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WIXY And WLRW's Saga Communications Fires Local Workers	Current rating: 0
by emmag Email: tinyninjas (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!)	07 Jan 2003
Corporate media's tactics and immediate dismissal of CU Cityview staff calls for comunity action! Champaign, IL -- Friday, January 3, 2003 -- The staff writers of the CU Cityview arrived at work today to find the locks changed on the Cityview office doors, and a posted memo stating that the newspaper was shut down. One day earlier, Saga Communications officers called staff editors and administrators into an unscheduled 4pm meeting, gave out press releases telling of the paper's demise, and then told everyone to go home. No prior notice about the paper's closure was given to the staff of the CU Cityview.

Founded in 1994 as the Optimist, an independently-run newsweekly focused on local issues and events, the CU Cityview has changed hands, names, and tone a number of times during its short tenure within Champaign-Urbana. Despite significant structural alterations, the paper had continued to claim a strong commitment to the Champaign-Urbana community. The motivation behind the paper's local commitment came into question as the newsweekly fell under the ownership of corporate owners. The CU Cityview had been owned by Saga Communications, Inc. since September 2001. Saga is a publicly-traded company that controls broadcast properties in 21 markets throughout the country, including 39 FM and 24 AM radio stations, 2 state radio networks, 1 farm radio network, 4 TV stations and 3 LPTV stations. Locally, Saga owns and operates WIXY and WLRW. In 2001, Saga's net revenue topped more than $104 million. According to FAIR, "Almost all media that reach a large audience in the United States are owned by for-profit corporations -- institutions that, by law, are obligated to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations." The CU Cityview was one of many media sources to find the goal of maximizing profits to be in conflict with community-mindedness. While most major media outlets are owned by corporations, these parent companies are becoming larger and fewer in number, as the biggest ones absorb their rivals. This concentration of ownership tends to reduce the ability of media to represent local concerns, and puts great power in the hands of a few geographically and emotionally distant owners. As traditionally community-oriented news outlets fall under the watch of large conglomerates with holdings in many industries, conflicts of interest arise, pitting local worker welfare and politically charged coverage against projected profit margins. Write Saga, WIXY, WLRW, and their sponsors to let them know you will not patronize the businesses involved in the destructively dismissive treatment of our community and its members. Actively support locally-based community media on WEFT 90.1FM, and in print through the Independent Media Center (IMC)'s Public I, Innocent Words, as well as other local efforts. Saga Communications Suite 201 73 Kercheval Avenue Grosse Pointe Farms, MI 48236 Mix 94.5/WLRW-FM & WIXY 2603 W. Bradley Ave. Champaign, IL 61821 217 352-4141
Related stories on this site: Alternative Weekly Shut Down

Comments

Re: WIXY And WLRW's Saga Communications Fires Local Workers
by Sascha sascha (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified)	Current rating: 0 07 Jan 2003
This seems to be exactly what people feared would happen if local control over our media was lost. I think it is an exemplar of what is wrong with much of corporate, for-profit media, and demonstrates the problem of conglomerates who place profit before people. I would love to hear more from the staff of the Cityview -- what they know and what has been happening from their perspectives. Other questions I would love to see answered are: 1. Is this a permanent shut-down, and if so, will Saga Communications give the Cityview back to the community? 2. What sort of compensation is Saga Communications giving to Cityview staff? 3. How are residents of Champaign-Urbana willing to support (financially and otherwise), locally-owned and operated media so that this doesn't happen again in the future? 4. What other information is out there concerning the Cityview shut-down?

Re: WIXY And WLRW's Saga Communications Fires Local Workers
by concerned (No verified email address)	Current rating: 0 07 Jan 2003
The following article is appended for educational purposes only: From: http://www.news-gazette.com/searchng/index.cfm?page=story.cfm&collection=month&search=cityview&number=13005 Alternative paper may fold By PAUL WOOD Copyright � 2002 The News Gazette Published Online Jan 04 2003 CHAMPAIGN � The area will lose its main alternative media voice if a buyer isn't found to continue the CU Cityview. Publisher Kristine Foate on Friday said the weekly published its last issue under the ownership of Saga Communications Inc., a radio conglomerate. �While we have been delivering a community newspaper of significance to our ... loyal readers, we have been unsuccessful in achieving financial independence,� she said. The newspaper was distributed free, so its only source of income was advertising, which has slumped nationwide as the nation struggles to come out of a recession. The newspaper was first published in 1995 by Paul Young, an artist who called it The Optimist. After objections from the Optimist Club, the name was changed to the Octopus. Foate said the Octopus nearly went under in 2001, when it was owned by Yesse! Publications. �Every week they were bouncing paychecks; the employees had been told it was going to close every week,� she said. Saga bought the Octopus in September 2001, eventually changing its name to CU Cityview. Under senior editor Mike Knezovich, the CU Cityview offered more news coverage, including a weekly briefing by reporter Kathy Claar. It won a regional competition for coverage of mental health care facilities. Knezovich said he was also proud of an extensive interview Claar did with Unit 4 Superintendent Arthur Culver. Foate said she and General Manager Kathy Schuren will continue to work for Saga in its Illini Radio Group. The other five full-time staffers will lose their jobs unless a new buyer takes them on. �We would entertain any offers to help ensure that this important community resource continues. If no one steps forward to pick up the mantle, sadly, the publication will cease,� Foate said. The publisher said she was in talks with �a number of different people� while trying to keep a low profile about the suspension of publication. �We hope it's temporary,� she said. Foate said publication could be continuous if a buyer picks it up right away. �People are still working, and we have stories in the can,� she said. �With the group of people involved, we can do miracles.� Knezovich said the paper had a circulation of about 20,000. Cityview was not the first weekly in Champaign-Urbana; the Weekly provided an alternative voice in the 1980s. � 2002 The News Gazette

Re: WIXY And WLRW's Saga Communications Fires Local Workers

by Paul
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified)

Current rating: 0
07 Jan 2003
Modified: 03:07:58 PM

Saga also owns Oldies 92 WKIO, which was the last fully independent (as in, not co-owned with any other media property or larger company) commercial station in the area before it was bought.

In the inaugural Aug. 2001 issue of the public i I co-authored an article mapping out the broadcast media landscape of Champaign-Urbana: "Media Monopoly in Champaign-Urbana? Consolidation, Absentee Ownership Both on the Increase."

The landscape has not changed much since then. This is how local radio plays out:

Just last year [2000] WKIO-FM, "Oldies 92", was purchased for $7 million by Grosse Point, Michigan-based Saga Communications. Oldies 92 became the third station in Saga's local line-up, along with WLRW "Mix 94.5" and WIXY 100.3 FM.
The same week that WKIO changed hands, Rhode Island-based AAA Entertainment acquired four Champaign-Urbana area stations for a total of $5.3 million: WBNB 95.3 FM and WQQB 96.1 FM, both licensed to Rantoul, WGKC 105.9 FM, licensed to Mahomet, and WEBX 93.5 FM, licensed to Tuscola. In a deal that would have been illegal prior to 1996, AAA Entertainment thus became the largest owner of radio stations in the area.
In total, 30 broadcast stations program to the Champaign-Urbana market: 18 FM radio, 3 AM radio, and 9 television stations. At first glance the C-U broadcast media market doesn't seem terribly consolidated. Those 30 stations have 18 different owners-a ratio of about 1.6 stations per owner. But a closer look at how those statistics break down presents a somewhat different picture.
Perhaps the most glaring fact about C-U media is that out of 18 owners, only seven are located in the area. And five of those seven are non-profits: Illini Media Company (WPGU 107.1 FM), the University of Illinois (WILL-AM, FM, TV), Prairie Air (WEFT 90.1 FM), Parkland College (WPCD 88.7 FM) and Good News Radio (WGNJ 89.3 FM, WGNN 102.5 FM, and W280DE 103.9 FM). Only two for-profit radio companies are based locally: Professional Impressions Media Group (WDWS 1400 AM and WHMS 97.5 FM) and WBCP, Inc. (1580 AM). The only locally-owned television station is the public TV station, WILL channel 12, owned by the University of Illinois.
One effect of this increasingly non-local ownership of the broadcast media is that a great deal of the profits derived from the use of the Champaign-Urbana airwaves are siphonedout of the local economy. And while not yet in the league of CBS/Infinity or of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the companies reaping the spoils from C-U airwaves are by no means small players. Among the largest are Sinclair Broadcast Group, the Maryland-based owner of NBC affiliate WICD-TV, with annual revenues in the neighborhood of $700 million, and Saga Communications, which earned $101.7 million last fiscal year.
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Did CUCV Employees Have Contracts?
by Joe Futrelle (No verified email address)	Current rating: 0 08 Jan 2003
... and was there a notice clause? Was there any kind of contract violation by Saga wrt the employees?

Re: WIXY And WLRW's Saga Communications Fires Local Workers
by Woo Joo dwabui (nospam) aol.com (unverified)	Current rating: 2 09 Jan 2003
It's interesting if you read the News-Gazette article, the person chiefly responsible for advertising revenue, Kathy Schuren, Sales Manager, who was hired on by Saga to generate advertising profits, is the only one to retain her job. While integral, communicty-based staff members such as Mike Knezovich (senior editor), Holly Rushakoff (Graphic designer, writer "Community Portrait), Doug Hoepker (local music editor) lost their jobs, Kathy Schuren was able to retain her position and be absorbed into the corporate structure of the Illini Radio Group. If ad sales were the reason that the Cityview failed, why would you retain the person who couldn't do the job. To the Cityview staff, from one of your former comrades, you guys did a great Jooooorb! The community will miss you.