Seattle Times Asks Employees: Give Up A Week's Pay

SEATTLE (AP) -- The Seattle Times on Friday asked 500 managers and nonunion workers to take a week off without pay in the face of mounting financial troubles at the newspaper.

Executive Editor David Boardman broke the news in a meeting with editors Friday morning.

Employees may take the week off all at once, one day at a time, or in multiple-day blocks, but it must be taken by the end of February, Alayne Fardella, senior vice president for business operations, wrote in a staff memo.

"I regret that we do not have better news for you at this time," Fardella wrote. "It has been and continues to be a long and difficult fight for our survival."

The Times has cut nearly 500 positions in the past year, leaving it with about 1,410 full and part-time employees. Executives have warned that more job cuts could be coming next year, and Fardella wrote in her memo that The Times would be asking for concessions from unions representing the newspaper's workers after Jan. 1.

Fardella cited the frozen credit markets and the effect of the country's economic instability on jobs and consumer spending as factors facing the news industry, which has slashed thousands of jobs in recent months. Circulation and advertising revenue have plummeted at papers around the country.

Seattle Times Co. spokeswoman Jill Mackie said she did not immediately know how much money the company expected to save from the furloughs. Nonunion positions include managers and editors, administrative and finance staff, and workers at the newspaper's Web site.

The Times, the largest newspaper in Washington state, is run by the Blethen family, which holds a 50.5 percent stake in the company. The rest is held by McClatchy Co.

Comments

[research]

Good riddance to newspaper trash.

There are NO liberal papers.

[marignymitch]

I'd really like to see corporate owners/and or managers take the cuts too.

[Trittydi]

I want to see executives of corporations start to make concessions too.
*

[JackNasty]

The Seattle Times is the city's conservative paper. Given the fact its competition, the Seattle Post-Intellignecer is a Hearst paper, you might understand how conseravtive it is. The Seattle Times was the first paper to give space to Michelle Malkin's hate filled screeds.

The paper is owned by a family long recognized for its efforts at union busting. Like all true conservatives, these people excel at being mean. One member of the family, the Times' publisher in the 1990s, was charged with shooting a neighbor's dog with a pellet gun.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19961109&slug=2358746

Those conservatives here who seems pleased with the thought of a liberal newspaper going under should take a second look. It's one of their own that's going down.

[SeattleTony]

Jack, you are "Nasty," and ignorant. The Times endorsed John Kerry in 1004 and Obama this year. Yeah, that's right-wing. Union-busting? The paper has 12 or 13 of 'em.

[BigHeadTodd]

Newspaper fix: Get rid of the lawyers and accountants who are running corporate media and have journalists with a nose for compelling news return as publishers of independently owned papers.

[Indie2008]

Interesting that newspapers are cutting salaries, while their media cousins in network broadcasting are signing multi-million dollar deals.

[poster1122]

I'm assuming that it's because people don't consume their news through the paper media as much anymore.

It's funny. People are consuming news and information, but not through print media. The internet and 24 hour news channels are killing the newspapers. And sites like craigslist are just killing the classified ad revenue.

[Ray46]

"Asks Employees: Give Up A Week's Pay"

Who is not being coerced by the "or you'll be fired" or "we'll go under" silent message.
One the worked for fired them a few months later after they went along with the extortion.

[Gasparilla]

It would be a bad thing if print newspapers ever go away. You can be sure web sites are not going to do the local and international reporting that many of the print papers do. And very few people are going to click their way through a web site to read a paper like a print paper. What you will end up with is people reading what they want from the site that fits their particular ideology. Of course, the excuse is papers are too expensive. Not really, when you can get delivery for less than a dollar a day. Most people don't mind spending two bucks for a bottle of water or theee for a cup of coffee.

[zizyphus]

Good points!

[calgary]

Great points. People think blogs and websites will replace local newspaper but they will not. At a dollar a day, newspaper is the best deal going. I bet people use more than a dollar of electricity on their PCs surfing the net. May be I'm old school but I still like reading the news on paper and not on my 24 inch LCD screen.

[11907281]

Tell me you weren't a fan of the Western Standard? The paper saved by the downfall of print will be more than worth it. Like horse breeders who resisted the evolution to trains, like the train engineers who resisted the evolution to automobiles, like the typewritter manufacturer who resisted the evolution to computers ... you can't stop evolution. Think of all the stories that broke because of blogs that don't answer to editors and owners who have a political agenda. I welcome the evolution of information dissemination because we will have access to more sources and opinion instead of having one paper tell you what's important in the world.

[majorteddy]

I suppose they want the readers to give up a day's paper one day a week. No news Tuesdays. Hold all the news until Wednesday. This crap is getting old.

[ChaiKat]

Great, I wonder if those people who are asked to take the time off can get their landlords or mortgage companies to give them a month free ride. After all, they can't pay their rent, or their other bills. What if some of those people live paycheck to paycheck? Asking them to forgo a weeks pay could mean the difference in paying your bills and eating.

[1sparrow]

a union man shows up for work every day. the management has to tell him there is no work today.

[VikingQuest]

"The Seattle Times on Friday asked 500 managers and nonunion workers to take a week off without pay in the face of mounting financial troubles at the newspaper."

May I ask why they would only ask nonunion workers to go without?

[shirleyfeeney]

so it's the employees fault that revenue is down?

cant contain my laughter.

[gettysburg]

This is becoming, and will become, a normal thing. People are going to be asked to take a month off. Enjoy this time folks, because very soon, as soon as the middle class collapses, this is going to look like paradise.

[AnalyzeIT]

I have faith that you are wrong in that assumption.

Just "faith" mind you, because if what you assume comes true; along with it come more crime and violence. Much more, that would make these current days a paradise indeed.

[honeydiva]

no one is bailing them out. most are corporate rags caring more about the bottom line than the people they should serve. hopefully the next to be taken down are the cable "news" stars. overpaid teleprompter readers and their producers, whose only purpose in this society is to dumb down people further.