The great depression

There's a bumper sticker on a copy editor's desk at work that states simply: Funeral.

Kind of describes the mood in the industry. Over in Dallas, publisher A.H. Belo, a former employer of mine, said today it would lay off 500 workers - about 14 percent of its work force - and take other cost-saving measures. "The decline in advertising revenues for the newspaper industry and all media persists," Chief Executive Robert Decherd said in a memo. "The key for all companies, and certainly for A.H. Belo, is to generate and preserve cash."

Good luck. In the third quarter of last year, the company reported a loss of $17.4 million. Shares in the company yesterday fell nearly 4 percent to close at $2. When I worked for the Belo-owned Press-Enterprise less than 10 years ago, shares were selling in excess of $30.

It was about as bad closer to home, where the Tribune Co.-owned Los Angeles Times said it would cut about 300 positions, including 70 - roughly 11 percent - in editorial. "The same challenges that face the companies we report about also are affecting us," Publisher Eddy Hartenstein said in his memo. Oh, by the way, the local section will be eliminated, merged into a reconfigured front section.

What about those companies the Times and other news organizations are writing about? Let's see. Nearly 200,000 jobs have been shed in January alone. Home Depot, Pfizer, Sprint and Caterpillar announced earlier this week that they were laying off 60,000 workers. Yesterday, the government reported the gross domestic product saw its greatest decline in 26 years during the fourth quarter of 2008. Eastman Kodak said it was cutting up to 4,500 jobs - up to 18 percent of its work force. Ford reported today it lost $14.6 billion last year. And Sears Holdings Co. laid off 300 corporate employees.

It's bad, and it's getting worse. I'm not optimistic about this economy, and I'm hardly alone. Meanwhile, folks at The San Diego Union-Tribune came to work today fully expecting to lose their jobs, but the layoffs we've been told are so imminent have yet to materialize.

There's always Monday.