The tough times that have battered newspapers across the country have hit home in Bend: Staffers at The Bulletin and its parent company, Western Communications Inc., were told yesterday that they’ll be taking pay cuts of up to 10%.
Gordon Black, publisher of The Bulletin and president of Western Communications, told employees about the cuts in a memo yesterday. Black said in the memo (a copy of which was obtained by The Eye) that the company “must continue to downsize … to match the level of revenue we are currently generating.”
“In spite of all our creative selling efforts,” Black wrote, “the company’s first quarter revenue is tracking with what we generated back in 2003. Solid performances in circulation, commercial printing and special projects continue to be swamped by awful numbers in the key classified categories of real estate and automotive. Not to mention that some of our major retail advertisers have been going out of business.”
Black announced that all employees making more than $12.25 per hour will have their pay reduced by 10% and those earning between $11 and $12.25 an hour will have their pay cut back to $11 per hour. Those making less than $11 an hour will receive no pay cut.
According to well-informed sources, The Bulletin for the past year has been making all full-time employees take a mandatory two days off per month without pay.
“I’m sure you’re all too aware of the many expense-saving measures we’ve already taken and I sincerely thank you for assistance and understanding in these important efforts,” Black’s memo said. “Unfortunately, we must do more.”
Western Communications is a privately held corporation owned by the Chandler family of Bend. In addition to The Bulletin – the state’s fourth-largest daily newspaper – the company owns papers in Redmond, La Grande, Baker City and Brookings in Oregon and in two cities in Northern California.
According to one source, Western Communications also is cutting back publication of the La Grande Observer to five days a week instead of six, and cutting the Baker City Herald to three days per week from five. Ted Kramer, editor and publisher of the La Grande paper, confirmed that the reduction would go into effect June 1. The publisher of the Baker City Herald declined to discuss the subject.
When asked by The Eye whether reports of the pay cuts and other cost-saving measures were true, Black replied: “I’m not really sure that it’s much of a concern to you, to be honest with you.”
Asked again whether the reports were true, he said: “We have a little bit of a problem with the way you report stuff, so I don’t think we’ve got a whole lot to talk about, to tell you the truth.” Then he hung up.
The Bulletin isn’t the only Oregon newspaper where staffers have had to take pay cuts. On March 23 The Oregonian announced an austerity package including pay reductions of 5% to 10% depending on pay level, mandatory unpaid four-day furloughs for all full-time employees and layoffs of some part-timers.
Bulletin employees are luckier than their colleagues at many other newspapers in that there’s been no word of layoffs at the paper yet. In his memo, Black said Western Communications was cutting pay and hours rather than laying off staff because “when the economy rebounds, as it most surely will, we want as many of you around as possible in order to pick up where we left off. In the meantime, we’re all still working and holding onto our benefits.”
This article appears in Apr 30 โ May 6, 2009.
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Oregon Media Insiders reports that KOHD is cutting back too.
The Bulletin has fossilized management. Their top-down style might work well if The Bulletin’s people at the top were Internet-savvy, fast-reacting, innovative people. But they’re not. They’re late-middle-aged, old-school, chamber-of-commerce types who have good connections and a clear idea of how things should be done, and they’re generally mystified at changes in the economy, society and technology.
The editors of The Bulletin are good at deciding what “angle” things should be reported from in order not to ruffle feathers in the community. But is that really such a valuable skill in 2009, when there are so many sources of information and all the rumors and juicy facts get out anyway (blogs)?
The Bulletin can only blame part of its problems on the economy. The company’s elitism, its misunderstanding of the community it serves and its poor treatment of its staff reporters all contribute to the paper’s decline. Smaller city newspapers have a bigger advantage in competing against the Internet in that they can really focus on LOCAL news that the community can’t get on CNN.com. Instead, The Bulletin treats us to tips on how to care for reptiles or shop for handbags instead of covering our neighbors. I can think of lots of examples where I find myself going to ktvz.com or The Source instead because there is no coverage in The Bulletin. Ex: Last Friday when the Redmond School Board decided to favor the 4-day school model, we found coverage on ktvz.com and kohd.com NO coverage in our local newspaper until Tuesday. By Tuesday, they should have been publishing the follow-up stories, interviewing parents about what this could mean.
Meanwhile, we got treated to a dozen stories recounting every hiccup of a reckless driving case just because it happened on Awbry Butte. The Bulletin fogets that the community it serves does not all live on the west side of Bend.
In other local media news:
http://www.oregonmediainsiders.com/node/1901
Lynn Siprelle reports that KOHD is not renewing contracts and planning to lay off some folks. It’s sad that this is happening to the only television offset (not a huge offset, but a clear offset nonetheless) to KTVZ’s relentless shallowness.
Nice of management to think of employees. There are so many companies in Bend that don’t, or won’t. They would rather let people go so upper management can keep their ridiculously undeserved high salaries….. local pharmaceutical R&D comes to mind….. no one is worth more of an annual income than the US prez—no one.
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Asked again whether the reports were true, he said: รข We have a little bit of a problem with the way you report stuff, so I donรข โขt think weรข โขve got a whole lot to talk about, to tell you the truth.รข ย Then he hung up.
That is awesome. They’re not writing about it so neither should you!!!
Why is the reporting by the Bulletin so apthetcially insular? Portraying a Bend that was in existence maybe 10 more or years ago. Trying to be the “little wholesome town” that it really isn’t. It is a city and should act like one in the reporting of news. Get rid of the police reports (cities don’t waste time and space on this) write on things may be bad (ie/nw on Vulcan Power co that was reported in the Eugene paper but not locally when it is a LOCAL company, etc etc… allowing local business leaders to say things that are not quite lies but also not the truth, why does the Bulletin persist on this image? Amazing to think people lap it up… I mean do you care who got a “Deed”?? Small town gossip not news…. public record or not if people really cared about that stuff they can go look it up for themselves at the Public Offices. Zillion dollar lawsuit at Vulcan and it is no where to be seen in the local press…. weird to say the least. Also the Bulletin takes such a pro-active protectionist business stance in this town (ie/articles on Bachelor) it is platant lobbying….. this is news???
For honesty’s sake, you ought to change the name of this feature from “Wandering Eye” to “Bulletin Obsession.”
Watcher, I’ll give that a big AMEN!
I’ve followed The Bulletin for 20 years … it is time that this piece of cat box lining finally realizes that it is not the show piece of the conservative Chandler family to expouse their Hannity worldview nor for Costa to spout poorly written missives and New Jersey opinions.
I find it ironic that The Bulletin, which in their push for ad sales and ambulance chasing, fail to discuss their OWN pay cuts, outages and problems but all of our community issues are fair game.
Shame shame … let Darwinism take over and reduce this POS cat box wrapper to the crap bin.
Boot!
Hey Gordon Black and the Watcher: the reason your staff salary cuts are the Source’s business is because they report on the community. The community suffers when reporters are underpaid and undervalued because seasoned staffers leave, young people with no institutional knowledge come in, and the crucial watchdog role of daily newspapers is greatly diluted. It makes sense that you have to cut salary – everyone in newspapers is in the same boat on that one. But why not just acknowledge the fact that you’re hurting and move on minus the snarky, condescending attitude? Your desire to keep this information from the community and readers you serve is troubling but not surprising. It’s the same top-down crap you’ve been shoveling off of your perch on Chandler Avenue since Costa and co. arrived from Idaho. As far as the Bulletin’s budget, here’s an idea: why not pay reporters a decent wage by cutting into Costa and Black’s salaries? Their compensation is WAY out of line for such a dinky market.
So, with this report we know for sure that the Bulletin does not pay its reporters a living wage, as defined by actual cost of living data for Central Oregon. $11 is not a living wage for a single person with no dependents in Bend. Even with benefits. Plus two unpaid days off per month: 16 hours x $11 = a loss of another $176 a month before taxes. I wonder how many Bulletin employees qualify for public assistance? More than at Wal-Mart or less? What are the wages at KOHD and KTVZ these days?
As opposed to the lavish pay and benefits at The Source, I suppose?
“Hey Gordon Black and the Watcher: the reason your staff salary cuts are the Source’s business is because they report on the community.”
The Bulletin is the only daily newspaper in Central Oregon and the fourth-largest daily newspaper in the state. WesComm owns five of the biggest papers in Central and Eastern Oregon. If The Bulletin and WesComm are in financial trouble, that’s potentially very important to the communities where those newspapers are. And that makes the pay cuts news.
“As opposed to the lavish pay and benefits at The Source, I suppose?”
Irrelevant.
Nobody’s attacking The Bulletin for cutting pay; you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the business afloat. In fact I applaud them for taking that approach instead of laying off staff.
1.In a region with such a high unemployment rate, many employees at The Bulletin actually appreciate their company’s decision to try any measures possible to avoid layoffs.
2. Newspapers employ a lot of people-from those who print the newspapers, to those who maintain the building and people who lay out the pages. Many of those people make more than $11/hr.
3. Say what you will about specific stories that didn’t appear in The Bulletin when you wanted to see them, but the newspaper has more (young) reporters out in the community than any other local news outlet. The Source knows this, since they’ve used information directly from The Bulletin for sections such as “the boot” more than once.
journalist: This wasn’t meant to be a put-down of The Bulletin or its management; as I said before, I think it’s a good thing that they’ve taken the approach of cutting pay rather than laying off employees. And, yes, of course The Bulletin has more reporters (young or otherwise) than anybody else in town; they’re the only daily newspaper here.