| Tue, Jun 16, 2009 |
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Boston Globe Update: Guild, Paper Try To Find Way Back From Abyss
Boston Globe representatives insisted for days that Monday’s meeting between the paper and the Boston Newspaper Guild would be purely informational, focusing on the imposition of a 23 percent wage cut on union members following the defeat of a $10 million concessions package. Apparently, both sides got enough “information” to move into full-blown discussions about how to get out of this mess: the Globe reports they talked until early Tuesday morning—more than 13 hours—before breaking with plans to meet again this afternoon.
So what’s changed since last Monday, when a narrow majority of Globe Guild members voted down the package? For one, the folks who thought the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) would back down and come right back to the bargaining table found out very quickly that their paychecks were about to be cut by nearly a quarter—a much higher immediate loss than an 8.5 percent pay cut, a five-day unpaid furlough and benefit cuts. And through his response to a letter and petition, those who still thought he might, learned that Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., wasn’t going to rescue them.
Photo Credit: AP Images
At the same time, the Globe, whose execs knew intellectually what to expect, started to get a taste of the damage that could be inflicted on possible sale hopes and other efforts by a long-running labor dispute. The Guild filed an immediate complaint with the National Labor Relations Board and the first hearing was supposed to be today and is being postponed. Then add in hundreds of staffers worried literally about losing their homes or paying for their cars, instead of being able to focus on their jobs. Selling the Globe will be hard enough; selling it while fighting with its largest union would be next to impossible.
The Guild wants a sign that management will be hurt by cuts as much as they are. Management wants that $10 million and concessions allowing any Guild member to be laid off so it can show investors and prospective buyers that the Globe is on the right track. I’ll join Dan Kennedy and others in believing there’s a resolution to this. No one really wants to go off the cliff.
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paidContent.org
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Boston Update: Guild, Globe Try To Find Way Back From Abyss
Boston Globe representatives insisted for days that Monday’s meeting between the paper and the Boston Newspaper Guild would be purely informational, focusing on the imposition of a 23 percent wage cut on union members following the defeat of a $10 million concessions package. Apparently, both sides got enough “information” to move into full-blown discussions about how to get out of this mess: the Globe reports they talked until early Tuesday morning—more than 13 hours—before breaking with plans to meet again this afternoon.
So what’s changed since last Monday, when a narrow majority of Globe Guild members voted down the package? For one, the folks who thought the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) would back down and come right back to the bargaining table found out very quickly that their paychecks were about to be cut by nearly a quarter—a much higher immediate loss than an 8.5 percent pay cut, a five-day unpaid furlough and benefit cuts. And through his response to a letter and petition, those who still thought he might, learned that Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., wasn’t going to rescue them.
At the same time, the Globe, whose execs knew intellectually what to expect, started to get a taste of the damage that could be inflicted on possible sale hopes and other efforts by a long-running labor dispute. The Guild filed an immediate complaint with the National Labor Relations Board and the first hearing was supposed to be today and is being postponed. Then add in hundreds of staffers worried literally about losing their homes or paying for their cars, instead of being able to focus on their jobs. Selling the Globe will be hard enough; selling it while fighting with its largest union would be next to impossible.
The Guild wants a sign that management will be hurt by cuts as much as they are. Management wants that $10 million and concessions allowing any Guild member to be laid off so it can show investors and prospective buyers that the Globe is on the right track. I’ll join Dan Kennedy and others in believing there’s a resolution to this. No one really wants to go off the cliff.
Photo Credit: AP Images
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| Fri, Jun 12, 2009 |
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Possible Boston Globe Buyers Emerge But Don’t Hold Your Breath
Live in Boston, have access to at least $100 million or so and like a good challenge? You, too, could be a possible bidder for the Boston Globe, the latest asset being shopped by the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) The latest three names to emerge come courtesy of the Globe:
—Steve Taylor, a former Globe exec and part of the family who sold the paper to the Times for $1.1 billion in 1993. Taylor stayed on after the sale; he was the first publisher of Boston.com and headed Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, among other roles at the company. Taylor lectures on media at Yale and is a seed investor through his own Densefog Group LLC .
—Stephen Pagliuca, a managing director for PE firm Bain Capital and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. He developed Bain & Company’s turnaround practice and at Bain Capital has been part of numerous media and tech deals. His current board memberships include The Gartner Group, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (FRA: PSM) and Burger King.
—Jack Connors, chairman of non-profit Partners HealthCare and a philanthropist . He started as an ad man, selling his agency in 1998 for more than $115 million, according to the Globe. He tried to buy the paper before as part of a group with Jack Welch back in 2006 when NYTCo wasn’t a seller. Now it’s a buyers’ market.
At the same time, the Globe threw cold water on a report Thursday from rival Boston Herald that Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. is also interested and has been in discussions. Each story is based on a source who doesn’t want to be identified. And John Henry, principle owner of the Boston Red Sox, tried—again—to remove his name from the pool, twittering last night that “I’m not buying a newspaper.”
More names are likely to swirl about as the bidding process proceeds, some testing the waters and some the result of wishful thinking. Will anyone actually bid? We’ll see.
Clearing up the labor situation with the Boston Newspaper Guild might help. Imposing a 23 percent pay cut on union members helps the NYTCo claim $20 million in reductions overall but the move is already being appealed to the National Labor Relations Board and could backfire. Prospective buyers want savings; they don’t want legal battles. The best shot would be a do-over with the Guild.
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| Thu, Jun 11, 2009 |
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What Salary Freeze? Newspaper Wages Are Actually Rising
You may have heard about the salary freezes and wage cuts at media companies like the NYTCo (NYSE: NYT), Gannett (NYSE: GCI) and Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS). But that’s not the full story: A new report says that overall, newspaper salaries have actually been on the rise. E&P’s Jen Saba cites a study of 400 papers in the U.S. and Canada by the Inland Press Association that found that newspaper wages rose an average 2.1 percent from 2008 to 2009.
To be sure, the gains were concentrated in a few areas, such as graphics and on newspaper websites. “Interactive producers” saw their pay jump 13 percent, while those in “new and alternative business development” are making 5 percent more than the year before. Salaries for new reporters and editorial-page editors didn’t move up at all.
Considering the wave after wave of layoffs in the media industry, it’s natural to ask: are new graduates of the nation’s journalism schools finding work? Daily Finance’s Jeff Bercovici finds that j-school grads at two relatively elite New York schools are doing pretty well.
Since graduating last month, 197 people, or 64 percent, of the 306 Columbia University j-school students who have left have lined up work within their chosen profession, a rep for the school says. However, that might not necessarily mean actual paying jobs, as it includes internships, fellowships and continuing ed. The Columbia rep tells Bercovici that the 64 percent is higher than last year, and some students have gotten job offers from places like The New York Times, NPR, CNN. Meanwhile, CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism is claiming that 60 percent of the 45 j-school grads who finished last December now have full-time editorial work, while another 15 percent are doing internships or have been getting steady freelance work.
Rafat adds: Couple of counter-points here: First, it is misleading for Bercovici to take two “elite” NYC J-schools and extrapolate from that “as bad as things are in the media industry, J-school grads are, far more often than not, finding jobs.” Reality is, speak to even a smattering of J-schools outside of the main cities, and it will become amply clear that the job market even for fresh graduates remains dismal, at least in the traditional reporting jobs. Secondly, it is important not to brush off the “internships, fellowships and continuing ed” numbers from Columbia because that data helps shed light on the real number of grads who got full-time paying jobs. Also, the better statistic would be to find out the nature of students going into these programs, whether the trends are moving more towards students who have some prior experience in journalism and want to get additional skills (and a shelter from the cruel economy), or these are undergrads. A list of the right questions to ask is here in a comment on a previous Forbes.com story. Cynical tone, yes, but ignore that.
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paidContent.org
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What Salary Freeze? Newspaper Wages Are Actually Rising
You may have heard about the salary freezes and wage cuts at media companies like the NYTCo (NYSE: NYT), Gannett (NYSE: GCI) and Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS). But that’s not the full story: A new report says that overall, newspaper salaries have actually been on the rise. E&P’s Jen Saba cites a study of 400 papers in the U.S. and Canada by the Inland Press Association that found that newspaper wages rose an average 2.1 percent from 2008 to 2009.
To be sure, the gains were concentrated in a few areas, such as graphics and on newspaper websites. “Interactive producers” saw their pay jump 13 percent, while those in “new and alternative business development” are making 5 percent more than the year before. Salaries for new reporters and editorial-page editors didn’t move up at all.
More j-school graduates that you might think are actually finding jobs, at least in New York. More after the jump
Considering the wave after wave of layoffs in the media industry, it’s natural to ask: are new graduates of the nation’s journalism schools finding work? Daily Finance’s Jeff Bercovici finds that j-school grads at two relatively elite New York schools aren’t having too tough a time.
Since graduating last month, 197 people, or 64 percent, of the 306 Columbia University j-school students who have left have lined up work within their chosen profession, a rep for the school says. However, that might not necessarily mean actual paying jobs, as it includes internships, fellowships and continuing ed. Still, the Columbia rep tells Bercovici that those figured were as of May 28, and that a number of other students have gotten job offers from outlets like The New York Times, NPR, CNN. Plus, the rep says the 64 percent figure is higher than last year. Meanwhile, CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism is claiming that 60 percent of the 45 j-school grads who finished last December now have full-time editorial work, while another 15 percent are involved in internships or have been getting steady freelance work.
Rafat adds: Couple of counter-points here, if you will: First, it is highly misleading of Bercovici to take two “elite” NYC J-schools and extrapolate the conclusion—“as bad as things are in the media industry, j-school grads are, far more often than not, finding jobs”, he says—based on it (we changed our headline a bit to reflect that). Reality is, speak to even a smattering of J-schools outside the main cities, and it will become amply clear that the job market even for fresh graduates remains dismal, at least in the traditional reporting jobs. Secondly, it is important not to brush off the “internships, fellowships and continuing ed” numbers from Columbia because that would show the real number of grads who got full-time paying jobs. Also, the better statistic would be to find out the nature of students going into these programs, whether the trends are moving more towards students who have some prior experience in journalism and want to get additional skills (and a shelter from the cruel economy), or these are undergrads. A list of the right questions to ask is here in a comment on a previous Forbes.com story. Highly cynical tone, yes, but ignore that.
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