November 17, 2008

TO: P. Steven Ainsley, Publisher
Gregory L. Thornton, Senior Vice President
Harriet E. Gould, Vice President

FROM: Daniel B. Totten, President/BNG

RE: Union Response to Ryan Report/MOST on Globe Pre-press operations

As the BNG expressed in our meeting of earlier today, we do not believe that any findings by Jack Ryan’s review of The Boston Globe Newspaper Pre-press operations are applicable to any BNG classifications.

The Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) is a predetermined motion time system that is used in industrial/manufacturing settings for repetitive tasks.

This system is not applicable to creative settings, such as Ad Design in particular nor to any of the pre-press areas that were “reviewed”.

Remakes, revisions, client input and more are a way of life in the creative world that is newspaper pre-press.

Jack Ryan himself, in our meeting of Monday, November 10, 2008 stated he did not know how much time he spent reviewing each of the areas involved.

The BNG does not believe the ever-changing nature of advertising and pre-press operations have been sufficiently detailed, reviewed or examined with respect to the time involved to produce a product of the highest quality with the appropriate considerations of all the changes involved in producing a daily product with many moving parts such as The Boston Globe.

Daily changes based on client needs and internal newspaper factors impact all pre-press areas on a vast level through Display Desk, Ad Design, Pagination, Preprints and more – the creativity and time needed to adjust, adapt and apply best solutions to each problem faced have not been taken into account in this “efficiency” report.

Just a few of the items the BNG contends are at issue are:

• Table 10 is missing the/a category new ad creation


• Time allotted for average ad is (pickup with change) 46 minutes – OK for average ads but does not take into account most car ads. These can easily take two hours each.


• Time allocation of 84 minutes for spec/advertorial is grossly underestimated. Some advertorials take days to complete.


• Poor quality artwork from clients can require hours of prep to bring the work to printing standards.


• Scanning – Editorial artists use Imaging Dept to do all imaging work. Ad artists assumed this work years ago.


• Advertorials – a lot of variables, i.e. not taken into account how much time to produce 8 page advertorial, 16 page and 32 pages?

Also not taken into account:

• How clean the copy is?


• Who will act as editor?


• Is it a color, black &white, both?


• Is there one story or many stories to the section?


• Will artists have to buy artwork or do their own search from existing library?


• Where is it printing – what are printing specs?


• Timetable of final proof, revised proof, final proof to printer

Also among the items not fully recognized nor taken into account in this report are the following:

• Creative thought process not included in report; also, design and layout of advertising work meeting all client expectations, with the requisite client and internal communications, editing, revisions, etc.


• Ad artists must stay current on programs. Report does not allow for learning new skills, staying current on technological changes.


• Ad Design department is already short-handed with P/T hours reduced last September. P/T staff have worked extra hours – some covering F/T vacations, some working on a template for a new system for archiving.


• An archiving system was used several years ago and totally failed in spite of many staff hours spent, creating hundreds of templates (all of this old work was discarded and all had to be created new).

In general, Jack Ryan’s “efficiency” reports, in previous efforts in other Boston Globe Newspaper departments (Pressroom, Mailroom), have not only had flaws with problems such as inaccurate information being cut and paste into prior reports, but the findings and subsequent actions have resulted in Boston Globe quality being extremely negatively impacted.

Ryan’s reports have also been disputed not only internally but also nationally and internationally, with unions realizing arbitration awards against the MOST process.

The Finance Department streamlining and outsourcing was a prime example of an “efficiency” recommendation that has dramatically and negatively impacted the core quality of The Boston Globe. This entire effort has resulted in incorrect billing situations that have perhaps seriously impacted The Boston Globe’s bottom line, not to mention the decline of quality that advertisers, subscribers and readers had come to appreciate and respect of The Boston Globe Newspaper.

We believe The Boston Globe Newspaper can ill afford to negatively impact the quality of our product any further and will do so by pursuing any MOST related staffing that the Ryan report has suggested.

The BNG looks further to continued dialogue and discussion on this matter, as The Globe has stated it will adhere to.

Sincerely,

Daniel B. Totten

cc: R. Masotta
I. Mauch
S. Keohan
D. Wanger

November 20, 2008