Newspapers

A number of New York Times staffers held a “quiet protest” in the hallways of the building yesterday to express their dismay about the way contract talks have been going. Today, executive editor Jill Abramson and other editors have issued a response.

In a letter from “Jill, Dean and John,” who we take to be Jill Abramson, managing editor Dean Baquet, and managing editor for operations John Geddes, the Times brass say that “Negotiations are certainly best left to those at the bargaining tables.”

The letter, obtained by Romenesko, isn’t all dismissive. “We all acknowledge that the push-pull of the negotiating process can be wearying. But we have been here before. Like you and our colleagues on the negotiating team, we are committed to finding a solution…We thought this was a good moment for us to underscore our commitment to you and to affirm our faith in the future of The Times. After all, we are all in this together.” But it also takes an arrogant tone at the end:

“The New York Times stands almost alone in being able to offer talented journalists a promising and fulfilling career. We are the destination for those committed to the highest standards of excellence.”

Ira Stoll, former managing editor of the New York Sun, writes, in essence, WHAT?

For the benefit of Times employees who might feel trapped by the message from “Jill, Dean, and John” — first names only when delivering that iron-fist-in-velvet-glove management message — here are just a few of the many other places (I am sure I am forgetting some) that can offer talented journalists promising and fulfilling careers:

The Wall Street Journal
ProPublica
Texas Monthly
The New Yorker
Time magazine
Sports Illustrated
NPR

Stoll goes on; we won’t. But the message is a sound one, we think.

The Washington Post is in the middle of trying to pay up to 48 of its employees to leave, and time has run out on negotiations between the Post and the Guild as to what constitutes a fair offer. Therefore, the Post gets to make its final offer under the terms of the guild contract.

The paper will offer 3.25 weeks of severance pay for every year of service, up from the 2.5 weeks the company initially offered, but down from the five the Guild asked for.

It will increase health insurance coverage to a full 12 months for everyone who takes the buyout.

And it makes part-time reporters, but not part-time support staff, eligible for the buyout.

Final offers will go out next Wednesday, and employees will have 45 days to decide if they want in. During this same period, the company is going to offer raises to employees it wants to demonstrate an interest in retaining.

The guild says:

“The Post’s buyout offer is better than it was at the start of negotiations. But we still feel that many will find it inadequate when considering whether to surrender jobs that they have long considered to be their calling. We also believe this buyout offers yet another unsettling glimpse at the Post’s business strategy, which appears to be a belief in cutting costs at every turn while promising readers that they will still receive the level of coverage and professional quality that earned the Post a national reputation for excellence.”

The Newspaper Guild at the Norwalk (Conn.) Hour and the paper have reached a tentative deal for a new three-year contract.

If approved, the contract would provide for 2 percent raises for each of the next three years, decrease employee contributions to health care premiums, and a clause that prevents the paper from replacing full-time employees with temps.

A vote is scheduled for next Tuesday.

The Washington Post Company reported a 22 percent drop in earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011, from $79 million to $61.7 million, on a 10 percent decrease in revenues, from $1182 million to $1063.4 million.

Even Kaplan Inc, which is wholly owned by the Post Company, was less profitable than in the past, due to lower enrollment and recent regulations that have affected how Kaplan receives funding.

The publishing division, which we care most about here at MJD, saw revenue fall 4 percent in the fourth quarter, from $118.4 million to $181 million. The Washington Post itself saw a 6 percent drop in ad revenue, a lower amount of cash generated by its online properties, and a decline in circulation.

In the fourth quarter, the paper reported a profit of $7.4 million, but over the year, the division is reporting a loss of $18 million.

Late last night, Media General said it is “exploring the potential sale of newspaper operations,” reports Poynter MediaWire.

The company said it had received “inquiries” from “several” third parties regarding the purchase of some of its papers.

According to Poynter media analyst Rick Edmonds, those third parties could be small companies nearby looking to expand, private equity buyers, or well-off individuals (like Warren Buffett). And ” I wouldn’t rule out Halifax Media,” Edmonds added.

Media General currently owns 21 newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and more.

The Indianapolis Newspaper Guild and the Indianapolis Star have reached an agreement that awards pay raises to most workers, including the lowest-paid, but gives parent company Gannett the right to outsource up to eight jobs.

The Guild reports that covered workers will receive raises of 2-4 percent, with the highest raises going to the lowest paid workers. (The Star imposed a 10 percent pay cut in 2009, so this is only the first step toward restoring workers’ pay to pre-recession levels.)

But the company was “unyielding” in its insistence that page design work would be outsourced out of state to be designed at a center in Louisville. “We made a strong case…that this could damage the local news product,” guild vice president Adam Yates wrote. “But it became clear that this was an edict from Gannett, The Star’s parent company, and that the quality of the product was a secondary consideration to saving money.”

Six to eight jobs will be displaced (but it’s unclear how many will be hired in Louisville, if any, to replace them).

Finally, Yates said, “The pay raises, while not fully restoring our 10 percent cuts from two years ago, were significant. Our industry is still in job and pay cutting mode. And newspaper unions around the country are still facing cuts such as the ones we took two years ago.

“That we could squeeze out even these modest raises was a testimony the efforts of our workers and our friends in the community and the breadth of our public campaign…We will continue our efforts to Save the Star.”

The combined newsrooms of the Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com will undergo a reduction in force of 37 positions through a combination of buyouts and layoffs, the Philadelphia Newspaper Guild said.

Details of the buyout program will be coming from HR soon, but the gist is as usual: the more people who sign up for buyouts, the fewer layoffs there will be.

Departments targeted include “Reporters, Writing Reporters, Rewrite, News Artists, Photographers, Photo Printers, Copy Editors/Readers, Make-Up Persons, Desk Assistants, Cartoonists, Editorial Writers, Editorial Clerks and Philly.com Multi Media Content Producers.”

Everyone, both bought-out and laid off, must be out by March 31.

The Buffalo (New York) News reported annual operating profits of below $10 million, the lowest in decades, Buffalo Business First notes.

But these numbers don’t necessarily predict any new buyouts. (The News had a round of buyouts last year, when 29 employees departed, and a round the year before, with a loss of 23 staffers.)

Instead, the paper is considering adding a paywall to its site. Digital revenues account for just 7 percent of the News’ bottom line, lower than many other newspapers struggling with the transition to digital.

“The paywall is something we are looking at but, I want to caution, that nothing is imminent,” publisher Stanford Lipsey said.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which was bankrupt just three short years ago, is now on its second year of paying out profit-sharing checks to employees, David Brauer reports.

The award is $300 per full-time employee, or about a fourth of what it was last year ($1,163). That’s because the Strib’s pension contribution tripled.

But the fact that the company had enough money to fully fund its pension obligations, match everyone’s 401(k), and still share $300 with each of the paper’s 1,000 full-time employees is pretty encouraging.

Circulation revenue was up, newsroom staffing has remained steady, and the paper says it has more than 12,000 brand-new digital subscribers.

The downside: Ad revenue is still slipping, and newsroom staffers haven’t received a raise in three years. But if business continues this way, perhaps employees will receive some good news when their contract goes up for negotiation next January.

Gannett is offering buyouts to anyone in its Community Publishing division who is over 56 with 20 years of service at the company, according to a memo posted by Jim Romenesko.

As a reminder of how huge Gannett is, that applies to 785 people, but Gannett is going to accept “only” up to 665 employees, split among Gannett’s properties. For example, at the Asbury Park (NJ) Press, up to 47 people can take the buyout, while at Florida Today (in Brevard County, Fla.) only 11 volunteers will be accepted.

Gannett Blog’s Jim Hopkins says that the buyout “represent[s] a major shift in the company’s payroll reduction strategy” for a company that usually implements layoffs or unpaid furlough days.

Also, “Until now, GCI has never extended buyouts to such a broad group of employees simultaneously.”

Employees have 45 days to volunteer. It’s unclear how much money Gannett hopes/needs to save from this program and whether Gannett will resort to layoffs if it can’t reach the desired number of cuts through volun