Open Letter about the Tribune Company

Well, VJ, then there'd be more stories, and the newspapers (if they were smart; counterexample -- you) wouldn't have to just dump their product for free onto the Internet. That wasn't really the direction I was headed with that, but thanks for shedding some light on that. I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

 

Maybe at the Courant.

But not at any other Tribune paper I know of.

Tribune gives its employees 9% of their salary added to their retirement accounts at the end of every year.

But that's in lieu of the long-since-done-away-with pension system, and it is not liquid.

 

Hartford still has that? I talked to them in the 1980s, but I already had an interview set up in Miami and told the Hartford SE that if Miami made an offer I was taking it. He said, well, you should fly in anyway and hear us out before you make that decision. I said I don't want to waste your time or your plane ticket, what kind of money are we talking about? He told me, and I said that's a little less than I make now. He said, don't forget you get six weeks' pay at Christmas. Pause. (Ohhhhhhh ... that's interesting ... hmmmm ... Connecticut.) He says, "Of course you're not eligible for that your first year." Oh, OK, well, thanks, good luck.

 

I knew they had that in the 80s.

Have no idea if and when it ended.

Just know that no such thing ever existed at my paper.

 

I'm at a Tribune paper and there is no year-end bonus that goes into my pocket. Times-Mirror might have done it differently, but as long as I've been in the Tribune chain, there's been no Christmas bonus. None. Just the retirement contribution that BTE mentions.

 

It's not cash in pocket.

But it is a year-end bonus.

 

No, what was described was not a year-end bonus. It was a contribution to a retirement account. That is not the same as a year-end bonus. When you get a year-end bonus, you know it and you can spend it right away.

 

If it's placed into a retirement account . . . and you have no other pension with the outfit . . .
and you can't touch it . . . it is NOT a year-end bonus.

 

I will guarantee you that nobody I work with it considers is a year-end bonus. Just like we used to get Tribune stock, when it was worth a shit, it is our retirement contribution for the year and I won't see any of it until I'm old(er) and gray(er).

 

OK.

Then you and I have a semantical difference of opinion.

It's $6K that I will get, and I'm not having to contribute a cent to get it.

It is definitely a bonus of some sort.

 

You can borrow against it.

 

Yes, you can. This can be a good thing. But it's a retirement-fund contribution, which
helps keep quality people in the fold . . .