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1.	Poynter's Times Publishing Co. sells Governing 5:15 PM Nov. 20, 2009
2.	Recommendation for Fewer PAP Screens Sure to Set Off Controversy 10:32 AM Nov. 20, 2009
3.	Gene Patterson to Jack Nelson: Save Us a Desk Up There in That Celestial Newsroom 7:03 AM Nov. 20, 2009
4.	Public TV, Radio Stations to Increase Local Investigative Coverage 6:19 AM Nov. 20, 2009
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Chicago Tribune memo re foreign reporting

3/25/2009 5:50:29 AM

Chicago Tribune editor's memo

From: Kern, Gerould W.
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 4:11 PM
Subject: Los Angeles Times & Chicago Tribune unify foreign operations

Colleagues:

The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times are unifying their foreign reporting operations into a single organization to serve all Tribune newspapers.

The joint operation will be run from Los Angeles, where most of the foreign reporting and editing staff is based. The Chicago Tribune will work with the Times on a daily basis to shape coverage priorities. This new approach was developed by Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton and me over the past few weeks and represents a more strategic, company-wide use of our expertise and resources.

The arrangement is similar to the Washington bureau, which was organized into one operation last November to provide superior coverage to the entire group. As you know, Kerry Luft recently was named Vice President/Washington Bureau and is blending the talents of journalists from the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune into a powerful new national reporting team.

The foreign operation will consist of correspondents placed strategically around the globe, including some from the Chicago Tribune. Other Chicago Tribune correspondents have been offered positions here in Chicago. The foreign operation and its deployment will be evaluated continually and revised if necessary to reflect changing needs.
In the future, the Chicago Tribune will engage in special project reporting that will take our reporters to foreign destinations. These projects will connect our readers with the world at large and explore subjects of special relevance to Chicago.

Since February, the Chicago Tribune has provided several other Tribune newspapers with a daily package of world and national news from Tribune Company and other sources. We will continue to provide this service, and the new foreign report will be part of the mix.

The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune have rich traditions in foreign reporting reaching back more than a century. We are proud of the extraordinary record of Chicago Tribune foreign correspondents, who have pursued the defining stories of our era amid danger and personal hardship. We also are proud of the accomplishments of our Los Angeles Times colleagues, who for decades have chronicled wars and political and social change around the world with great distinction. This new association will uphold that legacy.

Our chief mission is to provide the most comprehensive and relevant news report about the Chicago region, in print and online. At a time when there is more competition than ever for local audiences, we must bring people news and information that is unique and valuable. The new foreign operation will help us use our resources more effectively to succeed in the future.

Gerry

WP memo regarding corrrections

3/23/2009 11:48:56 AM

FROM Robert McCartney/news/TWP
03/22/2009 10:43 AM

TO [Multiple recipients]
Subject
Corrections procedures

Metro Staff,

As you know from my email to the staff Friday and today's Ombudsman's column, we are reviewing our procedures for handling corrections requests. We will let you know more about this in coming weeks, but I want to remind everybody right away of some policies that need to be followed.

First, as the The Post's Stylebook on Corrections policy says, "Persons who call errors to our attention should receive a polite and prompt response." Everybody who requests a correction MUST receive a response in some form.

Second, if a request is made for a correction, then BOTH the reporter or editor who made the alleged mistake, AND his or her supervising editor need to be informed. This actually goes beyond what the Stylebook says. It says that every staff member who receives a request for a correction must raise it with her or his editor. We want to expand that rule so it works the other way as well. When an editor receives a request for a correction about a subordinate's work, the subordinate needs to be informed, too.

Finally, I want to reaffirm the Stylebook's prescription that we need to be proactive about correcting our mistakes, and to be fully forthright and transparent about doing so. The Stylebook says, "We have an affirmative obligation to make corrections, not just to avoid repeating them. Confessing error enhances our credibility with readers, and humbles us appropriately."

As the Ombudsman's column indicated, Metro's large backlog of open corrections requests in the database was due primarily to the fact that editors neglected in many cases to take the administrative step of "closing" the requests in the system after judging that a correction was not needed. However, some of the pending requests do require correction, and we will be running corrections in coming weeks of errors of fact in stories published as far back as 2006 or earlier.

Accuracy is the most important thing in journalism. Our top two priorities are accuracy and fairness, and accuracy comes first. I heard once that a Columbia Journalism School professor liked to say, "The three most important things in a newspaper story are accuracy, accuracy and accuracy." A proactive, forthright, transparent, humble and candid approach to corrections is essential, essential, to ensuring accuracy.

Best regards,
Bob

Below are two excerpts from The Post's Stylebook about corrections. This is on The Source. Please reread it, to remind yourselves of our policies.

"The Washington Post is committed to correcting all errors that appear in the newspaper, just as we are committed to the kind of careful journalism that will minimize the number of errors we print. Preventing and correcting mistakes are two sides of the coin of our realm: accuracy. Accuracy is our goal, and candor is our defense.

"In pursuit of accuracy, we must be open to admissions of error. Persons who call errors to our attention should receive a polite and prompt response. Every member of the staff must bring questions raised about the accuracy of their work to the attention of the appropriate editors, rather than deciding unilaterally that a reader�s or source�s complaint is unfounded.

"We have an affirmative obligation to make corrections, not just to avoid repeating them. Confessing error enhances our credibility with readers, and humbles us appropriately.

. . . . .
"Occasionally, a mistake will be so fundamental that it undermines the entire original story. In such cases, editors may decide that a new story should be written.

"We do not assign internal blame for a mistake, such as distinguishing between reporting and editing errors. Ours is a collective enterprise; we share responsibility for our successes, and for our errors. However, corrections that result from our receipt of incorrect information from outside sources can explain that fact to readers."

Freedom to outsource finance and accounting work

3/18/2009 6:29:51 PM

Memo to Freedom Communications employees

NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Freedom to outsource specific finance and accounting functions

To All Associates:

I wanted to make you aware of a project that Freedom is currently embarking on that you will be hearing more about in the near future. As a company, Freedom has made the decision to outsource some of our finance and accounting functions. With outsourcing, we can create a variable cost structure that will adapt to changes in business activity, and allows us to reduce capital spending.

It provides us with an opportunity to make improvements in how we do business by helping Freedom to drive business process improvement and standardization, which will maximize efficiency and improve profitability. It will further enable our Finance/Accounting organization to focus on higher-level support of our core business and being a local service provider for our organization.

Freedom has chosen to partner with Infosys, a leader in outsourcing who also has experience supporting the newspaper industry. This project is in its very early stages at this point, but will be moving forward quickly.

One of the next steps will be a detailed review of processes to determine which transactions are capable of being outsourced, with our launch currently scheduled to begin April 13.

What this will mean for us here locally is not defined yet. Our Finance associates here locally reviewed a detailed presentation of the project in a meeting yesterday. Our next step will be to do a process review, and once this is done, Freedom will be able to then define what tasks can be served in an outsourced model. We will also be able to determine what our Finance organization will look like and how roles will be redesigned once this transition is completed. We hope to have this information prior to the first rollout on April 13 and know at that time which associates will be retained and which associates will transition out at the conclusion of the local transition.

In the meantime, please be supportive of our Finance associates as they work through this process. Their contributions in the interim are critical, and some work may need to shift during this transition so they can focus on the tasks needed to complete this work. You may also be asked for information, so please be responsive to their requests as well.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have about this initiative. We will be holding meetings to explain this transition in the weeks to come, and providing updates as we move through the process.

-Terry

Berkeley j-school dean candidates named

3/18/2009 12:08:13 PM

UC Berkeley j-school dean search announcement

March 17, 2009

To the Journalism School Community:

The Search Committee is delighted to announce that three candidates for the position of Dean of the School of Journalism will be coming to campus in April. One additional person may yet be scheduled, but for now we have three very talented individuals headed our way.

On Thursday, April 2, Barbara Cochran, President of the Radio and Television News Directors Association and Foundation, formerly a Vice President at CBS News will be here.

On Monday, April 6, Phil Bennett, former Managing Editor and currently Senior Adviser, Media Projects, The Washington Post Company, will be here.

On Thursday, April 9, Lincoln Caplan, former writer for The New Yorker, currently a Fellow at the Whitney Center at Yale and co-director of SeaChange a not-for-profit venture-philanthropy fund, will be here.

The resume of each candidate will be made available on the Journalism School Intranet.

The candidates will meet with faculty, students, alumni and staff at the Journalism School, as well as with the Search Committee, the Chancellor and others in California Hall. Given the importance of the choice that we will be making, we hope for as much feedback as possible from people representing all segments of the Journalism School community.

Each of the candidates will also make a public presentation in which he or she will discus a vision for the School and why he or she is the person to lead it. At this point we think that the presentations will all take place at 4p.m., but a more public announcement will be made once we are sure.

Rob Gunnison of the Journalism School will be working on setting up appointments there. You will hear more soon. For now, we look forward to the chance to meet these three candidates. If and when a fourth visit is scheduled, I will let you know immediately.

Robert C. Berring,
Search Committee Chair
Associate Dean and Professor of Law

NOW has good news and bad news

3/16/2009 1:06:40 PM

From: NOW Update
Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Subject: A Special Message: The Future of NOW

A Special Message for You from John Siceloff, Executive Producer, NOW on PBS

Good news and bad news.

This moment, this time, is an inflection point in American history -- at least it seems that way from my perch as executive producer of NOW. In the last year we've witnessed an extraordinary election and now an extraordinary recession. We want to continue our reporting on these and other urgent issues for America and the world, and for that we need your help.

But first the good news. We were just notified that NOW on PBS won the top award for political journalism on television, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, given by the Annenberg Center at USC. We tied with "This Week with George Stephanopoulos", and beat every other news show on every network and every cable channel.

And that's not all. The polling company Erdos and Morgan found that opinion leaders consider NOW on PBS to be the "most credible" weekly television news show on television. Again, we beat every other weekly show on network and cable.

These awards honor our tough investigative reporting. Our production teams go on location and follow the facts where they lead us. Since NOW's launch we've reported in all 50 states and 17 countries. Tom Brokaw sums it up: NOW is "fearless about challenging conventional wisdom."

Now for the bad news. We're a million dollars short for 2009. PBS has maintained its generous support, but many of the philanthropies who support NOW have had to make severe cuts in their grants to the show, due to plummeting endowments.

Every member of the staff, including me, will take an unpaid eight-week furlough this year. In that way, we avoid losing our most important resource: our journalists. No one will be laid off.

But we still face a shortfall in the resources we need for robust reporting and investigating. For our ground-breaking piece about the causes of the financial meltdown, "Credit and Credibility", we worked for months to get whistleblowers inside the ratings agencies to talk to us. We're about to air another piece in our beat about the state of the economy that we call "Out of the Woods -- Rebuilding after the Great Collapse". Our coverage of the economic crisis, based on real reporting which doesn't simply put talking heads in a studio, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I know that these difficult times have affected all of you. Please continue to support your local PBS affiliate--the stations are in economic pain as well. And as a NOW viewer and web user, you may also choose to give directly to NOW on PBS--if so, please email Mimi Evans at evansm@thirteen.org for more information. Your contributions will go directly to support our reporting.

Please forward this letter to friends and colleagues.

NPR cancels all newspaper subscriptions

3/12/2009 4:40:37 PM

Memo from NPR's director of morning programming

From: Ellen McDonnell
To: ME list; Davar Ardalan; Jenni Bergal
Sent: Thu Mar 12 15:48:24 2009
Subject: saving money

As of April 1 NPR is cancelling all newspaper subscriptions. We are making some arrangments to get the Wall Street Journal either on line or hard copy. You have until tomorrow to appeal this if there is a solid reason why you should be exempt. This is a cost saving measure company wide.

Atlantic editor on Douthat's departure

3/11/2009 7:38:16 PM

The Atlantic's editor on Ross Douthat's departure

From: Bennet, James
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:31:45 -0400

Subject: Ross, The Atlantic and The NYT

All: It is with a mix of regret and pride that I'm writing to tell you that The New York Times has reached the same conclusion that we all came to quite a while ago: That Ross Douthat is one of the country's finest writers and thinkers. Ross has been asked to begin writing a weekly column for the Times op-ed page, and he has accepted. He will be leaving The Atlantic after we ship the June issue.

This is a backhanded compliment to The Atlantic, both in print and online, but there's no question that the backhand packs a wallop. Ross has left his mark on our pages and on the site not only as a writer but also as an editor. Ross, in fact, can do pretty much everything we do, and do it as well as any of us: He can write in print or online, about politics, society, religion, and culture; he can edit short or long pieces, narrative, essay, or criticism; he can rebuild a story and also tune its language; he can invent a headline or dream up a cover; he can be serious or funny, and sharply critical without being cruel. Even as he was building his name as a writer, he remained devoted at all times to improving The Atlantic as a whole. That is the quality in Ross that I am most grateful for. Ross has spent his entire career at The Atlantic, and he understands in his bones what makes it unique. I've formed my own view about our proper mission in part through countless editorial discussions with him.

Those conversations, I know, will continue. In fact, the Times has kindly agreed to let Ross complete for us the two pieces he's already working on. And he's only going to be a few blocks away, in the DC bureau. So once we recover from the sting of this blow, we can all enjoy the compliment to Ross and The Atlantic � to its capacity for identifying and cultivating original, courageous thinkers and writers -- each time we read him in the greatest newspaper in the world. Please join me in congratulating Ross.

JB

Merger of McClatchy papers' features departments

3/5/2009 6:18:28 PM

TO: Observer and N&O staffs

FROM: Rick Thames and John Drescher
RE: Features merger
DATE: March 5, 2009

We are pleased to announce that the features departments in Charlotte and Raleigh will merge and work together as one department. The editors in each department will plan together, communicate daily and assist each other in editing. Each staff could take the lead in planning and executing certain coverage areas or certain days of the week (or certain sections). We will explore the possibility of sharing copy editing and designing. When it comes to reporting, we will seek to expand our reach by avoiding duplication. We want to preserve as much local content as possible. But some stories, if reported in a certain way, could be effective in each paper. Each paper will have full access to the reporters on each staff. In an era of retrenchment, this effectively enables each department to expand its number of regular contributors. Click the link to read more.

There are many issues to be worked out. We will build on the lessons and successes from the merger of our sports departments in July. That merger has benefited each paper by avoiding duplication and enabling readers in each community to read the best work from the other paper. That merger has made our sports pages better. The features merger will do the same.

The merged features department will be led by The N&O's Linda Williams. She will work daily with The Observer's Michael Weinstein and The N&O's Debra Boyette to build upon the strengths of each paper. Linda is The N&O's senior editor/news; she oversees news, sports, business and features. Linda, who was reared in Fayetteville and is a UNC graduate, joined The N&O in 1974 as a reporter. She also has reported for The Oregonian, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. She returned to The N&O in 1997 as capitol/state editor and later served as metro editor. She will spend several days a week in The Observer newsroom. She will visit The Observer Monday.

Memo about Star-Telegram cuts

3/5/2009 12:25:00 PM

To: All Employees
From: Gary Wortel
Subject: Workforce and Wage Reductions
Date: March 5, 2009

As you know, the Star-Telegram along with other McClatchy newspapers have been working for weeks on expense reduction plans to deal with the unprecedented revenue declines due to the economic recession. Unfortunately, because revenue declines have worsened since January, our expense reductions will be more severe than originally anticipated:

We will reduce our workforce by about 12% of all employees. Please know that we did everything possible to minimize the impact of20layoffs as outlined in the other expense savings plans below. Reductions will occur in virtually all areas of our operation. Although some of these job eliminations will occur through involuntary layoffs, there also will be opportunities for employees to voluntarily select a severance package where reductions are occurring in work groups of {two} or more employees. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced according to least tenure. All affected will be notified today and provided with information about a transition package. If a voluntary option is being offered to your work group you will receive written notification with additional information today. The package being offered is identical in terms to the ones that were offered last year.

We will implement a wage reduction for employees whose compensation exceeds $25,000 annually. $25,000 to $49,999 will receive a 2.5% reduction, $50,000 to $99,999 will receive a 5% reduction and over $100,000 will receive a 10% reduction. This applies to everyone, including myself, with the exception of some operational employees, who will rec eive reduced work hours. We will be providing you with a letter outlining your current pay and what your pay will be when the reduction goes into effect. The letter will be distributed no later than March 20th. These wage reductions will be effective with the pay period beginning April 6, 2009. Your first paycheck to have the wage reduction will be April 24, 2009.

Senior management bonuses have been eliminated for 2009 and advertising sales management compensation is being reduced.

We are also planning for a one-week unpaid furlough program in the 2nd half of 2009. We are hopeful that business will improve and we can avoid having to implement this, but we think it�s important you know it�s a possibility. If implement ed, details will be provided at a later date.

Finally, as a reminder, McClatchy announced on Feb. 5 its decision to significantly reduce operating expenses as a result of ongoing and unprecedented economic pressures and revenue declines. The company announced a freeze of the company�s pension plans and the temporary suspension of the 401(k) company match. Both take effect March 31, 2009.

These are difficult decisions, especially when it means saying goodbye to so many friends and colleagues. But we must make these expense reductions to protect the financial health of the newspaper, adjust to economic challenges and remain competitive.

We also must make major strides in growing revenues. Just last week we announced the launch of our new free entertainment publication, DFW.com Ink Edition. The product will publish weekly starting in April and is expected to produce significant ad revenues. We�re also seeing great success in our behavioral targeting sales efforts utilizing a new ad platform technology. More of these efforts are needed for us to succeed long term.

We know these repeated announcements about the need to reduce expenses and restructure our business are difficult and disruptive, but we ask for your continued focus during these challenging circumstances. Your contributions and dedication are the keys to our future.

Human resources will be setting up informational meetings in the next few days and will also be available to answer any questions about the severance program or wage reductions.

Gary Wortel
Publisher
Star-Telegram

Brill resigns as Verified Identity Pass CEO

3/3/2009 1:29:07 PM

Memo from Steve Brill

March 2, 2009

TO: The Verified Identity Pass Team
FROM: Steve
RE: Changes in our Leadership

As some of you are aware, over the last year I have been increasingly tempted to become more active in the kinds of public service and journalism pursuits that filled my life before I started Clear.

At the same time, I began to see that the work I love the most � building an important enterprise out of a wholly new idea � was, thankfully, becoming less of a priority at Clear than the hard work of managing and maximizing a going business. Indeed, our investors -- including me -- have had to become focused on how we can hunker down to get through this excruciatingly tough economy. It�s a situation that requires intense leadership of a different sort than I am enthusiastic about offering at this stage in my life.

Accordingly, my partners and I have agreed that effective as soon as we can work out a quick but smooth transition, I will become Vice Chairman of the company and work on a part time basis providing input into strategy, public policy and our relationships with our key stakeholders. A new CEO, reporting to our board, will soon be named to provide overall supervision of all day to day operations.

Please know that I continue to be a major shareholder of the company and plan to continue to play a constructive role, though without the responsibility that I have shared with you for what has become a near-24/7 nation-wide customer service and security network.

So, I�ll be rooting for you as I now turn toward the ideas I�ve been tinkering with related to the business challenges facing quality journalism, as well as assorted writing projects (including a new book) and my teaching at Yale.

More than five years ago, I told my family that I was doing yet another start-up because I thought the idea of a voluntary credentialing industry was just too good and too important not to do. I�m proud of all that we have done to prove that. For that, I owe great thanks to each of you and to our supportive investors.

Steve

AP announces news management changes

2/27/2009 4:36:30 PM

AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll's memo to staff

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As many of you know, Senior Managing Editor Mike Silverman is planning to retire at the end of March. For 37 years, Mike has made our news report better in a million ways both large and small. He has been the heart and soul of the AP and we are planning to make a big fuss over him at a retirement party next month.

What I'd like to share with you now is the news structure that will exist beginning April 1. Broadly, Mike's core responsibilities will be shared by two new Senior Managing Editors -- Mike Oreskes and John Daniszewski.

Oreskes will run the daily all-format and global news report. The Top Stories Desk and Supervisory desk will report to him although those desks will, as they do now, work closely with and be responsive to other news department heads. Mike will continue his oversight of U.S. text news, including completion of the regional desk rollout.

Daniszewski will continue to oversee the international text division, including completion of the regionalization project he has led. He adds supervision of the AP�s Photo Department to his responsibilities, working closely, as Silverman has, with Director of Photography Santiago Lyon to further the goals of our award-winning photographers and editors.

John, Mike and Deputy Managing Editor Tom Kent also are taking a fresh look at what the appropriate headquarters supervision role should be as we roll out the last of 10 regional desks around the world.

Kevin Roach, who did a spectacular job as acting head of the Broadcast News Center last year, is promoted to Director of U.S. Broadcast News. He continues to be responsible for all radio, broadcast text, online video and television operations in the United States.

In that, he works closely with Sandy MacIntyre, Director of News for APTN International, who continues his dynamic leadership of AP�s television news operation, headquartered in the truly multimedia Camden newsroom.

Rounding out the leadership team are Managing Editors Lou Ferrara and Kristin Gazlay.

Ferrara continues his strong role as Managing Editor of Sports, Entertainment and Multimedia. Deputy Managing Editor Sally Jacobsen and the Lifestyles and News Research Center departments she supervises will now report to Lou. (Sally's News budget and operations functions will continue to report to me.)

Gazlay continues as Managing Editor of Financial News and Global Training, extending her important role in that vibrant, critical news department and her key leadership of our complex training needs.

Oreskes, Daniszewski, Ferrara, Gazlay, MacIntyre and Roach will report to me.

While this solidifies the top News leadership roles, there will be other new assignments in the coming weeks. There are two new ones worth mentioning here;

DME Tom Kent, who has been involved for more than a year in the multi-departmental search for a new editorial system, takes on a new AP-wide role leading that critical project, working closely with News and Technology teammates. We won't lose Tom's keen judgment of the news production, though. He's agreed to write a regular newsletter that'll keep us on all on our toes.

And Deputy Managing Editor Sarah Nordgren, who has headed the State News operations so well, takes on the important journalistic challenges of building and expanding an aggressive structure of beat reporting. She will work with the four U.S. regional editors and staff to identify, establish and supervise new beat reporting. She also will work closely with Daniszewski and international regional editors to create beats that cross national boundaries. She retains her development and recruitment portfolio and continues to report to Oreskes.

This is a potent leadership team for AP's 3,000 global journalists. I look forward to working with them, and with you, in the exciting year ahead.

Kathleen
Feb. 27, 2009

Denver Post picks up Rocky staffers

2/26/2009 3:27:03 PM

From: Moore, Greg
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:38 PM
To: D-Post-All
Subject: Message from Greg Moore

Staff:

Just minutes ago, we learned that The Rocky is closing after almost 150 years. Denver was blessed for a long time with two fine newspapers. Now we go it alone.

At the staff meeting last week, I told you that I planned to hire some journalists from The Rocky. I think I made plain that we need to do this because they can help us become a stronger paper and it will help us attract and hold onto Rocky readers, who will be trying The Post again for the first time in a while. We need to retain as many of those readers as possible and by having some familiar faces and features from The Rocky, our chances improve greatly.

I wanted to share with you who will be coming aboard and what they will be doing.

Vincent Carroll will join the editorial board and write an op-ed column; Mike Littwin will write a column three times a week that will be anchored on a revamped Page A2. The other three days, that space will be filled by Tina Griego, a former Post columnist.

Bill Johnson will join Susan Greene as a columnist in DTW. I have asked Bill Porter to return to writing and editing in Features and to do special reporting projects for the paper. I am grateful for his enthusiastic response.

Penny Parker will write a reported business column focusing on the personalities and behind the scenes workings in the business community. Dave Krieger will join Woody Paige and Mike Kiszla, creating an incredibly strong stable of sports columnists.

Burt Hubbard will bring his singular skills at database reporting to Metro. Lynn Bartels will also join Metro and will cover the Statehouse.
Kevin Vaughan will be a Sunday writer and uber GA. We have also hired Gargi Chakrabarty to cover energy, which is expected to be even more important under the Obama Administration. Finally, we are pleased to bring on board Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Judy DeHaas.

Obviously, we have only a short window to win over the Rocky readers. These moves will help. These hires represent less than 5% of the journalists at The Rocky. I plan to do all I can to integrate them into our paper and culture as quickly as possible and I am counting on your help. This all happens at a time of great uncertainty and personal sacrifices in our business. I know. But opportunities like these do not come along very often. And neither do the challenges. It will take the effort of all of us -- those of us who have been here for a while and the newcomers -- to make a go of it. I really need you to be focused on the challenge ahead. So please, be welcoming to our new colleagues and let's roll up our sleeves and put out the best, most interesting paper possible.

There will be a staff meeting at 3 p.m. today in the DNA Auditorium at which Publisher Dean Singleton will address the staff and answer questions.

Thank you very much.

Greg

Bad news from San Antonio Express-News

2/25/2009 12:48:55 PM

Memo from San Antonio Express-News' editor

From: Rivard, Robert
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:44 AM
To: SAEN Editorial
Subject: We are canceling this morning's news meeting for obvious reasons.

Colleagues:

By now you have read Tom Stephenson's message to all employees. Every division of the Express-News will be affected, including every department in the newsroom. Incremental staff and budget cuts, we are sorry to say, have proven inadequate amid changing social and market forces now compounded by this deepening recession.

It is not lost on us as journalists in this difficult moment that we have built an audience of readers, in print and online, that is larger and more diverse than at any time in our century and half of publishing. We have done that at the Express-News through a commitment to excellence and public service. Now we must find ways to maintain these high levels of journalistic distinction even as valued colleagues depart. It is an unfortunate but undeniable fact that declining advertising revenues are insufficient to support our operations at current levels. At the same time, more and more people have become accustomed to reading us at no cost on the Internet. As a result, we are reducing the newsroom staff by some 75 positions, counting layoffs and open positions we are eliminating.

As a first step to securing our future and continuing to serve the community, we are undergoing a fundamental and painful restructuring of the newsroom staff. We will have fewer departments and fewer managers, and yes, fewer of every class of journalist. After we reorganize and consolidate additional operations with the Houston Chronicle, we will then turn to finding new ways to create and present the journalism we know is vital to the city and the region. There is every indication the community we serve recognizes our importance and wants the Express-News to succeed.

The newsroom leadership team will begin now to meet with individuals whose jobs are being eliminated. Brett Thacker and I are working with these editors to carry out such notifications as swiftly and humanely as possible. No one is being asked to leave the Express-News today unless you so choose. March 20 will be the final day for those whose jobs are being cut, at which time they will then receive involuntary separation packages that include two weeks' pay for each year of service up to one year's pay, along with other benefits. Some production journalists involved in the consolidation project with the Houston Chronicle will be asked to stay on until that project is completed in the coming months. Those who do stay until the completion will receive their separation packages at that time.

We have worked to preserve the size and depth of our newsroom in every imaginable way these past months and years, but events beyond our control have overwhelmed those efforts. Newsrooms become like families, but companies in every industry reach a point where they face fundamental, sometimes harsh change in order to preserve their viability. We are at that point. Most of you read yesterday's news regarding the San Francisco Chronicle and recently became aware of pending staff cuts at the Houston Chronicle. Our intention is to get through these difficult days and work to remain an indispensible source of news and information through the recession and beyond.

Bob

Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO's letter to staff

2/23/2009 8:11:35 AM

Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO's letter to employees

From: Tierney, Brian P.
Sent: Sun 2/22/2009 11:38 PM
To: All BSCN Employees; All BSM Employees; All PN Employees; All Philly.com Employees; All PN, BSCN and PHILLY.COM Employees
Subject: Important Notice

To: All PN Employees

Today we took an important strategic step toward restructuring our debt
obligations. To do so we have voluntarily filed for relief under Chapter 11
of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The most important fact that you need to know about how the Chapter 11 filing affects you is that business will continue as usual. PNL will
continue to operate under its current name and logo, and all operations as you know them will remain the same. We have asked the court to permit all salary and benefits, including pensions and 401(k) plans, to continue as usual. The filing has in no way changed your employment terms.

It is important that each of you is not distracted by our Chapter 11 filing.
In fact the process exists to assist companies in resolving debt issues.
For more than a century, since the U.S. Congress first established the
Bankruptcy Code, it has been helping companies, including many of America's largest, to reorganize and thrive. The impetus for filing for
reorganization is not due to problems with PNL's operations, but a need to repair our debt structure. The loss of revenue that has occurred as a
result of the current recession is squeezing our operating profit which is
now insufficient to service our debt load.

As a company, we have been hit with a perfect storm, including a dramatic decline in total revenue, the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression and a debt structure which is out of line with current economic reality. Despite these difficult circumstances, we have been working towards an operational structure that can flourish once we get the debt restructured.

Now more than ever, we need to continue the hard work that has already begun. I am grateful for, and proud of, your dedication and loyalty to our company and to our readers. In the last two and a half years, we have accomplished a tremendous amount. Our journalism is better than ever under the guidance of Bill Marimow and Michael Days. Our union relationships have moved from contentious to a relationship built on respect and trust. Our online web traffic at philly.com has swelled by 300%. Our new, nationally recognized programs, like MediaLab and ResearchLab, are connecting our marketing muscle - and the industry's most innovative approach - directly with advertisers' businesses. We've introduced new products like "I" Magazine and improved My Community Trend. We've been ranked as among the
most efficient newspaper operators in the country. And, despite an overall decline in ad revenue, we have climbed from the bottom to the top of the pack in advertising revenue among the Top 25 markets.

It is important that you provide reassurance to the advertisers, readers and business contacts with whom you interact that PNL continues to do business as usual, remains a viable company and is only using Chapter 11 reorganization to restructure its debt. Your commitment is crucial to our ability to move forward seamlessly.

You should contact the Human Resources Department if you have any questions. We encourage you to give us the feedback that you are getting from your advertisers and readers and other business contacts so that we can assist you in providing this reassurance. To assist in such communications, as well as to answer any questions that you may have, we will distribute a "Frequently Asked Questions" memorandum for all employees shortly. In addition, we will provide regular updates on the timing and status of the Chapter 11 reorganization.

Thank you in advance for your continued hard work and dedication to our readers and advertisers.

Union memo to Philadelphia Inky, DN employees

2/23/2009 7:22:17 AM

From: GuildBulletin
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 9:12 PM
Subject: Philadelphia Media Holdings Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. What Members Should Know...

Dear Guild Member,

As you all should be aware, Philadelphia Media Holdings, ("PMH"), the owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News, has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

As hard as it may sound, please stay calm. The company is still in business, the papers are still publishing and you should still report for work.

Here is what this means to our members and how the filing affects our contract:

The Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process is intended to permit a company to continue in operation by restructuring its contractual and financial obligations. Because Guild members provide essential services, your wages and benefits under our collective bargaining agreement for services rendered, after the petition was filed, will continue to be honored.

Before PMH can take any action to modify any of its obligations under our contract, it must negotiate in good faith with the Guild and prove that the contract changes it seeks are necessary to permit the reorganization and prevent the liquidation of the enterprise.

The Guild Executive Board has already taken steps to assure that we obtain all of the bankruptcy filings. We will monitor the proceedings and take appropriate action to enforce our collective bargaining agreement and protect your rights.

Even though a bankruptcy petition has been filed:

* Our contract remains in full force;
* Your wages and benefits will continue to be paid;
* We retain the right to grieve and arbitrate contract disputes; and
* No unilateral changes to our contract can be implemented without prior negotiations.

If the Employer requests that we meet to negotiate contract modifications, we will, of course, immediately notify you of any such negotiations. As in all collective bargaining situations, we will bring any tentative agreements involving modifications/changes to our contract to the members for ratification. In addition, we will keep you advised of all developments during the bankruptcy, especially any events that involve the Guild contact, your rights, and the Employer�s obligations pursuant to it.

The Guild�s Executive Committee will convene in an emergency board meeting at 10 a.m. Monday and will issue further news as we have it. In the meantime, members may contact the Guild office at 215-928-0118 or Administrative Officer Bill Ross at 267-240-8540 or e-mail bross@local-10.com.

In solidarity,

Dan Gross
President
TNG/CWA 38010

"There's good news about Lee's financial health"

2/20/2009 8:26:34 AM

Letter to staffers at Lee papers from CEO Mary Junck

February 19, 2009

Dear Lee Employee:

There's good news today about Lee's financial health. Lee has completed comprehensive changes to all of our debt obligations.

These changes will help us weather the recession. They also alleviate concerns among some investors that Lee would not be able to handle our debt during the combination of a severe economic downturn and an extremely tight credit market. Our ability to do so underscores the long-term strength of our company.

Today, we repaid $120 million of the principal amount of our $306 million Pulitzer Notes debt and refinanced the balance over the next three years. We also have amended the credit terms for our $1.1 billion of bank debt to provide a revised repayment schedule. In addition, we have redeemed the remaining 5 percent share of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from the minority partner. I am attaching a news release with details.

Although significant economic challenges continue, our focus has been riveted on protecting our ability to grow in the long term. Even in this horrible economy, we remain, by far, the leading provider of local news, information and advertising in our markets. Our strength in print continues to be vast and stable, and our online reach continues to grow.

While revenue has decreased because of the recession, Lee continues to be an industry leader in advertising revenue performance. Lee has outperformed the industry average every quarter since 2003, and Lee's advantage over the last two years has averaged nearly 5 percentage points per quarter. In 2009, we have ramped up our efforts to provide even greater value and effectiveness for advertisers. We believe our vigorous sales programs will help us further increase our lion's share of local advertising spending, which should pay off even more when the recession ends. Meanwhile, as you well know, we have had to implement many cost reductions, some of which have impacted you directly.

Thank you for your hard work, dedication, determination and good spirits. I appreciate how you are staying the course with continued enthusiasm, creativity and absolute faith in our ability to assure our strong future.

Thank you again for all you're doing to help our company remain strong during some of the worst economic conditions in our lifetimes.

With appreciation and best regards,

Mary Junck

Memo to E.W. Scripps employees

2/18/2009 4:31:50 PM

Memo from E.W. Scripps' CEO

From: Boehne, Rich.
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 12:34 PM
To: RICH_BOEHNE_DISTRIBUTION_LIST@LISTS2.SCRIPPS.COM
Subject: Difficult News

Dear Colleague:

I need to let you know about some difficult decisions that affect all of us here at Scripps. In an effort to control our expenses during these tough economic times, we are making a series of changes to the way we compensate employees.

Do we really have to make these cuts now?
Yes. Scripps has been a vibrant and successful company for 130 years and we intend to be around as an industry leader and attractive employer for many more years to come. Maintaining financial health and flexibility must be a top priority in this environment. The economy is throwing new and bigger challenges at us each day and we intend to have the strength to weather the storm.

I know it's of little comfort as you read this letter today, but please believe me when I say there will be better days ahead. Our economy is busted at the moment and recovery won't come without pain, but the core value of the media business - the news, information and entertainment that we provide each day - has never been in greater demand. There's reason to trust that our current sacrifices can result in future dividends for all us who help create the next successful chapter of the news industry and The E.W. Scripps Company.

Much more specific information to come, but here are the company-wide cost-reduction measures. We intend to take the following types of cost-reduction measures, and will take these measures in a manner consistent with the company�s legal and contractual obligations:

--- Pay reductions � Senior managers, from your local leadership to executives at the corporate office, including me, took pay reductions in January of 5 to 15 percent, but it is now clear that pay adjustments need to be broader. You will be hearing shortly from your publisher how this will affect your newspaper
.
--- Suspension of the 40l (k) plan match � While you can continue contributing to your retirement savings account, the company match will end beginning with the first pay in April. The match has been an important part of our 401(k) plan and we hope to reinstate it when business conditions improve.

--- Pension plan freeze � At a date to be determined soon, the pension plan will be frozen and we will offer a transition benefit for those who are close to retirement. Everyone will receive additional details on all the changes � including the transition benefits � when we finalize decisions about the freeze.

Rest assured that your accrued pension benefits are protected by law.
More information and the specifics for your newspaper will come from your publisher. You can direct questions to your manager, HR director or publisher.

We recognize the changes outlined above will be a financial burden for many and I can assure you these decisions were not taken lightly. A comprehensive and wrenching process led us to these decisions, but we must act now to reduce costs and remain competitive. To help meet the challenges we face, please try to do all you can to better serve our advertisers and readers during these tough times for them and us.

Rich

WSJ eliminates 14 positions

2/5/2009 5:34:03 PM

From: [Wall Street Journal managing editor] Thomson, Robert
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 5:22 PM
To: WSJ All News Staff
Cc: Lipschutz, Neal; Stern, Gabriella; Wright, Marcus; Repak, Chaz; Stine, Rick; Fung, Linda; Dowell, Andrew
Subject: staff announcement

Dear Colleagues,

It is obvious to you all that we are in the midst of an unprecedented economic downturn. We are also in the midst of an unprecedented increase in our readership, in print and online, but a precipitous decline in print advertising revenue has forced a close examination of our structures and of our costs.

Over the past couple of months, teams have been reorganized at The Wall Street Journal and we have lost 11 journalists through attrition. Unfortunately, it has been necessary today to restructure several other teams at the cost of an additional 14 positions. The number, while regrettable, has been kept to a minimum because department heads have been vigilant in controlling costs and in maximizing our use of existing resources.

There are no plans for lay-offs at Dow Jones Newswires, where our international expansion is continuing, most recently through the launch of a Spanish-language venture and in India, where we are creating a new reporting team to take advantage of that country�s economic development. And we will continue to hire journalists for the Journal for projects of strategic significance.

At the Journal, we are closing the New York-based Fashion and Retail group, though we will maintain coverage and reassign some editors and reporters to other bureaus. Other groups losing a position include the Los Angeles and Boston bureaus, along with the New York-based Law, Health and Real Estate groups, and the Library.

There is no doubt that Dow Jones is in a far stronger position than our competitors and that the global influence of the Journal and Newswires is growing significantly, so there are genuine reasons for optimism. But we also must be realistic about the current trading environment and continue to reduce costs while maintaining the world�s highest standard of journalistic quality and integrity.

Yours,
Robert.

St. Petersburg Times extends pay freeze

2/3/2009 1:46:45 PM

To: St. Petersburg Times staff
From: [Editor] Paul Tash

Last week, I wrote to you about our decision to offer Congressional Quarterly for sale. Today, I want to let you know about measures we are taking here in Florida to meet the challenges of the recession.

1. As much as it disappoints me, we need to extend the pay freeze for another year. As you recall, the freeze took effect on June 1, 2008, and we expected to lift it four months from now. Of course, the economy has gotten worse, not better. I regret the strain a wage freeze puts on staffers, and the 5 percent reduction in my own pay will remain in place for its duration.

2. Starting April 1, we will suspend company contributions to the 401K plan, and for members of the pension plan, we will freeze the credits for additional service. Let me emphasize: the benefits you have earned already under the pension plan are safe, but your service during this freeze will not count toward your pension payments.

3. Because of this action in the retirement plans, staffers who were eligible for the 5-plus-5 enhanced pension plan last year will get another chance to take it. We do not renew this offer to encourage more departures, or out of any legal obligation. Rather, eligible staffers can make a fresh decision in light of circumstances no one could anticipate last summer. The HR department will provide details soon.

This is a lot to absorb, especially combined with all the other news of general economic turmoil, and you may wonder what conclusions you should draw about the Times and your place in it. So, let me offer some thoughts that guide our thinking through this very rough stretch.

1. Eventually, the business climate in Tampa Bay will recover. When it does, the Times will be in a very strong position. Over 125 years, the patterns of history are clear.

2. Even now, we have enormous opportunity to serve our customers � readers and advertisers. They are counting on us, and they will reward us.

3. Every day, the Times relies on talented and dedicated professionals who pull together on behalf of their company and in service to the Tampa Bay region. On hard days (and lately there have been a couple), your commitment stokes my confidence about our future.

We will get there together, and each day brings us a little closer.

Memo to employees at A.H. Belo papers

1/30/2009 9:39:56 AM

Memo from A.H. Belo CEO Robert Decherd

January 30, 2009

Dear Colleagues:

In a note to the Company's senior management in mid-December, I reported that the Board of Directors and Management Committee are intensely focused on the steps necessary to return A. H. Belo Corporation to profitability, and I said that this commitment is made knowing that the fight we've joined is intensifying in difficulty and complexity. My point then and even more so now is that the rapid deterioration in the U.S. economy has changed the nature and urgency of re-thinking the Company's business model � just as every newspaper publisher and companies in virtually every American industry are compelled to do. I remain optimistic that A. H. Belo has the means by which to work through this challenging period, and refer you to my October 24 letter outlining the strategies and positive themes that provide us an advantage.

That said, the decline in advertising revenues for the newspaper industry and all media persists. This has led to a seemingly endless number of announcements from our peer newspaper publishers and other media companies describing initiatives that respond to such fast-changing business conditions. The key for all companies, and certainly for A. H. Belo, is to generate and preserve cash. Generating cash is a function of external relationships with subscribers and advertisers. We are doing everything possible to reinforce the long-standing, important relationships we have with these two essential constituencies. We are also looking at all ways to generate cash internally, and to preserve cash as outlined below. While these are difficult steps to take, they are necessary and reflect economic conditions far more uncertain than anyone anticipated even three months ago.

Everyone hopes that with a new administration and additional government economic stimuli, business conditions will stabilize during 2009. We can then begin what is sure to be a long, slow climb back to the economic prosperity that existed for most of the past two decades. Even assuming this scenario, it is essential that A. H. Belo get as far ahead of the curve of economic stabilization and improvement as possible. The Board approved my recommendation at its December meeting to engage Bain & Company to assist the /CONTINUED

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