This has been the summer of our discontent at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Nearly everyone I’ve talked to here and at the Daily News has been “doing the math,” figuring out financially and emotionally whether to take a buyout offer from the company or to stay at newspapers that will be smaller.
For veteran journalists, the buyout offer, the second in a half year, is generous — a year’s salary, a $20,000 bonus and medical benefits for several years. For union journalists, the application deadline is today; for managers, it was in June.
We won’t know until the end of July how many on the Inquirer newsroom roster of about 560 will leave, but 32 already have been approved, with at least 20 more applications. Whatever the final number, it will follow 33 newsroom departures in December.
On the current list are several high-ranking journalists at the top of their games. Among them are: Managing Editor Butch Ward, an articulate editor who brought great moral authority to decision-making; Marc Duvoisin, the projects editor who has steered The Inquirer’s investigations into police misconduct; and Marietta Dunn, the well-respected copy desk chief.
The managing editor’s job is the second highest in the newsroom. Phillip Dixon, a veteran editor with experience here and at the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, was promoted to the job.
Some of those who are leaving are headed to excellent jobs at other newspapers; some have opted to retire early, and some have decided to exit daily journalism, and that hurts all the more.
All of this feels like a death in the family for a group of journalists intensely loyal to the newspaper.
The latest buyout is part of Knight Ridder’s decision to nationally reduce its workforce of 22,000 by 10 percent. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., which publishes both papers, wants to trim 200 jobs throughout the company.
Behind these moves is the pressure from Wall Street on all publicly held newspaper companies to maintain high profits, despite a weaker economy that slowed advertising revenues and a jump in newsprint prices.
Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, sets the profit standard. In the first quarter, its profit margin was 23.2 percent, down from 26.6 percent the same quarter a year ago. Knight Ridder, the second-largest chain, posted a profit margin in the first quarter of 18.5 percent, down from 21.8 percent in the first quarter a year ago.
It’s clear to me that the math Wall Street cares about has little to do with quality journalism. And Knight Ridder’s mark in its business has always been as much about the quality of its newspapers as the strength of its bottom line. None of The Inquirer’s top editors is claiming they can’t put out a fine newspaper with 500 people. They can. But no one’s pretending that losing all this talent will make it any easier.
From this chair, listening to readers every day, it’s apparent to me that they expect nothing less than excellence. What also is apparent to me is that no one knows this newspaper as well as its readers do.
John Corr, who wrote the Philadelphia nostalgia column on Saturdays, was one of the first to retire under the buyout in mid-June. As soon as his column was missing one time, readers’ questions began. They’ve sent postcards and letters asking for a replacement. Often, these notes also mention the column’s previous author, Edgar Williams.
Whether the column continues is one of myriad decisions editors will make over the next few months. They have been meeting twice a week to debate every aspect of coverage. In the weeks ahead, they’ll draw up a list of priorities, outlining the paper’s core coverage. They’ll decide how to recraft the coverage given the reduced staffing.
What has surprised me is how enterprising The Inquirer has been over the summer, given the distractions.
No one has been spared the angst, least of all Editor Robert Rosenthal. His latest note to the staff — praising the paper’s coverage of some recent major breaking stories — ended this way: “Hang in there.”
