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It’s Time for the New York Times to Face Reality
To fully appreciate what I’m about to say, you need to watch this YouTube video: click here.
More than anything that I’ve seen or read thus far, this video demonstrates what’s wrong at the New York Times. Generally speaking, the executives at the Times are being forced to face reality and employees at the Times including columnists don’t understand reality. The fact that Times columnists don’t understand the real world has been evident for a long time in their articles, but their willingness to go public with their fears about proposed pension plan changes proves it beyond any reasonable doubt.
Specifically, Times executives are taking steps to make sure that the paper survives over the long-term. They must make changes to their pension plan, or the company will go bankrupt in due course and cease to exist. That’s the same problem that General Motors faced, and GM would have gone bankrupt without a government bailout that it received as a part of President Obama’s stimulus package.
The president is touting the fact that he saved the auto industry, but that’s not true. He saved GM, not the auto industry. The survival of the auto industry was never in doubt, but unless GM makes mammoth changes in the way that it operates, it still won’t make it. Like the Times, GM made promises to its employees that it could not keep. The company promised to pay them a specific amount of money each month in retirement if they worked for a certain number of years, and in addition, it promised to pay their healthcare costs or a big portion of those costs until they died.
That’s called a defined benefits pension plan. It doesn’t work in the current environment because people live longer now than they did when those promises were made, and the cost of living and the cost of medical care are increasing faster than the executives at GM and the Times even thought possible when they negotiated the labor contracts that are the immediate concern of today’s employees.
I’m not suggesting or implying that the executives at GM and the Times in a bygone era intentionally made promises that they knew they could not keep, but I am saying this: their assumptions about the competitive landscapes in their industries, life expectancies, and the cost of living in general were way off the mark. As a result, today’s executives must bring their pension plans in line with reality or they will face insolvency. That’s called prudent management.
The solution that’s been proposed at the Times is called a defined contributions pension plan. That means that the company is promising to contribute a certain amount of money each month to the pension accounts of its employees, and the employees will assume responsibility for determining how that money is invested. If the employees invest wisely in a diversified portfolio made up of stocks, bonds, and real estate, they will actually be better off during retirement under the new plan than they would have been under the old plan. Even more, since those pension accounts are not dependent on the company’s long-term viability, the employees will not live out their golden years wondering if future generations of Times executives will destroy the company and their income stream during retirement in the process.
That’s exactly what happened at GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Following World War II, U.S. auto manufacturers were the only producers of automobiles for the global market. German and Japanese auto manufacturers had been destroyed during the war, and it took them a couple of decades to get back on their feet. During the 20-year period between 1945 and 1965, U.S. automakers could make any promise to their employees that they wanted, and it didn’t matter since they could simply pass on the costs of those promises to their customers.
The automobile market started changing quickly in the mid-1960s as Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, for example, started selling cars that were better and less expensive than comparable cars produced by U.S. auto manufacturers. The rate of change accelerated during the First Arab Oil Embargo in 1973, and things came to a head during what is commonly known as the Second Arab Oil Embargo in 1979. At that point, the resistance that U.S. car buyers had to purchasing automobiles from Japanese and German producers, our enemies during WWII, had subsided, and the quality and price issues took center stage in their minds.
Both Ford and Chrysler looked bankruptcy squarely in the eye during the early 1980s. Chrysler needed a U.S. government loan guarantee to survive, and Ford made radical changes from top to bottom in order to stay alive and compete in the increasingly competitive global market. GM was the only one of the Big Three that was able to carry on through that period without making major changes even though a complete overhaul was desperately needed even then.
Ford had improved its operations so much by the time the Great Recession of 2008 hit that it was able to get by without government assistance, but that cataclysmic event was GM’s last straw. By that time, GM had no choice but to change, die, or seek government relief. Unfortunately for the company and for U.S. taxpayers, the company’s executives chose the third option. I say “unfortunately” because an automaker that produces a car like the Chevy Volt still hasn’t learned its lesson, and if GM doesn’t change its ways, in due course it will go bankrupt. No amount of government support can prevent that from happening over the long-term if the company continues producing cars that people refuse to buy because they cost too much and they are not good enough.
Every industry is being forced to come to grips with the new reality, not just the auto industry and the newspaper industry. The airline industry, for example, has been grappling with the paradigm shift for many years, and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, is going through bankruptcy right now because it failed to adjust and its costs are still too high — labor and pension plan costs in particular. The U.S. government can’t afford to bail out every firm in every industry that is experiencing significant change and even trying is counterproductive.
That brings me back to the New York Times. The company’s flagship brand, the print edition, is experiencing circulation and advertising revenue declines. Revenue from internet subscribers, although helpful, doesn’t address the underlying problems at the company: perceived inferior quality content and excessively high costs.
When Times executives signed the original labor contract the vestige of which is in dispute today, it was a totally different world. There was no American Thinker, for example, producing better content and making it available over the internet for free. Stated simply, there are not enough buyers who are willing to pay the price for the Times’ inferior content to support the company’s cost structure. Ignoring that fact won’t make the company’s problems go away. In fact, pretending that their world hasn’t changed will lead to bankruptcy, unemployment lines for current employees, and really hard times for retirees.
This SnyderTalk editorial first appeared in American Thinker on April 27, 2012.
To see other SnyderTalk editorials, click here.
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Thomas Jefferson
“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
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Lamentations 1: 5-6
Her adversaries have become her masters, her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has caused her grief because of the multitude of her transgressions; her little ones have gone away as captives before the adversary. All her majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion; her princes have become like deer that have found no pasture; and they have fled without strength before the pursuer.
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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important. It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.
- God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
- “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
- “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
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Hosea 4: 6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
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Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days. Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall. Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace. With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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Top 5 diggtm articles yesterday:
- Mitt ‘let Detroit go bankrupt’ Romney’s aide claims Chrysler and GM bailout was Mitt’s idea
- Senate Study Proves Republicans Wrong on Torture
- Hundreds of Economists: Marijuana Prohibition Costs Billions, Legalization Would Earn Billions
- If you’re not careful…
- Flats may be Olympic missile site
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- Netanyahu’s father, Benzion, dies at age 102
- The Palestinian family that inspired Jewish debate
- Analysis: Why did Diskin speak out now?
- Tehran, Obama hot topics at ‘Post’ conference
- Top UN truce monitor in Syria; Central Bank hit
- Boost for Israelis bidding for Cypriot natural gas
- Israeli diet puts pounds on Ethiopian women
- PA: Ignoring hunger strike a humanitarian disaster
- Despite sanctions, car companies work with Iran
- Jpost poll: Most Israelis support US-led Iran strike
- Palestinian Authority defends web censorship
- Analysis: In politics, equality is the new loyalty
- Dagan supports Diskin’s Iran comments
- Court gives state 60 days to form outpost policy
- Major UK food retailer boycotts 4 Israeli companies
- Police arrest suspect in migrant firebombing case
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- Benzion Netanyahu, father of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, dies at 102
- Israeli political sources: General elections could be just a few months away
- Diskin’s gun
- Israel joins UN list of states limiting human rights organizations
- For Palestinian women, a picnic with a purpose
- French Jewish leader in hot water over apparent endorsement of Sarkozy
- Electric-car buyers to get thousands of shekels in tax benefits from Israeli government
- Top UN truce monitor arrives in Syria, as activists report lull in violence
- Iran hopes nuclear dispute will be settled at Baghdad meeting
- Iran says it has identified source of reported cyber attack on oil industry
- Former Mossad chief, Israeli minister trade accusations at New York conference
- Ex-Mossad Chief Dagan: Conflict between Israel, Iran is the entire world’s problem
- Former Mossad chief backs Shin Bet counterpart over criticism of Netanyahu, Barak
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- Clear and present danger
- Above the law
- Palestinian politics drift away from America
- Israel Hayom poll: Right in strong position for next election
- Gov’t slams former spymaster’s ‘irresponsible’ outburst
- Where is Diskin’s integrity?
- Netanyahu likely to call elections for August or September
- UK supermarket expands boycott of Israeli settlement produce
- PM on Tal Law: Division of burden is going to change
- Anti-Semites scrawl swastikas on Jewish monuments in Geneva
- Knesset summer session to open with five no-confidence motions
- Obama releases $147 million in aid to Palestinians
- Extremists enter IDF base in Beit El to protest outpost policy
- Abduct Israelis to free prisoners, Gaza leaders say
- East Jerusalem youths suspected of beating Jewish family
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- Israeli prime minister Netanyahu says sanctions on Iran ‘better work soon’
- UN urges respect for Syria truce as toll mounts
- Saudi Arabia Delays Aid Delegation Visit to Egypt, Masry Says
- The Battle for Bahrain Continues
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What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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Business:
- HOW APPLE HAS BEEN ABLE TO SIDESTEP BILLIONS IN TAXES
- Stay In Stocks Or Sell In May?
- Government cuts slow economic recovery
- Why the Amazon Naysayers Should Be Scared
- Who to blame for the price at the pump? Tough to say
- Your Financial Health: Know what you owe
- YPF vows to deliver gas as Repsol cancels deliveries
- Air India’s 787 Dreamliner rolls out of Boeing’s new US plant
- Lehman Bros. pay report brings calls for reform
World:
- 6 killed at Nigeria university worship service
- Kenya church attack kills one
- Weaker Al Qaeda still plots payback for US raid
- Sudan defends use of air strikes in South Sudan conflict
- Police probe Ukraine bomb blasts
- UN Chief in Burma for Talks
- 7 killed as bus crashes on way to Tokyo Disneyland
- Fighting season – for animals – peaks in Afghanistan
- Huge rally raises question on Malaysia poll timing
- Londoners shocked by Olympics missile possibility
- ‘Megabomb’ defused in Ulster
- Cuba, US videoconference for US exiles
- Nicolas Sarkozy ‘received £42m gift from Gaddafi that helped bring him to power’
- David Cameron: there was no grand deal with Rupert Murdoch over BSkyB
- Missouri tent collapse: One dead and 100 injured as tent at sports bar…
United States:
- Collision suspected in yacht mishap that killed 3
- Ex-Edwards aide: Donors’ cash went into NC house
- Supporters of fugitive Chinese dissident face retribution
- Verbal abuse of autistic student sparks calls for reform
- Clues still sought for missing Fort Bragg soldier
- Romney aide: Obama’s student loan slow jam was “off key”
- Police blow Wash. mountain bunker, find man dead
- Wisconsin: first shot in a wider union war
- California man arrested after girl’s body found in church parking lot
- UT-San Antonio to join Conference USA in 2013
- Pres. Obama, Bill Clinton, 600 others Expected at the McAuliffes Today
- ‘The Passage of Power’: Another chapter in Robert Caro’s saga of Lyndon Johnson
- Allen emerges unscathed in GOP primary debate for Senate seat
- 3rd woman’s body found at home of man charged with two other murders
Opinions:
- Thomas Sowell: Who Is ‘Racist’?: Part II
- Star Parker: How to Keep the Poor Poor
- Michael Barone: Obama Losing Rock-star Status Among Young Voters
- John Ransom: New York Times Outs Apple, Enemy of the People, on Tax “Sidestep”
- Katie Kieffer: Why Your Doctor Secretly Hates Obamacare
- Lurita Doan: Obama Has Already Lost
- Bruce Bialosky: And They Want To Run Health Care
- Brian Darling: An Offense Against Free Market Capitalism: The Export-Import Bank
- Daniel J. Mitchell: When Hugo Chavez Battles Supply and Demand Curves, Guess What Happens?
- Dan Holler: Leaderless in Washington
- Jeff Carter: An Ode to Elizabeth Warren
- Craig Steiner: Popping the Student Loan Bubble
- Michael Tanner: Still a Better Deal: Private Investment vs. Social Security
- Cathy Ruse: Pelosi’s Constitutional Confusion
- Mike Shedlock: “Flying Piano” Costs Pentagon $1.5 Trillion
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Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now. There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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- Renewal of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan may complicate talks
- Threat from rising public job losses tested Obama’s strategy
- Hunt for Kony proves tough for U.S.
- Wis. Democrats get a chance to oust governor — but who will take on job?
- Romney’s narrow path to presidency
- Syria’s Central Bank attacked with grenades
- SUV plunges off highway near Bronx zoo, 7 dead
- Salafist vote could be decisive for Egypt
- Adviser: Obama seeks balance on Chen case
- Report: Google officials informed of data collection
- Boehner accuses Obama of ‘picking fake fights’
- Teen girls struck by car after sunbathing on road
- Facebook billionaire shuns life of luxury
- ‘Think Like a Man’ reigns at weekend box office
- Author: Bradlee doubted Watergate book’s details
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- ‘World should seize opportunity provided by Leader’s fatwa on nuclear weapons’
- U.S. stealth fighters cannot ensure regional security, says Iranian MP
- Iran ready to help Libya with reconstruction process: deputy FM
- Iranian science ministry repels cyber attack
- Number one suspect in $2.6b fraud case had links with a former minister
- Several steps forward will be taken in Iran-5+1 talks in Baghdad: Salehi
- Syria intervention will spark off regional crisis: Iran
- Self-sufficiency boosts political independence: Leader
- Iran’s annual gasoline exports hit $134 million
- Iran discovers large oilfield
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Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided. They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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http://www.americanthinker.com/
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- Obama’s Nakba: James Lewis
- Work ’til You Drop: Is that such a bad idea?: Ellen Meade
- Was BP’s Kurt Mix a Criminal or a Hero?: Bruce Thompson
- From Russia with Love (of Oil and Gas): Jeffrey Folks
- How Romney can Supercharge Conservatives: Bruce Walker
- Obama’s Epic Green Fail: Warren Beatty
- Lessons from the Fall of Saigon: Shoshana Bryen
- Blame Republicans for Everything, Say Two DC Scholars
- At least 20 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists at church service in Nigeria
- Great news for America from North Dakota
- ‘Red Ken’ Livingstone will roll out welcome mat for Muslims if elected mayor of London
- Why being a liberal means never having to engage the logic centers of one’s brain
- How the unfunded pension liabilities of government unions are destroying Illinois
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- Islamist Shakeup in Egyptian Presidential Election: Rick Moran
- Sharia in Moscow: Daniel Greenfield
- Freedom Center Ad in the New York Times Slams BDS: Rachel Hirshfeld
- Our Marie Antoinette President: Arnold Ahlert
- The E.U. Speeds for the Iceberg: Bruce Thornton
- Whitewash of Sharia Climbs the Bestseller Lists: Bruce Bawer
- North Korea Campout: Lloyd Billingsley
- New Round of Palestinian Games: David Meir-Levi
- Holocaust Lesson: Genocide Always in the Name of ‘Human Rights’: Steven Plaut
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/
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- The Great China Crackup?: DAN BLUMENTHAL
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- Top Bahrain activist wins retrial
- Unite for change, Ban urges Burma
- Billionaire to build Titanic II
- Syria UN observers ‘not enough’
- Uganda: ‘Sudan supporting Kony’
- Libya ex-minister ‘dead in river’
- Austerity ‘harming global job creation’
- Sudan ‘declares border emergency’
- Peru examines deaths of pelicans
- Red Cross talks over dead UK aid worker
- Wind farms affect local weather
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- US: Onset of second Great Depression?
- Gaddafi put up 50M euro for Sarkozy’s presidential bid – report
- Tymoshenko trial delayed amid prison abuse allegations
- Microsoft does about face on CISPA
- Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador to Egypt, closes embassy
- Media buzz as US confirms Russian troops to train on American soil
- Tear gas for 25,000-strong Malay fair vote rally
- US to concede on uranium enrichment for Iran?
- Progress space ship ‘buried’ in Pacific Spacecraft Cemetery
- Satellite images show activity at N. Korea nuclear site
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http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/
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- UN observer leader to arrive in Damascus | Video
- Chinese vice premier meets with Russian business people
- Iraqi political leaders call to end political crisis
- Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador, closes embassy in Egypt
- Officials say Chinese tea products safe
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- England: It was Fun While It Lasted: Kyle Smith
- L.A. Riots: Twenty Years Later, Many Changes but Same Rhetoric: Joe Hicks
- The Muslim Brotherhood Wants the Bakery, Not the Pita: David P. Goldman
- Rectification of Names: Rand Simberg
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- On the frontline of Sudan conflict
- Syria observers ‘can’t work miracles’
- Deadly attack at Nigerian college
- One-minute World News
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http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
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- Wisconsin Recall Shows Citizens United Bolstered Democracy: Jonathan S. Tobin
- Obama Hardly a Hawkish Warrior-in-Chief: Max Boot
- Will Obama’s “Cool Kid” Strategy Backfire?: Jonathan S. Tobin
- Standing Up for Human Rights in China: Max Boot
- Israeli Spook Revolt is Politics as Usual: Jonathan S. Tobin
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If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You’re Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You’re Not an Idiot explains why voters in the United States need to elect someone besides Barack Obama to lead them. Whoever is elected President of the United States in 2012 will have to contend with the monumental problems that Obama’s misguided policies have caused both at home and abroad. One thing is certain, though. It should not be Barack Obama. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.