Seattle Paper To Lay Off 7% Of Staff

NewsInc, Jan 17, 2005

Reacting to what it says was a $12-million loss last year, a top executive at the Seattle Times circulated a memo last week saying that the paper plans to cut its full-time staff by between 90 and 110 people, or roughly seven percent of its workforce.

"As I've said before, I wish we didn't have to do this," wrote Carolyn Kelly, president of the Seattle Times Co., which includes not only the Seattle daily, but also eight other papers in Washington and Maine.

Kelly said that the on-going legal wrangling with the company's partner in a joint operating agreement -- The Hearst Corp.'s Post-Intelligencer -- as well as "a structurally changed economy and industry," were the main reasons for the layoffs.

The specifics of the layoffs would be outlined by mid-February Kelly wrote. The Times Co. is in negotiations with the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, trying to get some flexiblity in who will get laid off.

The Guild contract calls for those with the least seniority to be let go first.

Liz Brown, the chief administrator of the Guild local, told the Post-Intelligencer she has asked the company for detailed financial evidence of the company's losses.

The lawsuits between the Times Co. and Hearst Corp. also advanced a few steps last week, as the companies filed briefs with the Washington State Supreme Court in anticipation of oral arguments to be heard Feb. 15.

Last April Hearst Corp. sued Times Co. to stop it from invoking a clause in the joint operating agreement that started an 18-month clock toward shutdown of the JOA. The clause allows either side to end the agreement following three consecutive years of losses.

The following day the Times Co. invoked the clause and the clock ran until both sides agreed to appeal a ruling by a superior court judge to the state high court.

Did Times Co. hire willy-nilly in 2002 in an attempt to have another year of losses as part of what Hearst lawyers call the "long-standing secret goal of eliminating the P-I"? Is it now trying to circumvent the Guild contract to allow it to keep those 2002 hires while eliminating workers with more seniority? Stay tuned ...