Wordsmith

Edited:The cuts to the Long Beach Press-Times newsroom may actually number between 40 and 50, including the 20-person copy and design desks, other sources are reporting.

Editor & Publisher’s Mark Fitzgerald broke some interesting news the other day: The city government in Long Beach, Calif., is so upset at what’s being done to their hometown newspaper, The Press-Telegram, that they’re fighting back — even considering whether to pull the city’s advertising dollars (an estimated $200,000 a year).

This is in response to MediaNews Group’s decision to cut jobs and move the copy and design desk duties to the Press-Telegram’s sister newspaper, The Daily Breeze, in Torrance.

“But now, we are kind of able to see the demise of the Long Beach Press-Telegram,” city councilwoman Tonya Reyes Uranga told Fitzgerald. “I can’t say it any other way — it’s getting thinner and thinner … Historically, Long Beach has always prided itself in having its own home town newspaper,” she said by telephone. “Even tough the Press-Telegram was regional, Long Beach was the big fish. And we also had the Los Angeles Times here with a Long Beach bureau, so we really had some good competition for news in Long Beach, and we thought that was a good thing.”

At least 10 employees at the Press-Telegram are expected to lose their jobs in the paper’s reorganization. The publisher and managing editor have already been fired. Their duties have been assumed by the publisher and ME at the Daily Breeze.

Reyes Uranga wants the city to pull its legal advertising and events notices from the paper. Her message, basically, is this: What is the city paying for? If the MediaNews Group doesn’t believe in the paper enough to support its continued presence in the city, why should Long Beach’s advertising dollars go to the paper?

You’ve got to admit that she’s got a point. Daily Breeze executive editor Rich Archbold (obviously) argues that pulling advertising dollars is just going to kill the Press-Times quicker. He’s right, of course. But even if the paper has just as many reporters working the streets in Long Beach (his claim, not mine), there is still the sense that the paper has abandoned the city.

This is just indicative of the slump that’s going on all over the country for many newspapers. What I find unique is that the city is fighting back. Newspapers have got to invest in their communities. The communities we cover have to have some trust in us. When MediaNews Group elects to close up shop in Long Beach and move to a neighboring city, that sends a message that you don’t think the paper (nor the community) is viable enough for your business.

Newspapers must realize that we’re not a one-way street anymore. There are so many media outlets competing for the same dollars. A newspaper is a two-way street … a newspaper is a vital part of a community and is deserving of support, but we have to visibly support the community in return. If and when we don’t, that’s when things turn ugly — just as they have in Long Beach.