Entries associated with the tag "Chicago Newspaper Guild":

The Sun-Times is spiking QT, the popular column that Zay Smith has been writing since 1995. That's a story I told yesterday in my blog here.

But there's more. The Sun-Times claims it needs Smith back in the newsroom as a general assignment reporter, a billet he's filled with distinction in years past. But the Chicago Newspaper Guild isn't buying it. The reason, explains executive director Gerald Minkkinen, is that Smith, who wrote QT from home, has permanent physical disabilities that "make it difficult for him to be mobile." And, says Minkkinen, the paper knows it.

He says that a few weeks ago, when it became clear to Smith that QT was in danger, the guild arranged to have Smith examined by a company doctor. Minkkinen hasn't seen a copy of the doctor's report, but he assumes that it's honest, and that the paper therefore knows how dificult it is for Smith to get around.

"If there was any way he could go back on the street, you know he would," says Minkkinen. "It's unfortunate that somebody [that would be editor in chief Michael Cooke] would be so -- I almost have to use the word inhuman -- to create a situation they knew he could not handle and require him to do it.

"We are going to be discussing this matter with company," Minkkinen continues, "and, depending on its reaction, we might well be grieving the situation. It's a situation that upsets us greatly." 

Nothing happens in a vacuum. The Sun-Times is fighting for its life financially. On Thursday the Sun-Times Media Group reported a third-quarter loss of $168.8 million, and in a letter to shareholders Thursday, CEO Cyrus Freidheim said that because of the reeling economy the $50 million in annual expenses slashed from the corporate budget earlier this year failed to stabilize the company's finances. As a result, "we have developed and are implementing another major cost reduction program of $45 million to $55 million." These two devastating retrenchments together "are expected to reduce our cost base by almost 30 percent."

Says Minkkinen, "They've been trying to dump salaries, and Zay is a senior reporter probably on the top end of the salary scale. But to not recognize the man's seniority, to not recognize his contributions, to not recognize him as a human being is totally outrageous. There's no question in my mind, this has nothing to do with the column. They're trying to get rid of him."

Don Hayner, managing editor of the Sun-Times, told me he wouldn't answer questions having anything to do with Smith's health. Michael Cooke, who's out of the country, said by BlackBerry that he hadn't seen a doctor's report on Smith.

Jay Mariotti tells the editor in chief of the Sun-Times, Michael Cooke, Tuesday evening that he's quitting. As of immediately. But on Wednesday he shows up back at the paper to tape his ESPN show, Around the Horn, in what Cooke calls "the nice little TV studio we built for him."

"It's for the last time," Cooke tells me.

But why didn't you throw him out? I wondered.

"This may escape Jay, but it's the question of dignity," says Cooke.

Cooke doesn't want  to get into the details, but he notes that Mariotti, in his 17-year career at the Sun-Times, threatened to quit many times before. The paper always found a way to change his mind, and Cooke supposes it might have been able to find a way once again." He gave us an opportunity to pull the trigger, which we’ve never done in the past," says Cooke. "This time we pulled the trigger."

A couple months ago, the Sun-Times spilled a lot of its own ink publicizing Mariotti's latest contract, which was supposed to keep him at the paper through May 2011. "It's interesting that a guy walks out on a contract after spending a lifetime criticizing other people for not observing their their contracts," says Cooke. "I'm sure that irony won't escape our readers."

Cooke adds, "We’re not hearing from grief-stricken fans. The truth is quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. We've gotten hundreds of e-mails, including ones that say 'Now we’ll buy the paper.' By all indications our circulation will go up."

Anyway, he's got other things to worry about. Bad times have been followed by worse times at the Sun-Times, and Cooke had to meet Tuesday afternoon with leaders of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, giving them the bad news that the paper needed to cut salaries to the tune of three columnists, a reporter, a photographer, and five editorial assistants. Going by guild scale, the combined yearly salaries of those positions comes to about $580,000.

So when Cooke received Mariotti's memo that afternoon that said "I quit," he had every reason to think, well, that's convenient. With more on his mind than Mariotti, Cook wrote and emailed the following staff memo:

Says CNG's executive director, Gerald Minkkinen, after the guild-management meeting "things happened that could change the picture."

What?

"Jay Mariotti resigned."

Mariotti's salary is between him and the paper, but it undoubtedly represents a huge chunk of that $580,000. And so it was that Mariotti, instead of hearing back from Cooke, heard instead from a Sun-Times lawyer that his resignation had been accepted.

The hammer has come down at the Sun-Times, where more layoffs were just announced. (Read here about earlier layoffs.) Names you'll recognize are about to disappear, and the strange thing is the palpable degree of relief, even satisfaction, among the staff -- it could have been a lot worse.

Editorial columnist Steve Huntley asked for and received a buyout, though he'll continue his column as a freelancer. TV critic Doug Elfman has been laid off. Special Barack Obama correspondent Jennifer Hunter, wife of former publisher John Cruickshank, took a buyout. Columnist Esther Cepeda was laid off, though there's a possibility she'll continue to freelance her column. Religion reporter Susan Hogan/Albach (known as "Slash" around the office) was laid off. Reporter Kara Spak, who's married to star investigative reporter Steve Warmbir, was laid off, a loss people seem to be mourning in particular. Editor in chief Michael Cooke's old pal Garry Steckles -- Cooke summoned him from Saint Kitts to help out and then gave him management status to protect his job -- was returned to Newspaper Guild status when the guild protested and then lost his job. Deputy metro editor Phyllis Gilchrist resigned because she knew that eliminating her management salary might save a couple of guild jobs. Assistant city editors Nancy Moffett and Robert Herguth took buyouts, as did veteran writer Jim Ritter and business copy editors Chris Whitehead and Bob Mutter. Business editor Dan Miller had resigned earlier.

In all, 14 full-time and 3 part-time guild employees were laid off (on the basis of seniority) and 12 others took buyouts, says Gerald Minkkinen, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild. "In the long run," he says, "the company worked with us and did as much as they could to lessen the pain. I really have to give them credit." So does Elfman, with a cat to feed and a new job to find. "It's not a situation where they're laying off people unjustly," he says, well aware of the fact the company's bleeding money, "and I'm in favor of seniority in theory. It just happened to bite me in the ass." I've caught Elfman on his way out of the office to get a drink. "The Sun-Times has really been great about the way they've handled a lot of this," he says. "But there's a but. I was recruited here, I was asked to come here," he muses. "I guess my message to the newspaper editors of America is if you recruit someone don’t lay them off."

That's the temperate end of the spectrum of reactions to getting canned. So it was a little surprising to be told that Bob Mazzoni, the sports copy editor who's cochair of the Sun-Times's guild unit, seemed to be in a "a pretty good mood" Wednesday night, which is when calls were made to the staffers losing their jobs. It's all relative of course, but Mazzoni allows that in a sense he was. "To get down from [management's] original request of 35 jobs to 17 who are leaving involuntarily made us feel like we had really accomplished something," he told me, explaining that when the guild proposed buyouts management agreed to them at once and -- as was not true with a round of buyouts a couple of years ago -- accepted everybody who applied.

Managing editor Don Hayner is being hailed as a hero around the office. Mazzoni said, "We were told that whenever they had a meeting of any kind with stockholders or the board, Don would be there to plead the newsroom's case. Had it not been for his efforts the original number of 35 would have been higher and therefore the ensuing number of layoffs greater. He looks at the newsroom as his baby and he really felt an obligation to save as many of these jobs as he could, especially a lot of the less tenured people he was instrumental in bringing in."

Layoffs usually poison the atmosphere between management and labor. Not this time, said Mazzoni -- "I actually think this process as we went through it strengthened the trust both sides feel with each other."

Friday is the last day for Nancy Moffett, a buddy from my own Sun-Times days, a happy warrior who joined the paper in 1970 and has been there through Marshall Field, through Rupert Murdoch, through Conrad Black. Moffett told me she feels like a "basket case" knowing it's all about to end, even though she's leaving on her own terms. "It's a circus," she said. "It's a lot of smart people being funny all the time." Working at a newspaper, she's discovered, is something she can only explain to people who already know. It's addictive. "It's like being on crack."