"McClatchy doubles Q2 earnings" - San Francisco Business Times

A good manager can look at this story and see at least four elements in figuring out what to draw from this report.

One is the question of how much different does the McClatchy debt make in assessing how well it is managing the crisis?

A second is whether these cost-cutting measures, and resulting profit, are masking more critical measures of performance dependent upon external market choices and trends rather than good management?

Third, therefore, is whether there is anything here that suggests that the crisis is one simply to be gotten over as opposed to forcing radical changes in operations and the business itself?

The fourth, in sum, therefore is whether managing the existing business to cut expenses and people is the right longer term antidote for the crisis that is upon us?

The case of McClatchy is well worth attention because it is a company made up of newspapers, some of which have rich newspaper histories, ferocious commitments to quality journalism, legendary for innovations with technologies and approaches to newspaper operations, and yet in the state it is in today. Did it manage or mismanage itself into this position, or has it failed to be flexible and innovative enough to make the monumental changes in what a newspaper is becoming that are demaded for both survival and success?

Those are incredibly tough management decisions, and making them today is more difficult than it has ever been!