Chapter 8 The spin-off
It was tough to get out of bed the next morning. She’d watched TV until midnight when Shira finally arrived at her apartment after taking the train to Penn Station and then the subway across town. It would have been smart to go to sleep then, but even after saying goodnight, the sisters ended up talking way too late.
Shira was passed out on Gabe’s side of the bed when Leah pulled herself away. Her eyes were heavy and she forced her feet to bear her weight and take her to the bathroom where she brushed her teeth and showered. She quietly got dressed and grabbed a granola bar to bring with her on the way downtown to work.
She and Gabe usually rode the subway together because their offices were so close. She wondered if she might see him on her commute and she kept scanning the subway platform. When the train arrived, she pushed herself into the car, which was already packed with commuters, and found a small spot of a pole to hold onto. She closed her eyes as the train swerved, accelerated, and halted downtown to Wall Street.
She arrived at her building and pressed the elevator call button.
“Hey! Long time no see!” She heard from behind and turned to see Brittany, from Teen Club, who she had sort of befriended and lost touch with. When Leah had first been hired by Diamond Media three years ago, it was to be a researcher for their teen magazine, Teen Club. On her first day, she was told that the Club Business researcher had just quit, and she was asked to step in until they found a replacement. Wanting to be a team player, she agreed but soon found out that Teen Club had hired a different researcher—Brittany. She hated Brittany at first for that, but then they slowly became friendly once Leah was offered a position as a junior reporter at Teen Club.
Brittany was a runner, and Leah had tagged along with her for a run a few mornings a week for a good few months. But then, Leah realized she hated working at Teen Club and she didn’t much like running in the mornings either, so she begged Tony to take her back at Club Business and apologized to Brittany that she wouldn’t be running with her anymore. But they stayed friendly enough, chitchatting at Diamond Media events and Leah always cheered for Brittany during the NYC Marathon, which she had watched for the last few years since Gabe had started running it too.
“How are you?” Leah asked as the elevator doors opened. The two girls stepped inside.
“I’ve been great,” she said. “It’s taper time for the marathon, so I have so much free time!”
Leah nodded. Taper time, she knew since Gabe was doing it too, was after runners have pushed themselves to the max for training and then took a few weeks to recover before the marathon so their muscles were fresh.
“I think the real question is how are you? Have you decided what you’re going to do?” Brittany asked.
Leah’s mouth dropped open. How did Brittany know what was going on with her? She hadn’t seen her in a while, she didn’t think Brittany knew about her engagement; how could she know that Leah had such a big decision to make?
“I, uh…” Leah stuttered as the doors opened to the eleventh floor, Teen Club’s offices.
“I don’t know what I would do in your situation,” Brittany said as she stepped out and held the door. “I guess it’s a great opportunity to simply start over.” Brittany let go of the doors that closed quickly, taking Leah up to the twelfth floor where her office was.
The doors opened and people were rushing around the office. No one was sitting at their cubicles. Everyone was up and about, either huddled together, sitting in offices, or pacing around like they had somewhere important to be but weren’t sure exactly where.
Leah suddenly realized Brittany had been talking about something else when she asked about Leah’s decision. Brittany was always in the know about things at work.
Leah walked through the office straight to the one person who was actually sitting at his desk: Malcolm.
“Good morning,” she greeted him. He looked up from his computer and whispered the greeting back to her. Then she leaned closer. “What’s going on?”
“You haven’t heard?” He said with a strange smile, almost like he was proud to have the information she didn’t. The smile annoyed her. She raised her eyebrows and shook her head.
“Diamond Media is shutting down Club Business.”
“What?” she responded, sure she had heard incorrectly.
“Well, they say they are ‘spinning off’ the publication, but everyone knows that’s just code for a slow winddown,” Malcolm responded. “You didn’t see the news? Bloomberg broke the story this morning.”
“Bloomberg broke the story about Diamond Media?” Leah said, raising her eyebrows even higher. She’d bet Tony was angry about that. Bloomberg News was their biggest competitor, how did they break a story with information about Club Business before Club Business itself knew?
“They were supposed to make the announcement this morning, but everyone already knows because of the Bloomberg article,” Malcolm continued in his quiet voice. Leah pursed her lips and then continued through the office to her desk. She hadn’t seen the article yet, she usually didn’t read the news until she arrived at the office unless one of her alerts notified her of something important. But she didn’t have an alert set up about her own workplace.
When her computer was on, she started reading the news. Bloomberg cited “inside sources” that said that Club Business would be spun off from the Diamond Media brand. While sources said they weren’t “shutting down” the publication, they couldn’t answer questions about where financing would come from and what the plans were for the future of the magazine.
Leah looked around, but all the desks around her were empty. She looked at Tony’s empty office and wondered where he was. Her question was answered a moment later when he stormed into the office followed by the CEO of all of Diamond Media.
“Settle in everyone!” the CEO said. “Quiet down! I’d like to speak with everyone! Settle please!” The employees of Club Business continued to whisper as they looked up at him. The volume slowly lowered.
“Good morning,” the CEO started with a cheery demeanor. “First, I want to say, I am so sorry that everyone found out about our announcement from Bloomberg! That was completely inappropriate. I wanted to tell everyone myself this morning. We are conducting an internal investigation to find Bloomberg’s source and the leak will fired.” The CEO paused and murmurs began. “Settle everyone! Please let me speak! I understand there are a lot of questions and concerns right now. I want to be perfectly clear about what is happening and answer everything I can for you. As you all know, Diamond Media has decided to spin off Club Business. This is not a decision that was taken lightly. It came after significant analysis of the publication’s P&L and what is best for the Diamond Media brand.
“While we decided that Club Business does not fit under our long-term goals, we recognize the value this publication brings to the business world and that is why we are not shutting it down.”
“What’s the difference between spinning off and shutting down?” someone yelled.
“Great question!” the CEO said pointing a finger in the air. “I’d rather not be interrupted, but I will answer that. We are not shutting down the publication! Your editor-in-chief will decide how the publication will be run in the future. We will let Club Business operate in our offices for the next month, afterward, of course, we will require rent. Club Business can use Diamond Media services for fees based on current market rates, or the publication can choose to go elsewhere. We won’t be involved with any editorial or financial decisions.”
“How is that not shutting it down?” someone else yelled.
“The leadership of Club Business will have to decide whether to shut down if they choose not to keep publishing,” the CEO said.
“You know Club Business isn’t profitable and won’t survive without Diamond Media support!” someone yelled.
“That’s a challenge for the Club Business leadership to focus on,” The CEO responded.
“Why don’t you just put us out of our misery and shut us down?” came another shout.
“I see the value of your work and want to give you an opportunity to continue,” the CEO said.
“Bullshit!” someone yelled.
“All you care about is profits!” said someone else.
“What about our jobs?”
“Settle everyone!” the CEO said. “I understand that this is quite a shock. Over the next month, we will continue running Club Business as usual. All employees are encouraged to decide what is best for themselves. I am going to turn the floor over to your editor-in-chief, who will guide you through this transition. Thank you everyone!” The CEO smiled and darted out to the elevators.
“All right, all right, everyone!” Tony shouted. “I know this is crap. Believe me, I was just as surprised as you all were. I also found out from Bloomberg, those sneaky, but apparently extremely good reporters! Anyway, I know this is tough. I’ll write a recommendation for anyone who wants one. Except for your David!” Tony pointed at one of the reporters in the room as everyone laughed. Everyone knew that while David was an impeccable reporter, he was always on Tony’s nerves. “Just kidding, David, write your own recommendation and I’ll sign it.
“I’ll be honest with you all. I love Club Business. This job has been my life. It’s been my escape from my home in New Jersey for God’s sake! If it were my decision, we’d keep doing what we’re doing until I have a heart attack from all the junk food that ends up in the kitchenette here. But we’re a business publication and so we all understand the numbers. Club Business cannot operate without financial backing. It’s just a fact. If I could, I’d pay you all salaries from my pocket, but my salary as editor-in-chief isn’t enough to fund that. So unless there is a fairy godmother somewhere out there for us, we’ll have to wind down operations. Sorry those sons-of-a-bitch are doing this to you, to us. Really, I am in the same boat as you all are. So, let’s get to work, we can continue doing great journalism until the end.”
Tony then turned around and plopped into his office. Leah looked around and decided to follow him. “Hey,” she said, knocking on the door.
“Rosenberg, come in,” he said. “You know what? Write yourself a recommendation letter, you can write whatever you want. Write that you can predict the financial future of companies, that your investigation skills let you uncover deals that even CFOs don’t understand. Write whatever you want, I’ll sign it.”
“Thanks,” she said, not sure that was why she had come in there. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from her boss, but she felt the need to sit with him. He had been her mentor now for three years. She cared about him, he was almost fatherly to her.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
He scoffed. “Great question. I’m ruined, probably. You young reporters, you can apply for new jobs, get hired at other, probably better funded publications. But me? No one wants to hire a former editor-in-chief. I can’t be hired as a reporter, because people will say I’m overqualified. But they won’t hire me to be the editor-in-chief either because they would prefer to promote someone to that position. Damn! I don’t know. Soon I’ll have two kids to put through college! And those kids are spoiled enough already! How will I tell them that I used to work as a bartender to put myself through college! They would never consider getting a job!”
“You worked as a bartender?” Leah said with a giggle. She tried to imagine her grumpy boss yelling at patrons who ordered complex drinks.
“That hard to believe?” he asked. “I was young once! I wasn’t born with gray hair and this belly! I used to make great margaritas and even better tips! It’s actually how I met my wife.”
“Really?” Leah smiled. She thought she knew her boss well after all these years, but she had never thought of who he was before he was an editor.
“Yup! Back then, I was going to school, working freelance for the local paper, and bartending at night. I never slept! And then after Marcy came along, then I really never slept! And I had to take on extra work just to pay for dates! I would beg my editor for more stories. The paper paid worse than the bartending, but I loved that job. And now look where that got me! I should have stayed in bartending!”
Leah laughed. “You probably should have. Is that your advice to me? Forget journalism and go into bartending?”
“Like hell it is! You have talent! You shouldn’t waste it even if it will never make you rich! Besides, aren’t you marrying some hedge fund guy? You’ll be fine financially! Work in a career you love and let him make sure you’re always financially comfortable.”
“Rely on my husband? That’s the advice you have?” Leah asked.
“Sure, why not? No one listens to my advice anyway. Why would they? Like I said, I’m a month away from spending the rest of my life in unemployment,” Tony responded. “Don’t you have work to do? What happened with that story you were working on? About foreign markets?”
Leah nodded. “Yeah, I’ll finish it today.”
“Good,” Tony said. “And don’t think about slacking off until we shut down. If you need to slip out for an interview, you can make up the work in the evening.”
Leah nodded and went back to her desk. Her first instinct was to text Gabe the news. It was huge and she wanted to get his perspective. But she reminded herself, they weren’t talking until Wednesday.
She sighed and opened her article about foreign financial markets.