Crisis in the US newspaper industry

By Max Deveson BBC News, Washington

If the economic crisis goes on much longer, will there be any newspapers left in the US to write about it?

The Chronicle's owners are set to decide whether to shut down the paper

America's newspaper industry has been badly hit by the downturn, and a number of titles face closure.

The latest casualty is the venerable San Francisco Chronicle, whose owners on Wednesday announced they were planning to cut a "significant" number of jobs to meet cost-cutting targets, and that if the targets are not met, then the paper would be sold or closed down.

The Chronicle, which was founded in 1865, soon after the gold-rush hit California, lost more than $50m (

South East Asia woes as downturn bites

As South East Asia's leaders gather for a summit dominated by the global downturn, the BBC's Jonathan Head looks at how economies in the region are faring.

Sukanya Samang has never heard of the concept of "decoupling". But if she had, she would now know from bitter personal experience that it is a myth.

Sukanya Samang has lost her job at a car parts factory

The idea, put about in recent years, was that East Asia's economies were developing so well, with growing domestic demand and trade among themselves, that they would be much less vulnerable to an economic downturn in the rest of the world.

Unlike the 1997 Asian financial crisis, most banks in this region are reasonably healthy, with limited exposure to toxic sub-prime loans, and most countries have very healthy foreign currency reserves.

Sukanya Samang is one of the legions of poor Thais who have taken up the labouring jobs that have opened up as European, American, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers have built factories in the lower-wage economies of South East Asia.

Her husband is a security guard. And until January she worked in a warehouse packing car parts for Thailand's huge auto industry. She has an 18-month-old boy, and is heavily pregnant with her second child.

But when she and her fellow workers came back from their New Year break, they discovered they had been laid off.

If the world economy fails to recover, then we, like everyone else here, will be in real trouble Korn ChatikavanijThai finance minister

Their employer had craftily dismissed them just a day before they had worked a full year - meaning they get no compensation. She says she has no idea what she will do now. Her medical expenses are already a strain.

"It was unfair what they did to us," says fellow worker Sombat Doklam. "We got no warning, so we've had no chance to look for another job. And right now there are no jobs around."

Today, the dismissed workers sit around the bare dormitory that has been their home for the past year.

Most will return to their villages, many in the impoverished north-east, on their motorbikes, prized symbols of their new-found prosperity. They still owe payments on the bikes, and may not have them for long.

'Real trouble'

The myth of decoupling is shattered in Thailand with a simple statistic. Decades after this country embarked on an export-led drive for growth, the domestic economy is still surprisingly small.

Exports make up an astonishing two-thirds of GDP, compared to just one-third in China. Neighbouring Malaysia is even more dependent on overseas markets; Singapore even more so.

Some of the region's economies are still heavily export-led

There is no way, then, that South East Asia can avoid the pain caused by the sub-prime mess in its main markets in the West.

Exports from Singapore plunged by a record 35% in January. They fell 25% in Thailand - and that after a 15% drop in December.

The Thai economy shrank by an annualised rate of more than 6% in the last quarter of 2008. Singapore is predicting its economy will shrink by 5% this year.

So what can the governments in this region do to ease the pain? Not much.

The economy will dominate the ASEAN summit in Hua Hin in Thailand this weekend, but the 10 member states can do little else but hope, and pray for an early recovery in Europe and the US.

"We can keep the Thai engine probably for the next couple of years," said Korn Chatikavanij, the Thai finance minister, in an interview with the BBC, after pushing a record $11bn (