Company news release: Greenspun local media converging into single organization

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 | 12:45 p.m.

Local media divisions of The Greenspun Media Group today announced that they will reorganize and move into a single location, with the goal of fully integrating print and interactive operations.

These steps are intended to position the company to better meet the Las Vegas area's rapidly evolving informational and marketing needs and create a sustainable business model for the future, said Brian Greenspun, chairman of The Greenspun Corporation and editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

“Today's move reflects our commitment to traditional media and our increasing commitment to the potential of the digital age,” Greenspun said.

The effort aligns into one team the editorial, online, advertising, marketing, production, human resources and finance arms of the local media operation. It includes the Las Vegas Sun, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and its Web site, LasVegasSun.com, winner of a general excellence award from the Online News Association in 2009; the weekly newspaper, In Business Las Vegas; the entertainment newspaper, Las Vegas Weekly and its Web site, LasVegasWeekly.com. It also includes Las Vegas Magazine, Vegas2Go magazine and Vegas Magazine. These organizations, operating under the Greenspun Media Group umbrella, will work closely with Niche Media (the company's luxury magazine division, which publishes 11 titles, including Vegas magazine) and Vegas.com, the company's Web site for visitors to Las Vegas. They will also work with its TV outlets, KTUD-TV Channel 14 and Las Vegas One.

In addition to increasing the impact of its news staff, the new organization will introduce a unified advertising sales department to more effectively meet the needs of customers who are increasingly using multi-media strategies. Instead of representing only individual media or publications, advertising sales personnel now will offer the company’s full array of media capabilities – reducing points of contact and thus streamlining customer service.

“Our new sales structure, which will be in place shortly, will converge all of our product lines and make us better able to serve all our customers,” said Bruce Deifik, president of The Greenspun Corporation. “We believe this restructuring will put us in the forefront of media companies as we move through and out of this recession.”

Changes involving the company’s print titles and their web sites are effective immediately. Everyone involved in the reorganized operating units will be working in the Greenspun Media Group building in Henderson by the end of December.

As part of the reorganization and due to the continued economic climate, Greenspun announced that a reduction of workforce was necessary. Affected employees were to be notified today.

“We truly regret the loss of jobs in our family and in our community,” said Greenspun. “We are grateful to these fine people for the contributions they have made over the years. But we must face up to both the challenges and the opportunities of the world we’re living in. We feel it’s time to unite our media into a more progressive and audience-driven model.”

The Greenspun family’s involvement in Las Vegas news media began when patriarch Hank Greenspun first began publishing the Las Vegas Sun in 1950. For the past two decades, the Sun has been published under a joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by Stephens Media. Under such an arrangement, newspaper sales, distribution and printing operations are merged, while editorial operations are kept separate and independent.

The reorganization will impact news-gathering operations of the Las Vegas Sun but will not affect the JOA. Subscribers will continue to receive two newspapers, with the Sun inside the Review-Journal.

In the new organizational structure, Greenspun company journalists will be consolidated into a single team that provides content for all media, allowing for better coverage while making the best possible use of staff skills and talents.