Monday, November 30, 2015

Tribune Publishing denies sale rumor

Tribune Publishing denies sale rumor

'Let's not pretend this is anything but sad,' LA Times memo says - LA Observed

'Let's not pretend this is anything but sad,' LA Times memo says - LA Observed

Today in Labor History

November 30  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

“Fighting Mary” Eliza McDowell, also known as the “Angel of the Stockyards,” born in Chicago. As a social worker she helped organize the first women’s local of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1902 - 1854
 
Mother Jones died at the Burgess Farm in Adelphi, Md.; “I’m not a lady, I’m a hell-raiser!” - 1930
(The Autobiography of Mother Jones: Mary Harris Jones—“Mother Jones”—was the most dynamic woman ever to grace the American labor movement. Employers and politicians around the turn of the century called her “the most dangerous woman in America” and rebellious working men and women loved her as they never loved anyone else.
     She was an absolutely fearless and tireless advocate for working people, especially coal miners. A founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World—the Wobblies—she feared neither soldiers’ guns nor the ruling class’s jails. Here, in her own words, is her story of organizing in steel, railroading, textiles and mining; her crusade against child labor; her fight to organize women; even her involvement in the Mexican revolution.)


More than 12,000 members of the Insurance Agents Union strike in 35 states and Washington, D.C., against the Prudential Insurance Co. - 1951
 
Unionists and activists shut down World Trade Organization meeting, Seattle, Wash. - 1999
 

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

6 things you can miss while reading a newspaper



LA Times printing plant land put up for sale - LA Observed

LA Times printing plant land put up for sale - LA Observed

The talk of the Web: How The New Yorker grew its digital audience by focusing on quality

The talk of the Web: How The New Yorker grew its digital audience by focusing on quality

Tuesday Afternoon in the Blogosphere

The Jeepney is seen all over the Philippines



The worst job in Twin Cities media - Minnpost

Bringing Sexy Back To Print Media - Seeking Alpha

Greatest quips ever about newspapers - Media Life Magazine

Chicago Tribune columnist mulls life after a buyout - Poynter

If you want to reach millennials, employ them - Editors Weblog

Now what? Tribune writers take buyouts and go - Chicago Reader

Columnist Sandy Banks is taking the LA Times buyout - LAObserved

Can you get readers to pay a dollar a day for digital news? - Ken Doctor

The tawdry fall of the Postmedia newspaper empire - National Observer

Trib Total Media announces layoffs; merging with other newspapers - WTAE

How Vox.com plans to reach younger audiences with Snapchat Discover

How Vox.com plans to reach younger audiences with Snapchat Discover

Buyout list at LA Times 'makes you want to cry' - LA Observed

Buyout list at LA Times 'makes you want to cry' - LA Observed

Today in Labor History

November 24

Led by Samuel Gompers, who would later found the American Federation of Labor, Cigarmakers’ Int’l Union Local 144 is chartered in New York City - 1875

Tribune Media Selects Broker to Sell Property in L.A. Arts District

Jones Lang LaSalle to Market Nearly 25 Acres, Including L.A. Times Printing Plant


CHICAGONov. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Tribune Media Company (NYSE: TRCO) today announced that it has hiredJones Lang LaSalle to manage its sale of nearly 25 acres of land in Los Angeles' revitalized Arts District, just east of downtown. The site includes a printing plant leased by the Los Angeles Times and seven acres of frontage property along Alameda Street.      
"L.A.'s Arts District is an incredibly vibrant area and extremely attractive to emerging businesses looking for an exciting and creative environment in which to locate," said Murray McQueen, President of Tribune Real Estate Holdings. "This is one of Los Angeles' hottest areas for mixed-use retail and office development, and we're expecting a lot of interest."
McQueen continued, "This property offers seven acres that front Alameda Street and are ripe for development, as well as a long-term tenant in the Los Angeles Timeswith predictable, in-place rental income—a combination that will be very attractive to prospective buyers."  
Tribune Media announced earlier this month that it decided to accelerate the monetization of its real estate portfolio. The Company is also currently engaged in an active sales process for two marquee properties, the north block of the Los Angeles Times Square property in L.A. and the Tribune Tower in Chicago.
Tribune Media Company (NYSE: TRCO) is home to a diverse portfolio of television and digital properties driven by quality news, entertainment and sports programming. Tribune Media is comprised of Tribune Broadcasting's 42 owned or operated local television stations reaching more than 50 million households, national entertainment network WGN America, available in approximately 73 million households, Tribune Studios, and Gracenote, one of the world's leading sources of TV and music metadata, powering electronic program guides in televisions, automobiles and mobile devices. Tribune Media also includes Chicago'sWGN-AM, and the national multicast networks Antenna TV and THIS TV. Additionally, the Company owns and manages a significant number of real estate properties across the U.S. and holds other strategic investments in media. For more information please visit www.tribunemedia.com.
SOURCE Tribune Media Company

Monday, November 23, 2015

LA Times buyouts: Lead Paris reporter, higher ed reporter and more - LA Observed

LA Times buyouts: Lead Paris reporter, higher ed reporter and more - LA Observed

Chicago Tribune columnist mulls life after a buyout

Chicago Tribune columnist mulls life after a buyout

Today in Labor History

November 23
History’s first recorded (on papyrus) strike, by Egyptians working on public works projects for King Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings. They were protesting having gone 20 days without pay—portions of grain—and put down their tools. Exact date estimated, described as within “the sixth month of the 29th year” of Ramses’ reign—1170BC—in The Spirit of Ancient Egypt, by Ana Ruiz. Scholar John Romer adds inAncient Lives: The Story of the Pharaoh’s Tombmakers that the strike so terrified the authorities they gave in and raised wages. Romer believes it happened a few years later, on Nov. 14, 1152 B.C.

Troops are dispatched to Cripple Creek, Colo., to control protests by striking coal miners - 1903

Mine Workers President John L. Lewis walks away from the American Federation of Labor to lead the newly-formed Committee for Industrial Organization. The CIO and the unions created under its banner organized six million industrial workers over the following decade – 1935

The first meeting between members of the newly-formed National Football League Players Association and team owners takes place in New York. Union founders included Frank Gifford, Norm Van Brocklin, Don Shula and Kyle Rote. They were asking for a minimum $5,000 salary, a requirement that their teams pay for their equipment, and a provision for the continued payment of salary to injured players. The players’ initial demands were ignored - 1956

It's More Fun in the Philippines

After spending seventeen days in the Philippines it was good to return home yesterday. The time difference still has my body clock in disarray as I slowly return to a normal sleeping pattern. My only dislike was the traffic in Metro Manila, which was amplified during the APEC Summit. The most enjoyable portion of the trip was staying in the countryside with Merly and her family. Here's a few of the hundreds of images I captured during my stay. 

















Thursday, November 05, 2015

I'm off to the Philippines this afternoon


Sixth-generation family owners have sold The Republic of Columbus (Indiana)

Sixth-generation family owners have sold The Republic of Columbus (Indiana)

Jury awards T.J. Simers $7.1 million from LA Times - LA Observed

Jury awards T.J. Simers $7.1 million from LA Times - LA Observed

Today in Labor History


Eugene V. Debs, labor leader, socialist, three-time candidate for president and first president of the American Railway Union, born - 1855

Everett, Wash., massacre, at least seven Wobblies killed, 50 wounded and an indeterminate number missing - 1916

Some 12,000 television and movie writers begin what was to become a 3-month strike against producers over demands for an increase in pay for movies and television shows released on DVD and for a bigger share of the revenue from work delivered over the Internet - 2007

(How familiar do these phrases ring? Unions are responsible for 
budget deficits; they’ve outlived their usefulness; their members are overpaid and enjoy cushy benefits. The only way to save the American economy, many say, is to weaken the labor movement, strip workers of collective bargaining rights, and champion private industry. In They're Bankrupting Us! And 20 Other Myths about Unions, longtime labor activist and educator Bill Fletcher Jr. makes sense of this debate as he unpacks the 21 myths most often cited by anti-union propagandists.)

November 04
Populist humorist Will Rogers was born on this day near Oologah, Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). One of his many memorable quotes: “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” - 1879
 
Some 3,000 dairy farmers demonstrate in Neillsville, Wisc., ultimately leading to the freeing of jailed leaders of a milk strike over low prices set by large dairy plants. Tons of fresh milk were dumped on public roads, trains carrying milk were stopped, some cheese plants were bombed during the fight - 1933
 
After a struggle lasting more than two years, 6,000 Steelworkers members at Bridgestone/Firestone win a settlement in which strikers displaced by scabs got their original jobs back. The fight started when management demanded that the workers accept 12-hour shifts - 1996

November 03
Striking milk drivers dump thousands of gallons of milk on New York City streets - 1921
 
Some 5,000 Philadelphia-area public transit workers begin what was to be a 6-day strike centered on wages and pension benefits - 2009
 




November 02
Police arrest 150 in IWW free speech fight, Spokane, Wash. - 1909

Railroad union leader & socialist Eugene V. Debs receives nearly a million votes for president while imprisoned - 1920

President Reagan signs a bill designating a federal holiday honoring the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to be observed on the third Monday of January - 1983

(All Labor Has Dignity: People forget that Dr. King was every bit as committed to economic justice as he was to ending racial segregation. He fought throughout his life to connect the labor and civil rights movements, envisioning them as twin pillars for social reform.)

Carmen Fasanella retired after 68 years and 243 days of taxicab service in Princeton, N.J., earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.  He started driving at age 17 and, reportedly, chauffeured Princeton Professor Albert Einstein around town - 1989