NYT reportedly sells off regional partners

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the gutting started at the top at some of the papers, especially in Florida. The CEO of Halifax is also the publisher in Daytona. If I'm a publisher at any of the Florida papers, I'm nervous.

 

Isn't Halifax Media owned by Warren Stephens, of Stephens Media, which owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal?

 

I used to work at one of the NYT regional newspapers. I started in 1984, a few years after the Times acquired the paper. After I was there six months, they opened a new building with a new press. I was told at the time that either the press itself or the press and building cost $10 million. I know a few years ago, they replaced that press with a new one. I'm not sure how much they paid for the new press but you have to figure more than $10 based on inflation alone. Seeing that the papers sold for an average of $10 million or so shows the condition of the industry these days. If I'm correct with my numbers, plus taking into account the additional employees that were hired after the paper was purchased by the Times, it would seem the Times took a big loss in selling a paper, that in and of itself, is a money-maker...I have a question. When I left the paper, it offered of 401K but still had a definded retirement plan. I rolled over the 401K. I'm wondering about the defined retirement plan. It was my understanding retirement plans are an annuity so the future retiree is protected. Should I contact the current HR person for more info? My brother worked at a union petro-chemical plant and had salary and benefits coming out the wazoo. The company was sold; the new company filed bankruptsy and once it came out of Chapter 11 or whatever, they employees lost all their retirement benefits. Can anyone share an insight on how this works? Unfortuately, it seems way too many people on this site have some sort of experience dealing with this stuff.

 

With a decided lack of expertise, I thought that a law was passed a few years back that protected pensions.

Check under Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and obviously, take it at Wikipedia's worth, but no reason to doubt this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_Protection_Act_of_2006

 

You just described a couple at my current shop, with the only difference being that they've been there substantially longer, are both editors (she's a top editor, he's about as low on the assignment editor ladder as you can get because he's awful) and are in their late 50s.

 

How does the person who is awful keep his job?

 

His wife has a lot of influence, and he's been around long enough that no one is going to step on his toes. And he's got other friends in high places.

 

My understanding was if vested- which by law occurs after five years- in a defined contribution pension plan the government insurance covered your pension up to a limit of about 45K a year. Not sure at what age you could collect this. But I grew up near the Denver airport and knew both Continental and United employees who kept their defined benefit penisions when those companies went through Chapter 11.

But if your plan calls for you to receive one percent a year and you have ten years vested and are 40 then your future benefits stop when the plan is terminated. So if you are making 60K a year your pension will be 6k at 62 or whenever. In 22 years that 6K will be worth a lot less due to inflation.

And the NYT said they sold the papers for 143M but expect to receive a 150M benefit. That means they will get about a 7M back from a tax loss, which means they lost about 20M from the cumulative purchase prices. Given how long they have owned some of those newspapers- the story said the Gainesville paper won the Pulitzer Prize if 1971 so it sounds the company owned that for at least 40 years- the decline in value is incredible.

And the NYT has over a billion invested in their New England properties. McClatchey sold the Minneapolis Star-Tribune because they could receive a 200M refund. If things don't get better the NYT may sell the New England properties for a nominal price just to get the tax refund to pay down debt. I have never worked at an NYT property but from a distance they seemed to be above average employers. To see them throw the regional employees off the ship this way demonstrates how desperate ta ht company has gotten and I fear for the folks in Massachusetts.

And I reiterate that if you work at a NYT property that has been sold, best wishes.

 

Versatile, yeah I get the politics. I've seen it every gig.

 

Well, I'm still here

 

Politics. You fire the person who is awful, you'll lose the person who is great.

Hell, there's a well-known SE (might be a ME by now...) who has dragged his incompetent wife to some of the best papers in the country by now. When she took over, someone asked how bad she was and the response was, "I've had interns who are better than she is..."

It's been 12 years, she's still there...

 

I get it Mizzou. I really do. Even if it isn't fair.