Posted on 06/25/2008 10:18:57 AM PDT by abb
Palm Beach Newspapers Inc. said today it will cut 300 workers from its payroll of 1,350.
"A prolonged slump in our advertising revenues, increased competition from the Internet and an overall difficult economic environment have combined to make this type of cost reduction necessary," Palm Beach Post Publisher Doug Franklin said.
Palm Beach Newspapers Inc., which owns The Palm Beach Post, the Palm Beach Daily News, the Florida Pennysaver and La Palma, hopes to make the cuts through voluntary buyouts offered to all employees who have worked for the company for more than five years, Franklin said.
PBNI is just the latest newspaper publisher to cut staff as readers and advertisers move to the internet. The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and St. Petersburg Times also have eliminated workers through buyouts and layoffs.
"We are the last major Florida newspaper to implement staff reductions," Franklin said.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2008/06/the_palm_palm_beach_post_memo.php
Palm Beach Post To Cut 300 Jobs
Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 11:40:04 AM
It’s been a long time coming, but Palm Beach Post publisher Doug Franklin handed down the bad news today (thanks to Pulp readers for posting it). Bottom line:
— 300 jobs will be cut company-wide.
— 130 newsroom jobs will be cut.
— Buyouts are being offered to employees with at least five years vested in the pension plan.
This is worse than expected (100 newsroom jobs had been floated here a couple of times). It’s gut-wrenching. Here’s the memo:
June 25, 2008
To: All Employees of Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Re: Reduction in Workforce Plans
I am writing today to advise you of the changes that will begin taking place throughout our company this week.
Our plan is to reduce our workforce of 1,350 by more than 300 full-time equivalent positions across The Palm Beach Post, Florida Pennysaver, and La Palma. The Palm Beach Daily News will not be affected. The reductions will impact most departments throughout the company, as well as most levels in the organization. Roughly 130 of these reductions will come from The Post’s newsroom; with more than 60 each in Advertising and Production, and more than 40 in Circulation. Roughly 80 positions throughout the company are already vacant through attrition, and many of these open positions will be eliminated to help us achieve the needed staff reduction.
The first phase of this workforce reduction will be a voluntary separation plan offered to most employees with a minimum of five years of pension vesting service. The voluntary offers may be limited in certain departments based on business needs. After we see the number of volunteers, we may limit departures in some departments to avoid disrupting essential services. We hope the voluntary phase of our plan will account for most of the necessary reductions. After the voluntary effort, we will move to involuntary staffing reductions in August to reach the appropriate staffing levels.
We have said often in recent weeks that we need to become a smaller company. This is a time of great change, challenge and uncertainty in our business; and the steps we are about to take are indeed difficult and painful to make. But they are necessary changes if we are to remain a strong and profitable company. A prolonged slump in our advertising revenues, increased competition from the internet, and an overall difficult economic environment have combined to make this type of cost reduction necessary. This is indeed an economic ‘perfect storm.’
Since April 1, we have been working on plans to make our company more efficient and more nimble. You’ve no doubt seen the many changes and consolidations that have been taking place throughout the newspaper to conserve increasingly costly newsprint. In addition, we’ll soon merge the Classified Call Centers, Ad Make-up and Ad Art departments of The Palm Beach Post and Florida Pennysaver. We’re also looking at opportunities to close or consolidate some of our buildings in the market, evaluating new partnerships for both printing and distributing of some of our products, and exploring ways to generate more profitable revenue through advertising pricing discipline and innovation. In addition, for all employees of PBNI, we will be evaluating the possibility of foregoing salary increases in 2009. These are but a few of the steps we’ll take to accelerate our transition back to profitability in 2009.
I recognize that this memo represents the “bad news” many of you have been expecting for some time, and I am sorry that we have been unable to share the specifics of the plan before today. We have all worked diligently over these past two years to offset our revenue losses by reducing payroll and operating expenses where we could, but this has simply not proven to be enough. We are among the last metro newspaper companies in Florida to announce staff reductions. We now face the reality of saying “good-byes” to many of our loyal friends and colleagues who have served PBNI so well.
We should take this opportunity to salute our past, and recognize the many successes that we’ve shared in recent years as a result of the hard work and dedication of so many people here. We’ve been blessed with fabulous resources and great latitude to do our work-probably more than we should have expected for a newspaper of our size. We took those resources and produced a great slate of products with them-and this is something that we can be proud of forever. None of this would have been possible without many talented people working together to create the greatness we achieved.
We are, and will remain, the #1 multi-media option for our advertising customers, readers, and website visitors in our market. Despite our current revenue challenges, I am quite certain that when we come through this difficult period, we will be better poised to take advantage of the rebound this marketplace is sure to enjoy. We continue to live and work in a growth market with a great up-side. Our websites are experiencing record page view growth. Despite the declines in print circulation in recent years, our total audience in print and online is stable and growing. We’re investing in niche products, and will continue to explore new ways to capture new audiences.
For those employees eligible for the Voluntary Separation Program, your department head will have a schedule of when and where the individual information packets will be distributed. This will be available to you today. I ask for your cooperation as we move through this process as swiftly as possible. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me or Linda Murphy in Human Resources.
I thank you for your patience over these past few months, and look forward to better days ahead. To those who will be leaving us, we remain committed to going about this difficult process in a caring and compassionate way.
Doug Franklin
Publisher
The Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach Daily News
Florida Pennysaver
La Palma
How unfortunate. One of two things will happen first...either the MSM will realize its choice to support a socialist, liberal America will be reversed, or they will just go out of business because most Americans who can read, and think, don’t want anything to do with socialism and anti-Americanism.
http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/dontquoteme/archive/2008/06/25/is-the-globe-in-play.aspx
Is the (Boston) Globe in play?
That, according to two Globe employees, was one big question raised at the Monday “town meeting” at the paper’s Morrissey Boulevard headquarters.
When a possible sale of the Globe by the NYT Co. came up, one employee says, Arthur Sulzberger replied: “As you can imagine, we can’t get into that whole thing.... We can’t go down that road. That’s why CEOs go to jail.... We do face a raft of challenging issues. That’s the hand we were dealt.” The focus, Sulzberger added, should be on “fixing the Globe and making the Globe the paper it should be...to get the Globe moving on a trajectory that offers growth and stability.” Talking about a possible sale is “muddying the waters,” he concluded.
Janet Robinson’s answer was shorter. “Our focus has to be strengthening our business,” she reportedly said. “We must do so in a way that’s right for the Globe.”
By way of comparison, contrast these non-denials to Robinson’s November 2006 response to the Jack Welch/Jack Connors/Joe O’Donnell group.
Published Jun 25 2008, 12:12 PM by Adam Reilly
ping
It is unfortunate. We need a free and unfettered press; the unfortunate problem is that we don’t have one at present. Whether the internet will actually become that free press is still a question.
Oh Happy Day !
It is unfortunate. We need a free and unfettered press; the unfortunate problem is that we don’t have one at present. Whether the internet will actually become that free press is still a question.
::::::
I have always thought there is a HUGE market for an UNBIASED national newspaper. One that would present both sides of the political spectrum....and we know which side would prevail. The socialists would simply be exposed, and pro-America, pro-Constituion, conservative patriotism would trump them. Not sure why anyone has not tried this yet.
In my opinion, it already has.
One of these geniuses is going to figure out that instead of cutting staff and coverage it would make more sense to close the doors on Saturday. That’s their low day and there is no reason to have to print 7 days a week. I bet a lot of money in salary and print cost would be saved that way. Probably a lot more saved than they would get in revenue from ads and circ.
The Inet does indeed serve as the ultimate news network. Although many people continue to conflate news with the distinctive journalistic styling of branded mass media product.
Rush’s fault
http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13434
Date/Time: 6/25/2008 1:56:00 PM
Title: AJ-C memo reassures staffers
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
Memo to Atlanta Journal-Constitution employees
Folks,
You may have heard today that one of our sister papers in Cox, The Palm Beach Post, announced a voluntary separation program that will reduce its workforce significantly. Because a move like this is sure to raise questions here, I wanted to communicate directly to you and to pass along a note that Sandy Schwartz, president of Cox Newspapers, sent to all Cox publishers today.
First, let me say this: All Cox newspapers are carefully assessing their own markets and business models and will be taking the actions necessary to remain financially sound. We have been doing this work for the past two years and will continue. As we have said, we have three primary objectives this year:
Stabilize our print business
Grow our digital business
Reduce costs overall
Work on all three of these fronts is progressing. Our AJC 2.0 efforts are in final prototyping stages. Our digital traffic continues to climb, and this week, we begin overarching digital strategy work. We have made significant cost reductions, but as I said in a recent General Management Meeting, we have more to do this year.
The economic factors affecting our business have worsened. The recession, the housing market downturn, as well as soaring newsprint and fuel costs have increased the urgency to reduce expenses. We will do so aggressively and in ways that make most sense for our market, our readers and our advertisers.
Let me also assure you that we will continue to innovate, inform and engage — and we will remain the leading source of news and information for metro Atlanta.
I have tremendous confidence in the future of the AJC, and I appreciate your contributions to the success of our company.
John
A message from Sandy Schwartz, president, Cox Newspapers, Inc.
As we all know, the newspaper industry is under significant financial pressure. This has been largely brought on by the movement of advertising from print to online. However, additional pressure has been placed on the newspaper industry by the economy, escalating newsprint prices, circulation declines and soaring fuel prices.
We are and will remain the leading multi-media option for the customers, readers and advertisers in our markets. While we run our newspapers extremely efficiently, Cox Newspapers isn’t immune to financial distress. We will continue to responsibly manage our newspapers and to accelerate our digital strategy in order to transform our operations, both in print and online.
Today an announcement of a voluntary separation program was made at The Palm Beach Post. Employees were offered a generous severance package. This is the first phase of a plan to reduce workforce and will be followed by involuntary staffing reductions in August.
Please know that the decision to eliminate employee positions was difficult but necessary. We appreciate the contributions these employees have made, and continue to make, to the company. And, consistent with the values of our company, we will treat our employees with fairness, dignity and respect throughout this process.
We have no expectations newspapers will return to the highly profitable days of the past; we do believe, however, we can publish newspapers that continue to make us proud and produce positive earnings.
I encourage you to share my message with your staff. Thanks to you and your team for all of your hard work.
The Summertime blues continue for the worthless mediots.
The Post is just a full blown liberal rag anyway.
Today (Thursday) Rush announced with great enthusiasm that there were severe problems in Liberal land. So bad in fact that Barack Obama was being forced to cut his campaign staff. The cuts were coming in offices all across the country, but most severely hit was the Staff of the Palm Beach paper.
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