Job Reductions Afoot

Guild leaders met with Baltimore Sun management on Nov. 19. Below is the update to union members about that meeting, where job reductions at the Sun were discussed. If you are a Guild member and have questions about what's happening, please direct them to your Guild representative.

Sun Bulletin -- "Numbers Please" -- Nov. 21, 2008

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What If You Didn't Know? More Layoffs Coming to The Baltimore Sun.

The Newspaper Guild at The Baltimore Sun Reports More Layoffs To Come

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Paper cuts

Circulation at big newspapers across the country continued to tank in the six months leading up to Sept. 30, including circulation at The Baltimore Sun, according to this staff written story today.

Today also brought news that the nonprofit Christian Science Monitor -- a paper with an award-winning journalistic history -- will stop publishing its print edition in April. It only publishes Monday through Friday. Instead, it will publish a Sunday magazine. Check out the NY Times story for all the details.

It's not fair to compare the Monitor to for-profit papers, the article points out. But the Monitor management does note, in the article, that stopping the publication of the print version will enable them to keep their eight foreign bureaus open.

Interesting stuff. Thoughts?

One Health Care Plan, Partner

To save $10 million, Tribune decided to offer its thousands employees just one health care plan, through a company called United Healthcare. It's a big provider, one of the biggest in the land. But it's also a PPO, and many Sun Guild members have been using an HMO for years, to save money.

This new change will likely have financial implications for employees. To what extent? We don't know, as the company has not yet given us premium costs that we can expect to pay.

However, The Sun's HR staff was very diligent and responsive in turning around a number of answers to questions that the Guild pitched to them this week. If the switch concerns you, you can check the dedicated Google Group for Sun Guild members, which includes several PDFs that may help with your questions. Shoot an email to newsofthesun(at)gmail(dot)com and ask for an invitation if you're not in it yet.

The Web Coming Back to Calvert Street

News Item: The Baltimore Sun's Web operation (aka Baltimoresun.com, formerly the Website known as Sunspot), which is currently based out of Cross Keys in North Baltimore, will be moving to the North Calvert St. headquarters by the end of the year.

The newspaper's editorial/opinion writers, who are currently in another part of the 501 N. Calvert Street building, will be relocated to the second floor, where the newsroom is located. There'll be some shuffling of management reports, but that's insider baseball for the few score readers who read this lil' labor blog, so we won't bother with that right now.

The workers at the website are currently merit -- not Guild -- and for those who've been around awhile, know that this has regularly been a point of contention between Sun and Guild. The company has always argued that Web workers don't do the same jobs as newsroom workers, i.e. reporters, even though every once and awhile -- i.e. today -- we see Web stories with a byline that reads: "baltimoresun.com reporter." Wazzup wit dat?

Anyway, yay. We hope the company saves some money on the real estate move and makes some productive use of all the empty space on the third floor.

Some Kudos

I'm not speaking for anyone else but me when I say this, but it was heartening to see "Colorblind" on the cover of the "b" today.

Sure, it's no "Douchebag" cover that'll draw a lot of attention from the media world -- who needs that kind of attention anyway? Instead, "Colorblind" offered a collection of four short essays by African Americans in their 20s, or Generation Y, on how they perceive the issue of race.

The topic of race and racism is always simmering just beneath the surface in Baltimore -- and some might complain that the Baltimore Sun (Media Group) historically hasn't done the best job of covering it. But, in this case, it's good to see that the "b" is trying. I would look forward to reading more of this kind of stuff on my lunch break.

Reports

First, last week: a vague report from DCRTV.com about possible layoffs of up to 100 people at the Baltimore Sun.

That report has just lingered in the air, with no one really touching it.

Next -- today -- we see a report in LAObserved about 75 more editorial cuts at the Los Angeles Times coming down the pike.

Ummm, what's going on, partners?

Teaching Yourself To Fish

Many of my Sun colleagues have asked me how to go about learning different multimedia skills that you can apply to journalism, and how to start preparing yourself for the future of the craft.

More than a year ago, I asked that same question to Adrian Holovaty, the techno-journalist who created Chicagocrime.org and more recently, the wildly innovative Everyblock.com. His advice to me: just start doing it.

Since then, I've spent many, many hours -- mostly outside of work and on my own time -- engaged in self-education, class-taking and fun experimentation. Now more than ever, it's really important to start looking at the skills in your professional toolbox. What follows is a list of things you can do to prepare for your role as a digital journalist.

1) Learn how to do video. Be the geek at the family or friend get-together who shoots video, edits it later at home, uploads it to YouTube, and shares or promotes it to others. Learn video editing techniques on a simple program, like Windows Movie Maker, or the Mac's iMovie. When you're confident, start playing with Final Cut Express or Pro, a more professional software program that's used by many media outlets, incluing the Sun. Web video will become increasingly important in the future. Why? Because as broadband networks become better and faster, people will be watching more and more video online: at their desks, on their laptops, and on their smartphones -- and even on their living room couches.

2) Take a beginner class in Web design. It will make you a more technically proficient blogger, because you will learn the structure of a Web page, and how to maximize the use of keywords -- which has never been more important for finding content online. Learn HTML and CSS -- the basic languages used in Web design. Build your own little Website from scratch -- without using Dreamweaver as a crutch! (I recommend some kind of class structure for those who learn better in a structured format. I've taken classes at the University of Baltimore. But most other local higher-ed institutions offer such courses. Also, check out lynda.com for online courses.)

3) Mock up a Google blog. Do you worry you don't have any blogging experience? It's okay. Just hit Blogger.com and start your own free blog today. Keep it private so that no one can read it except for you. And then, experiment with it. Hack it. Teach yourself how to change the look of the blog. You can learn a lot about HTML and CSS simply by experimenting with a Google blog. They are extremely forgiving to the novice user. Equally important, learn how to use and interpret Google Analytics -- which will help you understand the Web audience. It's vital.

4) Photoshop. Play with it. Do fun things to your photos with it. If you don't have Photoshop, try to find a cheaper, similar program, where you learn how to do basic editing and resizing of images. Regular web work practically requires that you do at least simple image-editing in Photoshop or something similar.

5) Learn how to collect high-quality audio. Don't own a digital recorder yet? Why not? The recorders now on the market act like little flash drives. Mine -- an Olympus -- can hold audio recordings and music files. I plug in its USB drive into a computer and easily transfer high-quality audio into an audio-editing program. A good interview can easily turn into online content.

6) Online Social Networking. Try to stay out front in how people are networking online, whether it's Twitter or Facebook or some other application. Knowing how to quickly tap these networks for breaking news, feature story ideas, and source-building is both vital and efficient. My favorite online addiction right now is Twitter Search (search.twitter.com). Type in a keyword and you can see how people are using it on Twitter. Everyday, I monitor "Tweets" by geography, simply by searching for "Baltimore," "Towson", "Annapolis", and other relevant keywords.

7) The importance of databases. Kudos to one of our newsroom colleagues for offering to give Sun reporters some training in how to use Microsoft Excel and Access later this month. More than a year ago, I remember asking during a show-and-tell session with the "Ground Rent" team, for staff training in Excel and Access. I recall one manager saying that if any other reporter needed help with databases, they should just enlist the help of the three people in the newsroom who knew these two vital programs well. Well, a year later, two of those people took a buyout and the third is about to take a long break on extended maternity leave. The buyouts took several people out of the newsroom who knew how to do at least some computer-assisted reporting. We need to bring that knowledge back. Knowing how to work with databases is important, because the data can often be used to build interesting online applications (i.e. The Sun's homicide map.)

Lastly, I'll leave you with this link to an American Journalism Review story, which talks about how NPR (with assistance from a Knight Foundation grant), is spending $2.5 million to re-train its 450 journalists for a multimedia platform. I guess we're still waiting for Tribune, and all of its Zell money, to do the same. Since we're allegedly "partners," I suppose we have the right expect more training, so we could go out and do journalism in the 21st century.

But we can't hold our breaths waiting for that -- cuz it probably won't happen. For you, it is far too risky for the sake of your own future, to expect any training on the level of what NPR is doing. So go out and teach yourself to fish. You may not get to use these skills here, but I guarantee you that your next employer will expect this stuff from you.

Do you have any tips for how print journalists can adapt to doing their jobs on the Web? Share them below. (Please post useful stuff -- save the snark for your own blog.)

Update: Okay, a little snark is okay. Just make a good point, too, while you're at it.

Sigh

Ho-hum. It's another layoff rumor. This time, it can be found at DCRTV.com.

The news item quotes a "source" who cites the "word on the street" as his/her conduit for the information. Here's the brief:

More Cuts Coming To Sun - 9/30 - A source tells DCRTV: "Word on the street is that Sam Zell is planning to can another 100 people at the Baltimore Sun (and) baltimoresun.com in November. The rumor has been circulating around the marketing and advertising offices on Calvert Street".....

Come on, DCRTV, do a little more digging. How can you put something out there on the web without even calling The Baltimore Sun Media Group for a comment? Isn't that just irresponsible journalism? Just call 410-332-6000, get connected to a company spokesperson, and get a comment or a no-comment.

Share Our Content on Facebook and Beyond

Look up. Yes. Just above this line. Notice the little slick button that says "SHARE"?

Know what that means? It means you can take any blog post on "News Of The Sun," and share it with your friends and colleagues via the many different online social networking sites out there.

Now, with our content, you can "Digg" it, "Fark" it, "Twitter" it -- and more.

The world will never be the same. :-)

Next Dance Partner

The Baltimore Sun Media Group today announced a content-sharing partnership with WJZ (Channel 13), the local CBS news affiliate. The deal is about cross-promotion, with Sun print content getting promoted on television and WJZ video content getting featured on BaltimoreSun.com.

It's an interesting move on the part of BSMG. Some other Tribune newspapers operate in media markets where the Trib owns a local TV station, making for better "synergy" (supposedly). So the cross-promotion between newspaper and TV is presumably a little more seamless.

For the Sun, striking a deal with a local TV station is nothing new under the sun. In my 8+ years at the newspaper, this is the third deal. First, it was WMAR (channel 2), about five years ago or so. Next, a few years later, came WBAL (Channel 11) for a very brief time. Now, it's WJZ.

It seems WJZ's video will be showing up all over BaltimoreSun.com next month. They'll be selling and placing ads in front 0f the videos (something The Sun seems to have been unable to do on its own) and giving The Sun a piece of the revenue.

This really is a spot of good news, at least at this level: local television news across the land is generally notorious for using the local daily newspaper as a tip sheet for its own daily news reports. In our case now, WJZ gets to give us credit. (Nice move, Tim Franklin!)

But.

The push to include video on BaltimoreSun.com from a local TV affiliate, some might argue, is a departure from the Web video strategy laid out for the newsroom several years ago. The push was for "YouTube-quality" news video -- nothing too slick or overly produced, we were told. Just a video news report that a busy print reporter could record quickly while out on the street. A video editor would chop it together and throw it up on the web. We're talking basic stuff: crime scene video, a two minute interview with a politician. No standups in front of a camera, no TV "style" -- in fact, the Tribune Interactive training manuals didn't want our web video to be anything like TV reports.

During the last contract negotiation, management made a big deal of allowing reporters the flexibility to pick up a video/photo camera. But -- and this is my interpretation of this -- management wasn't willing to pay its reporters a little more to do video/photos. And the union wasn't going to allow management to evaluate a print reporter's performance in doing video/photos.

The result? Reporters had neither a carrot (more pay) or stick (fear of a negative performance review) in picking up a video camera. Thus, our development of Web video is not as far along as it could -- or should -- be right now.

So now, we have WJZ. We hope the dance works out. We hope we can learn a few moves from each other. We hope it makes both sides lots of money.

Movers & Shakers

Baltimore Sun Media Group's chief financial officer Erik Smist is leaving to be director of finance and administration at Johns Hopkins Press, according to an all-staff email today from Sun Publisher Tim Ryan. Mr. Smist's last day is Monday.

Mr. Smist had been with BSMG since 1986. Management will be seeking a replacement, according to Mr. Ryan's email. Good luck, Mr. Smist.

850,000 Pageviews

Despite the travails at the LA Times, their coverage of the commuter train disaster last week was notable. And one of the reasons it was so, we learned from Poynter today, is because of their ability to collaborate extremely quickly and roll-out an amazing online database for their website. (see sample database entry above.)

This database was made possible because there were news people -- including a database pro with a journalistic background -- who immediately recognized the drama and human interest potential of this tragedy. They quickly collaborated to turn around a powerful -- and elegantly designed -- online program that featured salient details about each dead victim. And in doing so, they provided a noteworthy public service.

Their hardwork in a span of just 24 hours was rewarded. In coming days, their hyperlocal database of crash victims garnered 850,000 pageviews and 1,500 comments as of Wednesday, according to Poynter's Chip on Your Shoulder blog. (Read the interview with the key newsroom players involved in the database's creation -- and as of tonight, it had more than 1,800 comments.)

They were able to do this because reporters, editors, and computer geeks worked together. It was the first time they rolled out such a database on such an intense deadline.

Said Ben Welsh, the database creator:

To me the site started as simply a way to quickly disseminate the fatality list, was sketched in by our staff to become a collection of obituaries, and along the way flowered into a community conversation. We did our part, and then set things up so the readers could do theirs.

What's also notable, according to the blog, is that those involved departed from Tribune's content management system to use a more flexible web database development platform, called Django.

Not only did they work together, they broke the mold in doing so. This, my friends, is the definition of AWESOME.

For years now, the Guild at The Baltimore Sun has pushed for this type of collaboration. But that collaboration starts with bringing the Sun's newsroom and Website teams together, which hasn't happened yet.

For us to attempt a similar undertaking now, it would probably take far longer than 24 hours to build and deploy, as the few people with the knowledge to make it happen are tied up with other Website properties (i.e. bthesite.com, which supports the "b" free tabloid daily launched earlier this year by Sun publisher Tim Ryan, or the community newspaper sites).

The union wants this type of collaboration. We wanted this awhile ago.

850,000 pageviews.

Required Reading?

Are you an "integrator," a "net-newser," a "traditionalist," or a member of the "disengaged"?

Well, if you're reading this blog, I'm gonna bet you fall into the first two categories, based on a Pew Research Center study released last month.

The study is the Pew center's biennial "news consumption" survey and it does just that: breaks down how people are consuming print, radio, online and television/cable news.

Click here to find it. Here's one scary lil' finding:

In spite of the increasing variety of ways to get the news, the proportion of young people getting no news on a typical day has increased substantially over the past decade. About a third of those younger than 25 (34%) say they get no news on a typical day, up from 25% in 1998.

In a nutshell, the report breaks down its American news consumers into the four categories I mentioned above. The most desirable audience are the first two: integrators, who are older and consume a mix of online, tv and print media, and net-newsers, who are younger (median age 35) and tend to stay mostly online for their news.

The people in these categories have the money and the interest in the news, and they're more likely to crave national and political news as part of their daily fix. "Traditionalists" (aka TV news watchers) still make up a major minority in the demographic breakdown. But the young folk are watching more video online, so TV news may be in the fight for its life in a few years.

I hope everyone who works at The Baltimore Sun reads this report.

Anatomy of a MooseShag

The "b", the Baltimore Sun Media Group's free daily which is meant to kick-start the daily conversation, did just that yesterday. The conversation seemed to continue through today.

And yes, I can't believe I'm even writing about this, but here goes....

The cover of the "b" yesterday featured a young man with the huge, vertical headline of a word that begins with "D," stands for an item connected to gynecological hygiene, and rhymes with "MooseShag," which will be used from here on in as the replacement term. (Curious to read an independent definition of the actual word? Check out this Wiki.)

Inside, in Anatomy of a MooseShag, the article's author explored the contemporary cultural meaning of MooseShag -- a term which I, now in my mid-30s, probably last used seriously in early high school. Apparently, the word's been dusted off and appropriated by the young folk, and given this wonderful cultural revival in our daily lexicon of bad names we can call each other.

So yes, people seem to like to have semi-serious debates about who's a MooseShag and who's not. It's happening, in fact, all over the darn Internet. Crazy!

Anyhow, you can imagine the debate that ensued. Journalists at The Baltimore Sun -- the daily newspaper whose revenues apparently continue to bankroll the "b" -- were shocked. Shocked, I tell you!

The "b"'s editor wrote a letter to some journalists who previously complained to Sun publisher Tim Ryan (whose idea was to launch the "b" earlier this year) about the MOOSESHAG]! cover. The memo got leaked to Romenesko, of course.

Sure, journalists at a daily metro broadsheet newspaper would cringe at a sister tabloid that screams such a headline across the cover. It goes against our grain as newspeople, but also as participants and contributors in the daily discourse of civil society. Sure, we "get" there's a segment out there that loves to chatter away about "MooseShaggery." (Apparently, a word, according to the "b.")

Comments on the "b"'s Website pertaining to the article were brisk, but it certainly wasn't a tidal wave of online interaction, the way, say, Susan Reimer's controversial column on Repub VP-pick Sarah Palin generated 9,700+ responses on the Baltimore Sun's website. The "b"'s Anatomy of a MooseShag article, by comparison, had 29 comments as of 5:52 p.m. today.

We'd guess that most readers who pick the "b" up were either amused or ambivalent, or mildly disgusted, but hey, whaddya gonna do? Complain about something you get for free? That's such a MooseShag thing to do.

No, I suspect that us media folk -- especially workers at The Baltimore Sun who are a part of the Guild and who saw many of their professional colleagues leave last month -- probably talked about it more than anyone else. Out of sheer irritation. Here's why:

The Baltimore Sun Media Group last month jettisoned 55 journalists as part of a major cost-cutting measure, many of whom made indelible marks on Maryland news over decades, and chose instead to invest in a product that screams "DOUCHEBAG!" to its readers.

Oops, I mean: MooseShag!

Angry Journalists

A group of former LA Times staffers, including Walter F. Roche (a former Baltimore Sun investigative reporter) filed a class action lawsuit today in federal district court in California against Sam Zell (left), several sources are reporting.

Some of you may remember Wally Roche and the great work he did at the Baltimore Sun. Public information officers all over the state of Maryland probably still remember -- and cringe -- at the thought of dealing with Wally Roche, a tireless, dogged journalist. Now, Wally Roche (and some of his high-powered journo buddies at the LAT) get to be Sam Zell's problem.

Check out LAObserved and Chicago Business for their coverage. The press release journalists put out called the $8.2 billion deal that Sam Zell put together to buy Tribune "a scam." Tribune officials didn't have a comment yet.

Much of this ESOP stuff can get really complicated. To get a sense of where the plaintiffs may be coming from, you may want to read up on some columns written by Allan Sloan, of the Washington Post. Start with this one, about what a deal to sell the Chicago Cubs might look like and how it might be structured.

Zellapalooza?

Sam Zell, chairman and CEO of Tribune, apparently likes to throw himself extravagant birthday parties. At this year's bash, in Chicago (slated for Sept. 27), not only will it likely be another fancy affair, it will also feature aging rockers, The Eagles, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.

How cool is that? Most people for their birthdays are lucky to maybe have a karaoke bash where they get a chance to sing Eagles' songs horribly out of tune. Sam Zell gets to hire the band!

The Sun-Times columnist seems to take pleasure in needling Sam Zell over his spending of what is presumably large amounts of presumably his own money to hire the Eagles. The columnist even breaks out the italics to describe Tribune's financial woes as "huge." I'm sorry: huge. He even dropped the word bankruptcy in there. Yikes! Stop using that word, dude.

Anyhow, in the past, columnist Sun-Times Bill Zwecker reports, such big stars as Elton John, Aretha Franklin, the Beach Boys, Little Richard and Bette Midler have played Zellapalooza.

My favorite part of the column is the anonymous quote from a past Zellapalooza party-goer, who seems to defend the conspicuous consumption at these affairs:

''You do have to remember these parties employ a lot of people as waiters, carpenters, caterers and the like ... and they are well paid to work on Sam's parties.''

Who knows, maybe some out-of-work journalists who've moved on to other careers will get to attend the party, too -- as "carpenters, caterers and the like."

Thank goodness for trickle-down economics.

Movers & Shakers

The Baltimore Sun's managing editor, or No. 2 newsroom chief, announced today that he is resigning.

Bob Blau had been at the Sun nearly four years and guided some great journalism into the newspaper. (Check out his official bio at the Sun's Website.) The guy loves journalism, plain and simple. We wish him much luck in his future endeavors. There was no word on his future plans.

In his own humble and collegial words, here's a snippet from Bob's email to staff today:

Those of you now charged with navigating The Sun’s future course should know that you are among the best in the business. You have won more prizes than I can keep track of. You have outhustled and outsmarted the competition with a rare combination of scrappiness and sophistication.

In emails from Editor Tim Franklin and Publisher Tim Ryan, it was not immediately clear if Baltimore Sun Media Group management will re-fill the managing editor position, or simply eliminate it entirely. The two deputy managing editors who reported to Bob -- Marcia Myers and Paul Moore -- will now report to Tim Franklin.

Journos Blogging for Journos

"Friday is here. Most of our colleagues who opted for the buyout and were approved depart this day. It is striking to see the talent walking out the door."

The line above could've applied to what we went through at The Sun last month. But actually, it was written by a blogger who's helping keep staff at the Dallas Morning News informed about the painful contractions they're going through, too. Here's a snapshot of their blog -- NewsBuyout2008:



The blog has been covering the job losses and nitty-gritty details of buyouts and layoffs. Like us at The Sun, they've also been trying to take care of their own, by posting journalism and media-related jobs and seeking advice from ex-staffers who survived leaving the paper and moving on to another career. (Our separate jobs blog is private for now.)

Though we're half a country away, journalists in Baltimore and Dallas share in the impulse to keep their colleagues connected in this time of crisis. I'm sure the DMN and the handful of Tribune-related blogs aren't the only ones where journalists are trying to keep their colleagues informed.

Let's try to find them all.

I'll set up a link list in the middle column. If you find one, post in the comments section or email the link to us at newsofthesun(at)gmail(dot)com, and we'll update the list.

Thank you.

Tribune and Google Duke It Out

You may have heard by now: an automated Google program (aka, a "bot") is catching blame for a major Web glitch connected to a Tribune Website that caused a big airline's stock to tank this week.

(Aside: I bet that poor, dumped-on Google bot is now wishing it was in a union. Hehe.)

The back story: Google News plucked an old report about United Airlines declaring bankruptcy in 2002 off the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Website -- and then disseminated it as new news in 2008.

Shares of UAL plummeted (check out the scary drop here -- via Google Finance no less!) because the story spread all over the world through Google News on Monday. The Wall Street Journal covers the headache with this latest dispatch. Here's the interesting back-n-forth between Tribune and Google in the WSJ article:

Tribune said it previously had identified problems with Google's automated search service and had asked Google to stop trolling Tribune Web sites for inclusion in Google News.

"Despite the company's earlier request and the confusion caused by Googlebot and Google News earlier this week, we believe that Googlebot continues to misclassify stories," Tribune said.

Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said in a statement: "The claim that the Tribune Company asked Google to stop crawling its newspaper Web sites is untrue."

Tribune said it can back up the claims in its statement.

The story even got picked up by Bloomberg news service.

Interestingly, the LA Times has a more detailed story about how the snafu happened (Yay LAT!). And it makes one wonder some more about where the original problem and blame may lie. See the story here.

Again, what an unfortunate headache for everyone. Maybe a few real people are still kinda/sorta/maybe still necessary for putting out the news.

P.S. One thing we don't understand is how a six-year old story on a Tribune website can still be available to the public when it's generally the policy of its Websites to lock the stories behind a paid archive system two weeks after they're published. How is this full story even still available for free on the Sun-Sentinel's Website?

This web stuff.... sheesh. It's confusing, I know.

UPDATE: Just a thought -- Maybe Google will use this as a teachable moment and hire, oh, about 2,000 unemployed reporters and editors to help make sure the integrity of their news dissemination service isn't compromised.