Déjà vu all over again

"It became necessary to destroy the town to save it." -- An American major after the destruction of the Vietnamese Village Ben Tre, Feb. 1968
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If Miami Herald publisher David Landsberg worked at his paper as a reporter, he'd have been fired long ago for a lack of originality in his writing.

In an email today to newsroom staffers announcing company-wide one-week furloughs for all full-time employees, Landsberg wrote, "The improving trends we've seen in our business results so far this year are real and encouraging, but we continue to experience year-over-year revenue losses." That sentence is a variation on a theme that Landsberg has dredged up numerous times over the past four years.

Last August, in announcing similar furloughs, Landsberg told his staff that, "the company’s efforts to develop new revenue streams aren’t enough to offset prolonged revenue declines.

In May, 2010, in an email announcing mandated furloughs, Landsberg said that while things were improving at the paper, "revenue was still lagging."

In March, 2009, Landsberg ordered job cuts and other "expense reductions" at the Herald that included a cut of 19% in the workforce, pay cuts for all full-time employees making more than $25,000 a year and a loss of an additional one week of pay through unpaid furloughs for full-timers.

Here's the full text of today's email from Landsberg.

From: Landsberg, David
Date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:57 AM
Subject: 1st Half Furlough
To: MIA All Herald Users

To all Herald staff:

Today we are announcing a one-week furlough program for most full-time employees who work a regularly scheduled 40-hour week, including all executives and senior managers.

The improving trends we've seen in our business results so far this year are real and encouraging, but we continue to experience year-over-year revenue losses. As a result, we must find ways to manage our expenses accordingly, and the furlough is one way we hope to accomplish this.

Employees required to participate in the one-week furlough plan will have until June 24, 2012 to complete their furloughs. Each division will manage its own process for sign-up and scheduling furloughs.

We remain committed to generating new sources of revenue and new ideas to help offset the difficult economic environment. Thank you for your continued hard work and dedication to our mission.

David