Friday, August 29, 2008

Buyouts Announced at 'San Diego U-T'

AP (Associated Press)

Published: August 29, 2008 9:55 AM ET

SAN DIEGO The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday announced buyouts that aim to cut its staff by 76 positions, including 30 in the newsroom.

The offer comes barely a month after the newspaper's owner, Copley Press Inc., put itself up for sale.It is available to employees with at least five years at the company.

"Like other media and newspaper companies, we must adjust our cost structure to match our revenue," Drew Schlosberg, a spokesman for the newspaper, said in an article posted on the Union-Tribune's Web site.

The newspaper did not say how many employees it currently has.

Employees have until Sept. 11 to apply for a buyout and would leave the paper by Sept. 30. They would get two weeks of pay for every year worked, up to one year's pay.

Earlier this year, the Union-Tribune trimmed 10 percent of its work force, or 117 employees, through a combination buyouts and layoffs.


EDITOR & PUBLISHER Website

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Union Tribune Workers are Offered Buyouts

UNION-TRIBUNE

11:19 a.m. August 28, 2008

SAN DIEGO – The Union-Tribune Publishing Co., which publishes The San Diego Union-Tribune, announced Thursday that it was offering buyouts to its non-union employees.

From the archives
* July 25, 2008: Sale of
U-T explored by Copley Press

Its parent company, The Copley Press, said in late July that it was exploring strategic options for the company, including a possible sale.

The voluntary separation package provides two weeks of base pay for every year of continuous employment, up to one year's pay. It is available only to employees with more than five years of service.

The company announced the belt-tightening move in a news release and in internal e-mails and meetings with employees.

“We continue to be the leading local media resource in San Diego County,” Drew Schlosberg, the company's community and public relations manager, said in a statement. “But the economic situation continues to be difficult. Like other media and newspaper companies, we must adjust our cost structure to match our revenue.


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“Despite the challenges we face, we will continue to explore, create and offer products and services to grow audience and revenue.”

The company has been publishing newspapers in San Diego since 1868 and owned by the Copley family for 80 years.

It will be third round of buyouts for the company in just over a year and a half.

The company offered buyouts in December 2006 to employees who had been with the company for 30 years or more. Earlier this year, it reduced its work force by 10 percent through a buyout and layoffs. It currently has about 1,000 full-time employees.

The Copley Press also sold its other newspapers and the Copley News Service.

Despite declines in newspaper circulation that mirror those of other regional papers, the Union-Tribune still has the largest reach of any local media company, its products reaching more than 59 percent of San Diego County residents each week.

The Union-Tribune has an audited daily circulation of more than 285,000 (not 270,000, as was reported previously) and Sunday circulation of almost 364,000. Its daily circulation in the late week – Wednesday through Saturday – averages more than 314,000. Its Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com, attracts 3.6 million unique users in a typical month.

The company also publishes Enlace, the county's largest weekly Spanish-language news publication; Today's Local News, a free community paper distributed in the North County; and the Borrego Sun, a biweekly newspaper based in Borrego Springs.

The Union-Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize two years ago for exposing the bribes paid to former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who was convicted and sent to federal prison. The Tribune, the afternoon paper that was merged with the San Diego Union in 1992, had previously won two Pulitzers.

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Barack Obama at the 2008 DNC

Barack Obama spoke to an audience of 84,000 at Mile High Stadium, on August 28, 2008 in Denver, CO.





Joe Biden accepts the vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention with an inspiring and personal speech.



Former President William Jefferson Clinton spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, on August 27, 2008.




Senator John Kerry, former Democratic presidential candidate, spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 27, 2008.



Hillary Clinton spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 26, in Denver, CO.

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Monday, August 25, 2008

YES WE CAN!!!

Barack Obama speaks in Nashua, New Hampshire on the night of the primary. Highlight footage from the past week in New Hampshire included.




The Emmy Winning video "Yes We Can" is a collage style music video inspired by a speech delivered by Barack Obama following the 2008 New Hampshire primary, derived from similar union catch cries. The song was released on February 2, 2008 by the Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am on Dipdive.com and also on YouTube.

YES WE CAN was bestowed an Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches - Entertainment at the 35th Annual Daytime Creative Arts and Entertainment Emmy Awards Ceremony on June 13th 2008 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.


Yes, We Can! - Si, Se Puede!
Song & video, featuring a star cast, by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. Inspired by Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' speech.

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ACOUSTIC VERSION




08/04/08 Note:
Do you think saving up to $0.76 per gallon on gas is a joke?

John McCain does.

What does the Department of Energy, under Republican President George W. Bush, have to say about Barack Obama's "silly" plan for Americans to reduce energy consumption and save money?

-Lyrics-

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.


Celebrities featured include: Jesse Dylan, Will.i.am, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Disability At Work

Employee Handbooks

How To Sue For Discrimination

Can I sue the boss for discrimination? Do I have a case? Where do I turn for help?


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How to Fire Someone the Right Way

Employee Regulation

How To Regulate Employees

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Summer Fun

Happy Days, the 164-foot yacht of Union-Tribune publisher David Copley, is still trolling lazily along the French Riviera. On July 30, six days after Copley announced the U-T was for sale, the craft was spotted pulling into the International Yacht Club of Antibes after a short voyage from Monaco.…READ MORE>>>


The San Diego Union-Tribune puts itself for sale up for sale; Real States weakness hits it!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Where It's Headed

From Cafe San Diego

There are so many predictions and prognostications about where the media and online marketing are headed that it's tough to really know what the landscape will look like in a few years. What we can count on is that it will be different from what it looks like today.

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows these key findings:

48 percent of national journalists say papers will appear in print for one to two more decades.

42 percent of national journalists think networks will continue nightly news show for under 10 years.

38 percent of local journalists believe networks will continue nightly news shows for 10 n 20 years.

37 percent of internet journalists say newspapers will print on paper for more than 20 years.

When you look at those numbers, you know that the way we currently get our information and entertainment is going to change pretty radically in the not-so-distant future. Ten to twenty years goes really fast, I'm here to tell ya. And I think those numbers may be optimistic. READ MORE>>>

Newspaper Decline to Continue through ‘09

The shaky economy will also continue to negatively affect newspapers. If the fourth-quarter holiday season arrives fraught with economic woes, the bottom is likely to fall out of national and retail ad revenues, which are already suffering. During an economic downturn, digital media will soar at the expense of print, Doctor predicts. READ for more NEWSPRINT >>>

KUSI Explores Bid for ‘Union-Tribune’

The San Diego Union-Tribune may have an interested buyer. The owner of the city’s KUSI/Channel 51 TV station has said he is talking to potential partners about the possibility of making a bid for the paper.

The station’s owner, Michael D. McKinnon, does not want the paper sold to a distant corporation, he says (via the Tribune).READ MORE>>>

KUSI owner exploring making a bid for U-T (Article on UT)

Clinton D. McKinnon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

San Diego Union-Trib Ponders: Who Will Buy this Beautiful Paper?

The San Diego Union-Tribune is for sale - but, with the newspaper industry in a fine pickle, it is difficult to imagine who would be willing to snap it up.

“Given the devastation and uncertainty in the industry, it is unlikely that a public company would make a large purchase right now, as they would have their head handed to them,” Lauren Rich Fine, a retired Merrill Lynch newspaper analyst who teaches at Kent State University, is quoted as saying in The Voice of San Diego.READ MORE>>>