The Sun sets for 16

Because it didn't get the numbers it needed from its ranks, the Baltimore Sun pink slipped 11 editorial staffers: 3 reporters who volunteered to be laid off, 4 editorial assistants, 4 interns and 5 advertising sales persons.

The 44 newsroom staffers who applied and were accepted for the buyout will leave by August 1. Those laid off have the option of going out now or August 1.

The total loss for the newsroom is 55 union and non-union personnel.

“When Sam Zell [Tribune Co. chairman and CEO] took over, he said that you can’t cut your way to prosperity,” said Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild President Bill Salganik. “He was right then, and he is wrong now — six months later.” — Baltimore Examiner

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How long – can this keep going on?

Inspired by the protest rally scheduled for today in Baltimore (along with encouragement from us and promoted by InkStainedRetch), Tribune employees in many departments around the country wore black in honor of the employee-owners laid off throughout the company.

In Baltimore today, more than 200 people gathered outside The Sun to express their grief and outrage at the loss of 100 talented colleagues. "Many Sun employees said they did not expect the protest to change management's mind about the cuts, but it still made them feel a bit better to unleash some of their anger and frustration. These employees believe that the paper is about to lose some of its most talented and experienced people, who are leaving "voluntarily" only because they fear what they will be asked to do if they stay." The Newspaper Guild's newly-elected top officers — TNG-CWA International Chairperson Connie Knox is a copy editor at The Sun — rallied with Sun employees telling the group "they stood behind both those leaving and those staying."

...[TNG President] Bernie Lunzer reminded everyone that these cuts are taking place all over the newspaper industry, and that those who stay must fight on as best they can to keep the newspaper's quality intact.

If we really want to honor the colleagues being forced out and support those remaining who want to "fight on" to keep all our newspapers intact, we must stand up and be counted. All the anger, fear and outrage folks are feeling today will be for nothing if it can't be channelled into constructive, positive action. Opportunities to change the status quo are before you. Just as journalists in Northern California did several weeks ago, you too can take back control of your future.

Worried? Scared? Unsure? Understandable. But ask yourself: If not now — when?

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Wear black Thursday

The Guild has put out a call to action for a rally in front of The Sun at noon Thursday – Black Thursday.

To Sun employees the rally is an opportunity to honor their talented, experienced colleagues, protest the circumstances of their departure and "let the community and our bosses know how much these cuts hurt us, our livelihoods and the community that depends on us."

Tribune employees everywhere should wear black Thursday, July 17, as a sign of respect for all those who will lose their jobs and solemn solidarity for each other.

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Buyout numbers fall short, layoffs expected in Baltimore *

Thirty-four Guild members have applied for the buyout and another ten non-Guild employees are rumored to have applied, but the number is short of The Sun's goal of shedding sixty newsroom positions by the end of August. Notification to those approved for the buyout will begin Friday – as will the layoffs.

The buyout terms are similar to the package offered at other papers, however the Guild convinced The Sun to use seniority as the basis for application approval.

Guild leaders are surprised that the number of applications are as high as they are, given that it is the third round of buyouts since last June. Guild chair and Sun reporter Tamika White told the Daily Record:

"My opinion is that this is one more example of the frustration people feel here at The Sun,” she said. “The idea that the company could garner 34 [Guild] buyout applications just several months after staff reductions in this terrible, terrible economic environment, it shows that people … are reluctantly realizing that they’ve got to find something else to do and something with a little more stability."

* The Measure of a Company

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CT editor quits; is LAT publisher out too? **

Anne Marie Lipinski, editor of the Chicago Tribune since 2001, has resigned. E&P has her memo to staff announcing her upcoming departure.

I began my editorship seven months before 9/11 and in the seven years since have become accustomed and even comfortable with editing and managing through crisis and change. But professionally, this position is not the fit it once was. Personally, my family and I believe it is time.

Lipinski is the second Tribune editor to leave Tribune since Zell took over Tribune: LAT's Jim O'Shea left in January.

Rumor has it that The Times' publisher David Hiller has been called to the front office in Chicago and that his career with Tribune may be over. LAObserved reported Friday that many newsroom folks believe Baltimore Sun publisher Timothy Ryan will succeed him. An interesting choice, if true. Ryan has experience with labor contracts; the Sun is an organized newspaper.

** Updated: Hiller's out, effective immediately. His "resignation" memo at LAObserved. Full story at latimes.com

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What's in your best interest?

Zell has a personal interest in making sure the debt payments are met: Last year, he paid a mere $315 million for Tribune, then valued at $8 billion — $225 million of which was a loan that has to be repaid (with interest) at $250,000 per quarter – to him. Tribune Two-Step suggests that Zell may be making the cuts "because he needs to trim down expenses to ensure he can make payments ... to himself." We think that's a bit of a stretch, given that Zell is a gazillionaire and a late $250,000 check isn't going to change his lifestyle one bit.

But Tribune Two-Step makes this valid point: his $90m payment for the company gave Zell all the power, and the other owners whose retirement funds (and careers) are tied up in the company have no power. Zilch. Nada. No voice, either. 

Aren't we, the peons onto whom Sam strapped billions of dollars in debt, the real owners of the company? Why, then, do we have no say in any of the decisions being made on our behalf? Why, then, do we allow Sam Zell to keep telling everyone he "bought" the company when the reality is he stole it? Why, then, are we sitting back while he takes it apart, piece by piece, and prepares to sell it for scrap? And, most important, what can we do to change the course Same [sic] has set?

Why not, then, get together and organize yourselves. Even if you don't think you want to form a union per se, you share a community of interest that all Tribune employees can rally behind: your craft and your jobs. Leave inaction and paralysis behind — fear will quickly follow — and put together an employee coalition, invite concerned citizens and community organizations (they're out there) who will add their voices to yours and then, make your stand. Our industry has been in a race to the bottom for a decade and this is no time to sit back and do nothing. 

What is in your best interest? You can take action. You can stand together. Start with a few people from each paper, share a few emails, set up a conference call, brainstorm ideas, get a committee formed and set a plan of action. It will be worth your investment of time and effort. We can help.

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Friday shorts

— The list of 150 at the Los Angeles Times who will lose their jobs is almost complete. Staffers got word that the firings will begin next week. In today's memo to staff (here at LAObserved) editor David Lauter wrote that putting the list together is "painful, sad work, and we're trying to do it with as much care as we can". Not sure that's going to be very comforting to the hundreds of staffers who will spend the weekend worried sick about whether or not their number is up Monday.

I know this is a time of tremendous anxiety for people. Let's try to not make it worse for ourselves.

What does THAT mean? Sounds a bit threatening.

— Its not just the editorial side being re-vamped in Tribune's publishing division: according to a former advertising sales manager (here at TellZell), "Zell eliminated salaries and put everybody on 100% commission. The new system caused ad reps to discount the price of full page ads by up to 70% just to make sure they were bringing in commissions..." Not all ad rep salaries were eliminated. At the Baltimore Sun where non-management sales staff is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, unilateral changes to wages can't be made without negotiation.

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Chicago cuts: 80 in the newsroom

Jobs will be lost in other departments as well, but the total loss to the Chicago Tribune newsroom will be 80 positions. Because some of those positions have been left unfilled recently, between 55 and 58 current staffers will be fired. All will be out by the end of August.

Wonder how much Zell and his top guys are making? You'd think with the company (and the industry) in such dire straits, the executives would be stepping up to share the pain.

Recovering Journalist thinks those guys should step up too:

Most newspaper CEO compensation packages still add up to millions of dollars per year, in fact, with an average among the 13 public-company newspaper CEOs of just under $6 million a year in 2007, according to corporate proxy filings with the SEC. A little belt-tightening among the fat cats might help to save some jobs–and that's no joke.

No joke at all. Here's a thought: The CT's publisher recently retired and the executive vice president for publishing has "assumed oversight of the paper temporarily" until a new publisher is named. Why not leave that position vacant too? Surely the evp/publishing can multi-task? (The remaining staff will be expected to pick up the slack when the staff is cut.) Think of it as another cost-saving measure.

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LA: 150 editorial staff over 2 months, different severance terms

Two hundred and fifty company wide will loose their jobs and the cuts to the news-gathering staff will amount to a 17% reduction there.

Bad news. Though expected, it's bad and worse still because most cuts will be firings that could roll on all summer. Who know's when you'll get the tap on the shoulder. Brutal. You can be sure the company is going to go slow and tread carefully so as not to trigger WARN.

But here's what we're thinking about: the severance package. If we're reading things right, the LAT package is different than Hartford's or even last year's LAT package. (The Guild in Baltimore negotiated over the package at The Sun.) LAT editor Russ Stanton did not spell out the severance terms in his memo to staff Wednesday, but Publisher David Hiller said he expected that the severance terms would match those of earlier staff buyouts at The Times.

But Michael Hiltzik reports that severance will include payment equivalent to two weeks' salary for every year of service, up to a maximum of 52 weeks, to be paid into the employee's retirement account. (Emphasis ours.) Yikes.

Last year's severance terms were one week's pay for every 6 months of service [minumum 4 weeks, maximum 52 weeks] paid thru salary continuation ... (Emphasis ours.) So those folks had income for a time while they got their Next Life up and running. (Unemployment checks don't cover the bills.)

This time? No cash. It sounds to us like you'll have to PAY to get cash out of your retirement fund what with those early withdrawal fees and all.

Heartless.

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Another ‘partner’ hits the blogsphere

A Chicago Tribune staffer now worried about getting sacked, says he drank the poison Kool-Aid and bought into what Sam Zell was selling him. "I even wanted to believe Lee Abrams was the innovative genius he purported to be."

Disappointed and maybe a bit pissed-off, Tribune Twostep remains hopeful.

Instead of investing in the future, they are divesting. They are stripping the company and its employees bare. They have asked for our ideas and our blood, sweat and tears. And now they seek to cast us out, having milked us of our souls.

They've taken our ideas -- and hope to profit from them -- and now are preparing to cast us aside.

So as I sit on the precipice, staring into a void of uncertainty, I can only wait and hope that things will turn out all right.

Waiting and hoping won't accomplish anything. Why not take action?

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In Los Angeles

Word is that rolling layoffs begin next week – slowly, so as to avoid a legal requirement to give 60 days notice when planning a mass layoff. Tell Zell offers staff a resignation form they can use to fire final shots as they jump ship. In a memo sent to employees Thursday, LAT publisher Hiller said "Over the next 2 months we will be rolling out our 2010 business plan..." (LAObserved)

Sounds to us like it will also roll out staff over two months and if so, it's a damned miserable way to make cuts.

If the newsroom staff were unionized, they would have more information about the company plan than they do now. Unionized employees have the right to information about and negotiate over how staff reductions will be implemented and how they will be impacted. Labor contracts typically contain language governing layoff effects bargaining and procedure.

In a Wednesday post, InkStainedRetch wrote: "It would be interesting to see if the Sun, a guild paper, was more successful at staving off staff cuts than the non-union papers. There's a direction to go, no? "

Neither the Guild nor any other union can stop an employer from determining the size of the staff it needs to operate its business. But with a guild, staving off staff cuts is possible because the workers have a seat at the table to discuss alternatives that may satisfy the needs of both the employer and its employees. There's no guarantee of course, but one thing is for sure, without a guild you have no say in how or when cuts happen.

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Baltimore cuts: 55-60 newsroom staff *

A total of 100 jobs reduce the 1,400-person work force through voluntary buyouts, layoffs, attrition and by closing open positions.

The Guild at the Baltimore Sun, which represents about 400 employees in advertising, circulation, editorial, finance and building departments, learned today that the Sun's newsroom will be reduced by about 20%.

"Employees are disheartened, to say the least," said Tanika White, a reporter and co-chair of The Sun unit of the Guild. "They're angry at what they perceive to be the poor management coming from the outside that has led us to this point," White said. "They're frightened, and they have every right to be."

She said she also feared the community would suffer from decreased coverage.

"It's about democracy," White said.

The Sun is undergoing a redesign, slated for rollout in September, as are other Tribune newspapers. (Wonder what design firm is leading the project? Whichever one, it won't come cheap.)

No word yet on the number of pages the paper will lose. Will readers and advertisers will notice? (They always do.)

* The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild responds: "Baltimore Sun employees are being punished for Tribune's mismanagement," Cet Parks, chief negotiator for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, said in a statement. "Tribune's answer to solving declining circulation and readership is to slash employees from the payroll and cut the news hole, salaries and benefits."

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Hartford cuts: 67 pages and 57 staffers*

That's 67 pages per week and 57 staffers permanently.

Following up on an earlier announcement this month that there would be "significant reductions in the number of pages of news" and cuts in personnel, actual numbers were released today in a memo to the staff. Plans are to cut news pages from 273 per week to 206 and cut staff positions from 232 to about 175 in preparation for a new Hartford Courant rollout in September.

In last summer's Tribune-wide staff purge, the Courant newsroom lost only 8 (Tribune originally planned to cut 10), but this year's ax is way bigger. Buyout packages were handed out today and the value looks about the same as last year's.

And so it begins – again.

* Links fixed.

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For sale

Is it really such a surprise that the guy who made gazillions maximizing real-estate values is "willing to entertain offers for the company's prize real estate holdings" which include the Tribune Tower in Chicago and the Los Angeles Times Building?

There was speculation last August that Zell would sell off Tribune real estate. At the time, the LAT building was owned by the Chandler Family Trusts. That changed in April, when Tribune completed the purchase of real estate that included properties used by the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant.

Zell said today in a memo to employee-owners: "Our request for proposals, which is being issued today is likely to generate media attention and debate about what we should or should not do with the properties. Both Tribune Tower and Times Mirror Square are iconic structures, deeply intertwined with the history of this company.  But, they are also both under-utilized, and as employee-owners, it’s in our best interests to maximize the value of all our assets." Not that you have any say in the matter.

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"In the language of Sam Zell ...

don't fuck with us."

High-profile LAT columnist Steve Lopez received the LA Press Club's President Award at its 50th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards last weekend. LAObserved has an exclusive video of Lopez's comments.

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