From: Amanda Bennett

To the newsroom:

As part of my promise to be as open and transparent as I can be during this difficult process, I promised weekly emails with at least three sections:

I. Progress on developing the new newsroom plan
II. Expressions of interest in the buyout
III. Answers to frequently asked questions

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I. Progress in developing new newsroom plan

* Chris Satullo will be holding one final feedback session tomorrow in the 1st floor conference room. If you haven’t already sat in on a session, I would encourage you to do so. It will be in the 1st floor conference room (down the hall from the Credit Union) from 12 to 2.

* Some departments have been doing without EA help over the last couple of weeks. That’s because Beatrice Butler, who supervises all EAs, has been calling them downtown for crosstraining, so that each EA will be able to pitch in on different jobs.

* The Organization Team will be holding a series of meetings with each department head next week, so that each department head can talk about the needs of his/her department. The team will ultimately made recommendations to Anne and me. Here is the mission statement of the Organization Team:

Quote:
To develop a comprehensive list of recommendations to senior management on the future of staffing -- long- and short-term -- throughout the newsroom. We need to make the best use of our talented reporters, editors, photographers, graphic artists, news editors, copy editors, researchers and online staff to create a news report that is distinctive and relevant to a rapidly changing readership. Through the integration of certain departments we will try to find a way to improve the versatility and strength of the staff so we can produce a more compelling and visually engaging news report.

* The Transition Team has been working out details to get us through this next stage. The training of the editorial assistants, how the paper will be put together over the holidays, how many zones we will have during the last few weeks of the year, are all issues that fall to this group for settlement. In addition the team has worked out a plan to help fund farewells for our departing colleagues. We plan to have Newsroom-wide farewell at 4 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, for those people who are taking the buyout. The farewell will be in the Broad Street Newsroom. Food will be provided. Those staffers who wish to do so may bring an appetizer or dessert. And if you are interested in planning something special for colleagues leaving your department, please talk to your editors about money that is available.

* The New Regionalism Team is focusing on content, including how to reorganize our suburban coverage thematically, rather than geographically. The announcement of the new team headed by Linda Hasert is just the first step in achieving this goal.

* The Online Integration Team has completed a total site inventory of every principal page on both Philly.com and Inquirer.com as part of a reorganization and redesign. The goal: common-sense, unified navigation across attractive pages that are up-to-date and easy to find. Next up is a staffing plan for managing the sites as well as producing new kinds of content such as audio interviews and podcasts.

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II. Expressions of interest in the buyout

Here, from David Vidovich, are the latest buyout numbers:

INQUIRER:
50 Applications
46 Applications Approved
4 Applications Pending

DAILY NEWS:
25 Applications
15 Applications Approved
10 Applications Pending

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III. Answers to frequently asked questions

QUESTION: Will all buyout requests be approved before the company turns to layoffs to reduce the staff?

ANSWER: We will process all buyout requests before we turn to layoffs. But, as was stated in the buyout announcement, we are reserving the right to deny buyouts based on business need e.g….to anyone whose skill we would have to replace, or who we believe is integral to our identity or our readership.

QUESTION: Won’t you take everyone who applies for a buyout, so that you can avoid laying off people.

ANSWER: Unfortunately, no. While we hope to lay off as few people as possible, our number one goal is the preservation of the quality of the paper. We will not approve buyout applications from people who have key skill sets or talents and identities we believe are crucial to our mission.

QUESTION: If you do not take the buyout and are laid off, will you still get the buyout package? If so, does this apply to SWPs?

ANSWER: The layoff package is only a little different from the buyout package, in that the health care part is somewhat less extensive. By contract, SWPS don't get the North Broad Street Multi-employer Pension Plan (the former Guild severance)

QUESTION: There's a rumor that if the company gets a certain number of buyouts (40 or 50), they might stop at that and not do layoffs. Is that true, or just a rumor?

ANSWER: It’s a rumor.

QUESTION: I was wondering, and this is looking down the road a bit, once the targeted 75 positions are cut, is KR dedicated to maintaining staffing levels? I mean, if 76 people leave, will we be allowed to replace one of the people who is gone?

ANSWER: Right now that is the intent, and that is what we are planning on. But obviously given the precarious financial situation in the industry, that could change at any time

QUESTION: What is going to happen to the library?

ANSWER: We will likely be reducing the staffing in the news research library. While our plans are not yet final, it looks likely that the staffing will consist of no more than two people, and that the job will consist mainly of archiving.

Reporters, editors and photographers in both The Daily News and The Inquirer will be given extensive training in Lexis/Nexis, DocCenter and Internet research in general so that they will be able to handle their own routine searches. In this Internet age, every reporter should be able to quickly locate basic information. It is a necessary journalistic skill set in the 21st Century.

Separately, we will be augmenting our Computer Assisted Reporting staff to provide more reporting and more database research for our watchdog efforts and for bigger projects. These positions will require an ability to report independently, as well as to do sophisticated data analysis. Those postings have just gone up.