McCaw hands out pink slips

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

In an action dubbed a “company wide reorganization,” the Santa Barbara News-Press laid off 10 employees yesterday, two of whom were editors.
An internal memo circulated to News-Press employees said the layoffs were the result of declines in circulation, advertising revenue, and a contentious labor dispute between current and former newsroom staff and the paper’s management.


“Here at the News-Press management has struggled with this national trend [in declining circulation] as well as with the onslaught of tactics used by the Teamsters Union, which represents the newsroom unit of the paper,” the memo said.
The memo cites a campaign by the union and a number of employees over the past two years that asked the paper’s subscribers to cancel subscriptions — an effort designed to pressure on the paper’s owner and co-publisher Wendy McCaw to acknowledge the union and begin bargaining. The memo states that, “thousands” of subscribers canceled as a result.
News-Press attorney Barry Cappello said he did not have a list of those who were laid off, but confirmed Sports Editor Barry Punzal, a 25-year veteran at the paper, and Life Editor Mindy Spar, who had worked there for more than a decade, had been let go.
A source close to the paper said more layoffs are expected to be handed down today.
Punzal became sports editor in mid 2006 and managed to shield much of his staff from the spattering of firings, reprimands, and general chaos that has reportedly dominated the newsroom for the past two years.
Punzal told the Daily Sound yesterday that he has remained at the paper in part because he knows how much the sports section means to the community and didn’t want that to be compromised.
“I’m upset because I’ve been loyal to that newspaper,” he said. “I’ve given 25 years of my life to that newspaper.
“I’ve tried to save the sports section from what’s happening with the rest of the paper. My point was I don’t work for Wendy, I work for the Santa Barbara community, and sports, and that’s why we kept it going.”
Punzal, who worked as a desk editor for more than a decade before covering soccer at UC Santa Barbara and other local schools, said when he was told to “take a walk” with the paper’s human resources director yesterday morning, he was working on the recreation page, which has a sole focus on community sports.
“I was working for the community when this happened,” he said. “The irony is unbelievable.”
Since the layoffs appear to be related to the paper’s financial situation, Punzal said he would have considered taking a pay cut, but that offer was never extended.
Cappello said he doesn’t think 10 people being laid off at the News-Press is extraordinary, since larger layoffs have occurred in recent months at newspapers throughout the country.
“Basically the paper is going through what newspapers across the country are going through,” he said. “A general loss of advertising and circulation due to the downward trend in not only newspapers but in the news business.”
Cappello said he does not know how severe the monetary losses at the News-Press are, but added the paper’s owner, “truly believes that it is very viable. It will survive.”
Recent circulation statistics reported on a local blog cited numbers gathered by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, a firm that monitors newspaper circulation for advertisers, which said weekday circulation at the News-Press has dropped by about 7 percent over the past year, from 37,730 to 35,061. Sunday circulation also dropped by 7 percent.
While many newspapers in the country have seen dips in circulation, the numbers reported on the blog show those at the News-Press are significantly higher than other papers on the Central Coast. The Ventura County Star saw a 1.8 percent jump in weekday circulation, while the Santa Maria Times saw no change, and the San Luis Obispo Tribune’s weekday circulation dropped by 4 percent.
Dawn Hobbs, a former News-Press reporter who is one of eight newsroom employees that were fired in early 2007 for hanging a banner over a freeway overpass that said, “Cancel Your Newspaper Today,” said the paper’s management brought this on.
“This could have all been resolved beginning in July 2006 before we launched the subscription cancellation campaign calling for union recognition, or after our union vote in Sept. 2006, which the company challenged with frivolous objections, or even after the ruling last December when the company was found guilty on 15 unfair labor practice charges, which the company again appealed,” she said.
Hobbs and dozens of other newsroom employees joined a branch of the Teamsters Union after six of the paper’s top editors resigned en-masse on July 6, 2006. Since then droves of employees have either been fired or resigned.
Aside from general trends in the newspaper business, Cappello said costly and “excessive litigation” is also a contributing factor in the layoffs.
Labor charges requiring exhaustive litigation have been filed in court by the union and the paper, but the majority of these cases have fallen in favor of the union and the employees it represents. It has been News-Press management that has filed a string of appeals that have dragged out now for years.
“…It is important to note that they have made the decision to file numerous charges that have been dismissed," Hobbs said. "They have decided to extravagantly fight the union and other perceived adversaries in every available forum, and they have had numerous opportunities to settle this labor dispute, opportunities which are still open to management if it wishes to reconcile.”
The most recent case involved Hobbs and seven other reporters who were fired for engaging in what the paper called “disloyal” activities. The union argued these firings were illegal because the reporters were engaging in protected activities. An administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board sided with the union and ordered the employees to be reinstated.
But the paper appealed the decision and both sides are now awaiting a ruling from a different judge.
When asked whether or not he believes it is the News-Press that has engaged in excessive litigation, Cappello said the paper’s owner is simply defending herself.
“If somebody wrongly sues you and wrongfully makes claims against you are you going to lay down and let it go away or are you going to fight?” he said. “That decision is easy to make for Mrs. McCaw.”
Many of those laid off were not identified as of press time, but one person who did get a pink slip was Robert Klinger, who worked at the paper for three decades in the camera department.
Klinger was reached by phone yesterday afternoon, but said he would not comment because he feared McCaw could sue him.