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Criticized on Seizure of Records, White House Pushes News Media Shield Law (NYT)
Under fire over the Justice Department’s use of a broad subpoena to obtain calling records of Associated Press reporters in connection with a leak investigation, the Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters in keeping their sources and communications confidential. Capital New York The administration opposed an initial draft of the Free Flow of Information Act, but eventually supported a compromise version that would allow federal judges to protect reporters from subpoenas for information, if the judge determined that the news value of the reports exceeded the government’s interest in uncovering the sources of a leak. HuffPost / The Backstory New York Times reporter Charlie Savage asked Attorney General Eric Holder, who had just announced he’d recused himself from the AP leak investigation, “Are you also recused from the Stuxnet investigation out of Maryland?” The New York Times has reason to be concerned about whether investigators are using similar tactics on them. The Maryland case is believed to be focused on Times chief Washington correspondent David Sanger’s reporting on how the U.S. and Israel helped derail Iran’s nuclear program through cyberattacks. Sanger’s June scoop, along with the Times’ front-page article on Obama’s terrorist “kill list,” spurred Congressional calls to investigate the leaks of classified information. The Washington Post / Erik Wemple Media Matters for America, a group that monitors the country’s conservative media for distortions and inaccuracies, fell in for criticism Wednesday over the Justice Department’s secret subpoena of the Associated Press’s phone records. Evidence of this Media Matters-Obama administration mindmeld? This piece here, which says: “If the press compromised active counter-terror operations for a story that only tipped off the terrorists, that sounds like it should be investigated.” The Daily Beast / Politics Beast David Brock explained all in a statement. “Media Matters for America monitors, analyzes, and corrects conservative misinformation in the media and was not involved with the production of the document focusing on the DOJs investigation,” he said. “That document was issued by ‘Message Matters,’ a project of the Media Matters Action Network, which posts, through a different editorial process and to a different website, a wide range of potential messaging products for progressive talkers to win public debates with conservatives.” Read more

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Top Editors Abruptly Leave Village Voice Over Staff Cuts (NYT)
The tumult that has characterized The Village Voice in recent years resurfaced on Thursday when the top two editors said they were leaving the weekly newspaper. Will Bourne, who became editor last November, and Jessica Lustig, the deputy editor since January, met with the staff at 11 a.m. on Thursday to announce their departure. In a phone interview, Bourne said that Christine Brennan, executive editor of Voice Media Group, had told them to lay off, or drastically reduce the roles of, five employees on the 20-person staff. Rather than carry out the cuts, he and Lustig resigned and left immediately, in the middle of closing next week’s paper. Gawker We hear that Michael Musto, the Village Voice‘s longtime society columnist and the last remaining vestige of the “classic” Voice, is one of the five Voice staffers targeted for layoffs — the proposed layoffs that caused the Voice‘s editors to quit today. Musto’s column, La Dolce Musto — a quirky mix of nightlife gossip, party talk, gay issues, and whatever the hell else has been happening in his life in the past week — has been running in the Voice for almost 30 years. NY Observer The downtown alt-weekly has been floundering of late. Last August, they had a significant round of layoffs and switched some full-time positions to part-time. Former editor-in-chief Tony Ortega left in September to focus full-time on debunking Scientology, prompting rumors the he was pushed out. Shortly after that, the newspaper chain underwent a corporate restructuring that separated the company’s papers from Backpage.com, the controversial and highly profitable adult online classifieds site that was a key source of revenue. FishbowlNY Bourne succeeded Ortega as editor of the Voice in late November. Read more

We knew this would be coming. After promising to trim its staff by one-third late last year, today AOL Inc. started its layoffs.

1,100 people took the buyouts AOL offered last month, but since that wasn’t enough to meet the company’s goals, about 1,200 will be let go this week. AOL is also planning to close offices in Spain, Sweden and Germany.

In a statement, AOL said some U.S. staffers would be notified of layoffs today, but a bulk of the pink slips would be going out on Wednesday.

Know anything? Send us an email or leave a tip in the box at right.

AOL Layoffs Start Today, Pick Up Steam As Week Goes On –Silicon Alley Insider

Previously: AOL Looks To Trim One Third Of Staff

After layoffs last week completed the 100 newsroom cuts executive editor Bill Keller promised earlier this year, it looks like New York Times staffers can finally rest easy and welcome the New Year with a celebratory toast.

On Friday, Keller sent a memo to his employees, promising “there is no further newsroom staff cut planned or foreseen, no ‘next round’ on the agenda.” What’s more, furloughs and the pay cuts taken by staffers this past year will become a thing of the past, so those remaining at the Times will be in the newsroom and working, and being paid as much as they were at the beginning of the year. It may have taken all year, but there is finally some good news to be had in the newspaper industry.

Keller also promised some reorganization of the newsroom, particularly the copy desk, in order to fill holes left from buyouts and layoffs. First on the agenda: the national and foreign desks’ copy editors will be combined next month, while the temporary combination of the travel and styles departments will become permanent, Keith Kelly reported.

Although Keller did add that there are “no guarantees” about the future at the Gray Lady, it looks like surviving Times-ers have a lot to celebrate this holiday season.

Read the whole memo here.

Times says editing of staff done for now

Previously: Layoffs Hit New York Times

After weeks of anticipation, yesterday was the day for layoffs at The New York Times. New York magazine’s Daily Intel blog and Gawker have both compiled lists of some of the layoff victims, but Times spokesperson Diane McNulty has reached out to both to tell them their lists are “in error.” So we don’t know who to believe.

We do know that, after an arbitrator’s ruling on Monday, at least 26 people were due to be laid off this week. But although the bad news is coming right before the holidays, the Times has agreed to keep its laid off staffers on the pay roll until December 23.

If you have any info about who got the axe yesterday, drop us a line or leave a comment in the box at right.

The New York Times Layoff Victims — Gawker

Times Layoffs: Salkin, Konigsberg, Rimer, and More –Daily Intel

Previously: After Arbitrator’s Ruling, Layoffs To Come To Times Later This Week

Martin Scheinman, an arbitrator hearing the dispute between the New York Times‘ management and the guild, ruled yesterday, as promised.

In a press release, and a memo to members, the guild explained that Scheinman had upheld its seniority definition for staffers — meaning seniority will be measured based on how long someone has been in the newsroom overall, and not how long they have been at a particular desk.

But there was one sentence that went out in a memo to guild members, obtained by FishbowlNY, but was not in the press release issued by the guild:

“The Guild is expected to be notified Tuesday of the layoffs, which
would be implemented later this week.”

Sounds like layoffs at the Times are just a few days away.

After the jump, more information from the arbitrator’s ruling

Read more

According to a memo sent out to guild members last night, The New York Times will keep staffers it plans to lay off next week — as many as 26 of them — on the payroll until December 23, “several days longer than planned.”

This extension is related to a dispute between the union and Times management over calculating seniority and “several related issues,” the union said in the memo yesterday, which was obtained by FishbowlNY. The dispute went before an arbitrator last night, and he is expected to rule on the matter Monday. The Times will then provide the guild a list of those targeted for layoffs before dropping the axe. Apparently, seniority will be playing a factor in who the paper decides to let go, so the guild wants to make sure it is correctly calculated before final decisions are made.

Read more

Jump Start is a government-funded program aimed at taking people from occupations that no longer exist in today’s economy, and teaching them how to apply their skills to jobs that still exist. Last spring there was a Jump Start program for those who worked in the financial services industry, which helped finance workers learn skills for a new career at a tech firm, or something.

Now the second phase of this program begins: Jump Start New Media, which features a curriculum designed to retrain people who have lost jobs in “old” media, like newspapers, magazines and at traditional broadcast companies. Media workers who go through the program will learn skills that they can put to work in new media. We don’t like to make fun, because people been asking for a media bailout for ages now, and finally the government is going to teach us all how to fish for ourselves instead of just injecting trillions of dollars into the industry. Great!

Except that the market is already over-saturated with young 20-somethings who know everything there is to know about new media, and the only benefit of bringing someone from ‘old media’ onto your ‘new media’ project is to get the wealth of experience and expertise that comes with working 20 years in a news room.

Still though, it never hurts to learn something new, especially when it’s free. The Jump Start New Media program, designed by The Levin Institute, which is part of The State University of New York, begins February 1 right here in Manhattan. Learn more info about it here.

USA TODAY travel editor Chris Gray Faust was one of the 26 people given the boot by the national newspaper this week.

Today, Faust says goodbye to her “dream job” in a post on The Huffington Post, the likes of which are becoming all too frequent these days. In it, Faust seems to shoot through the stages of grief from shock and pain through anger to, finally, hope and acceptance (although her last words to her former employer are not without a note of bitterness).

Says Faust:

“I’ve been laid off from my dream job, and I’m not going to lie. It sucks.”

Don’t we know it. But, all is not lost.

Read more

Today, the News Media Guild, which represents 1,300 Associated Press employees, provided an update on this week’s layoffs.

According to the union, 14 more people lost their jobs yesterday, bringing the grand total of unionized AP staffers laid off during this week to 71. Four bureaus are also being closed due to the cuts. Reports the guild:

“The terminations Wednesday involved nine newspersons, three editorial assistants, one photographer, and one office assistant. The notice appears to state that correspondencies in Dayton, Ohio; Roanoke, Va.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Jacksonville, Fla., are being closed.In addition, the Guild is aware of layoffs among U.S. managers and overseas staff.”

And, it might not be over. More layoffs could come today:

“Guild members, citing managers, have reported that more people may lose their jobs Thursday. The AP has not informed the union about future staff reductions, despite Guild requests for information. AP has not provided any assurance to the union that the company is ‘finished’ with this current round of staff reductions.”

Again, if you know any other news, send us an email or leave a note in the anonymous tip box on the right.

Black Tuesday At AP — News Media Guild

Earlier: More Info Emerges About AP Layoffs