Burbank paper to sue city of Burbank

The city of Burbank apparently missed the memo about making public employee salary information public in the wake of the city of Bell pay scandal.

Prior to the Bell blow up, many cities sat tight on information about individual salaries, even for top managers, arguing that divulging hard numbers alongside names would embarrass hard-working employees and hurt morale, despite the fact that the law clearly states this is public information.

But the Bell stories convinced city attorneys to shift strategy out of fear they'd look like they were hiding fat bonuses or exorbitant pay. The city of Burbank, however, has decided to push back. Officials there have stalled a request from the Burbank Leader for salary information going back to 1999. Editor Dan Evans said the paper, which is owned by the LA Times, will sue:

...this action is illegal, and this paper will be enforcing its rights. First, though, a little background.

On Dec. 1, reporter Gretchen Meier sent a request to the city asking that it release information on who has received a bonus between 1999 and 2010, and how much each individual received. Prompting this request was a release of similar information by the city of Glendale, which posted the data on its website.

Instead of providing the name, title and amount of each public employee receiving payouts, Burbank officials instead decided to provide information only from the 2009-10 fiscal year, broken down solely by employee group. Even this limited data was fascinating: Employees received $1 million in completely discretionary pay that year, despite the fact that the city faced a multimillion-dollar budget gap.

Judge sues papers after her anonymous postings are revealed

From NPR:

The judge presiding over a high-profile serial killer case in Cleveland is now herself under scrutiny after her e-mail address was linked to dozens of comments on the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Web site.

Some comments were about ongoing cases she's hearing, including that of Anthony Sowell, who's suspected of killing 11 women. Now, Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold is suing the newspaper for $50 million, saying it violated her privacy.

Read the story here.

LA Times sued again

A former copy editor has sued the LA Times for age discrimination, claiming he and other older editorial employees were dumped because they were "stereotypically" thought not to understand how to deal with online news.

The Tribune Co.-owned Times also faces a class-action lawsuit over alleged mismanagement of employee pension funds.

Tribune responds to Times lawsuit*

The Tribune company has put out a press release to respond to yesterday's class-action lawsuit filed by six current and former LA Times reporters against Sam Zell:

TRIBUNE STATEMENT ON CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT

CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2008— Tribune Company today issued the following statement from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Zell:

“The lawsuit filed yesterday is filled with frivolous and unfounded allegations, and I hope every partner in this company is as outraged as I am at having to spend the time and money required to defend ourselves against it. The media industry is in crisis, the advertising environment is extremely difficult and the economy is in turmoil. The overwhelming majority of our employees have taken up the challenge—they are working hard, leading by example, and devoting themselves to re-inventing our businesses by developing new and innovative products for our readers, viewers and advertisers. As a company we are attacking our problems and revolutionizing the media industry.

“This lawsuit is a mere distraction, and we will work quickly to see that it is dismissed. It will not deter us from completing the work ahead.”

In addition, Zell sent an e-mail around to Tribune employees calling for solidarity with management:

Partners,

We are about to release a statement on the lawsuit filed yesterday by a staffer at the LA Times and several former Times employees. I want to share it with you first, but I also want to stress that as we work to fix our company, we are all in this together.

As newspaper advertising revenues have declined severely over the last several months, we’ve had to take some tough steps. We’re not alone, of course—the entire publishing industry is trying to deal with the challenges posed by a tough advertising environment and an economy in turmoil. At Tribune, we’re making tremendous progress—reinventing our newspapers, expanding television news, growing WGN America, and developing a new Internet platform. We’re being watched and imitated.

The overwhelming majority of our employees have risen to the occasion—they are working extremely hard, innovating as never before, trying new things, pushing the envelope. They are using their own best judgment and questioning authority when they need to—something employees at this company rarely did in the past.

But there is a difference between questioning authority or challenging the “business as usual attitude,” and maligning the company in public. That’s just bad judgment and does no one any good. It’s a distraction that’s unnecessary.

We are partners. We need to act like it.

Sam

*Update: Dan Neil, LA Times auto critic Dan Neil, a named plaintiff in the suit, talks with Warren Olney on "Which Way, LA?" tonight at 7 p.m. Listen at 89.9 FM or KCRW.org.

Times on the Times lawsuit

The class-action lawsuit filed by former and current Times reporters against Sam Zell and Tribune Co. gets covered in today's business section. Tribune management says no comment.

The customer is always right

Keith Hempstead is suing the McClatchy-owned News and Observer in North Carolina for fraud. He says that after the newspaper laid off 70 people and shrunk the print edition he's no longer getting what he paid for.

"I liken it to someone who buys a ticket to go cross country on an airline and the airline announces that they instead will be flying only to Denver versus, say, Los Angeles," Hempstead, a real estate attorney and former journalist, told Brooke Gladstone of NPR's On The Media. He said he hopes to settle suit shortly, if he gets a meeting with the paper's management and has the chance to write an Op-ed.

Gladstone then asked Hempstead what was his "main beef." Here's his answer:

They are destroying their principle product. And if they are hoping that they will be able to adapt to the Internet age with a new business model, then they are deceiving themselves, because by the time they are able to come to a new business model, they will no longer have any reporters to actually cover the news.

It boggles the mind that these great businesses are destroying themselves within. And I realized that most of those people who work in these newspapers are afraid to speak up because their job might be next. Someone has to speak out for them.

Labor pains

The union representing editorial employees at BANG-East Bay has filed a complaint against MediaNews over recent staff reductions. From the AP:

The union representing news staff at a group of San Francisco-area newspapers filed an unfair labor practice charge Tuesday over the layoff of some union organizers two weeks ago amid a 13 percent staff cut.

The Northern California Media Workers Guild said in a filing with the National Labor Relations Board that managers chose employees to lay off based on their union activity. Marshall Anstandig, general counsel for the partnership that owns the papers, called the charge "ridiculous."