Newspaper Guild

The formal sale date of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News has been extended for two weeks to permit the prospective new owners more time to resolve contract issues with five unions. The closing deadline for the sale had been today, but Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich extended it until noon Sept. 14 at the request of Philadelphia Media Network Inc., a collection of 16 financial institutions that bought The Inquirer, the Daily News, and the website Philly.com.

The Star Tribune went back to U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Monday seeking an injunction to prevent its mailers union from filing grievances at odds with the union’s existing contract agreement with the company. The company said in a court filing that Teamsters Local 120 has filed more than 50 grievances that "seek to undo the very core" of the 2009 agreement that cut production costs by more than $3.3 million as part of the newspaper’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.

While newspaper executives have agonized for the better part of two years about whether to charge for their costly content, every indication is that portals, local broadcasters and other media companies have no intention of asking anyone to pay for access to their increasingly ambitious local sites. And that means newspapers simply won’t be able to charge for access — especially when their own stories are likely to become freely available within minutes at competing sites.

Allen H. Neuharth, 86, the former Gannett executive who founded USA Today nearly 30 years ago, had some tart words for the people now in charge of his beloved paper. When USA Today wrapped its front section in an advertisement for a Jeep last month, obscuring the entire front page, Mr. Neuharth fired off an angry letter to the paper’s publisher, David L. Hunke. He called it “the low point in any decision any USA Today publisher has ever made.”

The National Labor Relations Board, plagued by years of vacancies, enjoyed just a brief two months at full strength this summer before losing another member with the departure last week of Peter Schaumber. Schaumber’s second term on the board expired Aug. 27. The board’s membership now drops from five to four: three Democrats and one Republican.

Another newspaper union, representing pressmen, voted overwhelmingly Monday against a contract offer from the prospective new owners of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. The pressmen voted, 74-9, to turn down the offer, joining the newspapers’ drivers and machinists in rejecting tentative contracts negotiated with Philadelphia Media Network Inc.

Stephen Raslavich, the federal bankruptcy judge trying to shepherd the Daily News and Inquirer to new ownership, met for three hours yesterday with lawyers, union representatives and business executives, but the parties emerged from the private discussions with little to say about the newspapers’ immediate future. Today is the scheduled closing date for a deal that would turn over the papers and their Web site, Philly.com, to a new company called Philadelphia Media Network.

By protecting journalists and sources from government intimidation, prosecution and incarceration, passage of the Free Flow of Information Act would further protect the rights established in the First Amendment and ensure transparency in government at all levels. These protections should be the law of the land — all of it, not just of individual states.

Tribune Co. backed off its threat to file a take-it-or-leave-it reorganization plan for its emergence from Chapter 11 Friday, saying in a memo to employees it would continue negotiations with its creditors. “Given the ongoing nature of those discussions, we have decided not to file any amendments to our plan at the present time,” Tribune CEO Randy Michaels wrote. “We’ll continue to keep you aware of developments in the Chapter 11 process as we go forward.”

Loath to “waste” a summer, hundreds of us join the throngs of college students nationwide who find internships during their time off. While some are formal, established programs with corporate gyms and company cars, others are tossed together by an office manager and shaped by the intern’s personal input. Internships in journalism, it turns out, are either the chance of a lifetime or slave labor.

It’s been in print for over a century, but in future the Oxford English Dictionary — the authoritative guide to the English language — may only be available online. Publisher Oxford University Press said Sunday that burgeoning demand for the dictionary’s online version has far outpaced demand for the printed versions. By the time the lexicographers behind the dictionary finished revising and updating the latest edition — a gargantuan task that will take many more years — publishers are doubtful there will still be a market for the printed form.

The Daily Freeman in Kingston is planning to close its print production facility and move its operation to Troy. The plan, which Publisher Ira Fusfeld called "tentative," would mean the loss of nine full-time and 49 part-time jobs in the press and mailrooms. Newspaper Guild President Patricia Doxsey, while acknowledging that the paper had the right to move its production operation, deplored its effects. "Not only will this be detrimental to the people in those jobs, but it’s a slap in the face to our very loyal readers," said Newspaper Guild President Patricia Doxsey.

The Iraqi government, while seemingly paralyzed on many fronts, has unleashed a wave of actions against the country’s unions that is taking Iraq back to Saddam Hussein’s era. The Maliki government has issued arrest warrants for oil union leaders and transferred that union’s officers to worksites hundreds of miles from home, prohibited union activity in the oil fields, ports and refineries, forbade unions from collecting dues or opening bank accounts, and even kept leaders from leaving the country.

Google and The Associated Press have struck a new licensing deal that will allow Google to continue posting the news cooperative’s content. The AP said in a statement Monday that the two companies also will work together in ways to improve discovery and distribution of news. Financial terms and the duration of the contract were not disclosed.

The drivers who deliver The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News voted overwhelmingly Sunday to reject a tentative contract agreement reached between their union, Teamsters Local 628, and Philadelphia Media Network, the newspapers’ new owner. The no vote — 182-3 — was a setback for Philadelphia Media Network, which is trying to reach contract agreements with 14 unions by Tuesday, when it is scheduled to bring the company out of bankruptcy.

If President Obama is not a Muslim, why do some newspapers publish letters to the editor claiming that he is? Michael Landauer of the Dallas Morning News, assistant editorial page editor for reader engagement, asked his colleagues for advice on that point after receiving six letters from people saying they believe Obama is a Muslim. "Is this a matter of opinion? Or is it a fact that people have wrong? (We do not knowingly print factual errors, of course.) . . ."

When Heidi N. Moore decided to strike out on her own as a freelancer, one unexpected task was to reassure her friends. "What surprised me at first was that a lot of my colleagues or people I knew were astounded and terrified by the idea of my completely going outside the newsroom system and freelancing; financial journalists are better paid than other journalists and tend to value security. I was the one making a change, but they were scared of the move."

Until this summer, no national pundit — at least no pundit in good standing with the chattering class — would ever dare suggest a federal tax rate on America’s top income bracket higher than 39.6%, the level in place under Bill Clinton. Now pundits and the policy wonks who hover around them are openly singing the praises of top tax rates calibrated at 50 or 60 or even 70%, a level that would double the current 35% rate on top-bracket income.

Former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael D. Eisner is in discussions that could lead to his return to the media spotlight — as chairman of the now-bankrupt Tribune Co. Eisner, who has been dabbling in the digital world as an investor since stepping down from Disney in 2005, is among the candidates under consideration to replace Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell as chairman of the reorganized company.

While the Philadelphia Newspaper Guild has signed off on a new contract at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, it’s not the only union at the newspapers — and thus far Teamsters Local 628 isn’t budging. Management proposed smaller payments to 401(k) plans but the Teamsters want their benefit plan as is. Tuesday, as they negotiated for four hours with little progress, 85 union members picketed out front and passed out leaflets referring to their new bosses as “fat cats.”