Monday, October 01, 2007
What do you do when you think your paper might be sold?
You gather around the water cooler and gossip about it, of course.
"Well, does this mean we're being laid off?"
"you know they will lie to our faces right until the minute the ink on the contract dies."
"The Times (as in New York) has been courting us. It seems like the logical next step since they own Boston."
I walked smack dab in the middle of this conversation this morning as I stepped into my office. That was before I logged onto my computer and saw an e-mail from a high ranking executive explaining that our company was essentially being split in two entities: broadcast and print. I listened more and found out a few things.
Our company was being restructured -- not sold (yet).
If anybody got laid off, it would be the part time news aides and assistants who are vital to the paper, but are not reporters (i.e. -- I still have a job)
This might actually be a good thing because the new print entity will come out of this deal with no debt. Kinda cool, I suppose, considering the current state of newspapers.
More conjecture, speculation and some panic continued for much of the monring. We have a meeting scheduled for this afternoon to find out what this really means for all of us. So we kind of shook it off until we found out more information. We have a job to do after all.
I went up to one of my coworkers and asked her if I should be worried. My coworker, a former union gal, told me that the contract we're working under (which expires in December) will protect us. And that I should be fine.
"I'll tell you when to worry," she said with a laugh.
I replied: "Alright, until then, I'm straight."
At least, I hope.
Labels: industry analysis, media ownership, the industry, union
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