Several media reporters wrote on Twitter on Thursday that this was one of the worst weeks in journalism, and it’s hard to argue with them. BusinessWeek is canning a third of its staff as Bloomberg gets ready to buy the magazine. The Associated Press is laying off 90 people as part of its effort to cut payroll costs by 10 percent this year.

And now The Washington Post is laying off staff, sources told me on Friday, and a spokeswoman confirmed.

The Post has cut an unknown number of washingtonpost.com workers, the website folks who until now have worked separately at the dot-com headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, across the river from the Post’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. One source told me up to 10 are going. That’s not as big a number as other places you’ve read about lately, but it’s still a painful cut. (Disclosure: I worked for The Washington Post Co. from 1998 to 2005)

Sources shared several names with me, but until those people confirm that they were laid off, I don’t want to publish them. What I can say is that there were several journalists and marketing people among the casualties. They are getting severance packages, but they are accompanied by non-disclosure agreements which prevent them from discussing their firings. Apparently, some of my sources said, they will be out of work by Dec. 31.

Why is this happening? Here’s what spokeswoman Kris Coratti said:

As part of the work we’re doing to turn around the business that supports our journalism, there were a small number of individual positions eliminated as a result of efficiencies we have found through our new structure and through new technology, and those have taken place in both print and online.

The background: The Post’s web staff, as I mentioned, is joining the main newsroom as they eliminate the gap that the paper set up many years ago by making its website a separate operation. The company, all my sources tell me, want to cut staff before the end of the year because next year the remainder would become unionized. Web staff are not unionized now. That, my sources say, would make it much more difficult for the money-losing Washington Post to cut costs by laying off people because they would be protected to some extent by their contract.

With yet layoffs taking place at U.S. media outlets from Conde Nast to BusinessWeek to Time Inc., and advertising revenue showing little sign of rising anytime soon, I have a feeling that we’ll continue to read grim entries like this one.

You could read the whole memo about changes at The Washington Post at Romenesko, or you could read the important parts more quickly here.

The bottom line, courtesy of the memo sent to employees on Thursday from Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and his top deputies, Liz Spayd and Raju Narisetti: Get stories out more quickly. Don’t worry about how you do it — on paper, a Blackberry or whatever. Just get it out there. And don’t slack on the writing and editing, please.

Excerpts from the memo:

Today, we are beginning a reorganization to create new reporting groups, streamline editing desks and anticipate the impending integration of our print and digital news operations. …  [W]e want to simplify the handling of words, pages, images and new media, building on the prescient move to “two-touch” editing under Len and Phil. Decisions about space and play must happen faster, both in print and online, and in a way that pulls together our now-separate newsrooms. A single editor ultimately ought to be able to oversee all versions of a story, whether it appears in print, online or on a BlackBerry or iPhone. Space in the newspaper and editing firepower in general should be allocated based on a day’s news priorities, not a predetermined formula.

These changes will alter the way we do things, but they will not affect the commitment to journalistic depth, authority and excellence that has defined The Post. Just the reverse: We think these steps will help us to adapt more easily to the economic and technological challenges that face us, while preserving the best of our traditions and values. …

The Post also will:

• Group most reporters under a national editor and a local editor
• Start a “universal news desk” to edit copy, regardless of format. (It will handle online and print roles, which likely won’t make all the online people so happy as they worry about where their jobs will go.)
• Group other reporters into different teams to pursue stories in a more organized way than now.
• Rethink aspects of the paper’s design (Sounds like a big project, but it’s hazy for now.)
• “Meld” the digital newsroom (now in Arlington, Va.) with the print newsroom later this year.

The changes (which include a bunch of promotions and lateral moves of people whose names I know, but likely don’t matter to you) look like they accomplish two purposes:

• Reimagine how a newspaper newsroom ought to be run as the staff starts to think about how life will be after the printed paper goes away
• Cut costs. Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, as we’ve reported before, owes her uncle, Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham, a plan to put the paper back in the black.

It will be interesting to see how they tackle these challenges while buying out employees. Maybe the transplants from washingtonpost.com’s newsroom will be more necessary than they realize. Now the question is whether they will want to unionize like their print colleagues. It’s always about the money, isn’t it?

(Photo: Reuters. Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher (l), Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli (c), U.S. President Barack Obama (R))

The Washington Post is offering new buyouts to help the money-losing paper cut costs as it pursues a plan to become profitable again. You can read our story about it, along with an interview with Publisher Katharine Weymouth. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts from her memo to Post employees:

I need not tell you that our industry is undergoing a seismic shift as readers face an array of media choices and our traditional advertising and circulation bases decline. The good news is that the appetite for news is as robust as ever. Thanks to our presence on the Internet and on mobile phones and other devices, our audience includes more readers now than we have ever had. But while online revenues have been growing, they have not yet grown fast enough to offset the declines we are seeing in print revenues. As we move forward, our path is pretty straightforward: we will have to reduce our cost structure…

Below are some of the specifics on the VRIP that we plan to offer certain exempt employees in the next few weeks. We also plan to offer a similar VRIP to certain Guild-covered employees. Post representatives will be discussing the proposed VRIP with the Guild in a few weeks, consistent with the terms of the labor contract. While this VRIP is similar in some ways to the programs we have offered in the past, it will not be as generous as some of those prior buyouts.

Eligibility: To participate, exempt employees must be at least age 50, and have at least 5 years of service under The Post’s retirement plans, as of December 31, 2009. They must be full-time, or part-time averaging at least 22.5 hours a week, and must be working in one of the departments or positions specifically listed in the VRIP.

Program Specifics: Eligible exempt employees who retire under the VRIP will receive:

• A lump sum payment of up to one and a half times the employee’s salary based on years of service.

The VRIP will also offer significant enhancements to employees’ retirement benefits on a one-time basis:

• An improved retirement formula and “Rule of 80″ benefit. Eligible employees will have two possible pension enhancements and will receive the one that provides them the greatest pension benefit:
One enhancement is an improved early retirement offset factor, so that, for example, an employee can retire at age 60 with 100% of his/her normal retirement benefit.

Another possible enhancement is a “Rule of 80″ benefit - meaning that an employee whose age plus service totals 80 can retire with 100% of his/her normal retirement benefit without having it reduced by early retirement factors.

• Retiree Medical Insurance and Increased Pension Supplements. Full-time employees retiring under this VRIP will be eligible to participate in our retiree medical plans. To assist with the costs of this insurance, we will increase the pre-65 supplement in the pension plan from $3,000 to $4,000 a year, and increase the Cash Pension Supplement from $200 to $225 per year of service (up to 30 years), for exempt employees who retire under this VRIP.

The decision to participate in this VRIP is voluntary. Eligible employees will have 45 days to consider the VRIP and discuss them with their advisors, and will have seven days after they sign the required paperwork to change their minds.

We plan to schedule retirement dates as early as practical, consistent with our operational needs. In Production and Circulation where positions do not need to be replaced due to the plant consolidation, we expect most employees to retire approximately July 31, 2009. The target retirement date for all other employees will be June 30, 2009.

We will distribute VRIP packages to eligible employees in several weeks, and will include a personal fact sheet estimating each eligible employee’s benefits under the VRIP. We will provide Financial Planning Workshops in order to assist eligible employees with the decision making process. We will also have representatives in HR available to meet individually with employees to discuss their options.

I recognize that a program like this can be stressful for everyone. Thanks to everyone for your understanding and dedication to The Post as we work through this process.

Katharine

Washington Post Co Chairman Don Graham wrote a more than 2,000-word letter to shareholders for his company’s latest annual report. I managed to cut it down to the 587 words that I thought were really worth reading. Graham is the kind of chairman and CEO that you want to cover as a journalist because he seems to rely exclusively on straight talk instead of obfuscation — particularly when the news is bad for the company and for shareholders. Here are the 587 words, with the parts that I found even more interesting than the rest marked in bold type.

We could do without more years like 2008. … In past years, I have rattled on in these letters about our Company’s relationship to our shareholders. Generations of top managers at The Post Company have reiterated: we’re focused on the long run; we’re committed to building value for our shareholders. My own assets are more than 90% concentrated in the stock you own. All of these remain true, but I am in the embarrassing position of writing you after a year in which Post Company stock declined by more than 50%. Comparative results (”you should see what happened to the other newspapers”) offer no solace.

…

It’s central that you know this: in 1998, about 75% of the Company’s revenue came from The Post, Newsweek and our television stations. In 2008, almost 70% came from Kaplan and Cable ONE.

…

Many CEOs’ annual reports will say more about their balance sheets than they have for years; this one is no exception. Our Company for many years has had $400 million of notes outstanding; unfortunately, these came due in February. The Post has an A1 credit rating from Moody’s; we are told that ranks us in the top 10% of nonfinancial S&P 500 companies. Nonetheless, the coupon rate when we refinanced our debt was much higher: 7.25% in 2009, compared to 5.5% in 1999. We still have enough cash and marketable securities to cover the debt. The Company can handle the added interest cost. But to have no debt at all-unless for a very compelling reason-seems wiser than ever.

…

Able managements… did not keep our two print media companies from sliding into the red in 2008. The Post’s numbers will get quite a bit worse in 2009. We are willing to lose money (as we did at Kaplan from 1994 to 2001) if the losses are on a path to a healthy, profitable business.

Newsweek management has a plan it hopes will change the direction of the business and put the magazine on a better and more profitable course. The Post has a harder challenge this year. The familiar problems of the newspaper industry-declining readership and the loss of classified-are now made worse by bankrupt advertisers. The newspaper will lose substantial money in 2009. Some will be non-cash accelerated depreciation because we will be closing a printing plant. Most will be real losses…

So what’s the future of the newspaper and newsmagazine businesses? I have no answer to this question. … Today, it isn’t obvious that even the best-run, most successful newspaper can be consistently profitable. But The Post will get every chance. … We are willing to lose money… if the losses are on a path to a healthy, profitable business.

…

Are we investing in The Post and Newsweek as a public service or because we feel their business models can be fixed? Emphatically the latter: it is universally understood that we must move toward profitability at The Post and Newsweek after what we hope will be a low point in 2009. But how we’ll get there is not clear. We must cut costs; but we must (and will) continue producing excellent newspapers and magazines. Then, we have to continue to find new sources of revenue (at a time when some of our customers will be cutting back because of their own financial problems).

Ten years from now, it is highly likely that customers will be getting news from profitable institutions staffed by talented reporters and editors. We’re going to try to show a way.

(Photo: Reuters)

It looks like the wheels are in motion for the eventual transplant of washingtonpost.com’s employees from their enclave in Virginia to the mothership at 1150 15th St, NW, Washington, D.C. An alert tipster spotted this advertisement on Page D4 of the Monday edition of The Washington Post (that would be the Business section, soon to be eliminated):

1515 North Courthouse Rd, Arlington, VA

84,000 square feet of sublease space available

Arlington VA @ Courthouse Metro

Top four floor of the building avail

12th floor: 21,177 SF

11th floor 21,177 SFf

10th floor: 6,900-to-21,324 SF

9th floor: 21,324 SF

Great views, furniture available, Cls to restaurants, hotels & shops, Fitness Center with locker room in the building, Computer room with raised floor, Parking.

Then there is contact information for two agents at Summit Commercial Real Estate

Those four floors, as I can say as a washingtonpost.com alumnus, are occupied by the Post Co’s web operations. A post.com spokeswoman confirmed that the ad indeed is for that space.

The move is not entirely surprising. Posties have been expecting it for years. The question for the web workers is what place they will have as the paper asserts more control over its digital operations. Some of my former colleagues are worried that the result will be job cuts, something that would not be entirely surprising at a time when the Post is trying to deal, like other newspapers, with a decline in precious advertising revenue. Then there is a question of culture. The Post has maintained separate print and digital newsrooms for more than a decade. Based on firsthand experience and many published reports, that physical separation has created its own form of culture clash between the old- and new-media types (since eased to some extent, folks have told me).

For now, it’s wait and see…

(Photo: Reuters)

The press release says that The Washington Post is expanding its “A” section. This is true. It also is eliminating its business section on a standalone basis, except for a more enhanced version that will run on Sundays. Our story has just hit the wire. Read the memo here:

Beginning March 30, we will make several changes in The Post’s presentation of business news and some Style-section features.

Our business coverage will shift into the main news package in the A Section Monday through Saturday. We will have a new business and economics display page inside the section, designed to signal to readers the centrality of economic news, as well as the increasing overlap of political and economic events, in today’s world. The expanded A Section will allow us to make better decisions about story play and length, and to run a leaner, better-organized newspaper.

The A Section will take readers through National and International news, then into the new Economic & Business section, a Washington Business page, the Fed Page, and the Editorial and Op-Ed pages.

The shift of business coverage into A will result in other changes. Rather than run a single section once a week on Washington Business, as we now do each Monday, we will have a daily page dedicated to local business issues. On Monday, our business page will look ahead to the week’s news.

The Post no longer will run full listings of daily stock-price movements Tuesday through Saturday. Instead, we will add a new daily half-page package of statistics and graphics that will show how major national and local stocks fared, how world markets and commodities performed, and what is happening to key interest rates. Readers who want to find comprehensive stock prices will be directed to washingtonpost.com.

We will enhance our Sunday Business section, by including not only full stock-price data from the week, but new tables listing the schedule for major and local earnings releases, U.S. market performances over the past quarter, maps that depict the performance of global markets, a graphic of S&P 500 sectors performance changes, foreign-currency exchange rates and interest rates. Also on Sunday, The Post will include more personal-finance stories aimed at helping individuals and small businesses survive the economic downturn.

In Style, we are shifting some comics online, where readership of such features already is high. One of our two crossword puzzles will end because the syndicate that provides it three days a week has decided to discontinue it, along with the weekly chess and poker columns. In addition, we are adjusting the television listings we offer to reflect prime-time programming.

These moves will allow us to continue providing the features that our readers tell us they most value in the newspaper. They also allow us to save on newsprint-an important objective in these times.

We remain absolutely committed to the strongest, in-depth and authoritative coverage of business locally, economics and
economic-policy nationally, and the hugely important intersection of government, politics and money. The new approach will make that abundantly clear.

Marcus [Brauchli, executive editor]
Liz [Spayd, managing editor]
Raju [Narisetti, managing editor]
Sandy [Sugawara, business editor]

Don’t ask The New York Times how much its new front-page display ads cost. The paper won’t say. That didn’t stop the New York Post from asking ad buyers. Here’s the answer based on anonymous sources:

$75,000 on weekdays and $100,000 on Sundays.

Assuming that the Post counts Saturday as a weekday, and assuming no discounts or other special deals (and assuming this blog post is not written by a reporter who nearly failed at least one high school math class), this works out to $28.6 million a year: $23.4 million for 52 weeks of Monday through Saturday and $5.2 million for a year’s worth of Sundays.

Despite the TImes’s silence, the ad cost sounds about right. The Wall Street Journal charges $90,000 for its front-page ads, not counting special discounts. Other details sound similar too. Here’s the Post:

Apparently, The Times is leveraging the front page space to get advertisers to increase their ad buys.

The paper is limiting the front page to big advertisers willing to spend more on top of their existing budgets.

A new advertiser who wants access to the space has to commit to buying the ad 26 times during the year - for a total of almost $2 million, ad buyers say. The Times has previously run classifieds on the front page.

The Journal’s program is similar: limit the front-page membership to big advertisers and get them to commit. CBS’s marketing chief George Schweitzer told us that the broadcaster has committed to a number of runs throughout the year, but declined to say more than that.

The front-page ad news, which the Times announced yesterday, might have stirred up some muttering in journalism academe like it did a few years ago when the Journal started doing it because purists aren’t crazy about sacrificing prime real estate for news on the altar of dirty profit. Nowadays, folks are a little less squeamish about making the big sale, especially when considering the health of the newspaper business.

On a side note, the Post –  now a sister paper of the Journal under New York Times enemy Rupert Murdoch — story tries to have it both ways. It notes that the Times is late to the game, yet runs a caption over a picture of black-eyed Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr that says that he is “smashing the paper of record’s vaunted Chinese wall between news and advertising by peddling front-page space.”

Apparently there’s no honorable way to make a buck in journalism.

Keep an eye on

• CBS and Time Warner reach fresh broadcast deal. Now you can keep letting your brain atrophy on television. (Reuters)
• Washington Post No. 2 newsman Phil Bennett resigns, goes to work on a project about the future of news elsewhere in the Post (They must have this project around for everyone they oust. Remember Susan Glasser). That keeps the paycheck coming until he gets his next job. This happens right after post.com Web chief Jim Brady splits after chafing under a new layer of management and frustration because of ongoing print-vs-Web issues. Meanwhile, new Post editor and former Wall Street Journal top editor Marcus Brauchli might bring in former colleague Raju Narisetti, late of India’s Mint business daily. Next week on 90210! (Wall Street Journal)
• If you think that newspapers slept through technology changes in the past 50 years, you would be WRONG. Jack Shafer explains why, and does it a lot better than I’ve managed to do over countless barroom conversations with all my friends who hate newspapers. (Slate)

(Photo: “Spiderman” Alain Robert got free front-page advertising on the New York Times. Not in the paper but on the building. We recommend a different advertising strategy that won’t get you arrested. Reuters)

NEW YORK - In the same way that the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series win boosted Inquirer and Daily News sales last week, U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama is jumping in to help papers across the country survive.

People across the country flocked to convenience stores and newsstands snatch up copies of their local papers, which ultimately will prove the most enduring mementos commemorating the election of the first black president of the United States. It’s not a long-term game changer, considering that you can’t hold an historic presidential election every day, but it’s a nice sweetener for a bitter industry story.

Here’s just one example of how the day is shaping up: The New York Times is printing an extra 50,000 copies of today’s paper for the local market after completely selling out, according to spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. (See the Romenesko journalism blog for more details about heavy press runs at other U.S. newspapers.)

Here’s more from Mathis:

We increased our print run for single copy by about 35% but know first hand that some vending machines and newsstands are selling out. … In 2004 we saw an increase in sales of around 50,000 copies the day after the election and based on what we’ve seen today, we expect to significantly surpass those sales.  We also plan to increase our print run for single copy sales tomorrow, although not as much as today.

The Washington Post sent out a press release saying that it increased copies available for sale at retail locations and newsboxes by 30 percent, but sold within hours.

And here’s an UPDATE: When’s the last time you saw an afternoon edition of the New York Daily News? From CEO Marc Kramer: We are happy to report that in addition to extra printed copies of our regular morning edition, which flew off newsstands, we have also printed and are distributing an updated second edition of the Daily News which will be available as early as noon today.

Here’s what else we’re hearing from colleagues, relatives and friends:

New York City: Friends saying it’s impossible to find the Times. Who says print is dead?

New York City: My wife just called after failing to buy the NYT in Park Slope, then Grand Central Station, and news booths in Midtown. Desperate to get one.

Chicago: I train into Chicago’s Union Station and I saw long lines at the newsstand there with a number of people buying five or more Chicago Tribunes or Sun-Times.

Westchester County, New York: The New York Daily News and Post were down to the last two or three copies at the waning moments of rush hour at 9a.m. Same with USA Today. The New York Times was sold out. I got a request from my brother-in-law in Georgia to grab copies of every local paper for him. I tried.

Washington, DC: The Washington Post had sold out at Friendship Heights metro cafe by 8:30 and was also sold out of all the little blue boxes around Foggy Bottom Metro stop.

Los Angeles: [At a 7-Eleven in Burbank,] they had eight Los Angeles Times left.  The clerk said someone came in and bought 13 papers. The Starbucks in Burbank sold out of papers.

Meanwhile, a cursory examination of eBay reveals a copy of today’s Times with a “buy-it-now” price of $19.99.

What are you seeing out there around the country? Are you having trouble finding your paper today?

(Photo: David Cook, an agent in the entertainment industry, looks at empty newspaper racks as he attempts to buy copies of the Los Angeles Times newspaper at the World Book & News newsstand in Hollywod, California, November 5, 2008. Cook has been to six locations attempting to buy newspapers with election day results. This newsstand sold out most of its papers one hour after they arrived in the early morning hours. REUTERS/Fred Prouser )

Marcus Brauchli could have looked forward to a pleasant summer vacation before digging into his new job in September as The Washington Post’s new executive editor, but instead he will punch the clock like the rest of us.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, the former Wall Street Journal managing editor said he plans to wrap up his consulting work with News Corp on a project in Asia. We don’t know the details, but it was part of an agreement tied to his resignation from the Journal after News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch let him know that his services at the paper would no longer be needed.

“It’s very interesting and productive,” was all Brauchli would say about it.

He reportedly took home a decent severance package for resigning only about a year after Dow Jones’s previous management named him as the Journal’s top editor. Some reports say it was $3 million to $5 million. Brauchli would not comment on the amount, nor would he say whether he’s keeping it now that he has a new job and won’t be enriching News Corp’s Asian business.

We also asked him about what he told Murdoch and new Journal editor Robert Thomson about his prospects at the Post. “Of course, I kept News Corp informed,” he said. He did not say if Murdoch or Thomson had any words of advice for him.

(Photo courtesy of The Washington Post)