DAY NINETY-EIGHT:Dec. 17:
With Christmas just eight days away New Yorkers are getting in the spirit. At our offices, for example, the corporate bosses in Chicago, dissatisfied with our current double digit profit margin at Newsday, picked this holiday season to announce drastic reductions in the amount of news that will appear in our paper and the size of our staff. Jolly good Noel kids. Yes, come the New Year we shall see a 48 page per week reduction in the size of the newspaper, and buy-outs will be offered. If insufficient numbers of employees agree to go quietly, involuntary layoffs will ensue in February. This is true Tribune-wide, meaning not only at Newsday, but also the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant and so on.
Of course Newsday's plight merely mirrors what is going on throughout the media industry in the post-9/11 world. Ad revenue is down, costs are up and profits are, well, less than management would like. What has befallen us is merely a more public version of trends seen all over the country. It simply feels worse for we New Yorkers, coming as it does on the heels of three very tough months.
The NYC Comptroller, Alan Hevesi, today predicted that the city's economy would shrink by 3.1 percent in 2002. "The nation is expected to recover in the second half of 2002, but the outlook is not as good for the city," said Hevesi. He predicted New York City's economy would have grown a meager 1.4 percent in 2001 compared with a strong 5.2 percent expansion in 2000. And Wall Street bonuses will total an estimated $10 billion when paid out in the first three months of 2002, down $4.3billion from last year's bonanza. After gaining 41,600 jobs in the first 10 months of 2001, New York lost a staggering 79,000 positions in October alone, Hevesi said. And tax revenues, "will shrink by 7.1 percent, or $1.6 billion, in fiscal year 2002," after growing 4.2 percent in fiscal year 2001, he said.
The company that took the largest toll in human losses on September 11 was Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm. Today Howard Lutnick, CEO, announced he would write a book about his firm's struggle after the deaths of more than 600 of his employees. The book will be published by the HarperCollins division of the News Corporation, which bought the rights for an undisclosed sum. Lutnick said proceeds from the book's sales would go toward Cantor Fitzgerald's fund for the families of the victims. Lutnick, who lost a brother, Gary, in the attacks, was initially criticized for cutting off paychecks for the dead and missing on Sept. 14. Lutnick's decision to bare his sorrows in print is just one of the ways New Yorkers are "coping" with the tragedy. Now that anthrax has receded from the headlines, residents of Gotham have the luxury of experiencing post- traumatic stress disorder. They can leap out of their skin at the sound of a backfiring car, relive Sept. 11 in their dreams night after night, have flashbacks and otherwise revel in the joy of recovery. The National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder estimates 20 to 30 percent of those directly affected, such as victims' relatives and people who escaped the burning towers, will suffer from the disorder. Today AP reported that:
"In New York City, the number of counseling sessions grew by more than 20 percent after the attacks, according to data prepared for a Columbia University study. And the Center for Mental Health Services has estimated that 1.5 million New Yorkers will eventually need therapy for terror-induced psychological problems.
Experts estimate that a quarter or more of those affected may have symptoms severe enough to interfere with everyday life months and even years later.'
Which means we have ever so much to look forward to in New York.
The Australian government today announced it would do its part to relieve the pain by bringing 25 firefighters and police officers down to Sydney over Christmas for a jolly holiday. It will no doubt be marvelous for the lucky 25, but may exacerbate a growing rift between the rescue worker families and those who lost other loved ones in the World Trade Center. The families of rescue workers who perished are inundated with gifts, money and good cheer. But the widows of those Cantor Fitzgerald employees, all the way down to fast food deliverymen who died, haven't received a dime. Anger is building.
Much of the rage is focusing on the future of the Ground Zero site, and the nature of any memorial that may eventually be erected. This week the final recognizable section of the Twin Towers came down, and the site bears little resemblance to the center of horror we saw three months ago. Now the families are getting angry, feeling that something sacred is being defiled. A new organization has formed, dubbed Give Your Voice, to represent the needs and demands of survivor families. Director Jennie Farrell said today that, "Families want something very reverent, very respectful, and something that will not only bring peace and comfort to those who were lost, but to the entire city."
Newsday has placed a sort of audiovisual memorial on our web site. I heartily recommend it. Go to www.Newsday.com and scroll down the homepage until, on the right side, you reach a photo of the World Trade Center and a caption offering a September 11 video.
All over New York it is office party season, and booze is flowing in untold quantities. Tonight the staff of the New York bureau of National Public Radio celebrated in such style, sharing their annual bash with colleagues from radio station WNYC. On September 11 WNYC, whose studios are located atop the Municipal Building not far from Ground Zero, were evacuated. And WNYC lost its signal, as its transmitters were atop the World Trade Center. For days the newscasters worked out of the tiny NPR bureau, and the whole crammed facility tried to get along, amid citywide catastrophe. By all accounts it was a bit like opening the front door to realize that ALL of the relatives you invited for Thanksgiving dinner at the last minute actually decided to come. Tonight, from the safe distance of time, camaraderie was high, well oiled with generously laced eggnog.
So raise your nogs and glugs, champagne and brandy to celebrate the season, no matter how strained it may this year be.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
