NEW Tribune Co.owner Sam Zell yesterday struck Newsday with a vengeance, whacking 120 jobs, including 25 unionized editorial people in the newsroom and about 10 top editors, including the paper’s entire national desk.
The cost-cutting moves are at least the sixth major downsizing at the paper since it closed its New York Newsday edition in 1995.
The four-person national desk was brought into the office of Managing Editor Debbie Henley on Tuesday was told that the desk was being abolished and that they had until noon on Wednesday to a accept a “voluntary” buyout or be faced with a potential axing.
Carol Conyne, a 32-year veteran, Mark Toor a 28-year veteran, and Stacie Walker, a 15-year veteran – and all deputy national editors – decided to accept the buyout.
Not yet determined is the role of Sarah Crichton, the assistant national/foreign editor who is still covered by the union contract.
Insiders said they expect the national desk to be replaced with a new “political desk” that will cover everything out of the local town boards in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The two-person Albany bureau and the three-person Washington bureau weren’t affected by the cuts.
However, Zell has said that the current set up in Washington for all the Tribune-owned papers is “unsustainable,” so no one there is resting easy, either – even if they did escape yesterday’s axing.
National Editor Calvin Lawrence left several weeks ago for ABCnews.com, and his position was not filled.
Also believed to be among the high-level departees was Genetta Adams, an assistant managing editor, who was in charge of Part II, the paper’s feature section which had borne the brunt of a downsizing two years ago.
Adrian Peracchio, a member of the editorial board and a 30-year veteran, was also among those being shown the door.
On top of the upper-echelon editors, 25 unionized editorial workers are going out the door. That includes six special writers – generally those with five or more years of experience and salaries of more than $87,000 – and four reporters.
Newsday Publisher Tim Knight said in his memo announcing the cuts that some people were being fired on the spot yesterday, but most of those people were outside of the newsroom.
“About 120 employees are affected,” said Knight’s memo. “Some individuals will leave today, while others will stay through the end of March. These difficult actions are based on our urgent need to focus on the things that drive audience and revenue growth, while we manage through a soft advertising revenue environment that requires us to significantly reduce costs.”
There may also be some significant realignments on the business news desk that have not yet been revealed.
John Mancini, Newsday’s editor-in-chief, did not return a call for comment.
Dennis Grabhorn, president of Graphic Communications AFL-CIO Local 406, was surprised that the total cutbacks reached 120 people, since management had only told him that about 55 unionized workers were to be let go.
“This is just devastating,” said Grabhorn, who was enroute to a meeting with the workers who run the creaking presses.
He said the company is looking to offer buyouts to 23 journeymen pressmen, one machinist and five drivers as part of the voluntary reduction.
The cutbacks had been somewhat expected, but the extent of them rattled many insiders.
“I’d say people are shocked and demoralized,” said one insider. “This billionaire [Zell] comes in and says he is going to save us and then he screws us.”
He said that under Tribune, the company had already frozen its pension. The company had instead been making contributions to the 401(k), but when Zell took over the battered Tribune Co. with an Employee Stock Ownership plan, it stopped making any matching contributions to the 401(k) retirement funds.
“The whole history of this being a great national paper, this is definitely the death knell,” said one shell-shocked insider.
Workers who are mulling voluntary buyouts have until March 13 to decide. If the company doesn’t get enough volunteers, it will make mandatory cuts.
Redesign
Atlantic Monthly Editor-in-Chief James Bennet, and new Publisher Justin Smith have commissioned Michael Bierut at Pentagram to oversee a sweeping redesign of the 150-year-old magazine.
Despite its reputation, the title for most of its life has lost money – something that new owner David Bradley, who in 1999 bought the magazine from Mort Zuckerman for $10 million, would certainly like to turn around.
In mid-2005, at a time when Bradley moved the magazine’s headquarters to Washington from Boston, as a cost-cutting move. It is still believed to be losing $3 million to $5 million a year.
A redesign is a step on the road to recovery, and it may be seen as a way to excite advertisers and readers.
“The design now is elegant, but doesn’t quite capture the energy and urgency of the best writing in The Atlantic,” said Bennet. “We’re looking for ways to just let it breathe a little more, to make it more satisfying to page through.
“I don’t think the magazine has ever been design driven; it’s always been word driven. There is very little you can point to in the magazine and say this is an iconic Atlantic that has been handed down through the ages,” he said.
Bierut’s firm, which redesigned Time magazine a year ago, knows much about tinkering with icons.
When he began reviewing the magazine’s covers over the past 150 years, he said he noticed no coherent design elements.
“Its visual characteristic has ranged from being very design driven to Norman Rockwell-esque illustrations to photojournalism,” said Bierut, who added that because he has only just tackled the job he hasn’t yet shared ideas with most of the editors.
“The brief is wide open,” he said.
Though it has long lost money, The Atlantic began to be rejuvenated after Michael Kelly took over as editor. However, Kelly was killed in Iraq in April 2003. While its editorial momentum has continued, the magazine still hasn’t turned a profit.
But things could be on the upswing.
Most recently, the magazine has seemed to capture the national pulse with stories like Andrew Sullivan’s December 2007 piece, “Why Obama Matters.” It was written at a time when Barack Obama was just beginning to build momentum around his presidential quest.
Going green
The Green Guide, which National Geographic picked up a year ago when it was still a not-for-profit online newsletter, is launching as a new quarterly magazine aimed at upscale, environmentally aware consumers.
“Our goal is to make going green as easy and affordable as possible,” said Wendy Gordon, The Green Guide’s general manager and co-founder of the original enterprise known as Mothers & Others. Actress Meryl Streep is the other co-founder.
While The Green Guide Web site became free about a year ago, Gordon said she recognized that “people get their information in a variety of ways.”
To make the transition to a magazine, Gordon teamed up with Seth Bauer, a former editor of Body & Soul at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, who earlier edited Walking magazine.
The magazine has a rate-base of 100,000, and will be carried in Wal-Mart, Kmart, Costco and Whole Foods, among other out lets. The first issue hits on March 4.