The Dark Clouds Continue

MediaNews Group, citing a need to further reduce operating expenses at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, will shutter the P-T's sole remaining circulation facility and move the work to the Torrance Daily Breeze, according to a company notification to the Guild.

The station, located in Signal Hill, now employs 10 P-T unit members. Each will have the option of taking a buyout or transferring to Torrance. Circulation department members have been led to understand that the positions in Torrance will be salaried with no Guild representation. The company is making the move to outsource the P-T circulation under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding in the current contract. Some aspects of P-T circulation are already being performed at the Daily Breeze and by the Los Angeles Times.

An exact date for the Signal Hill closure and move has yet to be announced by the company. A Guild meeting with SVP Jim Janiga is being scheduled for later this week.

The impending move of the Press-Telegram newsroom and offices out of the 14th floor of the Arco Towers will also see the shuttering of the local office of the Pasadena Federal Credit Union, formerly the Media News Credit Union.

The credit union, originally formed by the P-T decades ago, has been asked to vacate the first floor Acro Towers office space they have leased from the P-T since the paper moved to the downtown high-rise in 2007. P-T management has said that it will need the space to accommodate the paper's personnel as part of the move. The three PFCU Long Beach employees will be moved to the Pasadena office of the PFCU.

Credit union members will still be able to do their banking locally at several credit unions and banks the PFCU is partnered with. A list of partner sites in Long Beach is available from the PFCU at the P-T.

The credit union has been asked to vacate their first floor offices within the next several weeks.