"Everybody's Mad About Something"

Three days after the surprising edict, Frank Santafede, the administrative officer for the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, published an acrid three-page newsletter detailing the situation with the sub-heading, "Everybody's mad about something."

On July 30, when the plan was announced, ordinary office chatter quickly digressed into disquieted grousing. Angry interoffice memos and acerbic e-mails began flying from desktop to desktop, from bureau to bureau -- and the phones didn't stop ringing.

The biggest issue, according to insiders, are the layoffs of 10 part-time editorial assistants, many of whom work just minutes shy of the hours needed to be full-time. The EAs, as they are called, represent the foundational rung of the 500-plus editorial staff. They are responsible for dotting the i's, crossing the t's, executing often excruciatingly tedious production tasks, and are often credited as the backbone of the daily.

Also at issue is the re-titling and/or reshuffling of a passel of suburban staff positions already occupied by veterans, many of whom most likely will have to re-apply for jobs they've been doing for years.

"We're getting screwed," says a staffer, who spoke off the record. "I think this whole thing stinks and what they're doing to people is appalling. I'm going to re-apply for my job and a few others. But if I don't get the other job, and somebody gets my old job, what will I do then? The company created a very adversarial situation very quickly with this plan."

The leadership of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia Local 10, the paper's largest union representing nearly 1,300 reporters, photographers and mid-level management at the Inky and the Daily News, has responded by issuing warlike missives proclaiming unity and vowing to end the madness. In some staffers' estimation, though, morale is at an all-time low at the city's "paper of record."

Lundy arrived at the paper last December, vacating his editor's post at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He replaced Robert "Rosey" Rosenthal, who took his final bow, abruptly, on Election Day, a day when the news is usually made outside the newsroom, not in it. From the start, Lundy reached out to the seasoned and the neophyte to glean the inner workings of the 174-year-old tabloid. Many, though, feel that despite efforts made to bring the new editor up to speed about where, when, who, what and why, Lundy may not have been listening.

"Walker is a hard-headed and stubborn guy," says Henry Holcomb, Philadelphia Guild president. "And we have to be unbending in finding ways to fight this. We have to have the resolve to get something done. And I've never seen such resolve -- and I've been here for 19 years. Everyone is united."

Holcomb says that before the plan was rolled out, the union leadership was not consulted, and that although Lundy had asked individual members to comment on his suburban plans, Holcomb believes the editor didn't go far enough to be inclusive and forthright.

"We found out [about the layoffs and changes to the suburban coverage] at the same time as the whole staff," Holcomb says. "We had asked for meetings leading up to this, but they didn't happen. It appears that Lundy has underestimated the union, but there are no uncertain terms about what our concerns are."

Holcomb says that the entire staff "bent over backward" to welcome Lundy, enthusiastically sharing stories and strategies with him. Now, he says, many are stunned by his response.

"None of this makes sense," Holcomb says. "The EAs are all people who made major contributions to the paper. This work will be diverted to the reporters. And although Walker has said he wants to 'have more feet on the street,' that will be impossible because the reporters will have to find time to do the vital work that had been done by the EAs. This is just wrong and it's unfair to our people. We're not opposed to the new plan; we're opposed to the way our people were treated."

Also on Lundy's list of things to do is to make a few changes at the paper's downtown headquarters. Columnists Tom Ferrick, Monica Yant Kinney and Larry Eichel will all be impacted by the changes to the suburban coverage.

According to the guild newsletter issued last Friday, Ferrick and Yant Kinney were told in front of a large staff meeting that one of them would be transferred to the suburbs. Soon after, Yant Kinney learned that she would be covering New Jersey exclusively. Ferrick will remain in the city.

"I'm sad at having to clip my wings," says Yant Kinney, who since September has been covering the entire region. "But what they're doing is they're changing the definition of a metro columnist. They want to brand the column by area. So, now I feel branded. But I just want to go where the great stories are, wherever they are. For me, there'll be no more [Philadelphia Housing Authority]. No more John Street. No more Pennsylvania suburb issues. It is a little heartbreaking to give up things that might not get covered anymore ... and it's the forced difference in approach that's making me sad. I'm grappling with whether I can shut down two-thirds of my passions, now that I'm going to be limited geographically."

Eichel's twice-weekly political column will no longer run on the Op-Ed page after the gubernatorial elections in November. Insiders say he will be re-assigned to another beat, but which one is still unclear.

Meanwhile, many jobs are being collapsed (for example, running the national and foreign desks will be one job) and others are being put on hold (the downtown education editor seems to have disappeared). Some believe that this is all an effort to force the downtown workers to take suburban posts, which has never held much appeal due in part to the perception that being dispatched to the suburbs is a punishment.

In the past year, as a belt-tightening measure, around 200 staffers accepted corporate buy-outs through the parent company, Knight Ridder. But Hank Klibanoff, Inky deputy managing editor, says this is the first time in his 20 years there that anyone has been laid off.

"I understand that this is a very painful process and it directly affects several friends of mine," Klibanoff says. "But it was a decision based on where do we want the paper to go and how do we get it where we want it to go. This plan was designed and drafted by Walker, based on his nine-month investigation of the paper. He's been pretty straight about wanting to change this newsroom."

Klibanoff says that much of the plan centers on efforts to make a success of the paper's five-day suburban zoning plan and to devote more resources to its newly revamped Sunday Neighbors section.

"Part of the plan is that the long-term [suburban writers and photographers] will concentrate on the new Sunday Neighbors sections every week, so they will not be doing the same things they are now doing," he says. "There will be a dedicated staff for [that] section, so that they will not be pulled in different directions."

Klibanoff says it doesn't appear to him that the majority of the staff is miffed.

"I love and trust Henry, and I believe his mood does reflect a large part of the newsroom," Klibanoff says, "but some of the people who like what they see are not likely to tell him that. Anyone sitting out there in the newsroom who might be feeling some pain about some part-time EAs being laid off, might also be feeling cheerful and excited about a turn for the better in their own careers and a chance for new opportunities." [Web editor's note: Soon after City Paper's print deadline, Klibanoff announced that he was leaving the Inquirer.]

Lundy, who knows he's in the hot seat in the newsroom, says that there's a lot more to being the editor of the Inky than simply making a bunch of changes, but that he genuinely believes his plan is a good one.

"I think we need reporters right now more than we need editorial assistants," he says. "The way I see it, there hasn't been enough attention paid to the suburbs, and when you read the Inquirer, you learn a lot more about the city than you do about the suburbs. However, a lot of our readers live in the suburbs, and we need to address that. I realize that there are concerns about the people who are losing their jobs, but it depends on who you ask. I haven't talked to anybody about the plan itself who didn't think it was pretty good. But, then again, I haven't talked to that many people. "

Obviously.

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