100+ take Post buyout

[Moderator1]

Details here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR2008052203753.html?hpid=moreheadlines

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Stephen Hunter is one of the best film critics around...

 

[WaylonJennings]

Interesting that they named names. I seem to remember a crusty board veteran ripping me mercilessly as a snot-nosed know-nothing for suggesting the New York Times should have done so.

 

[BTExpress]

Interesting that they named names. I seem to remember a crusty board veteran ripping me mercilessly as a snot-nosed know-nothing for suggesting the New York Times should have done so.

Not really.

The NYT had layoffs. WaPo had buyouts only.

If WaPo names the names of people they lay off, kick to the curb . . . get back to us.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Although I hate to say it, but the only difference between buyouts and layoffs these days, is you can collect unemployment after a layoff...

I know several who have taken buyouts who feel like they were fired.

 

[Joe Williams]

Although I hate to say it, but the only difference between buyouts and layoffs these days, is you can collect unemployment after a layoff...

I know several who have taken buyouts who feel like they were fired.

Spot on, Mizzou.

-- When you are encouraged to leave because your five-figure salary going forward is more burdensome to the seven-figure suits and profiteers than your years of service and talents to still produce strong journalism are worth retaining ...

-- When your life's work and professional passion mean nothing to so many of the bosses for whom you have busted a gut, disrupted your personal life, sacrificed many luxuries and put the product and the readers first ...

-- When you are nudged toward the door not only by a one-time payoff but by the implicit -- or in some cases, explicit -- threat that you might not like the, er, next role you're moved into and "gee, you might think twice at that point about your decision to stay" ...

-- When the average buyout leaves you with less cash, in terms of multiples of annual earnings, than what a lawn service guy would sell his business for to some kid down the block, yet it beats the very real prospect of being put on the street with minimal severance pay ...

-- When an editor-in-chief presides over one or more rounds of buyouts and then, in his/her first staff meeting afterward, lies loudly about how much leaner and efficient the newsroom will be ...

-- When a story comes up that just cries out for some local historical perspective but there's no one in the department who goes back more than 10 years in terms of knowledge or sources, because the vets have been bought and cleared out ...

Then people might understand that buyouts are little different from layoffs.

Yet jackass newspapers, in announcing or not announcing names, act like there is some shame in being laid off from a sputtering company in a sickly industry. Meanwhile, they release the names of those receiving buyouts as if management is doing those folks some grand, sweeping favor by cutting them the final checks they might ever see in this profession.

What these places ought to do is blank out the names on the mastheads, because they're the bozos who ought to be ashamed.

 

[Stone Cane]

dig it, joe

 

[SF_Express]

As far as I know, another guy taking the buyout is my long-ago roommate, Richard Leiby.

People who follow such things will know that A) he wrote the Post's version of a gossip column for a while and B) is one of the foremost reporters in the country on the subject of Scientology.

A very intellectual, culture savvy guy. He used to take me to punk clubs, and I got him to go to a country bar once. It was easier for me to go in the one direction than it was for him to go in the other. But we were great roommates.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It's been a long, long time since there has been much good news in the journalism world.

Get your resumes ready. They're coming for the rest of us next.

 

[SixToe]

Joe Williams, I heart you.

(In that business-sense, manly, you're spot-on sort of way)

Excellent post.

 

[spnited]

Interesting that they named names. I seem to remember a crusty board veteran ripping me mercilessly as a snot-nosed know-nothing for suggesting the New York Times should have done so.

Interesting the Post named names. Not really important that the Post did and the Times didn't.
Not sure why this is such an issue with you.

 

[SF_Express]

Interesting that they named names. I seem to remember a crusty board veteran ripping me mercilessly as a snot-nosed know-nothing for suggesting the New York Times should have done so.

Interesting the Post named names. Not really important that the Post did and the Times didn't.
Not sure why this is such an issue with you.

Actually, spnited ... aside from the layoff/buyout business, I think perhaps a paper that's losing some of its top people owes it to the readership to let them know who those people are. But maybe that's just me.

 

[SF_Express]

As far as I know, another guy taking the buyout is my long-ago roommate, Richard Leiby.

People who follow such things will know that A) he wrote the Post's version of a gossip column for a while and B) is one of the foremost reporters in the country on the subject of Scientology.

A very intellectual, culture savvy guy. He used to take me to punk clubs, and I got him to go to a country bar once. It was easier for me to go in the one direction than it was for him to go in the other. But we were great roommates.

Never mind...he signed the rescission and is staying.

 

[WaylonJennings]

It's been a long, long time since there has been much good news in the journalism world.

Get your resumes ready. They're coming for the rest of us next.

If you love what you do, it'll all work out. That's the important thing, after all.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Stephen Hunter is one of the best film critics around...

On the bright side, maybe he'll write more Swagger novels.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I am thisclose to starting a "Collected wisdom of Joe Williams" Journalism Topics Only thread.

Once again, an excellent summation of the dire state of our beloved business, Joe.

 

[Joe Williams]

I am thisclose to starting a "Collected wisdom of Joe Williams" Journalism Topics Only thread.

Once again, an excellent summation of the dire state of our beloved business, Joe.

Aw shucks, tain't nothin'. :-[

Besides, it wouldn't be hard to balance it with a thread of all my outtakes, spittakes, bloopers, royal harangues, hot air and other embarrassments, Piotr.

Bottom line, I'm learning what a divorce must feel like, a thousand fold, as friends and colleagues have the work and careers they loved ripped away from them literally or figuratively. Them that leave go with much sadness. Them that stay, it's like the hearts that brought them to this get cauterized, just so they can survive. But in truth, they're gone too.

 

[fishwrapper]

Although I hate to say it, but the only difference between buyouts and layoffs these days, is you can collect unemployment after a layoff...

I know several who have taken buyouts who feel like they were fired.

Spot on, Mizzou.

-- When you are encouraged to leave because your five-figure salary going forward is more burdensome to the seven-figure suits and profiteers than your years of service and talents to still produce strong journalism are worth retaining ...

-- When your life's work and professional passion mean nothing to so many of the bosses for whom you have busted a gut, disrupted your personal life, sacrificed many luxuries and put the product and the readers first ...

-- When you are nudged toward the door not only by a one-time payoff but by the implicit -- or in some cases, explicit -- threat that you might not like the, er, next role you're moved into and "gee, you might think twice at that point about your decision to stay" ...

-- When the average buyout leaves you with less cash, in terms of multiples of annual earnings, than what a lawn service guy would sell his business for to some kid down the block, yet it beats the very real prospect of being put on the street with minimal severance pay ...

-- When an editor-in-chief presides over one or more rounds of buyouts and then, in his/her first staff meeting afterward, lies loudly about how much leaner and efficient the newsroom will be ...

-- When a story comes up that just cries out for some local historical perspective but there's no one in the department who goes back more than 10 years in terms of knowledge or sources, because the vets have been bought and cleared out ...

Then people might understand that buyouts are little different from layoffs.

Yet jackass newspapers, in announcing or not announcing names, act like there is some shame in being laid off from a sputtering company in a sickly industry. Meanwhile, they release the names of those receiving buyouts as if management is doing those folks some grand, sweeping favor by cutting them the final checks they might ever see in this profession.

What these places ought to do is blank out the names on the mastheads, because they're the bozos who ought to be ashamed.

I would say normally you're spot-on with the post. But, it's on the wrong thread.
The Washington Post Co. is the most diversified newspaper company in the country. A true newspaper still engaged in the greater good. Don Graham understands the responsibility.
Wrong thread.

 

[Bubbler]

We almost made it through a whole week without one of these.

 

[Lollygaggers]

It's been a long, long time since there has been much good news in the journalism world.

Get your resumes ready. They're coming for the rest of us next.

I guess my only response to that, Mizzou, would be . . .

What are we getting our resumes ready for?

If there's no journalism jobs out there anymore, whose going to hire a bunch of bought out or laid off reporters and editors? I know, there are jobs out there that are similar, but as far as newspapers go, not so much.