Today Philadelphia Media Network notified the Newspaper Guild that it was laying off 19 employees on March 31st. This comes on the heels of the announcement that 21 employees took the buyout, some more voluntarily than others. Guild President Dan Gross did not mince words in his letter to the rank and file vowing to not go down without a fight.
For the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com to remain a viable operation in the 24/7 digital media landscape we believe that more employees, not less are required. Unfortunately CEO Greg Osberg, in efforts to make the books look more attractive to whatever investment group he has wrangled to buy the company, so long as they keep him on, believes that the region can be served with less journalists. Perhaps instead of killing stories he didn’t like about the sale of the
company and trying to be seen as some sort of digital visionary by holding press conferences at the Academy of Natural Sciences, giving free rent to start-up companies who play ping pong on the 5th floor at 400 N. Broad, creating a poorly-launched tablet and worrying about apps that make a few dollars, Osberg should be focused on properly staffing the newspapers in a manner that will allow more copies to be sold. The duplication of stories in both papers and the ongoing push to dump more and more content onto Philly.com will not solve any revenue problems. Whether Osberg wants to admit it or not, the print editions of the Inquirer and Daily News, which he offensively labels “legacy products,” are responsible for generating more than 90 percent of the revenue.
Complete letter after the jump…
Dear Guild member,
This morning the Guild received notice from Philadelphia Media Network
that it plans to lay off 19 members on March 31.Those targeted for layoff are: Two full-time Inquirer reporters, three
part-time Inquirer reporters, four part-time Inquirer copy editors, one
part-time Inquirer artist, one full-time Daily News reporter, one
part-time Daily News reporter, three part-time Daily News copy editors,
one part-time Daily News desk assistant, one Daily News part-time
editorial clerk. and two part-time Philly.com multi-media content
producers.These layoffs come after 21 members applied for and were approved for
voluntary separation. While many of the volunteers wanted to leave,
others made the difficult decision to apply because they knew how
vulnerable they would be in a layoff.As per Article 28.1 of the Guild contract, layoffs are only to be made
in the event of “good and reasonable cause,” and the Guild and company
are to discuss the need for the layoffs. Over the next 15 days we will
engage the company about why the layoffs are unnecessary. If they are
still implemented we will challenge the layoffs through the contract’s
grievance and arbitration procedure.It is our position that between the significant savings of the salaries
of the members who volunteered to leave, and the concessionary contract
in 2010 that gave the new owners $6 million in cost cuts from our union,
that enough is enough.According to a recent Inquirer story, Philadelphia Media Network made a
$4 million profit last year.For the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com to remain a viable operation
in the 24/7 digital media landscape we believe that more employees, not
less are required. Unfortunately CEO Greg Osberg, in efforts to make
the books look more attractive to whatever investment group he has
wrangled to buy the company, so long as they keep him on, believes that
the region can be served with less journalists.Perhaps instead of killing stories he didn’t like about the sale of the
company and trying to be seen as some sort of digital visionary by
holding press conferences at the Academy of Natural Sciences, giving
free rent to start-up companies who play ping pong on the 5th floor at
400 N. Broad, creating a poorly-launched tablet and worrying about apps
that make a few dollars, Osberg should be focused on properly staffing
the newspapers in a manner that will allow more copies to be sold. The
duplication of stories in both papers and the ongoing push to dump more
and more content onto Philly.com will not solve any revenue problems.Whether Osberg wants to admit it or not, the print editions of the
Inquirer and Daily News, which he offensively labels “legacy products,”
are responsible for generating more than 90 percent of the revenue.
Osberg speaks of something called “Project Liberty,” though nobody seems
clear on exactly what that is. We believe our journalists should be
given the liberty to continue working to serve the community that
depends on us.In solidarity,
Dan Gross, President,
Bill Ross, Executive Director,
and the Executive Board of the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of
America Local 38010