And a whole lot of it.
It’s been a while since we posted a roundup of layoffs and closings in the Fourth Estate, and there’s plenty of the first and some of the second to cover.
First, one of America’s largest newspaper companies just dropped a turkey into the laps of its workers, and just in time for Thanksgiving.
From the Los Angeles Times, one of the papers affected:
Tribune Publishing has approved buyouts for about 7% of its eligible 7,000 employees across its media portfolio, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC filing did not include the specific number of buyouts at each newspaper or the job functions. The Chicago-based company owns 11 major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and San Diego Union-Tribune, which it acquired in May for $85 million.
The separation plan, which will be funded through salary continuation extending through the first half of 2018, will result in a total charge of approximately $55 million for all related severance, benefits and taxes, the company said. Tribune Publishing will record a charge estimated at $47 million during the fourth quarter related to the buyouts.
Last day for workers who opt out? It’s 25 November, the day before Thanksgiving.
Newspapers & Technology reported 21 October on an earlier downsizing effort by Tribune Media:
The Casey Brown Company acquired The San Diego Union-Tribune’s headquarters in Mission Valley, California for $52 million from former U-T Publisher Doug Manchester.
When Tribune Media Company acquired The Union-Tribune from Manchester, the paper’s printing operations were moved to Los Angeles. The property in Mission Valley was not part of the sale and the paper announced it would be looking for office space downtown.
CBRE will be leasing the 13-acre property, which includes a 170,000-square-foot, five-story office building and a 190,000-square-foot, three-story industrial building, which was the newspaper’s printing plant.
Lots of bad news for the Fourth Estate in Pennsylvania.
First up, this from a 4 November announcement by the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia:
In an astonishing display of misdirected management, the Company today announced layoffs that decimate what just days ago the new publisher identified as the key to our future – digital reach and our unique print brand
Of the Philly.com staff of 29, 17 Guild members will be gone as of Dec. 4.
At the Daily News, 10 reporters, including one as senior as 16 years, will be let go. Joining them in unemployment will be six copy editors, leaving one person to copy edit news (other than sports) and features. An editorial assistant that has served this company for 25 years is also among the casualties.
The Inquirer will lose five reporters, six copy editors and desk assistants, including an assigning editor, and one news artist.
More bad Pennsylvania news reported Tuesday by Poynter MediaWire:
Trib Total Media, which owns the Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and the Valley News Dispatch, announced consolidation and layoffs on Tuesday in a memo.
As part of a strategic growth plan developed by our Board of Directors, we have decided to sharpen our focus through the sale and consolidation of several newspapers. We are consolidating the Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and the Valley News Dispatch into one paper – the Tribune-Review.
That consolidation includes 153 layoffs, “this is in addition to 68 long-term employees who accepted the buyout offer we made in August.” In addition, the company indicated that if it doesn’t find “suitable buyers in the next 60 days” for two other papers, it will eliminate an additional 91 people. A press release notes that TTM will roll out several digital platforms next year, and that the company has a total of 1,100 full-and-part-time employees.
More bad news from Boston by way of the Daily Free Press, Boston University’s student paper:
When Sarah Roberts started working as a metro correspondent for The Boston Globe in July, she overheard her higher-ups discussing recent buyouts and upcoming layoffs. More recently, Roberts and her colleagues have noticed something different. Desks were cleared of yellowing newspapers, computer monitors were removed and picture frames were pulled from the walls of the copy editing department’s workspace.
In the past month, the Globe laid off nearly two dozen staff members in addition to the 17 who accepted a recent buyout. A majority of the layoffs came from the copy desk, which raises concern over the future of careers in traditional journalism in the landscape of changing media.
Lou Ureneck, a journalism professor in the College of Communication and former deputy managing editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, said the driving force behind the layoffs was business, not journalism.
If you’re wondering who was going to be filling the space left by those fallen journalists, the answer is corporate public relations spinners.
From a 9 November post by Newspapers & Technology:
The Boston Globe inked its first sponsored content deal with the Rockland Trust Company.
The campaign will run for 18-months and will feature Rockland Trust-sponsored content designed to educate business on how to successfully run, grow and overcome the challenges that arise as they expand. Rockland Trust will also sponsor the Globe’s Talking Points column. The written content will be authored by Boston Globe Media’s new content services business unit.
The sponsorship initiative also includes six business networking events, branded delivery truck wraps, poly bags and honor boxes. New Globe readers who sign up for a digital subscription service will receive a two-week free trial of BostonGlobe.com courtesy of Rockland Trust.
Wednesday brought bad news for Connecticut print journalists. Covered by the New Haven Independent:
Another wave of layoffs has hit the New Haven Register, this time affecting copyeditors and sports staffers, among others.
Unlike in past layoffs, management refused to confirm details of the latest moves. Nor did management hold a newsroom meeting or distribute a companywide memo (another departure from past practice). So no firm numbers of layoffs were available. Register employees were left to sharing rumors and firsthand reports from laid-off coworkers all day Tuesday to gauge how hard their paper was hit this time.
According to people familiar with the layoffs, as many as 30 employees—certainly more than 20—are believed to have lost their jobs in New Haven and at the company’s Torrington daily paper and monthly Connecticut magazine.
There’s a whole lot more after the jump, with imminent newspaper closings in Minnesota, two newspapers folding in Ohio, layoffs in Atlanta and South Carolina, layoffs at a national newspaper, bad news for National Geographic, porn magazine layoffs, Canadian television journalists axed and a Canadian paper outsources, plus some collateral damage. . .all after the jump:
An in Minnesota, a venerable small town chain appears on the brink of closure, reports MinnPost:
On Nov. 13, the 80-year-old Lillie chain of newspapers will lay off the last of its two pressmen. Their departure, along with several others in recent days, including managing editor Holly Wenzel, a 25-year employee of the family-owned company, paints a dire picture for the company’s survival.
According to several former employees, the chain — which includes the Ramsey County Review, the East Side Review and the Bulletin-branded papers serving the east metro — may be cleaning up its balance sheet in hopes of attracting a buyer, with the most frequently mentioned one being Press Publications out of White Bear Lake, which currently publishes eight suburban papers.
To that prospect Carter Johnson, publisher of the Press group, says coyly: “We will always look carefully at possible acquisitions.”
Some truly sad news for the Buckeye State was announced 21 October by the Ohio Newspaper Association:
Civitas Media, the North Carolina-based parent company of The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, has closed two newspapers in Ohio.
Effective Thursday, the Peninsula News in Marblehead, Ohio, and the Ottawa County Exponent in Oak Harbor, Ohio, published their final editions. Calls to both newspapers were answered by recordings stating they have ceased publication.
Civitas Media Chief Executive Officer Ralph Martin said current economic conditions do not support a continuing presence in those markets, according to a communication from him obtained by The Citizens’ Voice.
South of the Mason-Dixon Line, some more bad news reported 14 October by Atlanta Magazine:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is no stranger to downsizing, having shrunk from 500 staffers just eight years ago to 161 employees at the beginning of this year. The latest round of cuts was announced Tuesday afternoon, when AJC employees learned a total of 16 newsroom positions will be eliminated by year’s end. However, 13 of those positions—now filled largely by veteran journalists focused on the print product—are expected to be converted early next year into new gigs tailored to boost web traffic.
“We’re reducing overall staffing to meet the realities of our business,” AJC editor Kevin Riley told us by phone today. “We’re also expanding our digital capacity so we can more fully serve our digital audience.”
And on 14 October ASHVEGAS.COM covered imminent downsizing in Asheville, N.C.:
This week was deadline week for the Asheville Citizen-Times employees who have been offered a buyout offer from corporate parent Gannett. Will anyone at the newspaper bite on the offer? And if not, will Gannett achieve its cost-cutting goals through yet another round of layoffs?
Gannett CEO Bob Dickey sent out the offer back in August. Employees who were 55 or older with at least 15 years of service as of Oct. 12, 2015, were eligible. The company was offering 1.5 weeks of pay per year of service. Those with 25 years of service or more were offered two weeks of pay per year of service. Buyout deals were to be finalized on Oct. 12.
About eight Citizen-Times employees received the offer, according to my sources. Only one was said to be seriously considering the offer – sports Editor Bob Berghaus, a Gannett veteran who came to Asheville from another Gannett newspaper 12 years ago.
From Newspapers & Technology came word 27 October of layoffs at a national newspaper and word of new paywalls:
As Atlantic Media beefs up DC coverage at its flagship brand, staff at National Journal will be reduced by 25 percent. A number of newsroom positions will be eliminated while about 20 staffers from both edit and business will transition to The Atlantic. NJ will continue current newsroom operations through January, 2016.
Meantime, NJ will transition to premium content and services for the professional Washington audience. The members only site will provide Policy Brands Roundtable, Presentation Center and will debut Axis, a database of high-quality data and graphics tailored to member needs.
A new Washington bureau for The Atlantic will cover politics and policy. Yoni Appelbaum will serve as bureau chief, reporting to John Gould, editor of TheAtlantic.com.
FishbowlDC covered woes at one of the nation’s premiere magazines, with a familiar name in the role of culprit:
When layoffs happen, who is to blame, really? In the case of National Geographic, which announced yesterday it was laying off 180 employees across the organization, a lot of it was directed toward Rupert Murdoch.
If you recall, back in September it was announced that National Geographic was going for-profit for the first time in its 127 years of existence, thanks to the Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox purchase of a controlling stake in the company.
It’s not just high-toned magazines on the ropes, reports the 6 November New York Post:
In another round of cuts in the adult magazine realm, Paramus, NJ-based Magna Publishing has laid off most of its full-time editorial staff.
The company will try to keep its stable of X-rated publications, including High Society, Cheri, Swank, Gallery and Fox, alive with a freelance editorial staff.
“They had to do some reduction of staff,” said Stephen Perretta, an attorney for Magna, whose president, Frank Perretta, is his brother.
And electronic media are struggling too, at least north of the border, reports the Toronto Star:
CTV has announced another round of job cuts, this time in Toronto and Montreal. A CTV spokesman says more than 50 positions will be eliminated in the two cities.
The union representing Bell Media employees in Toronto says it has received layoff notices.
Unifor says Bell has indicated to it that some 270 employees will be affected.
And on Canadian newspaper has suffered a familiar woe, outsourcing. From the 4 November Epoch Times:
The Toronto edition of Ming Pao Daily News, one of the handful of Chinese-language publications in the city, has laid off seven of its editorial staff and shipped their jobs to China, Epoch Times has confirmed with the union representing the newspaper’s employees.
Simon Sung, president of Unifor Local 87-M, the employees’ union at Ming Pao, said the official date of the layoffs is Nov. 16, but a staff member of Toronto Ming Pao told Epoch Times that the seven editors have already left the company.
Howard Law, the national representative of Unifor Local 87-M, confirmed that the work of the seven editors will be outsourced to a company in Guangzhou, China.
Finally, with all those problems for print reporters, the Portland Oregonian covers collateral damage:
SP Fiber Technologies, a Newberg pulp and paper company, will close “indefinitely” in mid-November and could result in the layoffs of about 200 workers.
WestRock Co., which acquired the mill and other assets earlier this month, has announced that it will “idle indefinitely” the Newberg mill within weeks.
>snip<
WestRock and mill officials said the Newberg mill was one of three WestRock mills to be idled, said Bill Martello, area representative for the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, Local 60, who met with the group.
Of market conditions that affected the decision, Martello said, “The newsprint market has declined and has been declining for years. It continues to decline, probably at a faster rate than even analysts project.
