Supreme Court reporter, 'PIP casualty', calls it a day

In a farewell message, Vicini, pictured, told colleagues he had “decidedly mixed emotions” in leaving. “I would be remiss not to mention that it all began in commodities – as a young reporter in his second job out of college doing a brief stint in New York, then covering the Chicago commodities markets, working on the commodities editing desk and finally reporting countless USDA crop reports after moving to the Washington bureau more than 30 years ago.

“Our new bureau chief, Marilyn Thompson, recently remarked about the need for a ‘happy culture.’ I totally agree with her and remember in years past the atmosphere of fun, exhilaration and joy in the Washington bureau while producing hard-hitting, market-moving wire service journalism that beat the pants off the competition.”

Over the years Vicini covered many important Supreme Court rulings, the Justice Department, the 9/11 investigation, and major trials. He said he was considering a wide range of “really exciting ideas as I embark on a new chapter in my life, though I have yet to make a final decision on what I will do next”.

Under the PIP scheme employees deemed by management to be under-performing are told they have 30 days to shape up or face termination. A Reuters journalist told US media blogger Jim Romenesko that rather than deal with the months of humiliation Vicini opted to leave Reuters. He had built an unmatched reputation for being accurate and fast on complex legal rulings. His reputation was cemented in December 2000 when he was the first reporter to figure out that the Supreme Court had handed the presidency to George W. Bush, the unnamed journalist said.

Commenting on Vicini’s coverage of the health care ruling, the Guild said: “As usual, he got it right. As usual, he built an elegant foundation for the story that carried through the rest of our coverage. As usual, he made Reuters look great (see this shout-out in The New York Times). He won plaudits from Americas Editor Jim Gaines and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Paul Ingrassia.”

“It didn’t have to be this way,” the union said. “Jim was among 29 Guild members put on bogus Performance Improvement Plans, where the point wasn’t improvement but rather getting veteran Reuters staff out the door. Despite his stellar performance over the years, capped by the health care ruling, he was made to feel unwelcome. He was harassed by those with less knowledge about what it takes to do this difficult job. In the end, the Guild negotiated an orderly exit for him. Reuters is sadly diminished by his departure.”

It said Vicini was the fourth Guild member to decide to leave rather than continue to work in a hostile environment after being targeted by management’s PIP process. It said the “PIP offensive” was led by a management committee. The Guild said that Stuart Karle, Reuters chief operating officer, replied with the following e-mail when asked to comment on the PIP committee, its function and whether editors in charge had been issued PIPs:

“Reuters this year set performance objectives for every member of the Editorial staff, from news assistants to [editor-in-chief] Steve (Adler)’s leadership team. The objectives were intended to be, and we believe are, clear and directed to achieving Steve’s goals for Editorial and [chief executive] Jim Smith’s goals for Thomson Reuters. The success of this process is illustrated by the results, as the vast majority of our staff has met or achieved their objectives and that success is clearly visible in the File.

“It is our goal that all of our colleagues meet or exceed their objectives – and of course most of your colleagues in the Guild have done so, as was clear from the merit salary increases awarded earlier this year and the small percentage of members who are on performance improvement plans. But, as is not surprising in an organization this large, there are some who don’t. We treat everyone who is not meeting his or her objectives as an individual and develop a clear plan to help each perform. In every case it is our hope that this plan succeeds. We do this globally with all of our staff at all levels.”

The Guild added: “We hope the departure of Jim Vicini and other talented journalists, including Washington economics correspondent Glenn Somerville a few weeks ago, makes management realize how counterproductive and damaging this process is. All the same, we’ll keep defending Guild members through grievances and arbitrations.” ■