Atonu Choudhurri
The
multi-storey Kolkata headquarters of the ABP Group, eastern India’s largest
media house, that stands tucked away on the 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street looks busy
as usual. But underneath the surface, its 1,000-odd employees putting on a
brave face are, in fact, wracked with fear and insecurity. After all, the axe
of imminent sacking is hanging over their heads.
Just
days after firing tens of staffers at its Kolkata and Noida offices, the group has
served pink slips to more. It currently has 700-odd employees.
A Wednesday
Wednesday
was a “bloody day” for the editorial and non-editorial staff of Anandabazar
Patrika, the largest circulated Bengali daily, and the Telegraph, the largest
circulated English daily, in eastern India. Twenty employees, including
reporters and desk editors, were asked to put in their papers with immediate
effect, without any prior notice.
“Who’s
next?” is the question now haunting the rest.
“On
March 6 (Wednesday), I settled down at my desk to work, blissfully ignorant of
what was to follow. I suddenly got an email that said my service was no longer
required and that I had been removed with immediate effect,” says a news editor
at the Telegraph.
He added that he then noticed another
colleague sobbing in her cubicle; she, too, was holding a termination letter.
“I heard some colleagues at the digital desk shouting; several others were crying,
unable to bear the suddenness of it all. On the other hand, in other
departments, there was a stunned silence; they were too shocked to even react,”
she says.
The
company has promised a year’s basic salary to those who have worked for 10
years and more and three months’ basic pay to those who have served for less
than that.
“I
was asked to tender my resignation without any fuss if I wanted my dues cleared
without a hassle,” says another employee.
‘Ruthless’
downsizing part of ‘cost-cutting’ measures
It
appears that the move has been sometime in the making, and like the previous
retrenchments in December 2016 — when 800 of its then 1,400 employees were
sacked — and March 2018, the ABP management has started executing its plans
with precision.
It
is believed that the management had issued notifications to the heads of various
editorial sections to make a list of employees they wanted retrenched and prepared
a list of 150 people to be sacked in the coming weeks.
The first blow was dealt on Wednesday, when
the heads were asked to inform the unfortunate ones about their ouster.
The
management, however, has remained tightlipped on the whole thing so far. When contacted,
Vice President Shiuli Biswas only says the company’s decision of downsizing is
aimed at restructuring its units and cutting costs. No official is,
however, ready to give the exact number of employees getting pink slips.
Employees from the marketing and
circulation departments, who have been with the group for many decades, are likely
to be sacked in the coming weeks.
At
the moment, journalists on the business and digital desks, including senior and
junior editors, along with the reporters have been let go.
The
reporting bureau heads of Anandabazar and the Telegraph had been asked to trim
their reporting teams to 10-15, which is being seen as a departure from the group’s
tradition of nurturing a band of hardworking reporters.
The
Telegraph, considered a good paymaster in the industry that promises a “safe
and great place to work” has been the most ruthless among its publications, say
recently sacked employees, adding that it showed no mercy on them despite “talking
big about humanity in newspaper editorials”.
When did it all go
south?
The trend of
ruthless downsizing of staff in the name of cost-cutting is a shift from the
era of Aveek Sarkar, who had taken over as editor-in-chief in 1983 after his father Ashok Sarkar's death and later forced to resign. Aveek had tried to expand the business with more print content and increase in
recruitment.
Then, however, ABP’s budget deficit and
losses amounted to Rs 100 crore, according to insiders. Hence, in 2015, a
private multinational firm, Heys, was hired to chalk out a plan to rejuvenate
the company.
After a six-month study, the consultancy
submitted its recommendations to the ABP management. Its report stated that the
group has at least 47.5% surplus workers — Aveek, then, had to relinquish the
top post and his brother Arup took over.
Another
factor that hit ABP hard during Aveek’s time was Trinamool Congress returning
to power with a thumping majority in 2016, despite ABP’s negative campaign
against the party. And thus began the decline, as ad revenues started drying up.
The
print edition of E Bela, a 24-page publication and the first tabloid in Bengali,
which was launched with much fanfare in September 2012, was shut down on March
6. Its online edition was closed three months ago and 15 employees were sacked
then.
What’s the new
plan of action?
The
new management, headed by Arup and his son Atideb, has decided to go for an
overhaul to “minimise losses incurred during Aveek’s time”.
“To revive the company, restructuring the
system was crucial and due,” says ABP Chief Executive Officer Dipankar Das
Purkayastha.
However,
there have been some shocking decisions. For example, the Telegraph and
Anandabazar, which were looking forward to strengthening their digital platform,
sacked the digital editor. “Some who refused to resign initially were treated
very badly and forced out,” a senior business editor says.
Known
as a media giant, with 11 publications, three 24-hour national TV news
channels, one leading book publishing house as well as mobile and Internet
properties, this decision of trimming the workforce may put the group in deeper
doldrums, insiders say.
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