In San Jose, Downsizing With Dynamite

IN SAN JOSE, DOWNSIZING WITH DYNAMITE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
The San Jose Mercury News is limping along with 200 journalists -- half the number who were employed several years ago. In the last 20 months the paper was sold by the now-defunct Knight Ridder chain to McClatchy Newspapers, which then spun it off to Media News, owned by Dean Singleton. The current goal is to slash the print edition further and shift two-thirds of the remaining staff to the Merc's Web site, up from 10 percent now. In an era of declining circulation and shrinking budgets, virtually every paper in America is trying to jazz up its product while beefing up its online presence. But the effort in San Jose, where the Internet bubble popped hard in 2000, may be the most ambitious -- or the most desperate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR200711...
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