Washington Post offers buyouts for 5th time in recent years (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Poynter Online ^ | February 8, 2012 | Andrew Beaujon

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This morning, news of a new buyout offer began circulating in The Washington Post newsroom. This is the paper’s fifth round of buyouts since 2004. Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton tweeted this afternoon that the buyouts would be capped at 48 people or 8 percent of the 600-person newsroom.

The Washington Post Company, which owns the Post, Slate, a community newspaper group, and an educational unit, had a dismal third quarter. Its report from that time period was filed last November (PDF). It said that newspaper revenue was down 9 percent from the same period the year before, advertising revenue shrank 20 percent, online revenue was down 14 percent, and circulation had declined (down 5.4 percent weekdays, 4.4 percent on weekends). The company’s newspaper division lost $9.9 million in the third quarter alone.

The Post Co.’s Kaplan unit saw its revenue fall by 79 percent following an unexpected government interest in the for-profit college sector.

Previous buyouts were financed by the Post’s gilded pension assets. As the company’s 2010 annual report (PDF) stated, ”unusually for an S&P 500 company, we continue to have an overfunded pension plan. We haven’t had to contribute to the plan in decades. There’s almost no chance we’ll have to contribute in the near future.”

Here’s the memo:

From: Marcus Brauchli Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Subject: Announcement to newsroom staff To: NEWS – All Newsroom

To the staff:

Today, we are announcing that we will offer a voluntary buyout to some Newsroom employees. Our objective is a limited staff reduction that won’t affect the quality, ambition or authority of our journalism. We believe this is possible, given the changes in how we work and the great successes we have had building our digital readership lately.

To preserve that momentum, we do not intend to offer this program to every department or individual in the Newsroom. The reality is that we’re able to absorb staffing changes better in some areas than in others. In those departments where we do offer the buyout, there will be caps on the number of people who can participate, in order to moderate the impact and preserve our competitiveness in core coverage areas. In addition, we may turn down some volunteers if we feel their departure would impair our journalism. That said, it is important that we achieve real savings.

The exact details of the buyout, technically a voluntary Separation Incentive Program, will come later, after the company talks to the Guild about its proposed terms. Here’s what we can tell you now: The program does not accelerate pension benefits. It will include enhanced separation payments and company-paid COBRA (health insurance) premiums for eligible fulltime employees. Post representatives will be discussing the proposed program with the Guild over the next two weeks, consistent with the terms of the labor contract. The terms they agree on also will be included in an offer to Newsroom editors in eligible departments.

This program will be available for a specified period of time only; employees will have 45 days to study this offer and decide whether to accept it or decline it. The Post will schedule the final date of employment for those who elect to resign as part of this program; for most employees this will mean a resignation date of May 31, 2012.

Any measure like this is difficult. But we believe this approach is a sensible and effective way of addressing the economic forces affecting our industry. We constantly rethink how we do certain things in order to become more efficient, agile and competitive; this will require more such thinking. The Post’s Newsroom remains formidable, and we will continue making tactical hires so that even as we get smaller, we get stronger.

We plan to distribute SIP packages to eligible employees in a few weeks. We will have two Town Hall meetings today, at 11 a.m. in the Community Room and at 4:30 p.m. in the Auditorium, to answer your questions.

Pexton tweeted some additional details about the offers. “Core journalism” departments won’t be eligible, he writes. Those include: National politics, foreign, Style and Sports columnists, Weekend staff, Sunday Outlook, graphics and Capital Business. Non-core, as of today: Photo, Style, Metro, Sports, Business (so much for “for and about Washington”?), and “everything else in newsroom.” The Investigative team is eligible for buyouts, the National Enterprise team is not, Pexton said. Op-ed and editoral are “unaffected.” And the Web staffers? “I’m still unclear on this, at this point,” Pexton writes in an email. “Still asking questions.”

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Wednesday good news...

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ping

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http://www.adweek.com/news/o-oprah-magazine/oprah-magazine-takes-big-hit-138102
Oprah Magazine Takes a Big Hit
Sales dive after talk show goes off air

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/breaking/138942619.html
Blatstein group says it wants to join PMN bidding

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/162315/spokesman-mark-block-says-he-asked-philly-com-to-remove-sale-story-from-website/
Spokesman Mark Block says he asked Philly.com to remove sale story from website

http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/magazines-newsstand-sales-fall-digital-sales-rise/232569/
Magazines’ Newsstand Slide Accelerates but Digital Circulation Shows Promise

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/480294-Westin_at_Media_Institute_ABC_Cuts_Were_Symptom_of_Deeply_Troubled_News_Industry.php
Westin at Media Institute: ABC Cuts Were Symptom of Deeply Troubled News Industry

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/magazine-newsstand-sales-suffered-sharp-falloff-in-second-half-of-2011/?ref=media
Magazine Newsstand Sales Suffered Sharp Falloff in Second Half of 2011

[The Citizen Soldier]

Just think how bad the numbers would be if the paper wasn’t forced on libraries across the nation.

[GeronL]

I always love these kinds of stories

[abb]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20120208_16_A8_OKLAHO982707
Oklahoma Senate panel kills plans to tax newspapers

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Magazines_22/Magazine-newsstand-sales-slide-again.asp
Magazine newsstand sales slide again

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/02/07/possible-2nd-bidder-for-philadelphia-newspapers-and-some-intrigue-surfaces/
Possible 2nd Bidder For Philadelphia Newspapers, And Some Intrigue, Surfaces

http://paulmcmorrow.com/2012/02/visualizing-nyt-co-paywall-math/
Visualizing NYT Co. Paywall Math

[ken5050]

Those numbers ( library circulations) and other deals, like special subscription rates on colleges, are broken out separately in the audited circulation numbers, and advertisers do not pay nearly as much for them, in the CPM rate..

[abb]

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http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/amid-buyout-speculation-washpo-in-5th.html
Amid buyout speculation, WashPo in 5th round; Gannett offers as soon as tomorrow, sources say

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/167481/magazine-circs-fell-in-second-half-of-2011.html
Magazine Circs Fell In Second Half Of 2011

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/02/08/letter-newspapers-guilty-of-age-discrimination/
Letter: Newspapers guilty of age discrimination?

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/off-mic/item/33743
Inquirer & Daily News owners embarrass themselves, and us

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/02/08/philly-newspaper-owners-embarrass-themselves/
Philadelphia newspaper owners embarrass themselves

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/02/08/notes-from-the-washington-post-newsroom-meeting/
Notes from the Washington Post newsroom meeting

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/brauchli-to-washington-post-staff-more-with-less/2012/02/08/gIQA9n16yQ_blog.html?wprss=erik-wemple
Brauchli to Washington Post staff: More with less!

http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/02/the-newsonomics-of-the-death-and-life-of-california-news/
The newsonomics of the death and life of California news

[Jack Hydrazine]

Any guesses at to how much longer it can keep its doors open?

[abb]

I think it will eventually morph into an online something-or-other, and hook up with politico, with only a Sunday paper that will be available via mail. If daily delivery is discontinued, it would be too expensive to hand-deliver.

Ink-on-paper just ain’t in the cards for the future.

[TheOldLady]

Click the Smoke       Thank you, JoeProBono

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But they grow up so fast

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[jmaroneps37]

Just read this so for me it is Thursday good news!

[hal ogen]

Washington Pest...Washington Compost. Losing money? Laying off people? Buyouts? Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!