TIME magazine cuts three jobs; cross-divisional volunteers period is
February
4-18
Despite a huge growth in EBITDA (“the
profitability measure used by Wall Street,” according to Time Inc. Chief
Financial Officer Richard Atkinson) of 17% for AOL Time Warner’s Publishing
division last year, the layoffs already started in January at Time Inc. Cuts
were made at Fortune
(a Writer) and People (a Staff Correspondent), and now two Letters Correspondents
(out of three) and the Letters Department’s only Secretary are being laid off
at TIME.
Atkinson announced the $1.2 billion
Publishing EBITDA for 2002 on January 30, but that was long after Time Inc. CEO
Ann Moore had announced that she was looking for $100 million in savings for
2003. The Guild believes that Time Incers are paying with their jobs for the
sins of AOL’s management -- the unit’s profits declined 22% in 2002.
Job Swaps and Other Exchanges
If there are not enough volunteers from
those targeted at TIME to fill the layoff slots, then starting on February 4,
Time Incers from other magazines in the affected job categories may step forward
to volunteer for a layoff package.
If you are a Secretary or a Letters
Correspondent and want to inquire about a possible package, contact either the
Newspaper Guild (call Unit Chairperson John Shostrom at 522-3965 or Grievance
Chairperson Edith Fried at 522-3867) or Human Resources (522-2507).
Additionally, management has assured
the Guild that it will be open to broader job searches by the targeted
employees. The Guild encourages
managers throughout Time Inc. to grant interviews and to be open to hiring those
affected for jobs including positions other than those they have been doing.
Regarding this, the Guild contract says, “Where an Employee is deemed
to have the ability for an available job but lacks the training, the Publisher
will train the Employee to meet the requirements of the job.”
These are talented, experienced,
versatile employees who are greatly valued by many both in and out of the
company. It will be a sad day if
they are thrown out even though they still have so much to contribute.
A
Letter-Opener in the Back
With the
continued gutting of the TIME Letters Department (two employees were laid off in
2001), management has decided that its long-standing tradition of providing a
good many of its engaged readers with personal replies will be significantly
curtailed.
Heretofore, readers who sent inquiries,
gripes and kudos about the magazine would be rewarded with thoughtful and
informative letters in return. In
the process, Letters Correspondents polished their expertise in persuasion,
cajolery, research and -- not least -- defending the work of TIME reporters.
“Wow!” wrote former reporter Dick Thompson on seeing the draft of a
reply to a science bigwig. "That's a letter I never could have written.
It's really wonderful, addressing his issues and still fair to us."
TIME Letters Correspondents have also
received mail from readers all over the world thanking them for their efforts. A
Nigerian reader used a local term of endearment to voice his appreciation:
“Uncle, I don't know how to express my joy, remain bless.” “I thought
there was no chance of my letter even getting read, let alone being responded
to,” wrote an American. “I
truly wish all editors were as excellent as you in their attentiveness to their
readers.”
One young man in Ethiopia wrote simply,
“Let God pay you for your kindness,” while a woman at the College of Arts in
Baghdad told us, “I'm very grateful for your kind help which I will never
forget. Although I corresponded
with many many many magazines, institutions, authors and universities, yours is
the only letter I received.’’
Other comments: “You deserve a big
hug and an A++ for your very thoughtful research.
I will enjoy telling my friends about this fat letter from the editorial
offices of TIME!” “I had
despaired of a reply, and here you are. You
have a grand gift of expression yourself and I appreciate your taking the time
to research and to respond.” “I am genuinely impressed with your personal
reply, and particularly with the information you took the time to amass and
forward to me. Thanks to you, I am
now a more informed reader. And
that, of course, is TIME's very raison d'etre, isn't it?”
Well, it’s quite a bit less of a raison
every day. Despite the Publishing
division’s continuing growth, management has nonetheless decided to scale back
drastically this respectful relationship with its audience.
And the staff cuts hurt communication
both ways, as management has decided that it is also time for rest of the staff
to stop reading the mail: We have seen the last of the TIME Letters Report as we
know it. Informing staffers of
readers’ reactions to the magazine has been an important company value since
at least January 17, 1938, when the Letters department circulated a 24-page
Letters Report. Over the years,
what the Report has given up in bulk it has more than made up for in snappy,
incisive prose, evolving into a compelling narrative distillation of the
week’s mailbag -- and a particularly rewarding exercise for the Letters
Correspondents who wrote it.
Time Inc. Editor-At-Large Don Barlett
e-mailed a Letters Correspondent, “Of
all the publications in this building, the one I most look forward to receiving
each week is the TIME Letters Report. . . . As someone who spent most of his
life in newspapers, I can assure you that no newspaper in the country produces
anything remotely comparable. It’s
… thoughtful, insightful, instructive, appropriately critical, beautifully
edited and, most of all, totally witty and irreverent…. At any rate, for whatever it may be worth (non-monetarily
speaking), you people do great work. Please
share these thoughts with your colleagues.”
Perhaps we should have shared them
earlier, but AOL Time Warner doesn’t listen like Time Inc. used to. The
Letters Report is gone, and all but one of the Letters Correspondents is going.
We’ll miss them, and so will TIME’s readers.
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02/04/03