|
June
29, 2001
The Murder of the Time Inc. Library AOL Time Warner announced on May 31 that it will
close the Research Center, effective August 31. Thirty jobs covered
by the Guild are being eliminated, together with some half-dozen jobs
described as management positions. Database and archiving jobs will
be retained. The announcement was made to the appalled library
staff by George Vollmuth, Time Inc. vice president for finance and
administration. Before the announcement, the Research Center staff had
never met Vollmuth, and they had no idea who he was. Of course, the
staff had no inkling that the demise of the Research Center was
impending. According to management, Time magazine and the
Fortune Group (which includes Fortune, Money, FSB, Business 2.0, Mutual
Funds magazines) are the main financial supports of the Research Center.
Eliminating the center was a financial decision. Those divisions
will establish their own dedicated libraries, hiring from among the
job- eliminated staffers in the Research Center. Time plans to use
about six people; Fortune, about nine. Where they will be
situated and how the new centers will operate has not been
announced. In fact, other divisions of AOL Time Warner also
help keep the Research Center staff so busy: to name some, HBO, In
Style, Entertainment Weekly, Little Brown, the corporation’s various
Public Affairs groups, Consumer Marketing, Strategic Planning, Ad Sales,
Custom Publishing, Consumer Research, Life magazine books, Fortune
Conferences, Group Senior Management, Warner Books, Warner Music, Book
of the Month Club, and AOL itself.
People magazine, although it has its own library, makes extensive
use of the Research Center's Bio files. And ironically, even
following the May 31 announcement, divisions of AOL made calls to the
Research Center asking to open accounts. Outrage and Disbelief
Throughout the Time & Life Building, news of
the decision to close the Research Center was met with dismay
and anger. The Time Inc. Research Center--formerly called the Library
and often still referred to that way--has been a cornerstone of
journalism here for decades. The staff's dedication and professional
skills have been instrumental in creating and maintaining our
reputation for fine journalism. Everyone engaged in editorial work here
relies on the staff and respects the work they do. Evidently higher management fails to share that
respect--either for the research staff or for the journalistic
excellence and integrity that the library has come to symbolize. Not
only does management seem to believe the Research Center is an
unnecessary frill that's not worth the money, but as of June 27, it has
not even bothered to issue a company-wide memo announcing that the
library is being dissolved. The research staff collectively represents
centuries of service and dedication to Time Inc. They deserve far better. The magazines deserve better as well. How
will some 15 people provide the service of the quality that the
magazines have taken for granted for so long? The Future of Journalism at Time Inc.?
The outside world reacted to the announcement with
the same shock that was felt in the Time & Life Building. The
Columbia Journalism Review assigned a writer to investigate what AOL's
acquisition of Time Warner will mean for the quality of Time Inc.'s
journalism. And The New York Times' headline, “A Time Inc. Tradition
Will Close Its Doors,” drew wide attention and made the Research
Center’s death a topic discussed well beyond the journalistic
community. The corporate managers of AOL are choosing their
bottom line at the expense of journalistic excellence. But the
tradition established here by Henry Luce stressed excellence as well as
profit, and created both, giving Time Inc. its reputation and its
financial stature. They are intertwined. Steve Case, AOL’s chairman, has hung Luce’s
portrait in his office. Yet
many have feared that AOL, valuing the magazines only as
"content," cares little about the nature of that content.
Closing the Research Center sends the signal that indeed, AOL is not
concerned with excellence--not if it costs anything. The Guild urges management to reconsider the decision to close the Research Center. ######
# # # # # # #
|