THE WILLAMETTE WEEK cut employees’ pay by
eight percent across the board on Thursday, March 12, the same day that
Just Out‘s news editor and arts and culture editor quit the
paper in a dispute over payroll.
WW Publisher Richard Meeker says he and Editor Mark Zusman
will take 25 percent pay cuts, adding that the paper is even
discontinuing coffee service for office employees to save an additional
$7,000 a year. According to Meeker, the paper has also cut its
circulation from 90,000 to 80,000 in January, with hopes of restoring
it by June, blaming the cut on below-forecasted first quarter
advertising revenues.
“This was lousy news. None of us likes to do it, but it leaves us as
a strong going concern,” says Meeker—adding that the eight
percent pay cut is unlikely to be restored in the near future. “I just
thought it would not be appropriate to offer any sort of silver
lining.
“[Mark] Zusman and I are not wealthy people,” Meeker continues. “We
feed back into this business everything we can. So it makes it tougher,
when you essentially run at a very low profit margin.”
Meanwhile, the walkout over at Just Out has left Editor and
Publisher Marty Davis feeling “angry, frustrated, and a little
nervous.” Davis says former News Editor Jaymee Cuti and former Arts and
Culture Editor Jim Radosta resigned “because I have not been able to
maintain scheduled payroll dates during the first quarter. I would be
late on payroll.”
Cuti and Radosta left their resignation letters for Davis to find
when she came into work last Friday, March 13, following the
resignation of the paper’s former Art Director Blake Martinez, who left
Just Out on Tuesday, March 10.
“We hadn’t been paid on time for six months and were told to stop
inquiring about it,” says Radosta. “We just couldn’t continue working
under those conditions.”
Davis says she is “very excited” about filling the two sudden
editorial vacancies, telling the Mercury she had 23 resumes on
her desk on Monday, March 16. “I could fill the art director position
daily 10 times over,” she adds.
The next issue of Just Out is scheduled for Friday, March 20,
and Davis is optimistic for the future. “We’ve published for 25 years,”
she says. “We’ll keep publishing it for 25 years. I’m just sorry that I
could not offer [Radosta and Cuti] recession-proof jobs.”
For real? The editor of Just Out is named Marty Davis? Is that just Matt Davis is drag or something?
Well that’s what they both get for not supporting Adams. So there.
Very interesting blog comment from former Just Out staff Stephen Marc Beaudoin about his experience working for Marty Davis. http://wweek.com/wwire/?p=24007
Damn right Marty Davis is “nervous”! She’s scared stiff! Why? Because if Just Out folds, Davis owes TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars to staff members, the government (for unpaid payroll taxes), and current advertisers that have long-running ad contracts. Davis doesn’t give a shit about her staff or the GLBT community, she simply wants to avoid these debts for as long as possible. If she actually cared, she would have bowed out graciously years ago and let someone with half a brain take over. Instead, she’s run the paper into the ground and continues to take advantage of and abuse the remaining staff. God help anyone who has the misfortune of taking a position there.
Damn right Marty Davis is “nervous”! She’s scared stiff! Why? Because if Just Out folds, Davis owes TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars to staff members, the government (for unpaid payroll taxes), and current advertisers that have long-running ad contracts. Davis doesn’t give a shit about her staff or the GLBT community. She simply wants to avoid these debts for as long as possible.
Davis’ financial problems began LONG before the economy went in the crapper. She was losing staff due to missed pay dates as early as 2007. She verbally abuses staff members and, in staff meetings, says NASTY things about her so-called professional colleagues (Byron Beck, the owner of the Eagle on Lombard, members of the leather or bear community, among others). She fosters a very with-me-or-against-me atmosphere in the Just Out office, and anyone that does not roll over and take it is fired or, worse, subjected to daily emotional harassment.
Davis doesn’t care about the LGBT community, even though she claims to represent them. If she did care, she would have bowed out graciously years ago and let someone with half a brain take over. Instead, she’s run the paper into the ground and continues to take advantage of and abuse the remaining staff. God help anyone who has the misfortune of taking a position there.
Cutting coffee service, eh. To writers? Will I really want to read an article written by someone with zero caffeine in their system?
I sure hope those writers can afford their own Starbucks.
It probably wasn’t the best time for them to take it upon themselves to deepen the divide in the Portland gay community by asking our Mayor to step down. They lost a lot of readers and advertisers because of poor and unnecessary judgment and “reporting”. Either way, it’s unfortunate that more people are being laid off but I’m happy to see WW and JustOut go under.
I could afford to hire fifty art directors and 100 writers for my paper, too, if I didn’t ever pay them.
$7000/year in coffee? That is $20/day if they work weekends, $25 if they don’t. People should just drink water.
Used to read WW religiously.
Then I used their website.
Then they redesigned it to a horrible mash of crap like Oregonian. Then I found the merc website.
I’ll never read another paper again.
I block every advertisement using adblock plus.
I don’t care.
Just thought you’d like to know the progression.