d love to see inflation to start to tick up and force the Fed into not being able to throw the Dems a win by starting to cut rates before the election.
***FJB***
SI online folks still have some jobs. Who reads newspapers or magazines ?
Maybe putting 80-year old Martha Stewart in the “iconic” swimsuit issue wasn’t such a good idea.
That must have been the equity thing in the DEI agenda.
And got them a temporary “lifeline” of a few $million from BlackRock.
Now that money is gone and it’s “game over”.
Guess we are lucky here. our regional paper went nonprofit and went from daily news to more of a news magazine.
And you can choose to support directly with donations certain teams or investigations if you have more interest.
Also publishes twice weekly hard copy so I still have enough to line my bird cage.
I’ve always thought going nonprofit was a competive advantage. Look at churches and colleges and universities.
Same comment I just posted on the Ford EV Truck article by Mish.
If you don’t know who your customer is, what they look like, what they want, you have no shot at staying in business. Sure, print media is a dead stick and online media is diluted but getting away from a target audience is a surefire way to hasten the demise.
America ironically has awakened from the destruction of the Woke DEI movement where things that are untrue have been pushed so far that even fairly tolerating folks scream Enough. And they are finally doing it with their wallets, whether due to The Nonsense or The Inflation or both.
SI appears to be gone – Good Riddance! I stopped reading that Rag many years ago. Unfortunately it bled into Sports themselves as well. As a result I stopped watching the NBA first, as they went full blown into the fray, and destroyed their product nearly overnight. My Friends and I had to “Cancel” our Basketball Fantasy Game! Nobody was willing to follow it anymore. P.S. LeBron was one of the biggest reasons by far! People can’t stand him!!
LA Times is headed in that direction – That would be great! Talk about a useless Rag! They are the epitome of Woke BS and should have went under along with Bud & Disney.
Sports Illustrated Union and The NewsGuild of New York vowed to “fight for every one of our colleagues.”- Sure they will… Hahahaha
The one-day strike represents the newsroom’s first union-organized work stoppage in the paper’s 142-year history. – Well there is the Majority Of The Problem!
Managers have told the staff that relaxing seniority rules in the contract would save 50 newsroom jobs out of an undisclosed number. Managers would like the ability to spare more recent hires from the cuts and instead pull from a pool of more veteran staffers. – “They Eat Their Own” How many times does this need to be said, and witnessed before these fools realize this? They are out for Themselves ALWAYS!!!
Union members were furious that they were, in effect, being asked to make an “impossible choice” to suspend seniority protections to make it easier to lay off people. – Poor Lost Souls, have to make choices! They are not equipped to make such choices. Everyone’s Jobs Should Be Saved you see… – They are looking to Strike, so they can get More Money & Benefits! These Workers think they actually matter, but it’s a Union, so they don’t! The ONLY THING that matters is the Company. Wake Up People!!!
GM went bust paying too much and it could happen again. – I think the EV Deal our Major Auto Manufacturers just made, will assure that happens, and sooner rather than later.
Public unions are another matter. – Yes, they most certainly are! They are going to be a much bigger problem for our Country! The Corrupt Politicians stand behind them, for money, votes, power etc. They will do their best, to shower the Public Unions with Benefits Galore!!! Garnering Votes gets expensive, when paying voters off to vote for you is the preferred method of finding support… JS…
too many !!!! makes it unreadable.
TY duly noted
Typo…
‘Given most zoomers and millennials don’t by print media, most print media will at best struggle’
Should be….
don’t buy print media
Does it come down to demographics of readership? Does the younger generation actually read newspapers? I’d love to see those figures.
This is correct. They get thier “news” from tik tok.
And yet the NYT is going gang busters with something like 10 million current digital subscribers. What are they doing different/right?
NYT is not going gangbusters. Lol
You are an idiot. LOL
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The New York Times Company Reports Third-Quarter 2023 Results
https://nytco-assets.nytimes.com/2023/11/NYT-Press-Release-Q3-2023.pdf
Getting funded by the CIA under the table (like the WaPo)?
—-
In our local paper today I see the following story:
The story is behind a paywall, so can’t offer a URL to the rest of the story. Look out for politicians attempting to gain votes at taxpayers expense by constructing make-work jobs designed to maintain headcount in the face of greater efficiency driven by AI deployment.
This is what I wrote to the office of this particular supervisor:
If AI use/deployment by the county government is able to provide the means to equally perform the same work being done by current workers with reduced head count, which would save taxpayers money, then any displaced workers should be assisted in locating other employment.
It doesn’t make fiscal nor logical sense to guarantee that all your workers will retain their job when their employment has become unnecessary. What will you have them do? Shuffle papers at taxpayers expense? Clean the windows? Run personal errands for the BoS?
This is a misguided proposal and I urge you to reconsider it.
Buying Votes is the Democrat Way…
I’ am glad it is over for the newspapers. They present an America I do not want to be part of.
No matter what your politics, a free and independent press is important for democracy.
Independent press is great when they print the truth. The majority of this press isn’t truthful and hurts the country. (i.e. When the protestors were rioting and burning buildings during Trump Presidency and the press was stating the protests “Were mostly peaceful”). I agree the press should be allowed their free speech and “We the people” have a right not to read/listen to it.
That is why the Constitution says, “or of the press”. Too bad that a Fair and Impartial news media no longer exists here in the US. I continue to try and decide if the (MM) Majority Media owns the DP (Democratic Party) or if the DP owns the MM. I do know that if the average voter was really aware of what goes on in Washington, America would at least have a chance to survive. Otherwise, we are doomed.
Good riddance to the LA times and it’s union.
Not that I’ve ever read either one (never lived in LA), but the fact the union can’t see the business is dead is astounding. It makes me wonder what else those working for the LA times can’t see that the somehow report on.
LAT had a particularly strong paywall. If you don’t have enough subscribers, you need to open the paywall so people can come in and at least read your ads where you can scalp some $$ from.
Also paywalls prevent people from sharing any articles you create, which reduces eyeballs and social visibility.
The bitter hangers on make for the saddest stories.
I have a different perspective. “The big one” will be when WaPo dies. It’ll be a the signal for a new and better world
Just an even poorer one.
The Fed dying will be the signal for a better world. Until then, poorer and poorer; until fewer and fewer can even afford a newspaper, a roof over their heads, then food; is the only direction anything will be going.
I’d say the NYT going belly up would be the Really Big One but WaPo going OOB would also be earth shattering, and delicious!
What will i line my birdcage with???
This place does not exist without its workers? No, it does not exist without customers.
Newspapers and print media in general are horrible investments. They are all going the way of the buggy whip.
Unfortunately. I can’t see that all digital is what we will laud in the future.
I do not care of you want climb a pole in your house,pounding hot Mac & cheese up your butt! Just do in private & do not tell me about it. None of it exploited and done in public.
How many women that look this, are into sports. NONE!
DO NOT TRY TO FORCE THIS CRAP ON ME!
I’M TRAINING AGAIN IN MY DISCIPLINE OF KUNG FU. I HAD A HEART ATTACK AND OPEN HEART SUGERY! NO FUN. I QUIT BOOZE, EATING HEALTHY, & LOST OVER 54lbs working to 65 lbs! Climbing up to where I can fight for my black belt again at the senior age level.
Believe me it is not easy,but I see a tremendous improvement in my health.
People that do what I ‘m doing should be on the cover. I’m not ready yet & may never make it, but I’m trying. That’s the AMERICAN WAY, I WAS TAUGHT!
Have you seen Paige Spiranac?
You can generate similar articles with so-far free AI. But you can’t use it to generate the swimsuits pics because of the filters put in to protect us from harm.
Hello little buddy -Mish listen I’m full of confidence having had a short snort Friday cocktail inspiration-First of all the Creepy Davos group of people there are the worst group of arrogant, self righteous, egotistical bunch of assholes in the history of the world. I mean good grief so you know the Pope is bound and determined to bless everything so we need to send him to Davos to bless all the pimps, prostitutes, pedophiles and all the other assholes, evil as they are taking down the whole world. I’m sorry Mish what’s the topic?
During the Newsom recall election, an L.A. Times writer called conservative candidate Larry Elder, the black face of white supremacy. Never subscribed, but back in the day, i used to often read the L.A. Times. Wouldn’t give it the time of day, now.
A dick in a bikini did not sell well to the target audience.
🤣🤣🤣
Sexy bikini on a full-sized body give it a stiff competition.
I’m surprised print media wasn’t banned for environmental reasons years ago. Paper comes from trees and requires energy to process. Inks and their solvents release volatile organic compounds. Readers are known to throw material on the ground instead of in the recycling bin when done reading.
1st Amendment possibly. Not sure Congress could restrict printing materials. Seems like a job for Mr. Market, which will come to pass someday.
High correlation between Obama era marxist cronies being placed on these Boards of Directors and shortly thereafter, a complete collapse of your brand or business model….
Brand destruction can come from greedy, incompetent conservative businessmen, too! Stupidity is universal!
Not in this case, but nice try at deflection
Sorry, no Obama connection, more like Blackrock, Vanguard & Co. It’s everywhere outside US, too. They push this crap down corporate boards.
Most big corporations are owned by them.
See Marty Nesbitt….Obama.org or the book, “Secret Empires.”
It isn’t just the loss of readers, there are other issues that are in play (like a firm overpaying for a brand that is far past its prime). From last autumn–
“Sports Illustrated is the latest media company to see its reputation damaged by being less than forthcoming — if not outright dishonest — about who or what is writing its stories at the dawn of the artificial intelligence age.
The once-powerful publication said it was firing a company that produced articles for its website written under the byline of authors who apparently don’t exist. But it denied a published report that stories themselves were written by an artificial intelligence tool.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/sports-illustrated-found-publishing-ai-generated-stories-photos-and-authors
I do some freelance writing in my spare time. The pay is so low that there’s no way I could actually make a living on writing alone, but nonetheless, I enjoy it.
Anyway, in the past several months, the number of opportunuties have fallen precipitously. Tons of freelancers I know have been let go. It’s a bloodbath.
I always just assumed this was because of AI getting traction. One writer could probably tweak/edit/improve four or five AI-generated articles in the time it would take a human to write one from scratch.
the problem is lack of readership not unions, seniority or gender bender models, Most minor cities had two daily papers, NYC had a dozen, nobody waits to get print news anymore, radio, tv and internet have made news immediate. RIP print pubs
Agree 100%
The only thing SI had left that was worth viewing was the swimsuit issues. Thier reporting became bland and there are plenty of sports news alternatives out there, many for free. Then they started having plus size and trans models in the only issues worth viewing. This drove away their key demographic, straight males.
Sometimes I wonder…are the people who run these companies this dumb or are thier actions deliberate for some reason?
The Arena Group overpaid for a fading brand and then shifted to contracted content generated by artificial “intelligence” which was hidden behind avatars that allegedly represented humans.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67560354
In addition to overall dying print readership more tightly targeted online “publications” cover things like HS basketball in much greater detail. MaxPreps (owned by CBS) is a prime example.
Living in a world where HS athletes make more money than their coaches with NIL Deals (Name, Image & Likeness) the landscape has changed too much for SI to cope. Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post were all staples of American households and now half the US pop has no recollection of these icons.
+1.
Neither is such developments limited to sports: Generalist magazines, which print rags, as a function of their distribution model, is forced to be; can’t survive now that everyone has much richer access to the specific sub-niches they, themselves are specifically interested in.
The only exception being the silly team sport of Dems vs Repubs which people are pretty much forced to keep up on, at gunpoint, due to ever greater totalitarianism. That’s now the only feed with Johnny Carson like national reach.
That’s why I never Mish a day
I was a LONG time subscriber (early 80s till around 2019).
Until the early 2000’s, it was THE place to go for sports journalism and photos. But like newspapers, the internet killed magazines (not just SI).
The iPhone and other smart phones were the final nail in the coffin for all print media because it bought digital to the masses (prior to that you needed a PC which meant you were typically tethered to a desk). Once SI switched from being weekly to biweekly in 2018 it was a dead man walking and I stopped renewing.
It’s death has nothing to do with tranny or fat models.
It would be funny if the taxpayers don’t usually pick up the tab for Wokeness. Remember, the UAW did not go down, nor did GM … Obama funneled billions of taxpayer dollars that kept GM afloat and paid the unsustainable UAW retirements, benefits, et al. So if unions sinking companies worked in a capitalistic way and killed both … I’d be all for it. But since they wait for the next democratic president and get taxpayer funding to continue the insanity … it’s much less funny
“Remember, the UAW did not go down, nor did GM”
And neither did any of the banks. Nor “home owners.” Nor “Wall Stret” and the “Financial System.”
It’s not wokeness in isolation which is being bailed out. It’s connectedness and incompetence of all sorts. IOW, it’s what clueless, indoctrinated idiots have been told is “The System.” And, being indoctrinated, clueless and idiots: They have proven reliably stupid, illiterate and indoctrinated enough to fall for the trivially obvious nonsense that there exists even as much as an infinitesimal sliver of “The System”, which is even remotely worth “saving” at all.
OMG, how we “good ole boys” will miss Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit Issue ….. Alas …. But seriously, folks, I get your drift, Mish. The guys in suits in the “C Suite” need their bonuses above all else ….
Yes, it is all of those Sports watchers that want to see Transgender Content in a publication that is supposed to be about Sporting.
Probably the straw that broke an already broke camel’s back… the underlying trend is very much against traditional print media of all kinds for a long, long time. The market for it is with the older generation, who tend to be more conservative; alienate them and hope for an imaginary audience of young woke people to take their place, and face an abrupt reality shock. In the end, all forms of Marxism suffer from being unable to compete in a free market: given a choice, most people will simple decline to buy.
Transgender is gross. The definition of unnatural.
as one person in best movie ever made said:
F U C K it dude, lets go bowling
Go Woke, Go Broke (Bud Light, Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond). Not all companies are bankrupt but they’ve taken a significant hit financially.
Agreed! Let’s hope the LA Times goes broke, then the WSJ, the Washington Post, and all the rest of the truth-denying, woke-loving, disinformation papers.
The WSJ is a right leaning paper. We need some independent written press to remain open (both right and left wing) to provide checks and balances on our government. I do not believe that AI will be able to provide that necessary service to society. Your statement is absurd.
Go woke etc.