The Lexington newspaper guild via Romenesko wonders what took the McClatchy braintrust so long to ground the company corporate jet:
To add insult to injury, McClatchy only grounded its corporate jet (a 2005 Dassault Falcon 2000EX jet, tail number N57MN) in the last month. As McClatchy was making its employees bleed to pay off crushing debt incurred by corporate decisions, McClatchy executives were jet-setting in luxury. From April 16 to Aug. 5, the jet was flown 30 times, according to flightaware.com. Many of the destinations were only a one- or two-hour drive away.
As workers were asked to do more with less, McClatchy executives enjoyed a plane that features two large flat-panel TVs, with 10 leather passenger seats and a wet bar with quarter fig mahogany cabinetry. A basic Falcon 2000ES cost $23.5 million in 2003. To put that in perspective, $23.5 million is more than the annual profits of many small- to medium-sized newspapers.
Meanwhile MNI employees are increasingly wondering what exactly paper publishers do to add to the bottomline. Additional execs in MNI HQ “oversee” publisher decisions from Sacro, so one of layer of this operation seems redundant to many.
