Friends,

As some of you may have already heard or suspected after several cake-less departures this year, the Washington Post has pushed out – or is trying to push out – at least thirteen people through layoffs, coerced buyouts or outright dismissal on dubious charges.

What’s more troubling is that more than half of those employees are African-Americans or Latinos.

The script goes like this: an employee is summoned to a meeting where she hears that “the bar has been raised.” She is told her work does not meet this supposed new standard. She is handed an envelope with a buyout offer and given a deadline to surrender her job or face disciplinary action because of her allegedly poor performance. She is reminded that disciplinary action progresses from warnings to suspensions and termination.

Never mind that the people targeted so far have included veteran journalists with years of distinguished service. Or that talk of a “raised bar” comes as the Post relies more than ever on interns, bloggers, freelancers, readers or comically inexperienced content creators to fill pages. Or that some allegations of poor performance – as documented by the new, pseudoscientific evaluation system and its across-the-board top score of “3” – have included highly subjective and weaselly criticisms such as inserting too many pop culture references in stories. (We are not making this up.)

Other reasons worthy of disciplinary action? Not having enough sources. Not writing more “impact” stories. Not landing on A1 often enough. One staff writer was given a 30-day production quota as follows: at least one deeply textured A1 story, at least one news feature, profile or takeout worthy of the Metro front or A1, at least three dailies a week and at least three blog posts per week. No mention of a Twitter quota. Yet.

The reason for all this is, of course, money. The Washington Post lost $6.2 million in the third quarter of 2011. Newspaper circulation continues to skid by roughly 5 percent a year. Advertising revenues dropped 20 percent in print and 13 percent online.

We know it’s tough. But members of the Guild think that the Post’s direction is not only unfair, it’s unwise. That’s why we are calling on the Post to create a committee to address its approach to reducing staff.

But we are also calling on you. The time for fashionable apathy is past. The Guild needs you to become a dues-paying member and to become active. The Guild has stood by every member who has fought for his or her job or chosen to negotiate a buyout–-and, remember, the leverage for those negotiations is supplied by nothing less than the union contract that covers you and nearly half the employees in this company.

Find out today how to do your fair share for yourself and your fellow workers:

• Darlene Meyer, co-chair, Advertising, 334-7007

• Freddy Kunkle, co-chair, News, 202-302-3688

• Mike Gronowski, Advertising, 334-7087

• Nikita Stewart, News, 334-6988

• Stephen Richardson, Advertising, 334-7730

• Amy Quinto, Ad Ops, 334-4160

• James Crudup, Circ Delivery

• James Ward Circ Delivery

• Whitney Shefte, News, 704-467-4789

• Del Wilber, News, 202.302.7686

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By KEACH HAGEY

Hurting financially but wary of acting precipitously, the Washington Post has planted a strategic stake in the ground when it comes to paywalls: Let the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, with their national distributions and elite readerships, charge their online customers at the door. We’re going to stay free.

“For us, we believe at the moment it doesn’t make sense,” Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth told POLITICO. “We are making a bet for the long term. We want to be around as the Washington Post for a long time and many generations to come, and at the moment, we think that the best way to do that is to have a free website that is open to everybody and attract as many people as we can to spend as much time as they can with our journalism, and assume that that will bring them back for more.”

Not long ago, this was the dominant attitude in newspaper publishing. But after the Times blew past internal benchmarks for signing up digital subscribers this summer and major papers like the Dallas Morning News, Boston Globe and Baltimore Sun announced paywall rollouts this year, the pendulum appears to be swinging the other way.

Even the Los Angeles Times, the Post’s closest competitor in web traffic, told POLITICO it is planning to begin testing digital subscription models in coming months.

To read more click here.

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In the midst of a deteriorating advertising climate, The New York Times plans to eliminate up to 20 newsroom positions and seek additional savings in the business units, the company said Thursday.

The reductions, described by the New York Times Company as a rebalancing, were announced to employees on Thursday morning. The company will seek volunteers for buyouts in The Times newsroom, Jill Abramson, the paper’s executive editor, said in a memo to the staff, adding that no newsroom employee would be laid off. She said there would be “fewer than 20” buyouts.

The Times will also seek to cut costs on the business side by eliminating positions that are vacant and by offering a limited number of buyouts, said an executive who insisted on anonymity because the company was not commenting publicly on the details or scale of the reductions.

Analysts are likely to link the cuts to the Times Company’s third-quarter earnings, which will be reported on Oct. 20 and which are expected to be relatively weak. Late last month, the company’s chief executive, Janet Robinson, told analysts, “Economic conditions have been getting more difficult since the second quarter.”

To read more click here.

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The Guild Bargaining Committee is pleased to report that Post Guild members have overwhelmingly ratified the Tentative Agreement. The new contract becomes effective immediately. Thanks to all those who contributed to this effort.

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The Washington Post Newspaper Guild invites you to look at the tentative 2-year contract. The document below shows the changes that have been made over the current contract.

To read the Tentative Agreement and All the Changes to the Contract click here.

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