L.A. Times Trims 62 From Newsroom
Tribune Co., publishers of 14 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel, has embarked on cost-cutting initiative that has led to “wrenching” decisions at the Los Angeles Times, in the words of one staffer, after not enough people took the paper’s voluntary buyout.
In all, 42 people accepted the buyout offer — including African Americans Geraldine Wilkins, a photographer, and Carolyn Scott, a Calendar section staffer — but 20 more were involuntarily laid off. In that latter group was said to be part-timer Karima Haynes, a reporter in the San Fernando Valley bureau, and some said those cut were mainly support staff.
“The cuts didn’t disproportionately hurt people of color,” one newsroom veteran told Journal-isms. “However, blacks are few and far between” in the newsroom, so every loss is compounded. Wilkins, for example, is the only African American shooting photographer at the paper, not counting photo editors. The paper reported 19.6 percent people of color in the American Society of Newspaper Editors latest diversity census.
Some departing bylines have become public. LA Observed, for example, reported that “David Lamb, the dean of Los Angeles Times correspondents (now a Washington-based national correspondent), leads the list of veterans who have chosen to go in the current buyout wave.”
“Each property is achieving the cost-saving initiative in their own fashion,” Tribune Co. spokesman Gary Weitman told Journal-isms. “Some of the properties are not having to make staff reductions.” Across Tribune Publishing, the staff reductions would affect a little more than 1 percent of its 20,000 employees, he said.
At the Baltimore Sun, publisher Denise E. Palmer announced June 7 that the newspaper would reduce its staff through a voluntary buyout plan, offering selected employees as much as one year’s salary if they agreed to retire early, the Sun reported. It said the paper hoped to induce at least 18 union workers and a smaller number of nonunion employees to leave their jobs.
The Newspaper Guild objected because the plan required employees to accept the offer by June 25, a condition that union leaders said would violate federal labor regulations granting employees 45 days to make such a decision. “The disagreement had raised the specter of layoffs in The Sun’s newsroom for the first time in modern memory,” the Sun wrote, but eventually an agreement was reached.
At the L.A. Times, publisher John Puerner wrote employees Tuesday: “Two weeks ago, we began implementing a series of cost reductions to offset the loss of advertising revenue that Tribune reported on June 7. Because we also face a full year of recent newsprint price increases and rising benefit expenses in 2005, we had to move quickly to cut costs and improve our overall financial position.
“We focused first on non-salary expenses and voluntary staff reductions. Yet, despite our best efforts, we could not avoid the involuntary staff reductions that were completed yesterday.”
“By and large, it was overpowering,” said one staffer of the decision’s effect on the paper. The company would not release a list of who was leaving, and newsroom staffers said even they didn’t know who was gone.
“The only way I know if someone has been hired is to see their byline suddenly appear, and likewise, if someone is gone, to see from clips that nothing has been written for an extended time,” said one.
Wilkins, the photographer, told Journal-isms that she planned to serve her church, Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, as a missionary, and to work with its missionary magazine.
Scott, who worked in Calendar, said she had already completed book proposals and wanted to “expand my reach past entertainment” with her writing. She said she had planned to go to Egypt next month anyway, but on vacation. “I’ve been daydreaming about it,” she said. Now, she projected, “I intend to see how far I can get in the Middle East.”
At the end of 2003, the L.A. Times had 3,420 employees, including 1,110 editorial personnel, according to the Hartford Courant.
Meanwhile, in the Orlando Sentinel, another Tribune property, Kathleen Parker took stock of recent events and wrote :
“It is a depressing time for lovers of newspapers and the old world of print journalism. It is also hard not to wonder whether, in seeking explanations and solutions, we’re suffering from self-delusion and denial.”
Detroit Pistons Apologize Over Parade T-Shirt
“A Pistons spokesman apologized Monday night for a flap last week over the Free Press’ T-shirts commemorating the team’s NBA championship,” the Detroit Free Press reports.
“The spokesman, Matt Dobek, said no one representing the Pistons or the NBA tried to block the sales of the T-shirts during the downtown parade last Thursday. However, people identifying themselves as agents for the Pistons and the NBA confiscated the shirts that some teenagers were trying to sell and threatened police action.
“Dobek also said that he misspoke last week when he told the paper that it could not reproduce its front page unless it doctored a picture of Chauncey Billups to remove the NBA logo on his uniform.”
Senate Votes to Repeal Media Consolidation Rules
“The Senate voted on Tuesday to repeal rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission that make it easier for the nation’s largest media conglomerates to expand and enter new markets,” Stephen Labaton reports in the New York Times.
“The rules, approved last June by a divided F.C.C., largely removed previous ownership restrictions on media companies. They struck down the rule that in most markets had prevented one company from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. In the largest markets, the new rules also enabled a company to own as many as three television stations, eight radio stations and a cable operator. And they allowed the largest television networks to buy more affiliated stations, although Congress later rolled back that provision.”
Cable Appeals to Black, Latino Professionals
Thirty-five percent of black cable viewers are more likely to be professionals, and of that group, 29 percent earn more than $75,000 a year, according to “Upfront ’04/05: A Multicultural Marketing Guide,” a new publication from the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau.
“Additionally, Hispanic cable viewers are 65 percent more likely to be a business professional than non-cable viewers. Women 18-49 are watching 186 percent more primetime programming on Hispanic cable networks, while men 18-49 watch 73 percent more programming on Hispanic cable,” Megan Larson writes in Media Week, reporting on the guide.
2 Latino Papers Seize on Hoy Circulation Snafu
“The owner of El Diario La Prensa and La Opinion is demanding that Hoy remove all references to the Audit Bureau of Circulations numbers that are currently published on the front page of the newspaper. ImpreMedia Chairman and CEO Douglas Knight sent a letter to ABC making the request,” Jennifer Saba writes in Editor and Publisher.
“Last week, the Tribune Co. announced that along with Newsday of Melville, N.Y., Hoy had puffed up its circ figures by as much as 12% for daily circ and 16% for Sunday circ for the period ending September 2003.”
Nader Tells Tavis Smiley He Was Dissed
“In an interview this morning with NPR’s Tavis Smiley, Presidential hopeful Ralph Nader for the first time publicly discussed a meeting he had yesterday with members of the Congressional Black Caucus,” reads a news release from National Public Radio.
“Nader said of yesterday’s meeting, ‘it was a rather contentious meeting. I think it was a meeting that did not focus on any issues. It was basically a meeting that said, “Look, this country belongs to two parties. The Democrats are the hope of the country. Step aside.”‘
“Continued Nader, ‘I must say that some of them used very abusive language. I mean, Congressman Watts of North Carolina used such abusive language that I could hardly believe he was saying what he was saying,” he said in a reference to Rep. Mel Watt. “And others were polite. But basically I entered that room under false pretenses from the other side. They said that that was not going to be the main reason for the meeting and it turned out to be the main reason of the meeting. . . . It was really astonishing to see representatives of a constituency of Americans who’ve been excluded, who’ve been disrespected, who’ve been told to get out of so many things in American life, to turn around and say that — to Nader-Camejo, who have an incredible consistent record for 30, 40 years of fighting for the dispossessed and the discriminated and the poor and the downtrodden to get out.'”
For a complete transcript of the interview, contact Jenny Lawhorn, (202) 513-2754, jlawhorn@npr.org
Tavis Smiley is doing it right (E.R. Shipp, New York Daily News)
Smiley approaches TV, radio differently (Clea Simon, Boston Globe)
Eric Deggans Leaving TV Beat for Edit Board
Eric Deggans, one of the few African American television critics at a daily, leaves that beat in September to join the editorial board of his paper, Florida’s St. Petersburg Times.
Deggans is also president of the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists.
His departure from the television beat leaves a vacancy in that slot.
Other African American television critics include Ken Parish Perkins of Texas’ Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Kevin D. Thompson at Florida’s Palm Beach Post and Suzanne C. Ryan of the Boston Globe.
AAJA Gets 10 Applicants for Every J-Camp Slot
A record 461 people applied for the 42 slots in the Asian American Journalists Association’s boot camp, the association says.
The event takes place at George Washington University in Washington from July 30 to Aug. 4
“Forty-two accomplished students from across the country will participate in this six-day program that includes inspiring speakers, informative workshops, with visits to ‘Meet the Press,’ ‘Crossfire,’ and The Washington Post. This group of multicultural students will get the opportunity to work together in a unique learning environment while improving their journalism skills,” reads a notice on the AAJA Web site.
Lila Chwee, AAJA’s student programs coordinator, told Journal-isms that the program received 99 applications in its first year, 2001, which rose to 177 in 2002, 194 in 2003, and 461 this year.
Lester Holt to Co-Host Olympics Coverage
Lester Holt will share hosting duties with Pat O’Brien during MSNBC’s coverage of the Olympics, NBC announces.
“An unprecedented 99 NBC Olympic commentators — including 52 newcomers — will travel to Athens to broadcast 1,210 hours of programming on seven platforms during NBC’s groundbreaking 24-hour-a-day coverage from the 2004 Summer Olympics, Aug. 13-29,” the announcement says.
Greg Gumbel, Jim Nantz to Exchange Jobs
“In sports television, it was a big trade, like the Rocky Colavito–Harvey Kuenn swap or the Donald Regan–James Baker shuffle in the Reagan administration,” writes Richard Sandomir in the New York Times.
“CBS Sports announced yesterday that Jim Nantz, host of the ‘N.F.L. Today’ studio program, will exchange jobs with Greg Gumbel, the No. 1 play-by-play announcer.
“Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports, insisted that the switch did not reflect dissatisfaction with either announcer’s performance, and he did not offer firm proof to back his belief that the division will be improved by the changeover, or that Nantz and Gumbel will be energized.
“Part of McManus’s rationale for the makeover was that each man has proved himself the past six years, and that he wanted Nantz, once the heir apparent at CBS to Pat Summerall, to call Super Bowls. Gumbel has called two. For their part, Gumbel and Nantz accepted their new postings. Gumbel described a little reluctance, but attributed it to being taken out of his comfort level.”
3 from NABJ to Report from Senegal
“Three NABJ members ?- a newspaper general assignment/enterprise reporter, a television education reporter and a radio network intern ?- are headed to Africa for a unique international reporting opportunity, NABJ and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today,” according to a release from the National Association of Black Journalists.
“These members will head to Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa, to cover the Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit set for June 27-30.
The three are: Aime McLain, 19, of New Orleans, a senior broadcast journalism major at Howard University and a Washington desk intern at National Public Radio; Adrienne Samuels, 26, a general assignment/enterprise reporter at the St. Petersburg Times; and Brent Solomon, 22, an education reporter at WJCL-TV and WTGS-TV in Savannah, Ga.
One Week Left to Nominate a J-Educator
One week remains to nominate someone for the National Conference of Editorial Writers’ annual Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship — actually an award — “in recognition of an educator’s outstanding efforts to encourage minority students in the field of journalism.” The educator should be at the college or university level.
Since 2000, an honorarium of $1,000 has been awarded the recipient, to be used to “further work in progress or begin a new project.”
Past winners include James Hawkins of Florida A&M University (1990); Larry Kaggwa of Howard University (1992); Ben Holman of the University of Maryland (1996); Linda Jones, Roosevelt University, Chicago (1998); Ramon Chavez, University of Colorado, Boulder (1999); Erna Smith of San Francisco State (2000), Joseph Selden of Penn State (2001), Cheryl Smith, Paul Quinn College (2002) and Rose Richard, Marquette University (2003).
The nomination consists of a statement about why you believe your nominee is deserving. Deadline: June 30.
The final selection will be made by the NCEW Foundation board and will be announced in time for this year’s NCEW convention in Chicago, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, when the presentation will be made.
Nominations should be e-mailed to Vanessa Gallman, editorial page editor, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, vgallman@herald-leader.com, or faxed to her at (859) 255-7236.
Ill. TV Reporter, a Reagan Fan, Blasts Dissenter
Think of this story the next time someone talks about the “liberal media”:
According to Michael Miner in the Chicago Reader, Rick Garcia, political director of the gay rights group Equality Illinois, wrote this in a memory book for Ronald Reagan in the Illinois state capitol:
“My memory of President Ronald Reagan: Thousands of American men, women and children were dying from HIV and AIDS during his administration. The president did nothing. The president said nothing. Not until the very end of his second term was he even able to utter the word ‘AIDS.’ Reagan’s silence and his administration’s policies contributed to the suffering and dying of thousands of men, women and children.”
Julie Staley, a reporter for WICS TV in Springfield, and Curt Claycomb, her cameraman were nearby. Staley saw what Garcia had written.
“Garcia says, ‘She pointed at me and said, “There he is!”‘
“Staley says, ‘I said, “You’re entitled to your freedom of speech, but this is an inappropriate place to do that.”‘
“Garcia e-mailed me his version of their confrontation,” Miner writes.
“‘She walked toward me and screeched “That is just tasteless and classless.” She repeated “You are tasteless!” I told her “Speaking the truth is not classless.” The cop said “Why don’t you show some respect.” “Why didn’t President Reagan show some respect?” I replied and walked away. As I walked away the reporter shouted at me “You are classless, totally tasteless. You are a big loser.” She repeated that a couple of times.’
“‘I don’t deny that I said that,’ says Staley.
“WICS news director Susan Finzen says, ‘She had a right to express her opinion. Why does he consider it all right for him to express his opinion but not her?’
“Staley responds, ‘At that moment I was not representing the station. I was there as a private citizen. My company’s backing me up on this. We’re all stunned it’s even an issue.'”
