Here's A Plan: Fewer People, More Work At The Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle is having problems, like most big-city dailies, but it might get a whole lot worse.

One
of the latest rumors sweeping the San Francisco Chronicle would have
the deskies in Houston handling headline writing, copy editing and
layout for their ailing sister paper by The Bay.

The other option is India.

This
is bound to raise the grumbling in the Houston Chronicle newsroom a few
decibels as Chronistas await the next layoff wave of layoffs of 10
percent or more.

The situation in SF is decidedly more grim,
but being lumped with India as a cost-saving option may not do much for
the self esteem of Hearst’s Houston-based serfs.

Alan D. Mutter, who writes the authoritative Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, enumerated all the options on the table to keep the San Francisco
Chronicle afloat (massive layoffs, major union concessions, etc.)
before floating the Houston bombshell.

One possibility would be to send copyediting, headline writing and page layout to India.

Alternatively,
according to one rumor making the rounds today, those duties could be
handled at the Chronicle’s sister paper in Houston. Not only would
labor costs be lower in Houston than San Francisco, but the difference
in time zones would keep the Texas editors busy in the slack time
between editions of their own publication.

It’s all rumor at this point, mind you, but anything’s possible, we suppose.

But,
gosh, if the copy desk jockeys in Houston who manage to hang on to
their jobs during the upcoming layoffs are tasked with putting out the
SF paper, some may be pushed to the brink and seek solace in strong
drink or maybe — gasp — forming a union of their own