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Post Offers Job Help

PBNI Career Transition / Outplacement / Workforce Re-entry Program

Open to All PBNI Employees

Tuesday, July 29^th

8:30 – 10:30 a.m.; 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. / Auditorium

The First Steps: Career Assessment and Planning for Workforce Re-entry

In this workshop participants will complete an assessment tool to gain awareness of possible career choices suited for their individual skills and interests; and develop their own profiles and action plans

Facilitator

: Lisa Pinto, HR Employment/Training Manager

Please register with

Hannah Cohen @ 4196;

hcohen@pbpost.com

Wednesday, July 30th

9:00 – 10:00 a.m.; 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. / Auditorium

How to Update Your Resume and Cover Letter, Part I*

Are your resume and cover letter well-written? Do they provide the information that recruiters need when making an assessment of your qualifications and suitability for the job? Does your resume make an attractive presentation? This workshop will walk you through updating your resume so it becomes an effective tool for marketing yourself in today’s job market.

Facilitator

: J.D Vivian, Copy Editor PBNI Marketing Dept., FAU English Instructor, and former writer/reporter for Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel

Please register with

Hannah Cohen @ 4196;

hcohen@pbpost.com

Please bring your current resume. If you don’t have a resume, please bring a list of your work history, education, and other skills

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. / Auditorium

The Next Steps: How to get your resume into the hiring manager’s short list; Preparation, techniques and follow-up with the Job Interview

Learn about companies’ recruitment and selection processes and how to guide your job hunt accordingly. Learn how to prepare for an effective interview by researching the targeted company, presenting yourself appropriately, answering behavior-based questions, and following up with the recruiter afterward.

Facilitators

: PBNI Classified Recruitment Staff and PBNI HR Staff

Please register with

Hannah Cohen @ 4196;

hcohen@pbpost.com

Thursday, July 31st

11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.; 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. / Auditorium

Information Fair

Open to all PBNI employees, this event will provide information to help employees through the transition process. The forum will allow people take the next steps to explore options of retirement, starting a small business, changing career, returning to school for certification / education, and other goals. Information booths, focus areas for conversing and swapping tips, and panel discussions.

^{Walk-in, no pre-registration necessary.}

What Next? Starting an Online Newspaper

Your buyout paperwork is in, you’ve spoken to your financial planner, you’re stealing office supplies like a madman, collecting clips while you can still can do your own pulls and you’re counting down to August 12 (or August 31 or September 26). Sooner or later, the shock/thrill will wear down and ‘what next’ is going to rear its potentially ugly head.

Retirement is at the top of many lists as is something completely different in an industry that isn’t on the verge of fraticide. But what about those who still want to still want to work for a newspaper?

Born of Buyout: St. Louis Beacon

Bob Duffy, Associate Editor of the St. Louis Beacon, emailed today to pimp his newspaper and give those of us at the Palm Beach Post an idea of what can happen after a buyout.

Long story short: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch did a round of buyouts in 2005. Several of the editors and writers who left wanted to continue on in the journalism profession so they founded The Platform which later became the St. Louis Beacon. These aren’t disgruntled former Posties with an axe to grind, by the way. These folks are serious about their mission and purpose.

Long story long:

Pulitzer 2.0 — St. Louis Magazine
Old Journalists, New Plan — Chicago Reader

Funding a Not-For-Profit Newspaper

There aren’t any advertisments on the Beacon web site and there is no print product. Thus far, the Beacon has been funded by individuals, corporations and foundations.

Before you laugh — those are the same places my high school newspaper got its funding — the Beacon has managed to come up with a million dollars in funding, a meaningful portion of that in hard money. Emily Rauh Pulitzer (yes, of that Pulitzer family) has pledged half a million dollars if the Beacon can get $1.5 million elsewhere.

Their long-term business model includes advertising, sponsorships and money from large foundations. Think: National Public Radio for print.

Should I Start My Own Newspaper?

The Beacon has a hard road ahead and shallow pockets. Even if they had a few million in hard cash instead of contingent promises, they can’t afford to hire the staff needed to fully serve the local community and become a general-purpose news source. Revenue for the online component of newspapers is flat at best. While NPR proves you can survive with this style of funding, striving and growing is optimistic.

Best wishes to the Beacon and thanks to Bob Duffy for reaching out to us.

Palm Beach Post Buyout Update

All the buyout offers submitted were accepted by the Post. Employees had to re-sign the yellow sheet acknowledging they know they’re being accepted into the Voluntary Separation Agreement. Those who are retiring also wrote “Retiring” on it to indicate same.

Management said more than 300 applied for the VSP and were accepted, but some departments were over quota, and others under. So there will still be layoffs in “some” departments, which will begin Aug. 18.

On Aug. 11, by 5 p.m., employees who have signed must give their final decision to go or stay. Those who stay will go into the pool from whom the “involuntarily separated” (laid-off) will be chosen. Those staffers will be offered severance, but the pay will be capped — we have heard — at 26 weeks of pay.

There have been no numbers circulated as to how many in each department were accepted, nor any numbers given to indicate how many more must be cut.

With the “all applications have been accepted” memo, the onus is now on individuals if they have their changed their minds and want to stay. The Post is not, we hear, changing its mind in any instance, and everyone who put in for the buyout will be “voluntarily separated.”

If those at The Post want to give numbers in your departments as to how many signed, WWP will keep count. Contact us at the link under our mast head if you wish to give us those numbers without showing up as a comment below. Name names if you like, or submit your own.

Taxes, Income Averaging: Farmers, Fishermen Only

Internal Revene Sevice / The Department of the Treasury Prior to 1986 or so, the IRS allowed for income averaging for just about everyone. Now, unless you are a farmer or fisherman, there is no income averaging.

Income averaging was a great concept. Say you’re a salesman or a lottery winnder and you have a huge payday: you could spread the taxes out over multiple years instead of having to pay it all at once.

Don’t End Up Like Wesley Snipes

No so anymore. Taxes are due on income the year in which the income was received.

The friendly folks over at TaxAlmanac have to address income averaging every few weeks because so many people remember it from the good old days.

If you are a farmer or fisherman, here is what the IRS has to say about income averaging.

If you have a nice crop of okra in the back yard and are feeling especially aggressive, please contact your tax advisor to see what you can get away with.

Deferring Taxes After a Buyout

You can’t defer your taxes. Taxes are due the year you get the income. If 2008 is your buyout year, you’ll have to pay taxes for that fiscal year. It really is that simple.

There are a few ways for you to lower the bite but are very specific to your situation and goals. For example, if you are looking to take your lump sum and start a new business, make sure to start your your business the same year you get your buyout check. Expenses may help to offset your income.

Now is the time to be writing your business plan and seeing where you want to go next. You can’t spend the last quarter of this year on autopilot. If you have plans to make plans, make those plans now and sit down with someone who knows something about taxes and planning.

Paper Cuts: Newspaper Buyouts and Layoffs

From the files of ‘People Who Do Stuff Better Than Us’, Erica Smith (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) has an interactive and up to date map showing newspaper buytous and layoffs across the United States of these here Americas.

So far, she sees 6,000 fewer people working at newspapers.

(Thanks to the wmhartnett who brought this to our attention.)

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