St. Paul Guild

If dead-tree newspapers are going to make it in the 21st century, newspaper employees are going to have to adapt to changing technology, and fast. The state of Minnesota heard the Guild's cry, and is here to lend a hand! 

On Wednesday, Feb. 25, PiPress publisher Guy Gilmore sent around an email with encouraging news: the PiPress and Duluth News Tribune will share in a state grant for worker re-training. The training, still being developed, will be offered by the University of Minnesota and will have a computer / technology focus.

This highly competitive grant was made possible through months of Guild efforts, and we should all be very, very happy about it! Hundreds of workers will benefit. Details are on the horizon, but there's more background in ShopTalk, here:

http://www.shoptalknet.org/index.php?ID=6104

Gilmore concluded his email with a note on the recent furloughs, lay-offs, cost reductions and avoiding the path a certain competitor has taken:

"Over the course of the last year we have found ways to streamline the production process and to dramatically reduce newsprint costs while maintaining our print circulation volumes on key days such as Thursday, Friday and Sunday. We are now working on other efficiencies that could create additional significant expense reductions. In a business which devotes over half its expenses to payroll and benefits, it is not possible to achieve sustainability without consideration to staffing levels. And though we are smaller in number than we once were, and though we may have to become yet smaller over time, we always look elsewhere whenever possible. Furloughs help with that.

Above all, we must be committed toremaining a solvent business. Bankruptcy is not an acceptable option for the Pioneer Press. Thank you forall that you do for the good of the cause."