YULI AHMADA: Newspaper Death Watch

Jumat, 28 Juni 2013

Newspaper Death Watch

Publisher Threatens to Close Newark Star-Ledger

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT

The ax is falling again at Advance Publications.

The company that cut back frequencies in rapid succession at its once-daily newspapers in New Orleans, Syracuse, Cleveland and, most recently, Portland, is now threatening to shut down the Newark Star-Ledger unless it wins substantial concessions from the paper’s unions.

Publisher Rich Vezza said the Star-Ledger, which is New Jersey’s largest daily, lost $19.8 million last year and will lose about the same amount this year this year. It’s threatening to outsource printing and production unless unions representing pressman, mailers, engravers and machinists make significant concessions by a September 27 deadline.

A union executive said union members are willing to negotiate but that the Star-Ledger has shown little interest in meaningful proposals. Ed Shown, president of the Council of Star-Ledger Unions, said the latest management proposal demanded a 55% cut in wages and benefits. The unions issued a joint statement challenging management’s $19.8 million loss estimate.

Vezza said the frequency cutbacks implemented at other Advance titles aren’t an option here. If an agreement isn’t reached, the paper will close at the end of the year, presumably idling its 771 employees. ”This is not a threat. This is reality,” he told Philly.com.

This is the second time management has threatened to shut down the Star-Ledger. It used a similar tactic to bring significant concessions from unions in 2008, when it also laid off 40% of its newsroom staff. Five years ago the paper employed 330 editors, but that number has since fallen by nearly half.

Other publishers have used closure threats of closure to pressure their unions. In 2009 The New York Times Co. forced major concessions at the Boston Globe and Hearst Corp. came within a few weeks of shuttering the San Francisco Chronicle before unions gave in.