T&G cuts on the way?
Zoback is reporting over at the Daily Worcesteria blog that the T&G may be looking to cut as many as 20 people as soon as today. Doesn’t seem like anyone knows where those cuts will hit. If it hits the newsroom the T&G may soon be a monthly newsletter, if it hits the business side nobody will notice since they’re not making any money anyways.
Heres an update which confirms what everyone already knew (thanks CK)
02/28/2008 01:49 PM
To: Everybody by Server
cc:
Subject: Memo from Steve AinsleyDear Colleagues:
As part of a company-wide effort to achieve greater operational efficiencies, we will be offering voluntary buyouts to employees of The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Boston Globe employees will receive offers next week. Telegram & Gazette employees will receive offers the following week. Boston.com and GlobeDirect employees are ineligible for this program.
We are expecting a total reduction of 80 positions, with approximately 60 from the Globe and roughly 20 from the T&G. This reduction in staff is a difficult but necessary step toward our ongoing goals of reducing costs and finding efficiencies that allow for the long-term health of our business.
As you all know, these are difficult times in the newspaper business. The good news is that our on-line revenue continues to grow although not yet at a scale that offsets the downturn in print.
Going forward our newspapers must continue to adapt to changing patterns of media consumption while our on-line business expands our capabilities to present high quality news and information in new formats and new platforms. For these strategic reasons we are excluding Boston.com from the voluntary buyout program. Instead, we will continue to invest in this growing area of the business as it scales up in content delivery, advertising and audience.
We are also excluding GlobeDirect from the buyout program because it just completed a restructuring as part of its consolidation into the Millbury facility and further reductions are not warranted.
Finally, I should note the terms of this buyout - while still generous - are less generous than similar offers in the recent past. For most employees the basic severance payout will be two weeks of pay for every pension year of service with a cap of one-year’s pay. We are offering an enhanced package to some employees – those Newspaper Guild members at the Globe with lifetime job guarantees, in recognition of their many years of service to the company and the value to them of the job guarantee benefit. They will be eligible to receive three weeks of pay for every year of service with a cap of two years pay. This distinction will not be made in any future buyouts that may be offered.
A complete package will be mailed to your homes shortly which will go
into greater detail as to the payout components, timing and healthcare
benefits associated with the package.I know that it can be a stressful time for eligible employees at the Globe and Telegram & Gazette who must make an important decision about their careers. Our Human Resources and Employee Relations departments are on hand to help you with any questions you may have about this offer.
I’d like to thank everyone for their continued dedication while we redirect our business to future success.
– Steve
Great work, but you missed the whole point
Back in August Worcester was all a buzz with the release of the Worcester College Consortium promo video “Worcester Rocks”. Today the T&G did a follow up which honestly, reads like they just discovered it. It’s a very weird piece to read though, it screams of the sort of internet ignorance that makes me sad for kids in Worcester who really do have to live in the shadows of adults who just don’t understand the world they exist in.
Let me back up. The video itself is great, better than great, it’s nearly perfect. Exactly what the city needs for promo. It may have been way overpriced ($65k) but it remains pretty much the best ‘official’ marketing Worcester has ever pulled off. The problem is, six months later the video has been viewed by 9500 people per YouTube stats and the Consortium seems to think that’s excellent.
It’s not. It’s terrible.
In terms of web distribution of a promo piece targeting the most easily accessible audience on the web, it’s absolutely horrendous. To date this works out to approximately 7 dollars per view and that’s including the 1000 or so reported links coming in from local sources, people who already live here and obviously do not fit into the target demographic. 9500 people isn’t enough to significantly affect car traffic downtown never mind online.
For the sake of comparison, here’s a Worcester sharks clip that has 4500 views in under a month
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFY4V2WTcs
Here’s a rodeo clip from the DCU that has 314,295 views in a month and a half
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-7UabJdf38
And those are just local clips; take a look at this Jimmy Kimmel video added three days ago; 2,244,730 views in three days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIQrBouWRiE
that, is viral.
Again, I think the video is great. But I’m not part of the target demographic. The real question to ask here is what are the conversion goals? Do we know how many people have seen this video and decided to come to Worcester for school? Or just to get drunk, even? We can publish ‘OMG WORCESTERS ON YOUTUBE!!!’ fluff pieces as quickly as we can find PR people to type them. But actual results are a much different game.
If the T&G really wants to focus on local, successful, viral, video marketing online (done for less than 65k) the only story in town remains the kids at Worcester Love and the T&G has handled that potential cash cow of a partnership pretty abysmally, if you ask me.
edit: thanks to Keith over at Ale Works for reminding me of what may go down as the Grandaddy of Worcester viral video. The Dukes of Worcester at 14k views in 11 months(40k+ if you consider the multiple sources hosting it on YT alone) with no PR muscle behind it.
the Mos Eisley of the planet Earth
Just found this shirt while cruising cafepress. Pure unadulterated genius.
Worcester, MA may have been the Paris of the 80’s but now it is the Mos Eisley of the planet Earth. Great gift for Clarkies!
Dear Jim it’s me margaret
I was just playing around on congress.org when I noticed that constituent letters are available. If you thought letters to the editor were the pinnacle of batshit insanity you must check these out. Anonymous for the protection of those who like writing letters to congressional leaders while drinking (not that I would ever do that, Congressman McGovern), but still a riot. Here are a few highlights:
To: Rep. James McGovern
February 15, 2008
Pretty please, use my hard earned tax dollars for something that is going to improve society. Let MLB and NFL govern themselves, the government should have more important issues to deal with. You don’t see me standing over the fry boy at McDonalds making sure the fries are cooked.
To: Rep. James McGovern
December 12, 2007
$13.5billion?! What a blatant give-away to Big Oil! This is exactly the kind of issue that convinces us disgruntled voters that the government in Washington does NOT represent OUR interests. If the Democrats cave in on this one, they deserve to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail
To: Rep. James McGovern
November 30, 2007
The surge is working because a dead enemy is a good thing. A dead enemy cannot kill Americans and our loyal allies. A pity it took you geniuses so long to figure that out.
Let’s bring back the nightly body count! Show the numbers and be proud of what our military is doing to protect America and the rest of the world from this Islamic evil.
Oh by the way, the last time I looked over my history books and the Koran, I see no reference to Islam being a “religion of peace” so please stop kissing the asses of the Saudis by saying that. Didn’t you get that message from September 11, the beheadings, the murders and the burning of bodies?
Semper Fi
Not News
A dog in a tree may be funny, but it is not news. And it is certainly not the top story for Tuesday Feb 26th in the second largest city in New England. Someone on the inside who wants to pretend to be interested in advertising revenue might want to try and keep this crap from polluting the daily rag, thanks!
This story by Scott Croteau in yesterdays paper, however, is some of the best factual reporting I’ve read in the T&G recently. Notice the complete lack of domesticated animals or other warm and fuzzy imagery.
Painting find surprised investigator
Lukes says ¡No Más!
I’m a huge fan of Anthony Bourdains Travel Channel show No Reservations; I believe it may actually be the best thing on TV. If you’ve ever seen the show you realize much of the focus is on inexpensive local cuisine. When visiting urban areas, much of that cuisine comes from street vendors. Something that struck me as related to a local issue while reading Zobacks latest entry on the WoMag Blog regarding an item on tomorrow night’s City Council docket.
Mayor Lukes is asking the City Solicitor for “a legal opinion listing all the traffic, parking and zoning ordinances applicable to canteen style motor vehicles which serve food to the public and request recommendations regarding the type of ordinances and special permits required to regulate the activities of such canteens.” Sounds like another attempt for that Main South mainstay and constant neighborhood target, El Delicioso.
So why is it that if you are to visit another country the best eats come, quite literally, from the street, yet here in Worcester we frown on locals providing the same?
I think this letter by district 4 councilor Barbara Haller to WoMag from last year sums up ‘the city’ position quite nicely; it also makes her sound like a crazy old lady who hates what it means to live in an urban core.
Should a residential street be subjected to RV motor noise, street litter, loud conversation peppered with crude language, volume auto traffic, and the occasional (but too frequent) argument and scuffle - at 10pm, midnight, 2am, 3am, and beyond? I say no, and so do the affected neighbors. The fact that El Delicioso continues to operate demonstrates that reform is needed.
Now, I’m not saying that a 24hr city is for everyone, but Councilor Haller, Mayor Lukes and tag alongs like Billy Breault do have options. Move to Spencer or Paxton. I’m sitting here waiting to see how new housing projects like the Burwick building turn out so I can decide whether I’m staying in Worcester and moving into its core or leaving altogether for a better urban experience, but if I was to move inter Hallers district it would be FOR the things she continues to decry as negatives. Am I the only person who thinks empanadas and high octane coffee are good things at 2am?
Greenwald on Nystrom
It’s easy to forget that all news is local news somewhere; even a paper like the New York Times is just a daily rag if you live in one of the boroughs. Well, leave it to former Worcester resident and all around superhero, Paul Nystrom to lend a hand in bringing national news back down to a local level and vice versa. As pointed out by non-other than Glen Greenwald over at salon.com, Paul wrote a letter to the editor of the The Salem News which managed to successfully obliterate an earlier op-ed written by 2006 Republican congressional candidate Rick Barton. Paul successfully dismantles Barton’s FISA fear-mongering in a rather eloquent manner and Greenwald presents an equally eloquent summary of why local debate on what is regularly perceived as national news is so important, using Paul as an example.
Barton’s Op-Ed attempted to smear Rep. Tierney as endangering Americans by opposing the Senate FISA bill using all the standard GOP fear-mongering talking points, and Paul’s Letter to the Editor eviscerates every one of those arguments. I highlight this to underscore the fact that submitting such letters to your local papers, and especially submitting Op-Eds, can have a very substantial impact on how these matters are debated and understood, particularly where the submission is well-informed and well-argued. Many Americans still trust their local newspapers and have their opinions shaped by what they read there as much as, and often more than, national news outlets.
link (at the end of the column)
original Barton op-Ed
Nystrom letter
Struck Café down for the count
Not so quiet whispers of the Strucks shuttering have been circulating since around the New Year. Yesterdays T&G finally confirmed that the restaurant, long viewed as one of Worcesters most exclusive dining experiences, is no more. Seems that back taxes will go down as the death blow, with one of the owners Jeffrey Cotter of Auburn, listing the following in his personal bankruptcy filling.
$51,000 in payroll taxes owed to the federal government and $52,000 in meals and payroll taxes owed to the state Department of Revenue.
While the city mourns the loss of yet another local business, I would like to cut the line in pointing out that the Struck failed the moment they moved locations, the newer spot being mostly forgettable. Debt may have been the final nail in the proverbial coffin, but the food and service were never really that hot and those are qualities people tend to appreciate in a restaurant. So while we race and jump on one of two band wagons to point out that either:
a.) all business fail in Worcester
or
b.) Worcester doesn’t support good business
Sometimes it’s equally fun to pretend that many of the business we like to think are great, are actually quite terrible and deserve to go the way of the proverbial dodo.
But what do I know?
No woo?
An interesting post just popped up on the WoMag Daily Worcesteria blog. Turns out that someone has taken issue with news editor Scott Zoback and his use of “the Woo” as a nickname for Worcester and since I’m referenced in the post I figure that gives me the right to chime in. An interesting call-out, for sure, I for one always felt ‘wormtown’ was by far the silliest nickname for Worcester (No offense Jeff), but this “PSD” character claims:
I keep seeing this “Woo” reference in WoMag…no one from Boston calls it “Beantown”…no one from Worcester calls it “The Woo”…in fact the only usage (verbal or written) I have EVER encountered in 34+ years is in Womag (recently)..I know blogs are opinion and all, but this term just seems half-baked.
“PSD” must live in a hole. I’ve been hearing this term used as long as I can remember. And mostly by people who can only be described as real Worcester, you know, people such as myself who were born here to parents who were born here…
For me “the Woo” always had a special ring since I proved, using rather advance trigonometry, that Joe vs The Volcano was the last movie in which Tom Hanks showed any sort of talent and of course the Volcano in said movie was called the Big Woo and referred to as such by Abe Vigoda who played the Waponi chief (Abe Vigoda is still alive for those of you keeping score). Anything Abe Vigoda says is inherently right and just, so “the Woo” is an inherently right and just name for my city.
Personally, I’m giving “PSD” a fail on this one.
a “friendly crowd”
When 50 Cent told FOX news cameras Obama would be a target for assassination, most people seemed to dismiss the statement as silly; who would say such a thing?
Well who would guess that only a few weeks later the Secret Service detail on Presidential Candidate Barak Obama would decide that the crowd of 17,000 at a Dallas rally seemed friendly enough to stop screening people as they entered?
Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event.
This is simply bizarre; don’t I look friendly enough to board a plane without a prostate exam?
