Dissenters Beware

Read what happened when a union member at the Phildelphia Inquirer had his hard drive searched by the company.

Union Party

Saturday's party, which celebrated our laid-off friends Lovell (seen here to the left), Mark, Ellen, Ben and Greg, was a great success -- thanks to everyone who dropped by, and to Chris Romero, for bringing in the evening's second wave of partyers!

There's a Nip in the Air

The Vanishing Holiday Bonus

Ahh, nothing says Merry Christmas at work more than an extra envelope full of dosh.

And nothing says the exact opposite of that more than no envelope at all.

Feel free to post (anonymous) comments on whether you think you'll be getting a lump of coal this year - or maybe not even that.

And know that you are not alone:

"As Christmas approached two years ago, Valerie Bent was looking forward to the sizable semiannual bonus she and her colleagues always received at the investor relations firm where she was a vice president. Although their salaries ranked far below industry standards, the company paid out 90 percent of its profits to its staff as a bonus.

But this time Ms. Bent and other employees received a shock: Despite the most profitable six-month period in the company's 30-year history, and contrary to everyone's expectations, managers reneged on the bonus. ..." (read more)

I Wake Up Screening

A look inside the Village Voice's troubled film section.

Going Away Party

Mark Saturday, December 2 on your calendar -- we'll be saying Hi again to our friends and colleages, Greg Burk, Lovell Estell III, Ellen Krout-Hasegawa, Mark Peterson and Ben Quinones, who were laid off November 1. And we'll also be partying just for the hell of it. Booze and chips on the union.

422 Fischer St.
Glendale 91205
8 p.m. onwards

Near the 134 and 2 freeways.
1/2 block south of Colorado Blvd.
Little yellow house with green trim
Call (213) 926-9315 or (818) 246-4467 if you get lost

What People Are Saying

link:
VVM's success/failure in '07 could ripple through the industry

Arizona Republic
If the Village Voice-New Times merger is profitable, there could well be mergers throughout the alternative-news industry as publishers look for savings by offering more "uniform content" for a bigger reader base. "If they don't do well with the younger readers and make a successful jump to the digital world, I think it will have a negative effect on how national advertisers look at alternative weeklies," says Stranger publisher Tim Keck. "If they have another year like this, it's probably not great for the alternative press. I don't think anyone thinks they've had a great year."

Weekly's new News Editor Interviewed on KPCC

You can listen to it online by clicking here. It will take you to a page of a few interviews. Look for LA WEEKLY, and you can listen directly to the interview, which is about 6 minutes long.

Couple more responses to the recent firings - from people who should know.

Two items which were a little hidden on LAObserved, one from a former editor at Seattle Weekly and one from our former sales rep Julianne Kochenour. Both are worth reading I think. Click the links or read below:

• I read the Michael Lacey response to the LA Observed story on the state of affairs at the LA Weekly and practically fell out of my chair. I'm sorry, but is he for real? I happen to know that the recent Best of LA issue (10/6/06) brought in revenue of $2 million, and, in fact, that the LA Weekly is the most profitable of all the VVM properties. Attributing layoffs of writers who are part of the backbone of the LA Weekly to 'budget cutbacks" is laughable at best. If they're cutting the budget it's only because Lacey and company are looking to reap more profits on the backs of loyal advertisers — at the expense of the writers and staff who have made this paper the viable earner that it has become.

Lacey might as well have uttered what seems to be the truth: We want to make money and lots of it. We need to clean house and add staffers we know will follow our agenda with no nostalgia getting in the way of this plan. Period. I'm fairly certain the audience that the paper is so clearly marketing towards these days is not going to care about the direction the paper takes — as long as they have a helpful resource to find where bands are playing and can find a good plastic surgeon without having to page too far into the paper. And long-time readers aren't going to buy the "crying poor" routine.

I left the sales staff at the LA Weekly in July of this year because I could read the writing on the wall. And surely, everything I suspected to be brewing is now unfolding before my eyes. The gutting of a true piece of Los Angeles culture is underway and there is nothing that can stop it. Best now we all seek out and add our favorite investigative news sources' RSS feeds to our bookmark bars and avert our eyes from the carnage that will ultimately be the undoing of a great institution.

Julianne Gorman (formerly known as Julianne Kochenour)

---

Some advice from Seattle

About the changes in store at the LA Weekly...

• Up here in Seattle -- where the same process has been underway for two months with Seattle Weekly -- word for months has been that LA would be next, following NY and Seattle in Lacey's hit list of editorial departments to be eviscerated. Here, the editor-in-chief, managing editor, political editor, and I all left and/or were forced out in August; since, the arts editor has also left and staff hemorrhaging in all departments has continued. The respected news department of a highly profitable paper (with a strong alt weekly competitor) has effectively been dismantled, replaced by a much-shrunken editorial hole, a commitment to faux outrageousness, and the telling of quirky, entertaining (and journalistically and politically irrelevant) yarns.

Another wave of SW feces is in the process of hitting the fan here with yesterday's entirely fictional cover story (not identified as a parody) by the new managing editor, purportedly detailing a (nonexistent) business enterprise of the mayor.

I'm just saying. Get used to it; the changes at LA Weekly are just starting, reassurances (which I also got repeatedly and personally) notwithstanding. It won't be pretty.

Geov Parrish
Former political columnist, Seattle Weekly

Nickel and Dimed

Do you feel the quality of life at the Weekly is being cramped by excessive penny-pinching? Share your observations!

Alt Weekly Asks Writers to Work for Free

Read and weep:

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11985

Santa Barbara Newspaper Union Head Fired

Story carried by Editor & Publisher.

Scuttlebutt

Brief mention of Mike Lacey's impending visit to Los Angeles Santa Monica on LA Observed here - about half way down.

Q&A

Got a question? Have an opinion? Share it here.

Your Shop Stewards

Steven Leigh Morris, chief steward.

Office on fourth floor, extension 3652












Lovell Estell III
Office on third floor, ext. 3636




Dan Selzer, office on first floor, ext. 3543

Shop stewards are the backbone of every union. They field complaints from workers, serve as employee advocates during disciplinary meetings and are the people that management sees most often to discuss union grievances. It's important to know who the L.A. Weekly's stewards are. Remember, if you feel the contract is being violated, or that you're being unfairly treated, or if you're ever called in to meet with Human Resources about job-site incidents or your work performance, make sure you go in with a steward. Any one of the three current stewards can represent you.