Let the speculation begin. Employees at The Oregonian got this letter at their homes this week.
It starts by noting the tough times newspapers are facing thanks to competition from the Internet and higher costs of printing, health bennies and gas.
The most interesting news in publisher Fred Stickel’s letter, however, is a reminder of the paper’s longstanding job-security pledge, which he writes “never was intended to apply to weekly publications or to distribution of content over the Internet. The Pledge’s protection is tied to the daily publication of The Oregonian’s current newsprint product — not the functions you perform individually.”
The clarification appears to suggest that those employees who are part-timers, or who work for the website oregonlive.com or for the daily paper’s other weekly publications may not have the security they might have previously assumed.
A paranoid might even read into this the possibility that if the paper were to drop a day’s service, say the lightly-read Monday edition, then it would no longer “continue to publish daily in its current newsprint form” and could arguably get out of this pledge for all employees.
Adding to the “when will the other shoe drop” feel of the letter is Stickel’s final sentence: “I will keep everyone informed as we move along with operational changes.”
In fairness to The O, much has changed since the lifetime pledge was announced 40 years ago to ensure employees never again went out on strike.
One final note: Check out this very similar letter that also went out this week from one of The O’s sister papers in the Newhouse chain, the Newark Star-Ledger.
- Here’s How One of The Oregonian’s Sister Papers Is Handling the Downturn Last week
- Oregonian Circulation Takes Another Tumble (UPDATED with new publisher named) The Orego
- Letter to Smith Frozen Foods’ Management: “The Future of our Families Has Gotten Worse, Not Better” Last week,
- The Oregonian Announces Pay Cuts And Other Cost Reductions (UPDATED With Details in Email Sent to Staff) In respon
- Another Oregon Paper Shrinks Staff: The Eugene Register-Guard Bad news a
Tags: media
A good place to start cutting overhead is to fire that good-for-nothing favorites-playing internet administrator of the OregonLive.com "Portland" Forum.
That jerk has taken sides with two of most vitriolic posters who go by the tag names "SmellTheSage" and "SUPERMANhere". The admin allows those two to post any pesonal attack they want with no recrimination while simultaneously banning their victims capriciously.
I suspect this admin employee sits in the office snickering and playing God while earning much more than he/she is worth.
Please fire that administrator and replace him/her with someone who is fair.
Dude, get a life.
He could be a powerful bingo master who only posts because he missed his calling and has now been reduced to nothing but a pusher selling scratchers and dabbers at the Hillsboro Home for the Aged during bingo. He has become bored since he was terminated as a OHSU parking lot attendant checking parking passes on the rear bumpers but then he has called himself a TriMet authority skilled, practiced and proficient in predicting arrival and departure times. Then one day he said he was a three degree business executive owning several medical clinics staffed with OHSU trained failures but then his downtown hot dog stand failed and the little professor syndrome caused him to be sent away. Then out of the blue he became a super hero only rubbing shoulders with the rich and the famous hearing the voices of Paul Allen because he lived in the “best of both worlds” as the “little people” were not members of his populace. He attended sellout Blazer games at the Rose Quarter in his imagination while the game was miles away in some out of the way locality not yet serviced by TriMet. But without batting an eyelid he dined that evening on the finest cuisine that SYSCO foods provides the RQ while cheering the Blazers on and he rode the Max both ways. He never did hit the big time postage stamp collection at the bingo hall and his paydays are only limited by his state paid disability allowance including one monthly disabled pass to ride his favorite choo choo train and a weekly hot dog handout from that successful vendor, his former competitor, on that other corner. We can just call him The Putz, one of Hillsboro’s most persistent and triumphant disappointments also known as PuttPutt, Einstein, Eine, Salmonland, Supermanhere and a multitude of other monikers.
Now Smelly on the otherhand is Portland’s most persistent and least successful member of the creative class of BS artists also known as JollyOldMan, Ironose, gamesink, Jerry Blank, Murakami. Bomdia, HuckleB, Megapod, SmellTheSage., QIII, prostratepete, sausagenaria, TeleCommTrzn. JohnMcBush, NellyAlgren, Captious and the Donald with a host of others.
She likes to portray herself as the one and only person on the Portland forum day in and day out who exhibits the belief that he/she (a cross dresser who has admitted to using the opposite genders restroom facilities) possesses a superior intellect and wealth of knowledge, and shows a determination to demonstrate his/hers perceived superiority at every given opportunity on the Oregonlive forums. Not a post goes by in which he/she, who is so obnoxiously self-assertive and arrogant, egotistical don’t have something rude, derogatory, inflammatory, insulting to say and refuses to accept advice or information from others you know is fact, published, posted and has been discussed previously including by him/herself using one her many monikers.
She claims to be a powerful wealthy corporate suit who only posts because she is bored but then she has called herself a battlefield commissioned military officer from time to time. Then she said she was a three degree college professor. And out of the blue she became a Euro sedan aficionado with a Dinan-prepped Bimmer powered by a 22R Toyota pickup engine equipped with a Alpine stereo and two speakers. Now as a biblical scholar with connections to the Vatican her words are the new gospel.
If it hasn’t made an episode of The Simpsons or isn’t published in the Barfly Rag with quotes from the local watering holes peer groups including discussions from the barstools with substance, drunken logic and data with catsup and tarter sauce all over it old smelly may not even consider it factual and will possibly looks to Men’s Health for the final word on the matter.
A number of adjectives can be used as a derisive descriptor of an unpleasant troll but I will leave that to the forum readers.
Your link was to the A&E section, but I might point out the Oregonian also owns the Hillsboro Argus. Since it is the only (suburban) weekly in the area not owned by Pamplin, could it be out the door?
Ben, to correct a persistent misunderstanding about the relationship between The Oregonian and The Argus, they do not own us. We are owned by the corporation (Advance) that owns the newspaper chain (Newhouse) that owns The Oregonian. We get none of the benefits that Oregonian employees receive. We aren’t part of their family. We don’t even exchange Christmas cards.
Sounds like another round of "Gotcha" between Oregonian and Willamette Week employees.
Does it get any better than this?
I hope so.
WW has buried the lead here. The key paragraph in the letter is the one that TWICE reiterates that the "pledge" applies only if the paper continues to publish daily. It’s not paranoid to speculate that a change to the paper’s seven-day publishing schedule might well be in the offing. Of course they won’t eliminate the Monday edition – that’s a silly thing for WW to suggest. But they very well might combine Sat. and Sun. into a single weekend edition, as numerous other papers have done over the years. One can already buy the Sunday paper on Saturday, so presumably not everyone would notice or mind the change. But it would render the "pledge" null and void (if indeed it has any legal force to begin with).
The loss of several days of "The Oregonian" won’t be missed, unless FOODAY on Tuesday is dropped! That’s the issue with the best of all investigative reporting of the week’s food prices and splashy ads. Keep FOODAY and the public wouldn’t realize the rest of the paper had ceased publishing.
Sam Jr., don’t know if you’re right about most of the stuff in your post, but you’re wrong about at least one of the names you listed. Just sayin’…by tossing a list of names like that you may be engaging in the same type of ignorant, blind smearing you’re accusing others of engaging in. Some of us are actually individuals that have nothing to do with your whining.
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