Abramson out as NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Someone needs to find their salary figures.

Pension benefits don't mean shit because Keller was at the NYT much longer, so of course his pension benefit will be much bigger.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

I'm not so sure. Couldn't the reason "she couldn't navigate the choppy waters of NYT politics and alliances" be because she's a woman? I wonder if a male who had a similar management style and demonstrated the same characteristics would be viewed in the same way. Maybe Sulzberger is just another old guy intimidated by strong-willed women? I'm not saying any of this is actually the case but I'm not ready to dismiss it as a possibility, either.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

OTOH, cran, the Times' news story said Abramson had hired herself a management consultant to learn how to deal with people. Would David Carr write the company line like that knowing it wasn't true?

I don't know. Now I'm moving toward A) bad match from the beginning; and B) she was getting hosed on pay and that's the bigger issue for the Times going forward.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Yeah, I don't see a way anyone comes out of this looking good.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

There are two different streams of reporting here, one led by the Times itself and one by Ken Auletta of the New Yorker, who is the source of the pay dispute accounts. Jane Mayer, staff writer at the New Yorker, is one of Abramson's longtime friends. I see a possible conduit there. I'm not saying Abramson's second-hand version of events is necessarily 100 percent or even 10 percent accurate, but any management account of a firing of a senior executive has about zero percent credibility with me.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Of course this is correct.

It's also why all the equal pay talk and laws are misguided.

Is it equal pay for equal work, or do "credentials" and experience matter.

Everyone loves the Lilly Ledbetter law, except in every single instance that effects them. If you support the concept, and the law, then live it.

Did the Times editorialize on it? I'm betting they did.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

I seriously doubt the Times disclosed other people's salaries for comparison purposes before Abramson accepted the job. Hence, "she knew what she was getting into when she accepted the job" is a ludicrous argument.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/business/media/jill-abramson-being-replaced-as-top-editor-at-times.html?hp

Is this not a strange story? Are there guidelines for reporting about yourself? Anonymous sources?

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

That's just foolish. The Ledbetter case was about the limitations period for a Title VII gender discrimination claim (whether each paycheck could start the clock again or whether it rolled back to the original allegedly discriminatory pay decision), not about whether such claims should exist. The subsequent law did nothing to expand rights protected, just when you could sue.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Look, whether or not there's any law applicable to Abramson's firing, the fact remains that as a business decision it stunk. To create a perception, real or not, that sexism is part of the Times' institutional culture is a whopper of an own goal for a media company whose advertisers are primarily looking to attract women consumers. Broadway plays, fancy Manhattan department stores, etc. I think it was Abramson's predecessor Keller who said that the revenue from one of the paper's Sunday fashion supplements paid the nut for all foreign news reporting for a year. That's not something to trifle with because you, the publisher have issues with a woman subordinate and it appears with women in general.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

You know, maybe it wasn't because she was a woman, maybe it was really performance related.

Based on some of the reporting, I know that Howell Raines was paid in the $1.2 million range and I think that excludes stock and pension benefits.

While seniority matters for pension, straight salary is a pretty easy comparison but after a bit of googling it doesn't appear that in any of the many interviews that she did with other media outlets that her salary was ever discussed.

If I, a person who reads, knows what a previous editor made, it would stand to reason that a person who worked would at least know what to ask for.If she was expecting a bump after a certain length of time and didn't get it, then that would be something, but none of the reporting has mentioned that.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

her promotions were weird, to say the least. appointing sam sifton -- a food writer with no experience in managing -- to run the national staff was a clear debacle.