Denver Newspaper Agency to lay off 200

By Tillie Fong

The Denver Newspaper Agency is planning to lay off 200 employees in the next several weeks, it announced Friday.

“It is part of the resizing of the workforce in the wake of the closing of the Rocky,” said Jim Nolan, spokesman for the agency.

“The layoffs would affect union and non-union employees across the agency, except The Post newsroom, which is not affected.”

The 200 layoffs represent 17 percent of the DNA payroll and would bring the number of full-time equivalents down to 850, according to Nolan.

The Denver Newspaper Agency was a joint venture that ran the business operations of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post. However, the Rocky Mountain News was shuttered Feb. 27, leaving the DNA to operate The Denver Post.

Gerald Grilly, who was named president and CEO of the DNA earlier this month, released a statement Friday on the cuts.

“This is a painful but necessary action to shore up the health of our company at a time when our industry is rapidly changing,” he said. “Without the cooperation of our labor partners, we might have had to go even deeper.”

The cuts are in addition to the $18 million in wage and benefits cuts that the Denver Newspaper Agency already had received in agreements with several unions earlier this year.

Friday, officials with the Denver Newspaper Guild were notified that 33 positions at the agency would be eliminated but were surprised by the larger figure.

”We were aware there would be workforce reductions, but not to the magnitude that you’re describing,” said Tony Mulligan, administrative officer with the guild. “I’m not sure it’s true. We have not heard this from the company.”

Jessica Anderson, 24, of Denver was among the DNA employees told Friday they would be laid off in two weeks.

An advertising credit representative, Anderson said three people in her department would be losing their jobs.

“There’s seven of us in the credit department, and now there’s only four,” she said. “When the JOA (joint operating agreement) first happened, there were 17. I don’t know how the work is going to be distributed.”

Anderson said she wasn’t surprised about being laid off. She has been with the DNA only seven months and figured that there would be changes after the Rocky Mountain News folded.

“When you have one newspaper instead of two, the workforce would be cut,” she said, adding that she had been expecting the news since early this month.

“I just figured that they would start restructuring; with Harry Whipple (former president and CEO of the DNA) gone, things would get moving,” she said. “They start from the top and work their way down.”

She said she didn’t know how many others got their layoff notices Friday but said employees were approached individually in the morning. A group meeting was held later.

“We were all told, ‘If you want to come forward to get a buyout or take early retirement, you could save someone’s job,’ but with this economy, I don’t see that happening,” she said.

Anderson said she went ahead and filed for unemployment Friday, even though she will be working at the DNA for the next two weeks.

“It was very somber for the people who were laid off (today),” she said. “It’s business as usual for the next two weeks, which is kind of weird.”

Three information-technology employees at the DNA were told Wednesday that they were being laid off, according to their union representative.

“They gave them 10 days’ notice, and their last day is the 28th,” said Lester Stevens, president of the Denver Typographical Union, which represents 25 IT workers at the DNA.

He said the DNA already had laid off eight IT workers in the past couple of years, so he wasn’t completely surprised when the latest round of cuts were announced.

“We’ve been negotiating with them, doing some take-backs as far as what we had in our contracts to save them some money,” said Stevens. “They did say they were looking at some staffing reductions, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon.”

But Stevens was critical of the DNA for not being willing to consider other ways to increase revenue rather than making cuts in payroll to make up for any financial losses.

“I had kind of pictured that after we got this other deal, that we would sit down and talk some more and see how to generate revenue,” he said. “That hasn’t been done. We’re doing the same thing over and over, and expect a different result.”

Stevens said he wanted the DNA to come up with a business plan that didn’t involve laying off people. He said he doesn’t buy the DNA’s rationale that with the Rocky’s closure, there isn’t a need for keeping the IT department fully staffed.

“In my opinion, they’re at bare bones right now,” he said. “They’re not really keeping up with the day-to-day work right now.”

He also disputes the DNA’s claims that most of the requests for IT assistance came from the Rocky.

“Our data is showing that only one-tenth of the calls we got came from the Rocky,” he said. “With 25 people, and three cut, that’s a lot more than 10 percent. They will just get further and further behind. It will impact the people who are generating the revenue as far as the products they’re offering.”

Letters also were sent to members of the Teamsters Local 961 late this week, asking that six to nine drivers and three pressmen take a voluntary buyout or early retirement in the next two weeks. According to the letter, layoffs would occur if no one volunteers to leave.

Matthew Fazakas, president of Teamsters Local 961, said he wasn’t entirely surprised by the decision to cut staff at the Denver Newspaper Agency. The union represents 77 pressmen and 67 drivers at the DNA.

“If the Rocky went away, we knew there were going to be cuts,” he said.

But he said that if the DNA gets more printing work – as it did when the Fort Collins Coloradoan recently agreed to print from the Washington Street plant – then there would be more hires. “Business is not based on printing the Denver Post,” he said. “It’s on using the machinery. We want to get as much work in-house as we can. That will help the mailers, the drivers, the mechanics.”

Nolan said the notification of the remaining layoffs will be forthcoming.

“They will be notified at the next appropriate time in the next several weeks,” he said.

Nolan would not discuss how much money would be saved from the layoffs, saying the agency does not discuss its finances publicly.

However, he said that the various unions were aware of the possibility of workforce reductions when the DNA asked for the $18 million in concessions in December.

“The unions were told that workforce reductions would be likely if the News closed,” he said. “Management has gone through an assessment of what they need, and this is the result.”

Nolan would not say Friday at what point the decision was made to eliminate 200 jobs or what the split would be between union and non-union jobs.

“They will be in all different DNA departments,” he said.

Nolan said services for The Denver Post will not be affected by the cuts. He would not say whether future layoffs were possible at the DNA.

“Any business constantly re-evaluates its operations,” he said. “That’s an ongoing process.”

The Denver Newspaper Agency was formed in 2001 as the result of a joint operating agreement between the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post. It was responsible for the business operations of both papers.

In 2006, the DNA cut 94 people, or about 5 percent of its workforce, in order to save costs. At that time, the DNA had 1,877 full- and part-time employees.

Last month, the DNA sought to renegotiate a $150 million loan it took out in 2005 to pay for a new printing plant. However, Nolan said Friday that the cuts had nothing to do with the loan.

“The cuts were driven by the closure of the News and the need to eliminate duplication.”

He declined to discuss the status of the negotiations on the loan.

Nolan also said cost-cutting measures were not a result of declining revenue for the DNA due to the closure of the Rocky. The Denver Post had hoped to retain 80 percent of the Rocky’s circulation.

“We are pleased with the retention level that we’re seeing,” he said. “Circulation management is very satisfied with where they are at this point for the post-Rocky period.”

Grilly said the changes were needed to help the DNA survive.

“These actions will also shape a new business model that will allow us to adapt to new market realities,” he said Friday.

“We’re not just ink on paper anymore; we’re true information providers across many platforms. The new shape of our industry demands that we work leaner and smarter to serve our customers.”