Gannett cuts hit Cincy, Louisville and Phoenix

After announcing that 1400 Gannett employees would lose their jobs this week, the shake out is starting to take shape.

According to an Editor & Publisher report, Enquirer Media in Cincinnati, which includes The Cincinnati Enquirer and other publications, eliminated 101 positions this week. Included in the cuts were editorial page editor David Wells, columnist Peter Bronson, and the entire staff of its arts-and-entertainment tabloid CinWeekly.

The outlook was dim for Phoenix Wednesday as well, as confirmation of nearly two dozen staffers losing their jobs at The Arizona Republic came in.
According to the Phoenix Business Journal, designers, feature writers, copy editors, and business and community reporters were among the latest newsroom staffers cut, which was said to total to 20.
The publisher of Louisville-based, The Courier-Journal says the newspaper has eliminated 44 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force. The layoffs were the second round at The Courier-Journal and Gannett since late last year.

View the full story here.

Tribune Co. revenue drops

According to Editor & Publisher, Tribune Company's revenue has dropped almost a quarter in its first five months under bankruptcy protection. Its profit margins have also been cut by over half compared to its margins of last year. The Tribune filed for bankruptcy reorganization in Dec. 2008.
Tribune Co.'s operating receipts have fallen 14 percent from the start of the year to May 31, the article says. The publisher and broadcaster still remains cash-flow positive, bringing in $112 more than it spent during the five-month period.
Since going private, the Tribune Co. has expanded local programming while launching new products and revamping older ones in order to make major expense cuts.
View the article here.

What do you think of Tribune Co.'s drop in revenue? Has it affected you? Comment and let us know.

Gannett to cut more than 1,000 jobs

The Wall Street Journal reports that Gannett Co. will cut between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs from its work force.
WSJ sites a person "familiar with the company's thinking" with the information.

According to the article, cuts will come from the U.S. Community Publishing division, which includes Gannett's local dailies. But cuts won't impact USA Today.
The move, would follow cost-cutting efforts by Gannett over the past year when the publisher cut 4,600 jobs last year and then required most remaining employees to take furloughs in the first and second quarters.
Gannett, which reports second-quarter earnings in mid-July, had $3.7 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter.

View the story here.

Star Tribune Co. files re-organization paperwork

Editor & Publisher reports that The Star Tribune Co. filed a reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy court Thursday, with a goal to emerge from Chapter 11 protection this fall.

Publisher and chairman Chris Harte said in a statement that he is confident that the newspaper will be in better shape when it returns, but that he does have plans to leave the paper, eventually.
Since the Star Tribune entered bankruptcy in January, it has drawn up agreements with 94 percent of unionized employees.
The Star Tribune says the agreements reached cost savings the company needs: cutting labor costs by $20 million a year.

View the story here.

Times Union employees reject outsourcing

According to the Albany Newspaper Guild blog, Time Union employees voted down a contract offer that would have allowed the company to outsource any job and layoff employees regardless of their time and seniority at the newspaper by a vote of 125 to 35.
View the blog release here.

What do you think of the employees' vote? How do you feel about outsourcing in the newsroom? Comment and tell us.

The humanity behind the business

Earlier today, I posted an entry about Forbes' struggle to endure and how it has impacted employees. I then discovered a great example of a journalist finding humanity within a business story.
Simon Owens of Bloggasm kindly directed me to a piece about Steve McGookin, a Forbes journalist who took a severance package last year and is now attempting to hack it as a street performer in the New York subway system.
McGookin is using his time between journalism jobs not only to pursue other interests but to hone his reporting as well, blogging about his experiences at The Beat Below the Street.
Owens' article highlights the common struggle of journalists in an uncertain industry. Ownes and McGookin show that creativity and original journalism aren't confined to traditional media organizations and that opportunity is everywhere.
View the blog entry here.

Pinching Forbes

The New York Times reported today that even Forbes is feeling the squeeze of the economy.
While Forbes magazine has 920,000 subscribers, its average issue price has steadily decreased and its ad pages are down 15 percent in the first quarter compared to last year.
The article reports Forbes has stopped matching contributions to its 401k program, laid off roughly 100 of its 1,000 employees since November and started five-day unpaid furloughs for its staff.
In the story, Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners asserts Forbes isn't worth half the $75 million its worth has been estimated in the past.
Yet the Times reports that Forbes' misery isn't without company, with the Publishers Information Bureau listing revenue of over $338 million for Forbes, $276 million for Fortune and $236 million for BusinessWeek.
The story shows the recession is impacting both people's demand for Forbes' economic content and its employees' desire to cover it. From the story:

“Everyone here likes the magazine, the people who run it, and most of us believe in the mission,” said one editorial employee who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with a reporter. “But that sense of mission is sort of hard to sustain when most of the news is bad. Capitalism is a less sexy topic for everyone, including us.”

View the story here.

Is covering capitalism less sexy for you? What do you think about the struggling of Forbes and its competitors? Comment and let use know.

Boston Newspaper Guild rejects concession package, cuts ensue

With a 277 to 265 vote, The Boston Newspaper Guild rejected a package of concessions that included $10 million in wage and benefit cuts.
New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe , has said it will now have to impose a 23 percent pay cut on Globe union staff beginning next week in order to keep the paper functioning.
Said guild president Daniel Totten said of the vote:

"With today's vote, members of the Boston Newspaper Guild have said that The New York Times Company must do better than the offer that was presented. Globe workers and the New England community understand that the quality of The Boston Globe, an institution so vital to the life and culture of the region, depends on the fair treatment of the men and women who work so hard to produce it."

View the story here.

What do you think of the Guild's vote and New York Times Co. cuts? Comment and give us a piece of your mind.

GM plant closures

The Wall Street Journal has a short, straightforward story on the 17 factories and part centers General Motors Corp. will be closing as part of its Chapter 11. The story lists the plants by their town and state locations. WSJ states that G.M. plans to cut roughly 20,000 factory jobs (more than 1/3 of G.M.'s U.S. workforce).
According to the story, 3 plants may "reopen if market demand rebounds." The story also mentions G.M.'s plans to convert a factory currently unused into a place to construct small cars.
View the story here.

Associated Press buys out veteran staff

Word that the Associated Press is offering buyouts got out Monday. The buyouts were offered three weeks ago with little publicity. The News Media Guild said the move was part of AP's attempt to reduce its labor costs by 10 percent.
The news organization is offering $500 for each year of service and pension benefits increased 14 to 16 percent.
The offers target hundreds of veteran staff. Employees who take the buyout must be at least 55 years of age, have worked at the AP at least 10 years, and their age and years of service must total up to 75.
View the full story here.

Dow Jones trims benefits

Though The Wall Street Journal's circulation and site usage has increased, its parent company News Corp. is cutting back benefits in the face of economic woes.
Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton announced the cuts in a memo Tuesday. The cuts will freeze the Money Purchase Plan and reduce health care subsidies for the retired.
Hinton said some of the money saved in the cuts would be put toward new health and wellness benefits.
Hinton said in the memo, "We want to give Dow Jones employees - whose ages, family situations, and career profiles are more varied than ever before - increased choice and enhanced coverage while providing individuals with better ways to manage health care costs."
Read the full story here.

Tucson Citizen ceases its print publication Saturday

Arizona's oldest paper, the Tucson Citizen, will cease it's print publication after Saturday's edition.
The paper reports that the Citizen's Web site will continue, but will be modified as an opinion site, eliminating news and sports reporting.
Gannett, the company which owns the Citizen, searched for a buyer for the paper and for the last month employees waited for the results of negotiations.
Ultimately, no buyers were found.
Employees will be informed today if they will be laid off, kept on staff for a transitional basis or hired full time.
To read the full story click here.

Star-Ledger announces cuts

George Arwaday, publisher of The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, sent a memo to employees Thursday detailing new pay and benefits cuts at the paper. The entire memo has been posted to Poynter's Romenesko blog.
From the memo:

The first $40,000 of your new combined annualized income will be cut by 5%. If you make more than $40,000, your next $40,000 in income up to $80,000 will be cut by 10%. Any annualized income over $80,000 will be cut by 15%.

In addition, Arwaday told employees that any bonuses they receive will be rolled into their salary and not delivered all at once at the end of the year.
In addition, all employees will now have to pay for 25 percent of their health care coverage. These moves were put in place to help offset a $20 million year-over-year drop in first quarter ad revenue.
To read the memo, click here.

192 positions eliminated at San Diego Union-Tribune

The new owner of the The San Diego Union-Tribune cut 192 jobs at the paper just three days after the acquisition was completed. A Beverly Hills based private equity firm, Platinum Equity, purchased the paper from Copley Press Inc.

Employees were given termination notices, effective July 6, on Thursday. Cuts were made in several departments, including the newsroom. The company assured employees they will receive "transition assistance and termination benefits."

For more click here.

Globe union and NYT reach deal

Early this morning, a tentative deal was reached between the New York Times Co. and The Boston Globe.
The Globe reports that the agreement includes "substantial pay cuts, unpaid furloughs, and modifications to the lifetime job guarantee provisions that protect almost 200 employees in the Boston Newspaper Guild."
From the story:

The Newspaper Guild was the last major union without a tentative agreement after more than a month of high-stakes bargaining to wring $20 million and major contract concessions.

The two sides began the bargaining session last night so far apart that the company had proposed what it called its "last, best offer," deeply slashing wages of guild members by 23 percent to gain the $10 million in concessions, according to union and management representatives with knowledge of the negotiations.

Local TV stations in Chicago form news service

Four local TV stations in Chicago will begin combining their coverage efforts and sharing content next week in an effort to save money, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Tony Capriolo, a WMAQ sports producer, has been selected as managing editor of the service, which will be based at WBBM's headquarters across from Daley Plaza but separate from Channel 2's news operation. Each participating outlet will provide two news crews and an assignment editor, and they remain on their station's payroll. Capriolo is an employee of the service, paid for by participating stations.

While the service will save its member stations money otherwise spent on covering the same event or story, some worry that it will make it easier for the stations to lay off employees who are no longer needed.
The stations, on the other hand, say that the move will allow them to cover more angles and stories than they could before.
Click here to read more.

Financier trying to buy Sun-Times Media Group

A Chicago businessman is trying to attract investors in an effort to put together a bid to buy the Sun-Times Media Group, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

Mr. [James] Tyree, CEO of Mesirow Financial Inc., told Crain's he has reviewed Sun-Times' books and discussed a possible bid with CEO Jeremy Halbreich and other company executives. Though his plans are still at a "very early stage," Mr. Tyree says he has talked with several potential co-investors, including a private-equity firm, about forming a group of four to 25 "to keep this great institution in Chicago."

Tyree acknowledged the challenging position facing the industry as a whole, and the Sun-Times Media Group in particular, hinting that he thinks the company needs to become smaller if it hopes to regain profitability.
Click here to read more.

Sun cuts include Kohn

The Baltimore Sun layoffs include Bernie Kohn, investigations editor and former president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
Kohn was previously the assistant managing editor for business before The Sun shuttered its business section last year.
The cuts equal about a quarter of the paper's editorial staff.
To learn more about who is gone from the paper click here.

Baltimore Sun cuts 61 from newsroom

The Baltimore Sun this week laid off 61 newsroom employees, or nearly a third of the total newsroom, according to an article on the paper's website.

The reductions hit nearly every type of job in the 205-person newsroom, including top editors, news photographers, critics, columnists, sports reporters, copy editors, page designers and graphic artists, according to The Newspaper Guild, which was notified of the union-represented layoffs. One news reporter was laid off as well, after leaving voluntarily. Most employees were notified Wednesday, with others laid off late Tuesday.

According to Poynter's Rick Edmonds, Ted Venetoulis, who has been trying to buy the Sun for years, thought that a deal was close at hand. However:

[...] by ditching so many experienced print editors, Tribune Co. could be signaling that it plans to continue running the operation itself rather than selling it.

A Baltimore Sun Media Group representative said the cuts were part of the paper's transition to a 24-hour multimedia news operation.
Click here for the article on the cuts, and here for the Poynter article.

How newsroom cuts may impact SEC

Reuters reports that Mary Schapiro, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said she is concerned that job cuts in newsrooms may hinder the SEC's ability to crack down on illegal behavior.

"It's an absolute worry for me because I think financial journalists have in many cases been the sources of some really important enforcement cases and really important discovery of practices and products that regulators should be profoundly concerned about," the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission told Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington on Tuesday. "But for journalists having been dogged and determined and really pursuing some of these things, they might not be known to the regulators or they might not be known for a long time," she said.

Schapiro then urged laid-off journalists to apply for jobs at the SEC. She said investigative journalism may be an "interesting skill set" that could be very useful to the agency. "[The SEC] has to really broaden its horizons and bring in people who think about things a little differently than it has historically," she said.

For more click here.

NY Times union tentatively agrees to pay cuts

The Newspaper Guild, which represents newsroom employees at The New York Times, has agreed in principle to a five percent pay cut on union employees, according to an article on the Times' website.

The company has said that the pay reduction would save $4.5 million and avert the elimination of about 80 jobs, mostly in the newsroom. But the union, in reaching the agreement, did not win assurances from the company that there definitely would not be layoffs through the end of the year. If employees are laid off during the period, however, severance packages would be paid based on employees’ salaries before the reduction.

Union members will vote on the pay cut next week. The move comes as the Times is looking for ways to save money after losing nearly $75 million in the first quarter of the year.
To read more, click here.

Former Star-Ledger employees start news site

Last year, New Jersey's The Star-Ledger bought out nearly half of its 330 newsroom employees in an effort to avoid shutting down or exploring a sale if costs could not be cut.
According to Editor & Publisher, 40 of those former employees have now started up their own news site, NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

The site, which so far has only Google ads but virtually no overhead, claims about 10,000 page views per week. It is mixing original reporting about the Garden State -- ranging form statehouse issues to sports -- along with links to other sites, including the Star-Ledger. An arrangement with Voice of America also allows the site to use that outlet's content.

No one working for the site is being paid yet, since they each have several months worth of salary payments remaining from their buyouts. This helps the new site keep costs low while it tries to attract readers, advertising dollars and funding.
To read more, click here.

Star Tribune, union agree on tentative deal

The Star Tribune, currently working through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has reached a tentative deal with its newsroom union, according to MinnPost.com.

Workers who remain will get a 3 percent wage scale cut, a 30 percent across-the-board merit pay reduction (most of the newsroom gets so-called "overscale"), two furlough days a year for the next two years, and a pension freeze. Pension savings is not included in the $1.7 million the Star Tribune will save.

According to the article, Star Tribune management was not able to get rid of seniority when it comes to layoffs.
However, the union did agree to let management save a "small number" of less-senior employees in the event of more layoffs, so the seniority rule is no longer as concrete as it once was.
The agreement is expected to save the paper just under $1.7 million, plus pension savings.
Click here to read more.

Cuts on the Trib biz desk

Michael Miner of the Chicago Reader has a partial list of the staffers that were cut in the latest reductions at the Chicago Tribune.
On the business side he has listed four reporters staffers so far. The total number of employees cut will be about 53, so more names might be added in the following days.
Here's a partial list. For the full list click here.
* Susan Diesenhouse, Real Estate Feature Writer
* Eric Benderoff, Technology Reporter, Financial News
* James P. Miller, Corporate Strategy and Manufacturing Reporter, Financial News
* Joshua Boak, Business Reporter

NYT ad revenue way down

Bloomberg reports that The New York Times Co. listed a 27 percent drop in first-quarter advertising revenue, expanding its net loss to $74.5 million.
From the story:

Times Co. cut jobs, slashed pay, halted its dividend and sold assets to help preserve cash after ad revenue slipped 13 percent last year. It’s seeking to sell its minority stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team and is negotiating additional pay and job cuts with unions. “It’s clear from these results that it’s a very, very bad environment for newspapers,” Edward Atorino, a New York-based analyst at Benchmark Co., said in an interview. “There’s no sign of relief.

Changes to The Fresno Bee's business section

The Fresno Bee will eliminate some national and international features to keep a focus on local business news.
The change comes as the papers modifies it business and features sections and opinion pages in an effort to freshen up content.
Starting tomorrow, the daily stock market report will slim down to one page to include more snapshot features and allow the Opinion page to move to the back of the daily business section.
On Sundays, readers will now see new data pages of stock and mutual fund information.
The paper is also launching a local column by farm reporter Dennis Pollock.
For the full release click here.

Arizona Daily Star cuts Monday biz

Starting December 24th, the Arizona Daily Star won't feature a freestanding business section on Mondays. The content will instead appear on the back of the paper's Accent section. All other days will remain the same.

"Most of the standing features from Monday Business will be spread among the other days' Business sections. The Moving Up column will be published Sundays starting Dec. 23."

Read more here.

BusinessWeek: layoffs and staff shuffle

As many as a dozen BusinessWeek employees will be laid off as magazine combines it print and digital staff into a one editorial operation, according to a report from Folio.
An internal memo was given to staff on Wednesday by editor Stephen Adler.
Folio points out that the layoffs come as BusinessWeek experiences success. It's readership is up 3 percent and newsstand sales up 25 percent.
To read the full report click here.