CONTRACT EXPIRES

CANWEST WATCH

Canwest soap opera

Source-.mediaunion.ca/

The restructuring process, including finding a buyer(s), for Canwest newspapers gets more curious with every filing of new material to the court-appointed monitor’s website.

So far this week, a reading of the new documents reveals a nasty power struggle between important financial interests who are secured creditors and no-less important financial interests who are unsecured creditors — with Leonard Asper apparently on the losing side. There are also hints of soap-opera-like betrayals at the senior management level and other indications of dissent at the top.

While the court ruled today that secured creditors (primarily Canada’s big five banks) will not have a formal veto over bids and also added a week to the first round of the bidding process, the anger of unsecured creditors jumps off the pages of their submissions to the court. They did not want Canwest to enter CCAA and neither did Leonard Asper. For a taste of the comments by unsecured creditors see our story about developments yesterday. For the Asper angle download and read his Jan. 4, 2010 letter here Asper letter (10).

As for betrayal at the top, download and read former Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills’ affidavit about how he and other retired Canwest executives had their pensions slashed here Mills letter (19).

Reading this and two other former senior executives’ affidavits must suggest to current senior managers just how far loyalty to the company gets them.

For me the whole CCAA process is yet another reminder of the importance of union solidarity. We need to look after each other as best we can, because the system can be pretty cruel.

Gary Engler

At least 26 express interest in Canwest papers

Source-.mediaunion.ca/

At least 26 prospective investors have so far expressed interest in making bids for Canwest newspaper assets, according to documents filed Monday with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as part of Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings.

“As of January 25, 2010, fifteen prospective acquirers and/or investors had executed confidentiality agreements,’ according to an affidavit by Thomas C. Strike, President of Canwest Global and the “LP Entities are currently in negotiations over the terms of confidentiality agreements with eleven additional prospective acquirers and/or investors.”

The current Sale and Investor Solicitation Process (SISP) initiated as part of Canwest’s CCAA filing outlines a seven-week period during which interested parties can kick Canwest’s tires before submitting a formal expression of interest. Any parties whose expressions of interest are approved by a committee of secured creditors get a further seven-week period to come up with a formal bid.

An application to lengthen and make other changes to the rules of this sales process has been made by a committee of unsecured creditors. The court will begin hearing arguments on this application Tuesday (Feb. 2).

An affidavit submitted by the managing director of a New York firm hired as financial advisers to the committee of unsecured creditors argues that the current sales process “merely gives the Secured Lenders the opportunity to obtain what they consider best for themselves” and “favors an all cash bid, over a restructuring transaction that considers all options that are available.”

Mark Hootnick of Moelis & Company also argues that the current sales process gives too much power to the secured lenders. “Giving such power to a small group of the Secured Lenders does not ensure that the sales process will obtain the maximum benefit for all stakeholders. Instead, such a process merely gives the Secured Lenders the opportunity to obtain what they consider best for themselves.”

He also criticizes the timetable for making bids and the involvement of Canada’s big banks. “It will be difficult and time consuming for a bidder to raise in the range of $1 billion and that difficulty will be compounded by the need to ensure that the business will continue to meet the Canadian ownership requirements of the Income Tax Act. That difficulty is further compounded by the fact that the Steering Committee of the Senior Lenders includes all of Canada’s major chartered banks who may be unwilling to support competing bidders if they prefer their own bid.”

Stay tuned. Clearly, a battle between secured and unsecured creditors is taking place over the terms and conditions of the sales process.

Documents filed in the CCAA proceedings can be At least 26 downloaded at: http://cfcanada.fticonsulting.com/clp/

Potential bidders for Canwest newspapers

Source: financialpost.com
read story here

Does Journalism exist?

Source:  guardian.co.uk  

read story here

Source: observer.com

read story here

Canwest Known Creditor List.

view entire list

CanWest's woes haunt auction

Friday, January 15, 2010
Source - theglobeandmail.com/     read entire story here

TO ALL GUILD MEMBERS:

As you are probably aware the anticipated has occurred with Canwest Publishing (daily and community newspapers and Internet holdings) filing for Creditors protection today (Fri. Jan. 8, 2010) in an Ontario court. The filing doesn`t include the National Post.

What this means is that all legal actions and creditor claims are frozen thereby allowing Canwest the ability to restructure under the Companies`Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

The processing of grievances will continue but outstanding Arbitrations will be put on hold and any grievances to be committed to Arbitration will need to have the approval of the court to proceed or they will be put on hold while the CCAA (Creditors Protection) is in effect.

The senior lenders (the national banks) have made a base offer for the publishing group to remain intact and in Canadian hands and bids will be open next week for the sale of the entire publishing group and other offers are expected.

The National Union CWA-SCA Canada and your Local: Victoria-Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild has and will continue to take all necessary steps to protect your interests regardless of what happens to Canwest. This includes but is not limited to the hiring of a 4 person legal team.

As stated in a memo sent to you in Oct. 2009 the business will continue as usual with the paper being produced and the Collective Agreement (contract) remains in force so all wages and benefits continue to be paid while the CCAA process unfolds.

We will continue to keep you updated by Email and will hold membership meetings once more info is available.

Thank you for your patience and support.

The Guild Executive

Victoria-Vancouver island Newspaper Guild  

NEWS RELEASE 

CWA Canada wants Canwest newspapers to survive, thrive

January 8, 2010 / OTTAWA — CWA Canada is prepared to meet with prospective buyers of Canwest newspapers, which went on the auction block today when the company sought bankruptcy protection for its publishing division.

There has already been a lot of speculation about who would ultimately buy the papers and whether it would be a single purchaser.

"It's more important that the newspapers survive and thrive, than whether they have a single owner," says Arnold Amber, Director of CWA Canada, which represents about 800 employees at Canwest newspapers in Montreal, Ottawa, Windsor, Regina and Victoria. "Chain ownership hasn't always been good for local news. We hope the buyer or buyers are interested in good journalism and serving their community well." 

A group of lenders, led by the Bank of Nova Scotia, took control today of Canwest LP in a pre-arranged deal that coincided with the company seeking to restructure under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

The new owners of the National Post, 11 metro dailies, several dozen community papers and Internet properties include members of the international financial community.

"We trust that Canadian foreign ownership rules will be followed," says Amber.

The union is heartened by Canwest's assurances that all collective agreements, salary, group benefits and pensions will remain intact. However, Canwest says it won't offer the same protection to employees on "salary continuance." These are workers who received buyouts, but agreed to take the money in installments over many months. It is these payments that would be stopped.

"We believe these people should be covered by the collective agreement in effect at the time they left and we are consulting legal counsel to work on their behalf," says Amber.

Amber is reassuring union members that "Canwest newspapers will continue to publish as the restructuring process is under way. Union members will work their shifts as normal, receive their pay and will not see significant changes in their daily routines in the immediate future."

All collective agreements remain in force during the restructuring process. The pay and benefits due active employees will not change.

"Under Canadian law," says Amber, "if the company wants to alter the terms and conditions of our employment, our members have to agree to it."

CWA Canada's legal team will immediately file a notice of appearance, entitling the union to receive all materials submitted to the bankruptcy court. This will allow the union to monitor the proceedings and take any steps necessary to protect members' interests.

"Our role in the restructuring will be fundamental if there is any attempt to alter collective agreements, pension plans or working conditions. Therefore, we will be in a place where we can defend the rights of all of our members," says Amber.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Arnold Amber, Director, CWA Canada

416-399-2632

arnoldamber@cwa-scacanada.ca

Scotiabank now Canada's biggest publisher

BNS boss Rick Waugh is a newspaper baron, as CanWest LP files for creditor protection

Andrew Willis Globe and Mail Update
Last updated on Friday, Jan. 08, 2010 12:58PM EST

Source - theglobeandmail.com/blogs

read entire story here

CanWest Global Communications newspapers granted court protection

Source - theglobeandmail.com

read entire story here

Statement regarding Canwest LP CCAA filing

The following statement was issued by McMillan LLP, counsel to the agent bank for Canwest LP's senior secured lenders

TORONTO, Jan. 8 /CNW/ -
Canwest LP's senior secured lender steering committee, which includes representatives of Canada's five largest banks and members of the international financial community, supports the company's board of directors in its decision to proceed with a consensual CCAA filing. This was the result of more than six months of deliberation and discussion between the company and its creditors. The filing is in the best interests of its employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, by providing them with much needed certainty that the businesses will continue to operate.

Canwest LP's senior secured lenders wish to ensure that the going concern operations of the company are adequately protected. To do so, as part of the CCAA filing senior secured lenders have presented a fair, reasonable and fully-financed proposal to acquire the whole of the company's business as a going concern. After due diligence, it was determined there is value in acquiring the whole of Canwest LP's business, given the operating synergies that can be realized from a national chain of newspapers and online businesses.

Should the proposal be successful, the senior secured lenders will facilitate the creation of a new Canadian company with an independent board of directors to manage the ongoing operation of the assets. The majority of the company's voting shares would be Canadian owned, and all other standards required by the Canada Revenue Agency for media ownership would be met. The company would operate under a more viable and balanced capital structure with a lower debt burden, and it is planned to transition as soon as possible into a publicly-traded corporation.

Within the terms of the proposal, it is envisioned that the new company would retain substantially all of Canwest LP's employees and would assume all existing collective bargaining agreements and obligations related to rank-and-file employee pensions and benefits.

The senior secured lenders believe the new company would benefit from a strong competitive advantage with the leading English-language newspaper in each of its markets and a national flagship publication.

For further information: Ann DeRabbie, Spokesperson for the agent bank for Canwest LP senior secured lenders, (416) 933-1344

An independent reporter's guide to the 2010 Olympics

Source rabble.ca

read entire story at rabble.ca

Local retirees caught in Hollinger CCAA filing

Source: CEP 2000

Some retired former Local 2000 members may be adversely affected by the restructuring of Hollinger Canadian Publishing Holdings Co. that is currently underway.

Based on documents filed with the Ontario Court of Justice as part of an application under the Companies Creditors’ Arrangement Act (CCAA), it appears that some Medical Service Plan and other payments for medical benefits paid on behalf of Local 2000 retirees by Hollinger Canada could eventually be reduced or eliminated.

Any former Local 2000 member who receives a pension through the Hollinger Canadian Publishing Co. Retirement Plan can take comfort from the healthy financial shape of that plan. It is fully funded.

It is also important to note that the PNG pension plan is healthy and not affected by the Hollinger CCAA filing or Canwest’s current financial problems. The PNG plan is a standalone entity that is jointly administered by the trustees appointed by Local 2000 and the company.

However four smaller Hollinger Canada pension plans have significant unfunded liabilities. These are:

• The Hollinger Canadian Publishing Holdings Co. Pension Plan for the Employees of Newspapers Formerly Owned by Thomson Newspapers;
• Sterling Newspapers Company Pension Plan for the Employees of Newspapers Formerly Owned by Thomson Newspapers;
• The Hollinger Canadian Publishing Holdings Co. Plan for Employees Formerly Owned by Sterling Newspapers;
• The Journal Publishing Company Limited Employees’ Pension Plan.

Any former Local 2000 member who is receiving a pension from one of these four plans is at risk of having their pension reduced as a result of the CCAA process. Please contact Gary Engler at the union office if you are a member of one of these four plans.

(In addition, two Hollinger management retirement plans are unfunded. These are: The HCPH Co. Executive Retirement Arrangements and HCPH Co. Divisional Allowances /Top-Up Plan.)

Anyone affected by the Hollinger Canada restructuring should have received a letter from Ernst & Young dated Dec. 18, 2009, informing them of the company’s CCAA filing. The letter states that the court has appointed the Toronto law firm Koskie Minsky LLP to represent the interests of over 3,000 former Hollinger employees whose benefits payments may be affected by the CCAA filing.

Local 2000 is currently planning a joint strategy with our National Union regarding this CCAA filing. Please check this website regularly for updates.

CHCH retirees plead for pensions

Canwest says funds could fall 23% short

December 23, 2009
Steve Arnold

The people who used to tell Hamilton's stories on television are now pleading for someone to listen to their stories.

Specifically, they want Leonard Asper to hear about the hardship many of them will face if their former employer walks away from their underfunded pension plan.

In a package of poignant "victim impact statements" sent to the CEO of troubled Canwest Global Communications Corp. -- which owned Hamilton's TV station until this summer -- 29 of the 100 CHCH-TV retirees and their families ask him to ensure enough money is put up to save them from losing as much as 23 per cent of their pension income.

"It is not my fault that Canwest made bad business decisions which resulted in its present financial difficulty," wrote retired newsman Bob Ireland. "If the pension plan ends up being underfunded by any more than 15 per cent, it is conceivable that I may have to sell my home and look for cheaper accommodations, in the worst-case scenario, move in with one of my siblings."

Former CHCH anchor Capers in 2007 summed it up this way: “Newspapers are still far from dead, but the language of obituaries is creeping in.” The energy and relative glamour of Web sites and the job opportunities they represent are an important off-setting trend. But as has been said countless times now by all who follow the field, commentary and opinion and the rise of the blogosphere are no substitute for real reporting, even if they are cheaper and faster to produce.

This is the prize season for newspapers, and the work being honored is an annual affirmation of the profound effect newspapers at their best have on the nation. Reporters do what no one else can in documenting wrongdoing and negligence. By definition, what they choose to write about is what becomes news and determines how the rest of us are informed. If advertising and circulation will not support reporting in the years ahead, other ways to do it will have to be found; think of publicly supported radio, no longer dependent on the federal government because of underwriting and individual contributors. 

The launch of ProPublica, the investigative project funded mainly by philanthropists Herb and Marion Sandler and led by Paul Steiger, is a start. So is Global News Enterprises, a Web start-up based in Boston that will have stringers around the world and has financing from people who seem to know what they are doing. According to PEJ, there are a variety of locally based startups emphasizing community news. The tradition of entrepreneurship in the news business is strong.

In the meantime though, the idea that newspapers are in inexorable decline really hurts. The people in the newsrooms and the constituencies they serve need to be persuaded that this crisis will end. A respected elected state official whose capitol newspaper has eliminated its environmental and legal beats, among others, asked me the other day whether newspapers will be around in ten years, with the underlying assumption of the question being that they will not be, at least not in their present form. The question is not really about the format—the paper they are printed on—but rather about the indispensable role they play in our society.onnie Smith wrote of her feeling of betrayal at facing such a loss after 30 years of unpaid public appearances and other services for the station.

"I believe I helped define the face of CHCH-TV for three decades," she wrote. "My commitment to accuracy, sensitivity to those I interviewed, good storytelling and a strong and positive relationship with our viewers contributed to the value and stature of CHCH-TV.

"We deserve the pensions we were promised and are owed.

"When giant organizations can get away with walking away from their obligations to the people at the grassroots level ... there is something severely wrong with our society."

The statements are part of a continuing campaign by the retirees to get Canwest to top up their pension fund. The pool is underfunded, meaning there's not enough money in it to meet the pensions employees were promised. If money isn't added, pensions will be cut, possibly by as much as 23 per cent. Those figures are based on funding in the pool at the end of 2008. A study is being prepared to measure changes this year.

Canwest is in bankruptcy protection, struggling under a $4-billion debt load. As part of its restructuring effort, it sold CHCH and other unprofitable TV stations and announced employee pension plans would be wound up and assets distributed to members.

"We just can't afford these kinds of cuts," said retired cameraman Dave Cremasco. "Our pensions aren't indexed so what we've got now is what we've got."

Several of the statements note employees never had the choice of opting out of the CHCH pension -- a fact that limited what they could contribute to personal registered retirement savings plans.

Pauline Shackleton, whose husband Bill worked in the station's newsroom for 30 years, said he spent his final days reviewing pension documents to be sure his wife and disabled daughter would be cared for.

"He left this world thinking I would receive his pension till I die," she wrote. "Not only do I not have Bill with me to help care for our daughter ... I run the risk of losing my income which Bill contributed towards for 30 years."

Retiree Walter Mozewsky added that after years of retirement, his 74-year-old wife is now looking for work again as a medical secretary because of the impending pension loss.

Copies of statements were also sent to Canwest's bondholders, investment bank Goldman Sachs, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Canwest spokesperson John Douglas could not be reached for comment.

Google and paid content

read story here

GR EXTRA!

TNG-CWA Condemns Deadly Violence in Philippines, Pledges Support for Journalists

25 Nov 2009

Source The Newspaper Guild

The Newspaper Guild-CWA, on behalf of its 30,000 members in Canada and the United States, expresses its solidarity with the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in condemning the violence that has led to the loss of at least 57 lives, including a reported 22 journalists, two days ago.

We share the sorrow of their families and colleagues.

TNG-CWA calls on the Philippine government to fully investigate this massacre and bring the killers to justice.

We also call on the international community, the United Nations in particular, to remind all states of their responsibility to fully investigate and prosecute such attacks on journalists and media staff. We pledge our support for an international journalists’ mission to the Philippines to spotlight the crisis facing media there.

Goldman seeks more CanWest control

read story here   source  theglobeandmail.com

Good news - yes, good news - for newspapers

Canwest newspapers are making money, the circulation slide may be over and newspaper stocks are outperforming the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Recent news about the Canadian newspaper industry has sparked welcome confusion among those accustomed to charting the demise of ink on paper

After all, isn't news-on-the-stoop an anachronism soon to follow typewriters to the museum? Aren’t high-quality newsrooms being sacrificed to the Internet, niche publications and bloggers who have more free time than skill? Yes and no. The newspaper industry is still in peril, but for the first time in a long time, there are also signs of hope.

John Honderich, chair of Torstar Corporation, pointed out recently (during a speech at the 2009 Joseph Howe Symposium) that newspapers are far from money losers, despite the red ink that has washed across the bottom line of most newspaper companies in recent years.

Even Canwest, which filed for bankruptcy protection in early October, has a good-news story hidden in its last quarterly financial statements. The document filed in July shows that Canwest newspapers were still coughing up modest amounts of cash.

The newspaper segment of Canwest Global Communications had an operating profit of $152 million in the first nine months of the company’s fiscal year. That is down from the year before, but shows that the company took in more revenue from advertising and subscriptions than it spent on things like reporters, newsprint, computers, sales people and telephones. The red ink showed up after the company paid interest on its huge debt, and after it wrote off the declining value of its operations.

The good news is that the Canwest newspapers themselves are still viable businesses, if they aren't forced to service a huge debt as well as cover their own costs. According to Honderich, every single newspaper in the Canwest chain is showing an operating profit, with the exception of the National Post.

The Torstar financial statements tell a similar story, with an operating profit of $20 million in the newspaper segment in the first six months of the year.

Maybe that's why investors seem to be turning back to newspaper companies after deserting the sector.

Canadian newspaper companies have outperformed the S&P/TSX 60 substantially over the last three months. Torstar stock is up roughly 50 per cent. Quebecor is up 30 per cent. Even Canwest's penny stock briefly rose faster than the S&P/TSX 60, before it filed for bankruptcy protection and halted trading.

The most interesting and important news is what has happened to readership and circulation.

The most recent Nadbank study shows that newspaper readership is largely stable and that online newspaper readership is up 10 per cent.

But the bigger story is in circulation.

An analysis by Ken Goldstein, president of Winnipeg’s Communications Management Inc., suggests there may be a natural floor that newspaper circulation won’t fall below.

In 1950, as many daily newspapers were sold in Canada as there were households in the country. Even though circulation continued to grow for four more decades, it didn't grow as fast as the population. By 1990, the paid circulation of Canadian newspapers was only 60 per cent of Canadian households. Today it is less than 40 per cent.

The big question is whether circulation will decrease forever, until newspapers disappear, or will there be a natural leveling off where newspaper circulation will stabilize?

Goldstein segregated the results of English language and French language newspaper circulation. He found that the circulation of French language newspapers dropped further than English language newspapers, but then it leveled off.

French language newspapers in Canada have held their market for 10 years, selling roughly as many newspapers as 30 per cent of the households in Quebec every year since 1999. Goldstein suggests the same phenomenon might be seen in the rest of Canada soon.

The good news of operating profits, higher stock prices and circulation stability do not point to a solution for the crisis. The problems are very severe. Goldstein’s study also shows continuing declines in newspaper revenues. But the good news does inject a bit of hope into the debate over how to forge a new business model for public service journalism in the 21st century.

Kelly Toughill is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of King's College, Halifax and a contributing editor for the J-Source Business of Journalism J-Topic.

The short end of the Canwest stick

read entire story here source Macleans.ca

Canwest could fetch more than $1 billion for newspapers, say industry observers

read story here  By David Friend (CP) source - theecanadianpress.com

Gary Engler /  October 13th, 2009  - source mediaunion.ca/

Canwest’s newspaper division is paying $4 million of the $10 million in “retention bonuses” going to “three management directors, four key executives and 13 other key employees” as part of the bankruptcy protection filing by the company’s television division.

GRIEVANCES/ ARBITRATIONS/ ISSUES as of THURS. OCT. 1, 2009

click here to go to our GRIEVANCES/ ARBITRATIONS/ ISSUES page

Unions as relevant as ever

The predictable onslaught of anti-union articles about the crisis at the Chicago Sun-Times has already started. My favorite is the one that contends the paper deserves to die because ungrateful Guild members rejected sweeping concessions demanded by a potential buyer. Why aren’t they happy just to have a job?

Many of those Guild members won’t have jobs even if they do accept the concessions, so the more relevant question for us has to be what kind of contract they’ll have. The Guild has negotiated concessions all over the country during this bleak period, with no two resulting agreements alike. Our goal has been to bargain what is needed, given the reality of the particular situation.

So why, then, would multiple bargaining units in two separate locals vote four-to-one  not to accept the concessions demanded by Jim Tyree, a Chicago billionaire and power broker who is making noises about buying the Sun-Times? Tyree’s deal was put forward on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, but the specifics weren’t disclosed for weeks–and then it turned out he was demanding much more from the Guild than from any of the other Sun-Times unions, raising questions about why someone claiming to be union-friendly insists on gutting the Guild.

At the core of the disagreement are severance and job security, which under Tyree’s ultimatum would be negligible. The gun-to-the-head proposal comes amazingly close to employment-at-will, with all employees vulnerable to being tapped on the shoulder and asked to leave at any moment. But Tyree, in numerous interviews, has explained he needs complete “flexibility”–that without such carte blanche he might have to meet with union representatives to do what he wants. Which, when you think about it, is a strange point of view for someone who claims to respect unions and who also invests a lot of union money in his core business, at Mesrow Financial.

In truth, the Guild has had many conversations with Tyree and his representatives, working diligently toward that elusive balance between management flexibility on one hand and workplace protection and  dignity on the other. But because we won’t agree to “complete flexibility” on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, we’re accused of arrogance while Tyree publicly laments that after working for six months and spending half-a-million dollars in putting together his bid he should be able to get everything he wants.

Compare this one-sided approach to recent events in Portland, Maine, where the Portland Press-Herald and three other media properties were sold in a package that includes an employee stock ownership plan. More than a year of negotiations resulted in employees exchanging significant workplace and wage concessions for an equity stake in the company, while their  unions won seats on the board of directors. Among the happy results: a recent round of buyouts may make layoffs unnecessary. Joint labor-management committees meet regularly to improve the product and to revitalize the business model.

Critics of newspapers and other traditional news organizations claim that newspaper people have only themselves to blame for the current mess. There is some truth in this. Many newspaper organizations have been rigidly hierarchical, their lack of flexibility entrenched by years of fat profits. But when all that ended, with ad revenue migrating to the internet and the economy plunging into recession, the reflexive response too often was to shed front-line workers. Few of the critics, meanwhile, have questioned the vitality of a business in which all wisdom comes from on high while creative front-line workers are regarded as commodities. Those businesses are doomed to failure. Portland, on the other hand, is an attempt to try something different.

Sadly, things don’t feel all that different at the Sun-Times.

All mass media are rapidly restructuring, for better and for worse, and no one really knows what success will look like. But I’ll venture that whatever it is, it’ll come from the “creatives” who actually gather, edit and disseminate information–the ones getting kicked out the door by people with too much money and not enough sense.

So contrary to what our critics say, the Guild is not trying to hang on to the past–precisely because it’s mired in that self-defeating, top-down mentality. We’re more interested in building the future. We’re prepared to be flexible and to help management succeed. We believe there is still value in news organizations that have a critical mass, enough to provide quality news. We also know that smaller products and independent journalists have a vital role to play. Our goal is to follow the work and to advocate for those workers who provide quality content.

So when you see those stories that castigate the Guild for being hidebound and unwilling to change, don’t believe them. Instead, take a hard look at the facts and decide whether something new is being created, or whether it’s just one more attempt to perpetuate the old, unsustainable model.

And let’s hope that reasonableness prevails at the Sun-Times. We’re all in this together.

Even as their ship sinks, newspaper execs pocket the silver

Andy Zipser, Editor

29 Jul 2009

source: The Newspaper Guild

While Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase have become poster children for management greed run wild, their executive compensation practices are only the most extreme examples of a widening class divide. What's endemic to the financial industry is nearly as ubiquitous to the newspaper publishing business, in kind if not in scale. And that avarice is nowhere more evident than in bankruptcy court.

Five employers of Newspaper Guild members are in various stages of trying to reorganize their finances, a process that inevitably rips up contracts, breaks promises and imposes new working conditions with only minimal input from those affected. Although TNG-CWA has won a seat on all five unsecured creditors' committees wrestling with the ailing companies—Tribune Co., Sun-Times Media Group, Philadelphia Media Holdings, Journal Register Co. and Avista Capital Partners—the union is only one among many claimants scrambling for whatever crumbs they can salvage. Vendors, suppliers, utility companies, tax-collecting entities and landlords all have their hands out, and they stand in line behind secured creditors who in some cases will be lucky to get pennies on the dollar.

But there's one group that gets special preference at times like these, one group that apparently is more indispensable than any of the others just mentioned: top executives. Four of the five publishers listed above have given or attempted to give raises and bonuses to their highest paid employees, even as they've slashed payroll through layoffs and buy-outs, unpaid furloughs, wage cuts and outsourcing. While the numbed survivors struggle with higher health care premiums, loss of pensions and reduced work hours, those overseeing this wreckage have been telling bankruptcy judges that if they don't get more executive compensation, things will get really bad.

"Incentivizing employees is essential to Tribune's future success," Tribune's chief operating officer and its chief administrative officer wrote this month to a federal bankruptcy judge, seeking the court's approval of a plan to pay up to $47 million in management bonuses. "We must continue motivating our people to overcome obstacles, achieve our performance goals and take the company to the next level," they explained. A hearing on that request is scheduled for Aug. 11 in Delaware, with the Guild prepared to argue against it.

It wasn't all that long ago that employees—even at the executive level—were expected to overcome obstacles and achieve performance goals because that was their job; that's why they were paid. Bonuses were reserved for extraordinary performance. Moreover, employees were motivated—or so one hoped—to do their best for a variety of reasons that had nothing to do with money: loyalty to the employer, pride in one's work, a sense of responsibility.

Today's executive mercenaries, on the other hand, aren't affected even by remorse or guilt for their mistakes.  As observed by Guild President Bernie Lunzer, after a bankruptcy judge earlier this month rebuffed Guild attempts to block bonuses for Journal Register executives, "this was a heinous payout to the guys that basically ran the car into the ditch, and are now getting paid for having the ability to call a tow truck."

When Journal Register filed for Chapter 11 protection in February, it was approximately $695 million in debt and was worth only an estimated $300 million. Its former chief executive, James Hall, had jumped ship mere days earlier, but only after entering into a "transition and separation agreement" with the company's lenders (but not its unsecured creditors) in which they agreed not to seek "disgorgement" of his separation package. The bankruptcy filing did not specify just how much the separation agreement was worth.

Also not listed in the filing were the names of 31 "key employees" to whom Journal Register wanted to give   $1.7 million in an "incentive plan" so they would reach certain goals, although some of the deadlines for those goals had already passed. Among the tasks that needed this kind of incentivizing were the closing of some publications and the elimination of 450 full-time positions.

Joining the Guild in unsuccessfully opposing the bonuses were Central States, a multi-employer pension plan with $4.3 million in claims against the company, and the state of Connecticut, to which JRC owed $21.5 million in unpaid taxes. The state's assistant attorney general, Denise Mondell, argued that the "incentive plan" was a sham, given that the behavior it was supposed to incent had already occurred.  Congress had attempted to outlaw such retention plans,  Mondell argued, "as a result of increasing public sentiment against the practice of executives of bankrupt companies generously rewarding themselves during restructuring while at the same time the rank and file workers were suffering tremendous economic blows as a result of the bankruptcy."

Score one more for the executives.

Management attempts to shovel out such rewards anonymously, or even without acknowledging them at all, are not unusual. The Sun Times Media Group, for example, in June suspended its attempt to give out $1.8 million in bonuses to "certain employees" after the bankruptcy judge in its case refused to seal the courtroom and keep the specifics of the plan secret. Susan Kaufman, an attorney for the Chicago Guild, told Associated Press that " the public should be able to evaluate this plan," adding: "By sealing it, it's certainly not helping the morale of the work force."

Less than a month later, Crain's  Chicago Business reported that Sun Times had skipped paying its quarterly contribution into several employee pension plans, due April 15. The missed payments reportedly totaled more than  $800,000.

Philadelphia Media Holdings, meanwhile, tried to get ahead of the curve by giving publisher Brian Tierney a 38% pay raise—boosting his take to $850,000—two months before it filed for bankruptcy protection in February. News of the raise got out because it was disclosed in the court filing, but it took another month for the public to learn that the company's largesse hadn't stopped there: Tierney had also been given a $350,000 bonus, while two other top executives had received bonuses of $150,000 each.

PMH chairman Bruce Toll, who first responded to media inquiries by saying no bonuses had been awarded but who then acknowledged they had, conceded that the company's board of directors knew that its finances were "obviously not good" at the time. Nevertheless, he told Philadelphia Magazine, "we thought it was deserved," although "we can't get into the details because we're involved in bankruptcy proceedings."

That's not dissimilar to the story of the boy who killed both parents, then threw himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he was an orphan. It's also not atypical of an executive class that protects and rewards its own even as everything around them turns to ash: Toll, for example, retired as president of Toll Brothers, a publicly traded builder of luxury homes, more than a decade ago but continues to draw on its assets as though from a private bank account. In 2004 he was retained as a "special advisor to the chairman" at an annual compensation of $675,000 for three years—on top of the $230,000 a year he is getting for 20 years from the company's supplemental executive retirement plan.

In the end, it's really all about the money and nothing—nothing—else. That point was driven home yesterday in a CNBC interview with Sam Zell, the swashbuckling predator who in plundering Tribune Co. led it into bankruptcy court late last year. When interviewer Maria Bartiromo observed that he doesn't get emotionally attached to things, Zell demurred by saying he has an emotional attachment to his family. And to his motorcycles.

And what about a complex institution like Tribune Co., with its many properties, employees, customers, readers and other stakeholders? "I don't have any emotional attachments to assets," Zell declared.

Times Colonist/Canwest Wasting Money
As Guild Wins Unpaid Leave Of Absence

March 31, 2009

Arbitrator Stan Lanyon has ordered that an editorial deskperson will be able to start his one month unpaid leave of absence effective April 1^st, 2009
The Arbitrator gave this brief ruling with full details to follow in his written decision.

The member is pleased with the ruling as is the Guild with the Arbitrator upholding the provisions of our collective agreement.

During these difficult financial times for Canwest, the wasting of Times Colonist profit (and Guild money) on an unnecessary arbitration flies in the face of sound financial practices.

We will report more details when they become available.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Canada's Newspaper Readership High, But Not on the Web

By Jennifer Saba - Source: Editor and Publisher
Published: March 25, 2009 11:31 AM ET

NEW YORK Almost 75% of Canadian adults read a print edition of a newspaper each week, according to the Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank).

However, online readership is still very small. Only 4% of adults read newspapers online exclusively. Less than 20% of adults read a newspaper online during the week, a 13% increase over 2007.

The total reach of newspapers -- print and online -- in Canada is 77% on a weekly basis.

NADbank conducts readership studies on behalf of Canadian newspapers, advertising agencies, and advertisers.

As in the United States, more adults tend to read newspapers in smaller markets. NADbank reported that highest weekday readership of newspapers is in Cape Breton.

In the top 10 Canadian markets, Winnipeg has the highest readership.

Online newspaper readership is highest in Halifax: 30% of adults in that market have read a newspaper Web site each week. In Toronto, 23% of adults have read a newspaper Web site each week.

The Toronto Star -- both print and online -- reaches the most adults in Toronto weekly at 49%. Thirty-eight percent of adults in Montreal read Le Journal de Montreal on a weekly basis, more than any other newspaper in that city. The Ottawa Citizen reaches 49% of adults weekly in Ottawa-Gatineau. And in Vancouver, The Province narrowly beats the Vancouver Sun with 47% of adults reading the former. The Sun reaches 45% of adults.

A previous version of this story said La Presse had the highest total weekly readership.

It's Not Newspapers in Peril; It's Their Owners

Dailies Still Make Good Money, but Debt-Laden Publishers Post Losses

TC Photographer Darren Stone
and Legislature Columnist Les Leyne Nominated for National Newspaper Awards

Times Colonist photographer Darren Stone and legislature columnist Les Leyne have been nominated for National Newspaper Awards, the country's top journalism prize. The two Times Colonist finalists were among 63 in 21 categories nationwide announced Thursday.

Telus Hot Edict (Struck Work) Judicial Review Decision – Guild successfully defends contract language

A lengthy and acrimonious dispute between Telus and its Union (TWU) resulted in the BC Federation of Labour issuing a Hot Edict on Sept. 5, 2005 to apply pressure on Telus to end the dispute. The Unions at PacPress and the Times Colonist advised the Company they were invoking the Struck Work clauses (not running Telus Ads) in their respective collective agreements in support of the Hot Edict.

The Company responded by filing a grievance and the remedy it was seeking was for the Unions to cease and desist as well as a claim for damages. The Company also made application to the BC Labour Relations Board for an order that the Unions cease and desist what it characterized as an illegal strike. It was also seeking damages for lost revenue from the Unions. The Labour Relations Board (LRB) held that struck work clauses generally were not illegal under the Code. However, the LRB ordered the parties to proceed to Arbitration, to get an interpretation of the specific struck work clauses and in the interim the Unions were to cease and desist and the Unions complied. The Company then filed an application for  reconsideration of the decision to the LRB. The LRB dismissed the reconsideration application. The Arbitration was held in abeyance as the Company applied to the BC Supreme Court for judicial review of the BC Labour Board decisions.  The Supreme Court heard the application for judicial review on June 28, 29, 2007 and on Thurs. Jan. 31, 2008 the Supreme Court issued reasons for judgement which upheld the BC Labour Board decisions which decided that struck work clauses were not illegal under the BC Labour Code.

Justice Ballance, in making her decision stated:

“As part of this line of argument, the petitioner (Company) points to the fact that the collective agreement provisions at issue were negotiated before Bill 19 expanded the purposes to include minimizing the effects of labour disputes on third parties. It says that it is therefore not surprising, given the dynamic nature of the Code, that over time these hot declaration clauses have came to offend the ss. 2(f) purpose. The obvious flaw with this contention is the fact that, in this case, the hot declaration clauses have repeatedly been renewed in successive bouts of collective bargaining, including in the most recent round, long after this purpose was explicitly incorporated into the Code. “

If you wish to read the decision in its entirety please click here