Our Contract

April 8, 2004

Mr. Steven P. Richards, President
Boston Newspaper Guild Local 31245

Re: Advertising Department/Strategic Cross-Selling Initiatives

Dear Steve:

This letter sets forth the agreement between the Globe and the Union concerning advertising cross selling initiatives. The purpose of these initiatives is to expand the Globe’s advertising base by creating new sales opportunities without diminishing such opportunities for the bargaining unit sales force. Accordingly, the Union has agreed that subject to the conditions set forth below:

1) employees of any entity which is within the New York Times Company, including but not limited to entities within the New England Newspaper Group ("NENG") as listed on the attached Exhibit A and 2) employees of New England Sports Network (“NESNâ€?) may sell advertising material in any category of sales to appear in the Globe. If, during the life of this contract, the Globe, NENG or the New York Times Company purchases an interest in another entity(ies), salespersons from said entity(ies) will be allowed to engage in cross-selling on an interim basis, subject to any changes made in negotiations for a successor contract.

Similarly, Advertising Department bargaining unit employees will sell advertising to appear in/on such other media and will receive credit for the total amount of the combination sale toward their respective Globe commission programs for such sales. The "total amount of the combination sale" is net of any customarily deducted expenses, such as the cost of mail from GSP direct mail sales. It is understood and agreed that Article VIII, Section 3(B) will not apply to these non-Globe sales by bargaining unit employees; however, Article VIII, Section 3(B) will continue to apply to Globe sales by bargaining unit employees. Except as provided herein, the Guild's existing jurisdiction shall remain unchanged.

All such cross selling will be subject to the following conditions:

1. Sales will be based on combination buys, in which the Globe is included as one of the media purchased. A mechanism will be in place to clearly identify such ads as part of the ordering process.

2. Bargaining unit employees who receive commissions based on sales will have their revenue goals adjusted from time to time to reflect increased or decreased opportunity from cross selling programs.

3. Assignment of accounts that have been serviced by both a Guild covered Globe salesperson and a non-Globe salesperson shall be at the discretion of management, and will be based on the following criteria: frequency and size of ads; length of relationship between salesperson and client; quality of relationship between salesperson and client; and other similar professional considerations.

4. No bargaining unit employee will have his/her sales goals adjusted to reflect combination cross-selling by persons outside the bargaining unit, unless such account(s) are thereafter assigned to the bargaining unit employee for crossselling.

5. The Globe may, from time to time, choose to pay commission or other financial incentive to bargaining unit employees who have sales generated in their respective territory as a result of cross selling performed by non-Globe bargaining unit employees. This decision(s) will be solely within the Globe’s discretion.

6. No advertising salespersons from entities engaged in combination cross-selling of the Globe shall sell Globe advertisements at a lower rate than such combination ads can be sold by Globe salespersons.

7. To help Globe salespersons participate in cross selling, all Globe salespersons, including Classified Telephone Salespersons, will receive training in cross-selling skills and, as necessary, information about the non-Globe products sold in combination by the Globe.

8. This Agreement shall not alter in any way Article VII, Section 16 (Sales Commission Plans)

9. Any bargaining unit employee involved in the processing and/or production of advertisements who receives commission or lineage credit for the processing of such ads, shall receive the same credit/commission whether they are processing ads sold by Globe employees or by non-Globe employees.

10. No regular full-time Advertising Outside Salesperson or Classified Inside Telephone Salesperson (employed as of the ratification of this agreement) shall be laid off as a direct result of cross-selling into the Globe by non-Globe employees

11. For the life of this contract, no part time Advertising Outside Salesperson or part time Classified Telephone Salesperson who as of January 1, 2005 has either (i) 10 or more years of credited pension service, or (ii) 20 or more years of uninterrupted service, shall be laid off as a direct result of cross selling into the Globe by non Globe employees. The names of those employees are attached as Exhibit B to this side letter.

12. Other than as provided in Section 11 above, if there is a lay off of part time Inside Salespersons and/or part time BostonWorks (Inside Sales and/or Classified Outbound) employees as a direct result of cross selling into the Globe by non-Globe employees, the Globe will offer severance packages to the affected employees as follows:
    
    • Employees with 10 or more years of service of at least 600 hours in each year will be eligible for 6 months base pay plus continuation of health insurance coverage (if currently in the Plan)
      for 6 months, subject to the employee paying his/her share of the premium and the Globe paying to the Fund the remainder of the premium; employees with 10 or more years of service who fail in any of those years to meet the 600 hour threshold will be eligible for three (3) months’ base pay plus continuation of health insurance, (if currently on the Plan), for three (3) months.

    • Employees with at least 5 but less than 10 years of service of at
      least 600 hours in each year will be eligible for 3 months base pay
      plus continuation of health insurance coverage (if currently on the
      Plan) for 3 months as in the above paragraph; employees with at least 5 but less than 10 years of service who fail in any of those years to meet the 600 hour threshold will be eligible for two (2) months’ base pay plus continuation of health insurance, (if currently on the Plan) for two (2) months.

    • Employees with less than 5 years of service of 600 hours in each
      year will be eligible to receive 4 weeks notice pay (or pay in lieu of notice) plus 1 week's base pay for each year of service.

“Base payâ€? will be based on the average number of hours worked weekly plus any commissions for the 12 months preceding the lay off. “Base payâ€? shall only include pay earned in a Telephone Sales position.

The Globe will accept volunteers first for the severance package. If there are insufficient volunteers it will then lay off based on the then current provisions of Article XIV, Sections 1(F) and (G), “Part Time Layoffsâ€?, except as modified by this cross-selling agreement.

The Globe will allocate for this “Cross Sellingâ€? Agreement, no less than $150,000 of the total overall quid pro quo negotiated by the parties, to be paid annually pro rated from date of signing of the overall contract.

Very truly yours,

Gregory L. Thornton

AGREED:

Steven P. Richards, President
BNG Local 31245

Exhibit A

The following are the entities, which comprise the New York Times Company:

A. The New York Times Newspaper Group
The New York Times
International Herald Tribune
New York Times Television

B. New England Newspaper Group
The Boston Globe
The Worcester T & G

C. Regional Newspaper Group
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, FL
The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, CA
The Ledger, Lakeland, FL
Star-News, Wilmington
Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, SC
The Gainesville Sun, Gainesville, FL
Star-Banner, Ocala, FL
The Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, AL
Times Daily, Florence, AL
The Gadsden Times, Gadsden, AL
Times-News, Hendersonville, NC
The Courier, Houma, LA
The Dispatch, Lexington,
Daily Comet, Thibodaux, LA
Petaluma Argus-Courier, Petaluma, CA

D. Broadcast Group
CBS: WREG (Memphis, Tenn), WTKR (Norfolk, VA), WHNT (Huntsville, Ala), KFSM (Ft. Smith, Ark)

NBC: KFOR (Oklahoma City, Okla), WHO (Des Moines, Iowa)

ABC: WNEP (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Penn)

WQAD (Moline, Ill)
WQXR 96.3 FM and WQEW 1560 AM (New York, NY)

E. New York Times Digital
New York Times On The Web
boston.com

Exhibit B

The following are the part-time Advertising Department salespersons with either 10 years of credited pension service as of January 1, 2005 or 20 years of continuous employment:

Jeanne Ann Shimkus
Anne K Alcott
Jean L Behenna
Margaret E. Sullivan
Margaret P. Divenuti
Nancy M. Carr
Kathleen M. Ford
Nancy D. Jones
Maureen A. Oriola
Joan T. Mahoney
Carol A. Larkin
Teresa F. Conley
Terry J. Holden
Jane M. Byrne
Dianne M. Fleming.
Carolyn M. Powell
Claudia J. Watkins
E.A. Kurkjian-Henry
Loretta M. Mitchell
Barbara E. Sullivan
Alma R. Heffernan
Marguerite M. Courage
Catherine A. Sheedy
Sandra L. Erickson
Susan M. Roan
Katherine O’Brien
Joanne Hall
Carolyn Sullivan
Karen J. Putnam

January 27, 2001