Monday, February 29, 2016

Tribune Media Stock Jumps as Company Explores Sale or Separation of Assets, Other Options


"Tribune's assets are valuable, powerful and performing well," says CEO Peter Liguori. "However, it's our belief that our current stock price does not reflect the full value of these assets."

Full article can be read here

Sunday, February 28, 2016

This step-by-step video will show you how to create newspaper nails



Harry Hutchins Rest in Peace

Long time pressman and crew supervisor Harry Hutchins (84) passed away three weeks ago in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mr. Hutchins is survived by three children and four grandchildren.

His son Keith also worked as a pressman at the downtown facilities.

Harry pictured at the left.

After a forty year run, Laura Molina retires from the Los Angeles Times

Written by Laura's son William;

Happy last day of work to the hardest working person I know my mom. Almost 40 years of working at the @latimes weekends, holidays, all the random call ins, and deadlines. You might not know it but you are truly an inspiration and my hero.  I love you mom and here's too many more years of relaxing and enjoying retirement.



Sunday Morning in the Blogosphere




Hugh Hefner Saves Embattled School Newspaper - DNAinfo

No digital publishing for foreign media in China - Editors Weblog

Ex-Tribune chief to get more than $2M in severance pay - New York Post

L.A. Times Staffer Susan King Winds Down a Storied Run - Fishbowl NY

Insider bid to acquire O.C. Register parent may be in jeopardy - L.A. Times

Sunday LA Times section front will change color in the light - LAObserved

Soldier of Fortune Shutters Print Magazine After 40 Years - Wall Street Journal

As staff shrinks, Denver Post cuts back on editorials - Columbia Journalism Review

New Media Investment Group is not yet done gobbling up small newspapers - Poynter

Former LAT Chatsworth Plant to Be Developed as Live, Work, Play Campus - Daily News

LA Times restaffs the Business desk

LA Times restaffs the Business desk: A deputy from the OC Register and a tech editor from the Bay Area are added. Plus: A new column in Sports.

Today in Labor History

February 28  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

U.S. Supreme Court finds that a Utah state law limiting mine and smelter workers to an 8-hour workday is constitutional - 1898

(Actually Leap Year Feb. 29) The minimum age allowed by law for workers in mills, factories, and mines in South Carolina is raised from 12 to 14 - 1915
(Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor: Your heart will be broken by this exceptional book’s photographs of children at backbreaking, often life-threatening work, and the accompanying commentary by author Russell Freedman. Photographer Lewis Hine—who himself died in poverty in 1940—did as much, and perhaps more, than any social critic in the early part of the 20th century to expose the abuse of children, as young as three and four, by American capitalism.)

Members of the Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in San Francisco’s Chinatown begin what is to be a successful four-month strike for better wages and conditions at the National Dollar Stores factory and three retail outlets – 1938

(Actually leap year Feb. 29) Screen Actors Guild member Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award, honored for her portrayal of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind” - 1940

In response to the layoff of 450 union members at a 3M factory in New Jersey, every worker at a 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, walks off the job in sympathy - 1986



February 27
Legendary labor leader and socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs becomes charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Five years later he is leading the national union and in 1893 helps found the nation’s first industrial union, the American Railway Union - 1875

Birth of John Steinbeck in Salinas, Calif.  Steinbeck is best known for writing The Grapes of Wrath, which exposed the mistreatment of migrant farm workers during the Depression and led to some reforms - 1902

Thirty-eight miners die in a coal mine explosion in Boissevain, Va. - 1932

Four hundred fifty Woolworth’s workers and customers occupy store for eight days in support of Waiters and Waitresses Union, Detroit - 1937

The Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes, a major organizing tool for industrial unions, are illegal - 1939

Mine disaster kills 75 at Red Lodge, Mont. - 1943


February 26
Congress OKs the Contract Labor Law, designed to clamp down on "business agents" who contracted abroad for immigrant labor. One of the reasons unions supported the measure: employers were using foreign workers to fight against the growing U.S. labor movement, primarily by deploying immigrant labor to break strikes - 1885
(The Labor Law Source Book: Texts of 20 Federal Labor Laws is a very handy collection that puts the full texts of all the major U.S. labor laws into one book. Includes the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and 15 more. The full, actual language of each law is presented—without elaboration by the editor—and a helpful topic finder at the back of the book tells you which laws apply to basic concerns and classes of workers. A valuable basic reference. This book contains the texts of federal labor law amended as of December 31, 2013.)

Bethlehem Steel workers strike for union recognition, Bethlehem, Pa. - 1941

A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapsed, flooding the 17-mile long valley. 118 died, 5,000 were left homeless. The Pittston Coal Co. said it was "an act of God" - 1972

A 20-week strike by 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers ends, with both sides claiming victory - 2004

February 25
Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employees of America change name to Amalgamated Transit Union - 1965

The Order of Railroad Telegraphers change name to Transportation-Communication Employees Union - 1965

A crowd estimated to be 100,000 strong rallied at the Wisconsin state Capitol in protest of what was ultimately was to become a successful push by the state’s Republican majority to cripple public employee bargaining rights - 2011







February 24
U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women, justified as necessary to protect their health. A laundry owner was fined $10 for making a female employee work more than 10 hours in a single day - 1908

Women and children textile strikers beaten by Lawrence, Mass., police during a 63-day walkout protesting low wages and work speedups - 1912

Congress passes a federal child labor tax law that imposed a 10 percent tax on companies that employ children, defined as anyone under the age of 16 working in a mine/quarry or under the age 14 in a “mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment.”  The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional three years later - 1919

February 23
W.E.B. DuBois, educator and civil rights activist, born - 1868

The National Marine Engineers Association (now the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association), representing deck and engine officers on U.S. flag vessels, is formed at a convention in Cleveland, Ohio - 1875

The Journeyman Bakers’ National Union receives its charter from the American Federation of Labor - 1887

William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner began publishing articles on the menace of Japanese laborers, leading to a resolution in the California legislature that action be taken against their immigration - 1904

Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” following a frigid trip—partially by hitchhiking, partially by rail—from California to Manhattan. The Great Depression was still raging. Guthrie had heard Kate Smith’s recording of “God Bless America” and resolved to himself: “We can’t just bless America, we’ve got to change it” - 1940
(Woody Guthrie: A Life: Folksinger and political activist Woody Guthrie contributed much to the American labor movement, not the least of which are his classic anthems "Union Maid" and "This Land Is Your Land." This is an easy-to-read, honest description of Guthrie’s life, from a childhood of poverty to an adulthood of music and organizing—and a life cut short by incurable disease. Guthrie’s life and work inspired millions while he lived and continues to do so through musicians such as his son Arlo, Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen, to name just a few. Guthrie is portrayed as he was—an imperfect being but one with a gift that helped millions as they struggled toward better lives.)

Association of Flight Attendants granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1984

Following voter approval for the measure in 2003, San Francisco’s minimum wage rises to $8.50, up from $6.75 - 2004

February 22
Representatives of the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers meet in St. Louis with 20 other organizations to plan the founding convention of the People’s Party. Objectives: end political corruption, spread the wealth, and combat the oppression of the rights of workers and farmers - 1892

Albert Shanker dies at age 68. He served as president of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 and of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997 - 1997

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

CEO who fired Beutner is out at Tribune Publishing*

CEO who fired Beutner is out at Tribune Publishing*: Jack Griffin lasted less than three weeks under the new largest shareholder of Tribune Publishing, which is no less screwed up than the previous Chicago overlords of the LA Times.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Ex-publisher Beutner has an op-ed in the LA Times

Ex-publisher Beutner has an op-ed in the LA Times: This is weird in an only-in-LA kind of way, given that he was fired from the Times just last year.

Today in Labor History

February 19  --   Union Communications Services, Inc.

American Federation of Labor issues a charter to its new Railroad Employees Department - 1909

A few weeks after workers ask for a 25¢ hourly wage, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit (streetcar) Co. fires 173 union members “for the good of the service” and brings in replacements from New York City. Striker-scab battles and a general strike ensued - 1910
(In this expanded edition of Strike! you can read about labor-management conflicts that have occurred over the past 140 years. Here you’ll learn much about workers’ struggle to win a degree of justice, from the workers’ point of view. Brecher also examines the ever-shifting roles and configurations of unions, from the Knights of Labor of the 1800s to the AFL-CIO of the 1990s.)

Journeymen Stonecutters Association of North America merges with Laborers’ Int’l Union - 1968

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in favor of sales clerk Leura Collins and her union, the Retail Clerks, in NLRB v. J. Weingarten Inc.—the case establishing that workers have a right to request the presence of their union steward if they believe they are to be disciplined for a workplace infraction - 1975

Int’l Union of Police Associations granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1979

Farm Labor Organizing Committee signs agreement with Campbell Soup Co., ending 7-year boycott - 1986


February 18
One of the first American labor newspapers, The Man, is published in New York City. It cost 1¢ and, according to The History of American Journalism, “died an early death.” Another labor paper, N.Y. Daily Sentinel, had been launched four years earlier - 1834

Faced with 84-hour workweeks, 24-hour shifts and pay of 29¢ an hour, fire fighters form The Int’l Association of Fire Fighters. Some individual locals had affiliated with the AFL beginning in 1903 - 1918

February 17
Sixty-three sit-down strikers, demanding recognition of their union, are tear-gassed and driven from two Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. plants in Chicago. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared sit-down strikes illegal. The tactic had been a major industrial union organizing tool - 1937

Two locals of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Int'l Union (now UNITE HERE) at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., strike in sympathy with 1,300 graduate student teaching assistants who are demanding the right to negotiate with the university - 1992


February 16
Leonora O’Reilly was born in New York. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she began working in a factory at 11, joined the Knights of Labor at 16, and was a volunteer investigator of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. She was a founding member of the Women’s Trade Union League - 1870

Diamond Mine disaster in Braidwood, Ill. The coal mine was on a marshy tract of land with no natural drainage. Snow melted and forced a collapse on the east side of the mine, killing 74 - 1883

Beginning of a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a 5-day, 40-hour week - 1926

Rubber Workers begin sit-down strike at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. - 1936

American Wire Weavers Protective Association merges with United Papermakers & Paperworkers - 1959

All public schools in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisc., are closed as teachers call in sick to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to gut their collective bargaining rights - 2011

February 15
Susan B. Anthony, suffragist, abolitionist, labor activist, born in Adams, Mass. "Join the union, girls, and together say: Equal Pay for Equal Work." - 1820

U.S. legislators pass the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, providing funds for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which funneled money to states plagued by Depression-era poverty and unemployment, and oversaw the subsequent distribution and relief efforts - 1934

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) expels the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers; the Food, Tobacco & Agricultural Workers; and the United Office & Professional Workers for “Communist tendencies.” Other unions expelled for the same reason (dates uncertain): Fur and Leather Workers, the Farm Equipment Union, the Int’l Longshoremen’s Union, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers - 1950

Friday Morning in the Blogosphere


Automatic Guided Vehicle delivering it's payload of newsprint 




The ax falls at Yahoo - Politico

Wolff: Print’s dead — but so is digital - USA Today

Gannett’s revenues are down almost 10 percent - Poynter

Next step into digital news age by LA Times - LAObserved

Express Newspapers to hire 40 staff in digital push - The Guardian

Gannett (GCI) Misses Q4 Earnings, Revenues, Shares Tank - Zacks

Former L.A. Times printing plant in O.C. may become creative office space - LAT

Fairfax modelled future with no newspapers and 40pc fewer journos - The Australian

Tribune Publishing, Digital First Media bid to buy bankrupt O.C. Register - LA Times

Michael Ferro Immediately Redefines Tribune Publishing’s Chairman Role - Newsonomics

Friday, February 12, 2016

Monday, February 08, 2016

Friday, February 05, 2016

Today in Labor History

February 05  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

First daily labor newspaper, N.Y. Daily Sentinel, begins publication - 1830
(Making the News: A Guide for Nonprofits and Activists: Tired of the union being ignored by your local media? Fed up with the way your employer’s side of the story always gets told...while the union side gets barely a passing mention, usually negative? Want to start your own labor-side publication?! You’ll want this book. Making the News explains the basics of how to talk to reporters, how to do a news release, ways to “create” a news event, how to get invited to—and sound good during—radio and TV interviews... it’s a true A to Z of media smarts.)

The movie Modern Times premieres. The tale of the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and his paramour (Paulette Goddard) mixed slapstick comedy and social satire, as the couple struggled to overcome the difficulties of the machine age including unemployment and nerve-wracking factory work, and get along in modern times - 1937

President Bill Clinton signs the Family and Medical Leave Act.  The law requires most employers of 50 or more workers to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a family or medical emergency - 1993

In what turns out to be a bad business decision, Circuit City fires 3,900 experienced sales people because they're making too much in commissions. Sales plummet. Six years later it declares bankruptcy - 2003

Friday Morning in the Blogosphere




Dead links plague journalists - Poynter

Sheldon Adelson tightens grip on Review-Journal - Politico

New York Times Eyes Ambitious Overhaul - Huffington Post

Patch Rebounds After Split From AOL - The Wall Street Journal

Why California gasoline is so expensive - San Diego Union-Tribune

Tribune Media Plans To Sell Broad Street Building - Hartford Courant

Globe and Mail CEO on the ‘courageous step’ into data - Editors Weblog

Tribune Publishing's top shareholder is now Michael Ferro - Chicago Tribune

Chicago entrepreneur buys a large stake in L.A. Times' owner - Los Angeles Times

Pranksters handed out thousands of copies of a bogus edition of NYT - Village Voice



Thursday, February 04, 2016

LAT editors: Cruz does nation a favor in beating Trump

LAT editors: Cruz does nation a favor in beating Trump: Trump's first test with actual voters falls short. Not a great result for Hillary Clinton either.

Today in Labor History

February 04  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

The Ohio legislature authorizes construction of the 249-mile Miami and Erie Canal, to connect Toledo to Cincinnati.  Local historians say "Irish immigrants, convicts and local farmers used picks, shovels and wheelbarrows," at 30 cents per day, to construct the 249-mile-long waterway - 1825
 
"Big Bill" Haywood born in Salt Lake City, Utah: Leader of Western Federation of Miners, Wobblies (IWW) founder - 1869
 
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a White man launched the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott and the birth of the civil rights movement, is born in Tuskeege, Ala. - 1913
 
Unemployment demonstrations take place in major U.S. cities - 1932
 
Thirty-seven thousand maritime workers on the West Coast strike for wage increases - 1937
 
President Barack Obama imposes $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure" - 2009

February 03
The U.S. Supreme Court rules the United Hatters Union violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott of Danbury Hatters of Connecticut - 1908

U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Wages and Hours (later Fair Labor Standards) Act banning child labor and establishing the 40-hour work week - 1941
An explosion at a Thiokol chemical plant near Woodbine, Georgia kills 29 workers, seriously injures 50.  An investigation found that contributing factors to the explosion were mislabeled chemicals, poor storage procedures and insufficient fire protection - 1971




February 02
Three hundred newsboys organize to protest a cut in pay by the Minneapolis Tribune - 1917
 
Legal secretary Iris Rivera fired for refusing to make coffee; secretaries across Chicago protest - 1977
 
The 170-day lockout (although management called it a strike) of 22,000 steelworkers by USX Corp. ends with a pay cut but greater job security.  It was the longest work stoppage in the history of the U.S. steel industry - 1987


February 01
Led by 23-year-old Kate Mullaney, the Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y., and raises earnings for female laundry workers from $2 to $14 a week - 1864

Bricklayers begin working 8-hour days - 1867

Some 25,000 Paterson, N.J., silk workers strike for 8-hour work day and improved working conditions. Eighteen hundred were arrested over the course of the six-month walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their employers’ terms - 1913
(In this expanded edition of Strike! you can read about labor-management conflicts that have occurred over the past 140 years. Here you’ll learn much about workers’ struggle to win a degree of justice, from the workers’ point of view. The author also examines the ever-shifting roles and configurations of unions, from the Knights of Labor of the 1800s to the AFL-CIO of the 1990s. A new chapter, “Beyond One-Sided Class War,” looks at how modern protest movements, such as the Battle of Seattle and Occupy Wall Street, were ignited and considers the similarities between these challenges to authority and those of labor’s past.)


The federal minimum wage increases to $1.60 per hour - 1968

Int’l Brotherhood of Firemen & Oilers merges with Service Employees Int’l Union - 1995

Tribune Publishing Company Stock Tumbling




Tribune Publishing Company Announces $44.4 Million Private Placement Transaction



Michael W. Ferro, Jr. Appointed Non-Executive Chairman Of Tribune Publishing Board Of Directors

Highlights:

            Investment to support Tribune Publishing’s ongoing strategic plan, including        acquisitions and digital initiatives

Board of Directors appoints Michael W. Ferro, Jr. as Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors

Eddy W. Hartenstein, former Non-Executive Chairman, remains on the Tribune Publishing Board of Directors

Company provides financial updates

Preliminary 2015 Company Revenues expected to be in a range of $1.66 billion to $1.67 billion

Full-year preliminary 2015 Adjusted EBITDA expected to be $154 million to $157 million

Company ended fiscal year 2015 with $41 million of cash

         Board of Directors suspends quarterly cash dividend

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Tribune Publishing Company (TPUB) today announced it has completed a $44.4 million private placement transaction with Merrick Media, LLC that will enhance the Company’s position for pursuing strategic acquisitions and digital initiatives. Michael W. Ferro, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Merrick Media, joins the Tribune Publishing Board of Directors as Non-Executive Chairman.
Eddy W. Hartenstein, who has served as Non-Executive Chairman of Tribune Publishing since its spin-off from Tribune Media Company in August 2014, remains on the Tribune Publishing Board of Directors.
Commenting on the $44.4 million private placement transaction, Tribune Publishing Chief Executive Officer Jack Griffin said, “This transaction supports key elements of our ongoing strategic plan and provides our Company with additional capital to accelerate our growth strategies. We continue to evaluate growth opportunities where we can achieve measurable, value-enhancing synergies that drive financial contribution and maximize shareholder value.”
Eddy Hartenstein commented, “We are pleased to have Michael Ferro join our Board. He is a proven value creator, and his strong entrepreneurial business acumen enhances our ability to execute our strategic plan and grow the Company.”
Michael Ferro said, “I am excited to be working with the Company’s award-winning brands. I see tremendous upside to create value and put Tribune Publishing at the forefront of technology and content to benefit journalists and shareholders.”
Entire article