Memo from Kevin Keane

Colleagues,

I had always held out hope that business would bounce back quickly enough that we would be able to avoid further staff reductions this fiscal year. Unfortunately whatever rebound there is in this economy hasn't reached the advertising market yet. We project revenues will continue their skid well into next year, which means expenses will need to come down accordingly.

Today we're announcing that we will be eliminating 18 full-time positions in the newsroom (managers and rank and file employees) by mid summer. We will notify the union today as well. Employees let go will receive a week's salary for each year worked, with a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of 12. The company will also pay the employer portion of Cobra benefits for health care for three months.

It goes without saying that this deep a cut on top of previous reductions will have a lasting impact on our newspapers and Web sites. Our preference would be to hold staffing at its current level until the revenue bottomed out, but we can't delay if we're to get through this downturn.

Before we finalize these cuts, however, we're asking for volunteers to step forward. These volunteers will receive an additional severance of up to eight weeks salary on top of the severance mentioned above - one week's pay for each year worked, up to eight years. Under the volunteer program, a 12-year employee would receive the maximum 20-week severance.

Management reserves the right to accept or reject a voluntary offer, depending on how vital a position is to the news organization. Every accepted offer brings down the involuntary layoff number by one. If we accept 18 volunteers, we'll eliminate the need for the layoff altogether. Anyone interested in the voluntary program should contact Belinda Byrd in HR by Wednesday, July 8 at 5 p.m.

Any questions, feel free to drop me a line.

Kevin

Memo from Bob Dickey

To: U.S. Community Publishing Employees
From: Bob Dickey

I want to talk with you about our restructuring efforts, as we continue to battle these difficult economic conditions and the impact on our advertisers. With your help, our various cost savings initiatives are making a difference.

Nevertheless, we will need to implement job reductions to align our resources with the revenue realities we face. Currently each location is finalizing its plan, taking into consideration the local economy, results so far this year and the prospects going forward.

Each plan is different and designed to address the ongoing local needs. All of them, however, involved extremely difficult decisions. Approximately 1400 employees will be impacted by the job reductions across the division. Your publisher or general manager will communicate the local plans, and we expect the vast majority of the reductions will take place by July 9. In a select few cases, the implementation may take longer. There will not be any furloughs for the rest of the year.

I want to stress that the job reductions are not a reflection on these employees or their work. We truly value their many contributions and thank them for their efforts over the years.

Unfortunately, we must take these steps because the advertising environment remains challenged. There have been some promising signs of a recovery, but the reality is the improvements are not broad-based and the economy continues to be fragile.

Even so, we know the economy will improve. To be ready, we need to continue our transformation and maintain a strong financial position. We must publish our newspapers, produce our Web sites and pay down our debt. By taking all these steps today, we will be stronger tomorrow.

Measured against our peers in the media industry, we are healthy and capable of moving forward. We are in this position because we have proactively responded to the financial conditions with actions such as these.

We continue to see good ideas coming from all of you, and we are becoming more innovative everyday. This combination of forward thinking and good fiscal management will, I believe, ultimately result in a return to success for our company.

So, please keep those thoughts and ideas coming. As always, you can email me or call with your comments.

Memo from Ron Redfern

June 15, 2009

To: All PEC Employees

We are changing our home delivery footprint in San Bernardino County.

In January of this year, we were faced with the choice of leaving San Bernardino County or implementing a very aggressive price increase to allow us to cover our costs of publishing and continue delivering in San Bernardino County. Unfortunately, a significant number of subscribers in parts of S.B. County refused to accept the increase in price and cancelled their subscriptions.

Consequently, after further review, we have made the decision to discontinue home delivery in certain parts of the San Bernardino market due to low penetration levels. We will continue delivery in those areas where subscriber acceptance remains high, but unfortunately we will eliminate home delivery service in Chino Hills, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana and Rialto on Monday, July 13, 2009. The final print edition of The Press-Enterprise will be delivered to subscribers’ homes on Sunday, July 12, 2009.

Residents of those areas will still have access to the daily product in two ways:

• P-Edition – for the very affordable price of $52 for an annual subscription or $1.25 per week for a 4-week subscription. We have eliminated the paid wall on pe.com for the next thirty days so people with access to the Internet can “test drive” the P-Edition at no cost through July 12, 2009.
• Newsstand racks and retail outlets – we are leaving the single copy distribution channel in place in the areas where home delivery is being eliminated. The Press-Enterprise will still be available for daily purchase at our various retail and news rack locations throughout the area. Current pricing is $0.50/day Monday-Saturday, and $1.50 on Sunday.
  

Please note that subscribers in the affected areas will be receiving letters in the next day or two informing them of this change. If you receive complaint calls, please refer them to our Customer Care Call Center. And if you have any questions, please feel free to talk your Vice President, or contact Kathy Weiermiller in Circulation.

Regrettably, the current economic conditions force us to make this change; however, to paraphrase Mark Twain, “Contrary to what is being written about newspapers, the rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated.” We are optimistic about our future, particularly because The Press-Enterprise is the only major newspaper in Southern California to show readership growth of over 5% from last year, and our overall audience is up over 33% from last year. Because of that amazing growth during this difficult time, we remain committed to being the best provider of local news, information, and advertising in the Inland Region.

Thanks for your continued support.

Ron Redfern
Publisher, CEO & President
The Press-Enterprise Company

Memo from Dean Singleton and Jody Lodovic

May 8, 2009

To: MediaNews Group Employees

From: Dean Singleton

Jody Lodovic

Re: Interactive Strategic Summit

Two weeks ago, 22 executives from across the company, including Publishers, Editors, and Interactive leaders, met to discuss MediaNews Group’s interactive strategy. While our websites attract a significant audience and drive considerable page views, we face three daunting challenges that needed to be addressed. First, we continue to do an injustice to our print subscribers and create perceptions that our content has no value by putting all of our print content online for free. Not only does this erode our print circulation, it devalues the core of our business - the great local journalism we (and only we) produce on a daily basis. Second, our interactive revenue growth has slowed because it has been too closely tied to our print classified business, which has suffered with the advent of Craigslist and other free online classified opportunities. Finally, we are not significantly extending the reach of our audience, as our online products too closely resemble the newspaper, and thus fail to meaningfully reach the next generation of readers.

This interactive summit was meant to address these issues head-on; to build a strategic plan that places a value on our content, protects our core print business, extends the reach of our audience, and creates new revenue opportunities online. We cannot continue to give all of our content away for free; we must consider, create and deploy new products and sites that both decouple our interactive revenue from our classified business and offer a compelling new experience for a younger (non-newspaper buying) demographic. From this conference, we have built consensus on a three pronged approach to enhance our business moving forward:

· We will begin to move away from putting all of our newspaper content online for free. Instead, we will explore a variety of premium offerings that apply real value to our print content. We are not trying to invent new premium products, but instead tell our existing print readers that what they are buying has real value, and to our online audience (who don’t buy the print edition), that if you want access to all online content, you are going to have to register, and/or pay. If a non-subscriber wants the newspaper content in its entirety online, they will be directed to some sort of registration or pay vehicle (and if they are a print subscriber, they will have full access at no charge). To be clear, the brand value proposition to the consumer is that the newspaper is a product, whether in print or online, which must be paid for.

· We will begin differentiating our sites from the newspaper and focus on strategies designed to reach younger audiences and extend our reach. The websites, newspaper.com as we call them now, will become a different product. This new site, which we have been calling news.com, will be a regional news site that is actively managed to present breaking news. It will continue to draw a content from the newspaper (but probably in a more abbreviated form), but will also have user-generated content, community involvement and third party content. News.com will continue to serve our existing audience, which spends a lot of time on our sites, and drive significant traffic. They like and depend on our sites for their national and local news. We must not alienate them as we strive to expand our audience and attract younger people and non newspaper subscribers. Obviously, our sites must draw upon the content of the newspaper, but the presentation of that content will be different. News.com will be an entry page to new content offerings, local retail advertising opportunities and premium offerings.

· We will build a new local utility site (Local.com), which is an ecosystem of local information, resources, user content, shopping guides, and marketplaces. This site will be focused on a younger audience as well as other targeted audiences based on demographics which are attractive to our current and potential advertisers. We have the advantage of being the trusted source of for news and information in our communities and have a large base of traffic to feed into Local.com. Local.com will leverage existing newspaper content and existing traffic, and we will add new content (such as Entertainment/Lifestyle) to target a younger audience. Central to this local site will be an aggregation of city or community sites (in the YourHub model) and marketplaces. Local.com will be the ultimate site for people to find stuff, do stuff, and get stuff done in their local market.

We will initially focus on five or six niche vertical content channels to support targeted advertising opportunities (many of which have reverse publishing opportunities). We will build these out with a common template, for ease of execution and maintenance, and deploy across the company.

New tiered circulation pricing strategies will be considered as part of, and tied to, the above online strategies. Such pricing strategies will be designed to maximize revenue, improve overall profitability, add value to full priced, seven day delivery, subscriptions, and reinforce the value for online content.

In order to execute this vision, we have agreed that these new strategies will be done with a template approach, using a menu of common tools and vendors. We will take advantage of the size of MNG to leverage enterprise solutions and build off a common platform that allows for fast implementation and a companywide rollout.

We will form four taskforces (News, local, premium and technology) to drive these ideas to market. They will focus on content, sales, marketing, research and build a business plan. We will also form a technical taskforce to evaluate the needs of a new content management system.

We will keep you posted periodically as we develop these new products and as this strategy evolves. Our online business is a critical piece of the future growth of this company and is integral to growing and targeting new audiences. Our newspapers continue to attract the largest and most desirable audiences in our local markets, but we feel strongly that developing new and targeted audiences online will position us to deliver the most comprehensive and effective solutions for our advertisers.

Email from Cortney Fielding

Friends-

Sadly, the rumors are true. I was recently caught by janitorial staff attempting to stuff the Daily Journal’s prize decorative otter into a burlap sack with plans to set him free in some other, unsuspecting newsroom. I couldn’t take the way he was silently mocking me, day after day, as I walked from the atrium to my cube. Thankfully, the good people here at the DJ said there was no need to bring the authorities into this, but I think I better make a break for it just the same.

Seriously, leaving was a tough decision. I’ve loved working with everyone here and really enjoy covering LA courts, but curiosity has gotten the better of me. I want to see what, if anything, I can accomplish out on my own and maybe catch my breath a little while figuring out what I want to do next in this business.

Granted, this is something I probably couldn’t do if I hadn’t had the foresight to marry a man who would one day collect a stable paycheck from a boring old insurance company, so props go to me for that.

I got into journalism because I enjoyed storytelling and lacked the imagination necessary to make stories up myself. Why bother when there is already so much great material ripe for the picking? I plan on continuing to tell other people’s stories. I’ve gotten a few cool freelance gigs to get me started, and I’m working on some bigger projects I’ll tell everyone about after they are more certain-so I don’t look like a total loser if they fall through.

But, if by the end of the year, I’m calling you as a PR person trying to pitch a story about an amazing law firm’s ground-breaking swine-flu practice, I guess we will know this was a very,very bad idea.

Your co-worker and friend,

Cortney

Memo from Robert Decherd

April 2, 2009

Dear Colleagues:

Since I last communicated with you in late January, the challenges A. H. Belo and our industry are facing have intensified – reflecting one of the most trying advertising environments our industry has ever encountered. We have made significant progress implementing the cost reduction initiatives I described in my January 30 letter, and the Company-wide reduction in force is nearing completion. Identifying additional opportunities to manage cash remains our first priority, and we are making salary changes similar to those recently announced by many of our peer newspaper companies.

On Tuesday, the Board of Directors approved my recommendation to reduce my base salary by 20 percent and the base salaries of other Management Committee members by 15 percent, effective immediately. In addition, all full-time employees making more than $25,000 per year will have reductions in base salary as follows:

$25,000 and under 0
$25,001 - $74,999 2.5 %
$75,000 - $102,499 5.0 %
$102,500 - $149,999 7.5 %
$150,000 - $225,000 10 %
Over $225,000 15 %

These changes will be effective starting in the payroll cycles on or near May 1. The annual savings represented by these reductions exceed $10 million. We will ask employees who are covered by collective bargaining agreements to voluntarily lower their salaries by the levels described above.

If you are notified prior to June 30, 2009 that you will be impacted by the reduction in force currently underway, your severance will be calculated at your current base salary as of today’s date.

Our hope is to restore most or all of these cuts for impacted employees at some time in the future, as business conditions permit. To cushion the impact of the wage cuts, all impacted employees will receive three additional personal days per calendar year, effective at the time of the salary reductions.

For participants in the G. B. Dealey Retirement Pension Plan, the Company intends to fund the Pension Transition Supplement Plan (PTS) contribution for 2008 no later than October 15, 2009. The PTS Plan contribution will be suspended for 2009. The funding for the calendar year 2009 contribution that would normally be made in 2010 will not be made, preserving approximately $6 million in cash next year. A detailed explanation of the PTS Plan changes will be mailed to all participants within the next week.

These decisions are not taken lightly and all are made with a focus toward maintaining A. H. Belo’s ability to be the leading provider of local news, information and advertising in the markets it serves. The cost-reduction initiatives we have implemented have real consequences and everyone is affected in some way. As conditions improve – which they inevitably will – we expect to look back at these steps as being painful but necessary for the long-term prosperity of our great Company. What we do everyday is special. I thank you for the sacrifices and ongoing contributions all of you are making every day. You are being asked to do much at a time when our audiences and advertisers are looking to us to help make sense of an environment that is challenging individuals and organizations well beyond our own.

I will communicate with you again soon.

Robert Decherd
Chairman of the Board
President
Chief Executive Officer

Memo from Ron Redfern

February 10, 2009
TO: All PEC Employees
FROM: Ron Redfern

Dear Colleagues:

By now, I hope all of you have read Robert Decherd’s letter of January 30^th to all A. H. Belo employees. If you have not, you can access it on the A. H. Belo intranet site or obtain a copy from Human Resources.

In the letter, Robert describes how the present economic climate, coupled with the significant challenges that the newspaper industry was facing even before the recent economic downturns, have made this an especially difficult time for our newspaper company, as well as newspaper companies across the country.

We continue to be very uncertain about what will happen with our economy in this coming year. Consequently, we are anticipating further advertising revenue declines for 2009 from 2008, and in fact, our January results bear this out. Because advertising revenues account for approximately 80% of our company’s revenue, we need to implement the expense-reduction measures outlined in Robert’s letter.

Two things were not ready for communication at the time of Robert’s letter: the timing of the layoffs and the severance package.

As to timing, we anticipate completing the layoffs by the end of April. We are currently in the process of determining the extent of the layoffs and will notify impacted employees as soon as possible. If for some reason the layoffs will extend beyond April, you will be advised.

A. H. Belo has adopted a severance plan that governs the amount of severance to be paid to employees who terminate employment with an A. H. Belo company due to a reduction in force.

• Generally, employees who are terminated due to the reduction in force and who sign the separation-and-release agreement, will receive a lump-sum severance payment of one and one-quarter (1.25) weeks of current base pay for each year of employment. The maximum severance allowed is 10 weeks. The minimum severance payment for eligible employees will be two weeks. Partial years of service will be used for purposes of calculating the severance payment.


• The severance payment will be made once the separation-and-release agreement has been signed and, when applicable, the revocation period has expired.


• Outplacement services to assist employees in looking for their next employment opportunity are being provided as part of the offer.

Thanks to each of you for your continued support and efforts on behalf of The Press-Enterprise. Our mission as an organization is an important one for all of the communities we serve in the region. It is unfortunate that we must take these measures to sustain that mission, but they are truly necessary. I appreciate your cooperation during these difficult and challenging times.

Memo from the Modesto Bee (dated 1/28/09)

In order to help offset decreases in advertising revenue, we will be reducing a significant number of pages in the paper each week.

These are not things we want to do, but things we need to do.

In the next several weeks, we'll be:

§ Consolidating and/or combining some sections.

§ Reducing the number of section fronts.

§ Eliminating some pages and sections altogether.

§ Refocusing some sections with content that we think will be a plus for readers.

At one point we considered going to a two-section paper on Mondays, which would move the local news into the A section. But given all the changes in the paper, with the web reduction and the shift to Sacramento, we decided against that at this time.

The changes we're making could reduce the weekly page count by 16 pages, plus or minus depending on ad volumes and sizes. One daily page is about $280, so, for example, taking 10 pages out of the paper over the course of the week would save about $2,800 or more than $145,000 a year.

Memo from Steve Hunt

Good afternoon,

As you know, the copy desk from the San Bernardino Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin will be joining our copy desk on Monday, Jan. 26 as we create an Inland Division Universal Desk. This desk will be responsible for copy editing every story and designing and paginating every page in our three newspapers, as well as the Sun and the Bulletin. It is an enormous task, one that requires incredible cooperation and planning. That cooperation will involve every reporter and editor on our city desk, features desk, business desk and sports desk.

One of the challenges in this venture is that three papers now share the same off-the-floor deadlines. The Whittier Daily News, Sun and Bulletin all are due off the floor at 10 p.m. Experience tells us that won't work very well when we join our desks into one. So, we're going to adjust two of those deadlines to give our designers and copy editors enough of a gap to ensure we make deadline for all three papers every night. Beginning Jan. 26, the deadline for the Sun will be 9:30 p.m. and the deadline for Whittier will be 9:45 p.m. The Bulletin deadline will remain 10 p.m. Pasadena's deadline will remain 10:45 p.m., while Tribune's will change to 11:30 p.m.

But those aren't the only changes. Because many of our copy editors and designers will be working 1:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. shifts, we also are going to change the copy deadlines for reporters at all five papers. Beginning Monday, Jan. 19, all inside A section copy for the three SGVN papers will be due at 1:30 p.m. A1 copy for Whittier and Pasadena will be due at 5 p.m., while A1 copy for the Tribune will be due at 5:30 p.m. This will provide us with the necessary copy flow so copy editors and designers can meet their page flow deadlines. For those of you who have never worked on a copy desk, what this does is prevent a logjam of pages on deadline, which would inevitably lead to late press starts and late delivery of papers. Of course, we realize there will be live and late stories from time to time. Special allowances will be made for those, as well as breaking news. But the hope here is to set up a system that provides for greater copy flow earlier in the day to ensure every paper in the Inland Division makes deadline and every reader gets his or her paper on time.

Naturally, those of you making photo assignments will want to try to line those up as early as you can too. We have more leeway on A1 than inside the A section, but it greatly helps designers to have art early in their shifts. Again, exceptions will be made for live events and breaking news.

Also next week, we will have one-hour earlier deadlines on Tuesday because of the inauguration. Circulation plans to print several thousand extra copies to sell on the street and wants to make sure those papers get to delivery people earlier. So on Tuesday night, Whittier's deadline is 9 p.m., Pasadena's is 9:45 p.m. and Tribune's is 10:45 p.m. For that night only, we'll want normal inside A copy by 2 p.m. and everything else by 4 p.m.

Thanks very much for your help. And while I am at it, I will echo Frank's comments about the good work you have all done recently. The Rose, our Jan. 2 parade wrap and the other special sections we've done recently were exceptional. But I am most proud that we had incredibly strong papers throughout that busy period and have kept that going. These are trying times for newspapers and most other businesses. But I am so proud of all of you and the papers we publish every day.

Thanks very much,

Steve

Memo from Jim Janiga

Dear Fellow Employees,

Today our company is announcing the suspension of all annual merit increases to be effective February 1, 2009. We are not certain how long this suspension will last but are hopeful that the coming 2010 Fiscal Year operating budget will allow the suspension to be lifted. The new fiscal year begins July 1, 2009. No guarantees but that is our goal. In the meantime, all merit increases earned and due before February 1, 2009 will be processed.

Under this suspension all increases earned and due on and after February 1, will be suspended for at least five months. For example, and based on that anticipated time period, if you are due a merit increase this coming March 2009, that merit increase will be delayed five months to August 2009. If you just receive a merit increase this past December 2008, your next merit increase would be due May 2010. Your Human Resources representatives can assist with any questions or concerns you may have.

Suspending merit increases will not reduce our current expenses but it does help us contain our expenses for a period of time. So obviously more needs to be considered and implemented, if warranted. To this end we are asking everyone to share with us any suggestions you might have regarding cuts in our operating expenses that are measurable, timely and sensible; cuts that can help us avoid more layoffs and are cuts you may be willing to accept. We need your input.

Unfortunately we cannot promise there will not be layoffs in the future but we should always endeavor to do what we can to prevent as many as possible. Obviously, growing revenue is our best option but until revenue streams stabilize and grow, reducing our expenses will continue to be a painful but necessary focus. Some early suggestions have included mandatory furloughs, cuts in our vacation benefits, pay cuts (temporary and/or permanent), reduced work schedules, allowing volunteer reduction in hours while retaining most full-time benefits, and more.

No one has THE answer and no one should naively speculate what others may not be willing to do to help save a co-worker's job... even where there are no guarantees. We would be foolish not to ask for your support, ideas, focus and commitment.

Everyone needs to be engaged. We need to support each other. We can and will make a difference. Times are tough but we are tougher. Your ideas are important to all of us.

Thank you for your attention and thank you for your continuing input and loyalty.

Sincerely,
Jim Janiga
Senior Vice President - Human Resources

Memo from David Houston

Dear Colleagues,

When I became editor of the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals 17 days ago, there were many challenges that had to be met immediately. As anyone who follows this business knows, 2008 has shaped up to be journalism's annus horribilis. The most pressing of our challenges was to make changes needed to continue to put out a high-quality newspaper in spite of cutbacks. Today, I am announcing staffing changes that I believe will go along way toward meeting that goal.

The first is that Alexia Garamfalvi has agreed to officially take over as editor of the San Francisco Daily Journal. In that role, she will oversee the Daily Journal's Bay Area reporters and our Washington bureau. Alexia has done a terrific job running the office since my departure. In fact, she has done a terrific job since she came to the paper as an associate editor 11 months ago. Those who have worked closely with her will attest to the fact that Alexia brought our law firm business coverage to a much deeper level. And her influence has extended well beyond lateral moves and profits per partner. Alexia has guided our Washington reporters in some outstanding coverage over the past several months.

Alexia graduated from McGill and UVA law school and worked as a corporate lawyer in New York for several years before going to the Medill journalism school. She was an editor and reporter at a publication focused on U.S. trade policy and at Legal Times before moving to San Francisco and the Daily Journal.

We are moving forward quickly in our search for a new associate editor in San Francisco. In the meantime, Laura Ernde remains on hiatus from the California Supreme Court beat, filling in on that post.

In Los Angeles, associate editor Alan Mittelstaedt has decided to leave to dedicate his time to USC journalism school, where he is an adjunct professor. We owe Alan a great debt for getting our new blog, the DJ Blawter, off the ground. Please join me in wishing him well in his new endeavor. We are moving quickly to find a new associate editor.

In these lean times, it is important for us to take stock of what we do each day. We can do some things exceptionally well but we no longer have the resources to do many things well. Therefore, I have decided to eliminate the following beats in Los Angeles: pro bono; general litigation and city politics/land use. This does not mean layoffs. Our pro bono reporter left the paper several months ago and our city reporter left last month.

Noah Barron, who has held the general litigation beat, will take over our entertainment law beat that has been open for a few months. Noah has distinguished himself as a reporter with boundless energy, someone willing to take on any task.

Finally, Greg Katz, who somehow made ADR one of the most prolific beats at the paper, is taking over as the criminal justice reporter. In that role, he will cover issues of importance to criminal lawyers throughout the state.

That's the news for now. Stay tuned.

dh

Email from Joshua Stecker

Hi everyone,

Well, the cat's out of the bag.

Yes, the Press-Telegram has quietly ceased publication of San Pedro Magazine, and in turn, I have been laid off.

Getting laid off is never fun or easy, but what's worse than me losing my job is watching the two newspapers that serve San Pedro officially abandoning our area. First it was MORE, now San Pedro Magazine.

Well, I wasn't going to sit idly by and let my hometown lose a magazine that was hugely popular, profitable, well-respected and incredibly fun to produce.

So, in good ole' San Pedro do-it-yourself fashion, I'm launching San Pedro Today, a new independently owned and operated monthly magazine serving my hometown of San Pedro.

Premiering the week of January 5, 2009, San Pedro Today will have the same great 30,000 copy circulation (still the largest circulated publication in San Pedro), free home delivery to homes and condos, the beautiful glossy cover and include all the great columnists and contributors who helped make the former publication the success it was. I’m taking the best parts of what made San Pedro Magazine great and enhancing it with all the features I wanted to do but could never get done working for my former corporation.

Now that I independently own and operate San Pedro Today, I can finally give San Pedro the type of quality publication it has always deserved.

And talk about launching with a BANG! Our first issue will be a special commemorative issue featuring the San Pedro High School Football team celebrating their L.A. City Section (co-) Championship!

This premiere issue will feature a cover and story celebrating the exciting and historic 21-21 tie championship game between San Pedro and Narbonne High School. (I was there, it was an incredible game!) It will also include a multiple-page photo spread chronicling the entire game, including photos of fans in the stands and candid on and off-the-field celebrations.

It will definitely be a highly sought after publication when it hits the streets. I'm excited to launch the new magazine leading with such an awesome hometown event.

In addition to our regular content, we're also accepting "SPHS Football Pride" ads if anyone is interested in adding a personal ad congratulating our SPHS Pirates to our premiere issue. All the information is at www.sanpedrotoday.com.

On a personal note, I want to be very clear that my parting from the Press-Telegram was an amicable one. The situation that unfolded this past week was due to the incredible hardships facing the newspaper industry as a whole. I do not envy those in charge at the Press-Telegram, they have a huge mountain to climb and have to deal with a huge corporation that has completely lost focus of what it means to produce a quality local newspaper for the community. It’s sad, really. Newspapers are dying, but magazines are alive and kicking.

To all our current (and future) advertisers, thanks for shifting your support to San Pedro Today. The transition will be painless. My former advertising representative from San Pedro Magazine, Patricia Roberts, has joined me on San Pedro Today and will be assisting you in the turnover process.

I’m also pleased to announce we’re LOWERING ADVERTISING RATES across the board for the new publication. Since we do not have to go through the corporate bureaucracy to get things done, our working experience should be much more fun and easy. We’re here to help you succeed.

Lastly, those who have worked with me and have known me through the former magazine know how much I love my hometown. I’m a fourth generation San Pedran and proud of it. When I got the news about the abrupt cancellation of San Pedro Magazine, without being able to produce one final issue to let everyone know, well... I wasn't going to let that happen. So, San Pedro Today was born.

I hope you join me on what will be one incredible adventure!

Sincerely,
Joshua

P.S. Make sure when you visit www.sanpedrotoday.com that you subscribe to our email newsletter on the top right-side column. This way you won't miss out on all the new content we'll be producing. :)

Bray responds to LA Impact (UPDATED*)

Christy L. O'Donnell

Manning & Marder, Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, LLP

801 South Figueroa St., 15th Floor

Los Angeles, CA 90017

Dear Ms. O'Donnell:

On September 8, 2008, I sent a request for documents to your client, L.A. Impact. You responded for the first time on October 14, 2008. Your response so far has been legally inadequate and grossly unprofessional. Your client has been poorly served by your performance.

First, I requested public documents from your client, a public agency. State law gives public agencies ten days to respond to such requests. L.A. Impact received my request -- my second request, by the way -- on September 9, 2008 (see enclosed photocopy of U.S. Postal Service "Domestic Return Receipt," labeled as Document 1). Your letter of October 14 begins, "This letter will confirm our receipt of your correspondence, dated September 8, 2008..." (see enclosed photocopy of your October 14 letter, labeled as Document 2). No explanation for your delayed response follows. Should I wish to argue that L.A. Impact does not comply with the terms of the California Public Records Act, your own letter serves as the plainest evidence of that fact. It took you five weeks to send a short initial response to a one-page letter. I hope this is not the standard at your firm.

Second, pursuant to the Ralph M. Brown Act, I asked to receive agendas for public meetings of the L.A. Impact directors. You mailed to me an agenda for the October 16, 2008 meeting of the L.A. Impact Executive Council (enclosed, labeled as Document 3), with a demand (see your letter, Document 2) that I pay a $2.50 fee to L.A. Impact to cover the cost of mailing. As this agenda shows, the meeting in question began on October 16, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. But you mailed the agenda to me on October 15, 2008, as the metered postage on your envelope shows (see enclosed photocopy of Manning & Marder envelope, labeled as Document 4). An agenda mailed October 15 for a meeting on the morning of October 16 is useless, a fact I shouldn't need to explain even to you. In fact, I received the agenda after the meeting was over. Perhaps five weeks is just how long it takes you to get a two-page document in the mail, but you and your client are not complying with the Brown Act by sending an agenda for a meeting that is already over when the agenda arrives. Obviously, I will not be paying your client for this agenda. Future agendas are to reach me prior to the meetings described by those agendas.

Third, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, we exchanged email in which I asked for an appointment this week to review public records at your client's office. You responded at 9:36 a.m. on that day that you would contact your client and arrange such an appointment for me. It is now 8:45 a.m. on Monday, October 20, and I have not heard from you. You had most of the day Wednesday, and all of Thursday and Friday, to arrange an appointment at a public agency to review simple public records that should be easily available. I am requesting an opportunity to review the recent agendas and minutes of a local legislative body, a set of records that any City Clerk in the state would instantly provide to me over the counter without an appointment. This is not hard.

I am not impressed by you. Do your job.

Sincerely,

Chris Bray

*UPDATED: Here is the key paragraph in O'Donnell's letter to Bray, dated Oct. 23, that responds to the letter above:

As for your allegation that the appointment is untimely, there is no specific time requirement within the Brown Act, the above appointment is reasonable, and thus there is no violation. Although no explanation is required, you allege that you should immediately have been given an appointment within a secure LA IMPACT building solely because "a set of records that any City Clerk in the state would instantly provide to [you] over the counter without an appointment. This is not hard." As I explained in my October 14, 2008 correspondence, LA IMPACT Headquarters is a secure law enforcement building with restricted access to civilians. Further, the LA IMPACT taskforce is not a municipality or state agency, but rather a crime task force whose priorities are to assist law enforcement agencies in immediate and exigent crime suppression. As such, the above date and time is more than reasonable, given the nature of LA IMPACT. No Brown Act violation exists.

She's right, LA Impact is neither a city nor a state agency. But neither are a county or a school district, and yet both are bound by the Brown Act. (State agencies, funnily enough, are governed by a different open-meetings law.) Moreover, every one of these agencies, LA Impact included, is subject to the California Public Records Act. That means LA Impact's agendas and documents must be open to inspection at all times during business hours (6253(a)). Failure to comply is a violation of California law.

BANG-EB publisher steps down

Dear Employees:

We’re announcing a leadership change for our East Bay newspapers. After many years of dedicated service, John Armstrong will be leaving the company effective October 17. We’re very appreciative of the effort that John has put forth during his role as Publisher, and earlier as Editor, and wish him good fortune for the future.

David Rounds, San Jose Mercury News Vice President of Circulation, will replace Armstrong as the new President and Publisher of our East Bay newspapers. David is a career newspaper professional with more than 35 years’ experience in newspaper advertising, circulation and operations. The first half of his career focused on advertising and included work at the Independent in Livermore, ANG newspapers in Pleasanton, Hayward and Fremont, where he held numerous management positions in retail and classified advertising. In 1989, he joined Lesher Communications in the East Bay working at the Valley Times, West County Times, Antioch Ledger and the Contra Costa Times in various positions including advertising manager, general manager, group Vice President, and Vice President of Circulation. David has served as Vice President of Circulation for the Mercury News since January 2005.

Dan Smith, East Bay Circulation Vice President, has been named Vice President of Circulation for the Bay Area Newspaper Group. He will now oversee all circulation efforts for the San Jose and East Bay consolidated operations. We are enthusiastic and optimistic regarding the opportunities associated with one coordinated, strategic effort to generate increased circulation sales and improve our customer retention for the BANG papers. Dan worked for the Mercury News from 1982 through 1995. He is very familiar with the market and has the benefit of having worked with a majority of the South Bay circulation team.

Michael Turpin, San Jose Advertising/Marketing Vice President, has been named Vice President of Advertising/Marketing for the Bay Area Newspaper Group. Michael will oversee all advertising and marketing efforts for the San Jose and East Bay Consolidated operations. We’re equally optimistic that a coordinated strategic effort in advertising and marketing for the BANG operations will be more effective and efficient in reaching and satisfying our advertising customers. Mike Jung, East Bay Vice President of Advertising, will report jointly to Michael Turpin and David Rounds.

Michael joined the Mercury News in 1999 as major accounts manager and later assumed the key accounts group in 2002. In 2005, Michael assumed responsibilities for all of retail advertising including overseeing the assembly of a single major accounts sales team after the MediaNews purchase of The Mercury News and Contra Costa Times. In 2007, Michael became the Vice President of Advertising for The Mercury News and earlier this year assumed responsibility for national advertising, marketing and the publishing of the Milpitas Post, Silicon Valley Community Newspapers and the Daily News Group.

While this is a challenging time in the newspaper industry, I remain convinced that we will not only survive but also thrive in the coming years. We do face immediate hardships associated with the “sea change” that is occurring in the newspaper industry coupled with a stressed economic environment. That said, the economy will eventually stabilize and newspapers will successfully navigate their way through this difficult environment.

Newspapers remain the dominate provider of local news and advertising content. It is our core competency that no other media can match. Local news and information will always be important as people want to know what is happening with the schools their children attend, the safety of their neighborhoods, the roads they drive on, the taxes that the pay, etc. So, we have a core competency that no one else really has and that people really want – the only thing that is changing is how some people want to receive that information. How we adapt our business model to best fulfill the desires of our customers is the question we must answer – and we find the answer.

The aggregate reach of our print and online customers is increasing. We reach more people today than we have in the past – we’re a growing media. Not too many of our competitors can make that claim. I’m confident that newspapers will successfully find our way through these challenging times.

Thank you for everything you have done to make our newspapers better and to get through our current challenges. Please join with me in wishing good luck and best wishes to John, David, Dan and Michael.

Mac Tully