Guild negotiating with Buffalo News management to avoid 50 layoffs

Last Friday, Buffalo News publisher Stan Lipsey sent this memo to all employees of the Buffalo News:

From: News Publisher Stan Lipsey

To: All News Employees

Re: Reducing expenses at The News

I’m sorry to report that, since our meetings with employees last month, the economic picture at The News has worsened. And now, with large metropolitan papers around the nation declaring bankruptcy or going out of business, we feel we need to act quickly.

In an effort to stabilize The News’ economics, the executive team has been working diligently to reduce costs. This is absolutely necessary in order to balance the significant reduction in advertising and circulation revenue we are experiencing. February will be the fourth consecutive month in which the company has struggled with profitability.

Those cost reductions will take many forms, but one of them, unfortunately, is the likelihood of layoffs. Today we have detailed 52 layoffs among Buffalo Newspaper Guild employees – 33 in circulation, eight in editorial, eight in classified advertising, two in accounting and one in marketing/NIE. These layoffs may be mitigated by successful discussions between the company and the Guild, which are expected to begin Monday. In addition, approximately 26 News employees (not all in the Guild) have accepted the current buyout offer, which has been extended until next Friday for the Guild.

Among other cost-cutting measures are a wage freeze among non-union employees, reductions in newsprint usage through the redesign of such products as TV Topics and NeXt, and the moving of Niagara Bureau personnel in to the main newsroom. All of these new measures, and others, follow several years of efforts to reduce costs; unfortunately, those efforts have fallen short of what is necessary.

We know that we share with you the crucial aim of keeping The Buffalo News and its mission viable as we reinvent the company amidst changing times. We ask for your help, understanding and cooperation in the weeks ahead. We will be successful if we all work together.

The buyout to which Lipsey refers is the second in a round of buyouts offered to News employees: The first offer, last fall, was extended to 110 employees and accepted by about a dozen. In January the News offered the same contract buyout, $60,000 or more, to 300 more employees.

The Buffalo Newspaper Guild, which represents nearly 300 of the paper’s 800 or so employees, responded on Saturday with a statement expressing disappointment that Lipsey would have sent this memo without first entering into talks with the Guild. “News executives would be better served working together with the union on cost-cutting alternatives that could reduce, if not eliminate, the layoff numbers,” the statement read. “Our bargaining agreement requires both sides to discuss feasible alternatives before staff reductions are implemented.”

Those talks have begun. On Tuesday, the Guild reported to its member that the News management wanted to find $2.9 million in cost-cutting alternatives to mitigate the layoff of 50 employees.

—geoff kelly