Free Republic

Reporters at the New York Times could soon be “vulnerable” to the ax. If the ongoing round of voluntary buyouts being offered to editing staff does not get enough takers, the Gray Lady could begin another round, NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet recently warned his top department editors. “Up until now, the company had not indicated that layoffs would happen if targeted numbers weren’t achieved,” Grant Glickson, president of the NewsGuild, told Media Ink. As part of the NYT’s ongoing restructuring of its editing ranks, 109 copy editors have had their jobs eliminated. There are estimated to be about 50...

Yesterday, New York Times readers were treated to a beautifully nuanced and balanced and richly detailed feature about a topic very much in the mix. Its author, Ariel Kaminer, came by her story and its scoop—the first interview with the accused (possibly falsely) rapist of the woman at Columbia who is carrying a mattress around campus to make a statement about campus sexual violence—by developing deep roots in a narrow beat, higher education. And now, Ms. Kaminer will join a hundred or so of her colleagues on the unemployment line as the Times once again cuts costs by cutting journalists....

<p>The longtime headquarters building of The Washington Post is being sold to a real estate development company for $159 million.</p> <p>Graham Holdings Co. is the former parent of The Washington Post newspaper. The company announced a deal Wednesday to sell the downtown Washington building to Carr Properties. The sale is expected to close at the end of March 2014.</p>

We reported yesterday that AOL’s hyper-local news service would lose hundreds of employees today, and now we have confirmation from a well-placed Patcher privy to the call that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong did indeed confirm to employees that hundreds would be laid off, with notifications of who will be let go coming throughout the coming week. (Disclosure: AOL owns TechCrunch). In a call Armstrong held with the Patch team today, he explained that “AOL is going to be running the show” at the restructured Patch along with new CEO Bud Rosenthal. Rosenthal replaces outgoing CEO Steve Kalin, who was reported...

ABC News is being accused of deceptively editing, or at least misrepresenting (intentionally or not), some of the comments made by Juror B29, the lone “nonwhite” juror in the George Zimmerman murder trial. Further, the media as a whole are being accused of manipulating some of her statements. These allegations come not from a conservative news source, but rather from Slate.com. The key phrase latched onto by most media outlets, due to its sensational nature, was “George Zimmerman got away with murder” — words that were, in fact, said by Juror B29. But the full unedited video of the comment,...

he New York Times on Monday announced that it would offer buyout packages to 30 newsroom employees, and that layoffs would ensue if the 30 spots were not voluntarily filled. Citing a difficult "economic environment" that has led in recent years to a 60 percent staff reduction on the paper's business side, Executive Editor Jill Abramson said, "There is no getting around the hard news that the size of the newsroom staff must be reduced." While the loss of 30 jobs pales in comparison to the ousting of roughly 100 newsroom staffers in 2008, it is the latest evidence that...

At 11:45 a.m. last Tuesday, the editorial staff of The Washington Post was summoned on short notice to an announcement on the fifth floor of its building to hear something they already knew — that Marcus Brauchli would be leaving after four years as executive editor. After Mr. Brauchli spoke, Katharine Weymouth, the newspaper’s publisher, told employees that he would be replaced by Marty Baron, the editor of The Boston Globe. As the meeting was concluding, Valerie Strauss, a longtime reporter, asked Ms. Weymouth why she was making the change. Ms. Weymouth, perhaps because of employment agreements that limited what...

Providence Journal lays off 23 full-time employees PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Providence Journal Co. laid off 23 full-time workers Wednesday as part of a cost-cutting effort, including 16 members of the Providence Newspaper Guild and 7 non-union employees. The cutback represents 5 percent of The Journal's workforce. The reductions come about two months after 11 employees accepted a voluntary separation offer. "Given a persistent softness in advertising revenue and the resultant impact on our earnings, it is necessary that we reduce our cost structure," said Howard G. Sutton, publisher, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "It is always...

(snip)....There will never be a mainstream news media anymore," said Ken Braun, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential and part of the five-person media panel. "It is becoming what I call a multi-stream media. That's the future we are headed to."... (snip)

As you probably know, the new TV season begins in the middle of September. That’s when all the TV networks spruce themselves up and reveal the new programming lineups for the next twelve months. MSNBC has planned a major overall to its lineup. Faced with years of disaster-level ratings, MSNBC has announced it will change its name to MPTV, Microsoft Progressive Television (the Microsoft name was kept because, well you don’t want to upset Microsoft). Along with the name change is a more family friendly TV lineup.

Clearly the war with Fox News has given the Obama team a thirst for red (politically) blood. They've now been accused of a campaign of "invectives" and "name-calling" against the global warming-denying US Chamber of Commerce. On Fox News Sunday - because why not? - the chief lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce, Bruce Josten, said Rahm Emmanuel had stolen his lunch and given him a wedgie. Actually he said that differences over healthcare and economic policy had led to a mini-war.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The union representing newsroom and other employees at The Indianapolis Star has ratified a two-year contract that includes a 10 percent pay cut. The Newspaper Guild Local 34070 said its members voted 56-45 on Tuesday in favor of the contract, which runs through August 2011 and suspends all merit pay increases. The contract covers 170 editorial and building services employees. Company officials have said the pay cut is necessary because of the recession. Guild members in June voted overwhelmingly to reject a contract offer from the Gannett Co.-owned Star that called for 12 percent pay cuts. The Star...

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI - News) reported today that 2009 second quarter earnings per diluted share were $0.30 compared to a net loss per share of $10.03 for the second quarter of 2008. Results for both quarters included several special items noted below. Earnings per diluted share for the second quarter of 2009, excluding those items, were $0.46. Earnings per diluted share for the second quarter of 2008 on a comparable basis were $1.04. snip Weakness in the economies of the U.S. and UK resulted in continued downward pressure on revenues. Total reported operating revenues for the company were...

A credentialed reporter from a small Georgia newspaper was dragged, kicking and screaming from Air Force One this afternoon. The woman, identified as Brenda Lee, said she wanted to give President Obama a letter before he departed from Los Angeles.

When it bought the Boston Globe for a record $1.1 billion in 1993, the New York Times Co. added one of the nation's most acclaimed and profitable newspapers to its empire. But analysts say the 137-year-old Globe has been a money-loser in recent years, and the Times, now $1.1 billion in debt, is threatening to shut down Boston's pre-eminent paper unless it gets $20 million in union concessions. Faced with the global recession and declining revenues, the newspaper business is reeling — one major paper has already folded this year and several others are seeking bankruptcy protection. But the threat...

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut The Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said yesterday.Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90-minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising,...

Ah, the ironies of web-only news. My email alert for local news informs me of the death of the dead-tree Post-Intelligencer with this headline: The 146-year-old Seattle Post-Ingelligencer [sic] will print its last edition Tuesday and will go Web only. This reduces the number of frothingly liberal daily and weekly newspapers in Seattle to... three -- Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, The [Odious] Stranger. So there won't exactly be a shortage of liberal spew anytime soon in this town. Addressing the death of the P. I, the editor promised the vampire editon: "Tonight we'll be putting the paper to bed for...

TIMES' FLYING APART PUBLISHER TO SELL JET By HOLLY M. SANDERS Last updated: 3:43 am March 12, 2009 Posted: 3:05 am March 12, 2009 The New York Times' high-flying days are over. Yesterday, the struggling publisher disclosed that it had put its 12-year-old corporate jet on the market. With newspaper ad revenue in a nosedive, the company is being forced to sell its private plane and other assets to raise cash.

SEATTLE — A group devoted to keeping two daily newspapers in Seattle is pushing a community effort to buy the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from Hearst Corp. It might be the best hope for keeping the P-I alive, the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town said Wednesday, adding that it would welcome the involvement of political, business, labor and community leaders. “The goal is to ensure that the P-I, which has been publishing local news daily since 1863, is not lost forever,” the group said in a news release. Hearst announced Jan. 9 that it was putting the P-I up for sale, and...