On Wednesday, the New York Times announced that it didn’t get enough volunteers who were willing to leave the paper voluntarily and that as a result, there would be “relatively small numbers of layoffs”, prompting the Writer’s Newspaper Guild to file a grievance. Later that day, the New York Times Co. (NYT) filed this 10Q which provided some interesting new details on how much all of this downsizing is costing the company. (Full disclosure: I periodically write for the Times as a freelance journalist.)

In Footnote #8, which is a more detailed discussion of information the company included in its first quarter earnings release, the company noted that it took an $11.2 million charge during the first quarter to cover buyouts, compared with $7.8 million for the same quarter in 2007 and that most of these charges were recognized by the company’s “News Media Group”, which includes The Times, the Boston Globe, WQXR, and a group of 15 regional newspapers.

The same footnote noted that at the end of the quarter, the company had a buyout liability of $21 million, more than twice the $10 million listed at the end of the third quarter. I couldn’t find similar language in the first quarter Q filed in May 2007, so it’s hard to make a direct comparison. Another new thing in Wednesday’s filing is the $30 to $35 million in additional buyout costs listed under “expectations” for 2008, a number not included in the earnings release.

Also interesting in Wednesday’s filing was the company’s effective tax rate, which was listed as a whopping 105%. In the first quarter of 2007, the effective tax rate was 51%. As Bob Olstein once told me, weird tax rates can often be a reliable indicator of unusual accounting, though there’s not enough information in the Q to make that call here.

Last week, on May Day no less, investors in Furniture Brands International (FBN), the furniture company whose brands include Thomasville and Broyhill, appear to have elected three directors proposed by activist investors, Sun Capital, which owns about 9.5% of FBN’s shares. Sun offered to buy the company, whose stock has declined sharply since 2002, back in February, but the company turned them down.

But judging by this 8K filed by FBN late yesterday, the company has a few revolutionary thoughts of its own. As yesterday’s filing notes, on May 1, the company’s board, which does not include the three new directors, not only increased CEO Ralph Scozzafava’s salary by 7% to $750K, it also increased his long-term compensation award from 200% to 300%, and increased the amount of money he would get under a change in control from 2 times base salary and bonus to three times. Several other executives also got a bump — from one times to 1.5 times — in the amount of severance they would receive.

We’re sure the timing of those changes had nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with the three new directors set to come on board.

Last week, I was in Copenhagen and it was hard to miss the banners for Bodies The Exhibition attached to light posts around the city, especially near Tivoli, a major tourist attraction. I didn’t go to the exhibit — there’s so many other more interesting things to do in Copenhagen than look at dead bodies, no matter how they’re sliced and diced. Even the Little Mermaid, which is very little, is more interesting.

But according to the fourth quarter and year-end earnings that Premier Exhibitions (PRXI), which is putting on the Bodies exhibit, reported late yesterday, lots of other people are. The big headline on the release touts that “annual revenue is up 104% and annual net income is up 66%.” So why, then, given that rosy headline, is the stock down over 8% this morning? It’s only after you start reading the release a bit more that you realize both net income and earnings per share for the fourth quarter were both down sharply and missed even the lower guidance that the company gave back on Jan. 9.

According to the press release, the Copenhagen Bodies exhibit is one of 12 currently being run by the company. Another five are set to open in the next 30 days, presumably timed for the end of the school year when parents are looking around for things to do. But none of the Danish parents or grandparents I spoke to — admittedly a small sample of a dozen in a country of 5 million — seemed to be planning a visit.

There’s also the question of exactly where those bodies are coming from — something that has dogged the company for some time and which we last footnoted in February, after a segment ran on the ABC News show, 20/20. With 17 different exhibits and let’s say 15 bodies at each (based on my memory of a visit to one in San Francisco about 3 years ago), that’s a lot of bodies to move around.

Perhaps that’s why yesterday’s release ends with a note about not giving guidance for 2009, wrapped in a veneer of focusing on growing the company and increasing shareholder value.

Finally, a note of thanks to PH and Wendy for pitching in while I was off showing my mom Copenhagen to celebrate her birthday. I lived there as a student back in college and it was great to be back and visit with my Danish family again. Every now and then, you just need to take a break from SEC filings, no matter how interesting they are.

UPDATE 5/8: Late Wednesday, Premier filed this 10K. Among the more interesting tidbits was this new disclosure that legislators in three different states — California, New York and Pennsylvania — “have proposed legislation that could require us to follow special requirements in connection with our presentation of human anatomy exhibitions in such states”. Because the legislation hasn’t passed and because Premier’s disclosure is somewhat vague, it’s hard to figure out what (if any) impact this might eventually have. A quick search of California’s legislative database brought me to this bill, which passed the Assembly back in January, and has been amended by the Senate, but does not appear to have passed there. In New York state, the Assembly bill is here and the Senate bill is here, but neither appear to have passed. Ditto for  the Pennsylvania legislation, which appears to have only been introduced in the Senate. Yesterday’s filing hints at other states introducing similar legislation as well, so this is clearly something to watch more closely.

It must be nice to get a raise before you even start your job. Congratulations to Stephen P. Joyce, who received one the day before his official arrival at Choice Hotels International (CHH). 

Back in March, Choice announced that Joyce would become President and COO starting May 1. (He’ll ascend in October to the CEO post, at which point current CEO Chuck Ledsinger  will become Vice Chairman.) At the time of the announcement, Choice and Joyce - gotta love an executive who rhymes with his company -  signed this employment agreement.

On the eve of Joyce’s start date, Choice sweetened his deal. (Here’s the amended and restated agreement, dated April 30.) The revised contract bumped up a couple of Joyce’s initial equity awards:  He’ll now get nearly a million extra bucks worth of restricted stock ($2.3M instead of $1.3M), and a stock option award valued at $2.8M instead of $2.5M.

While Joyce’s contract was up on my screen, I peeked at the perks section. Joyce’s perks under the contract (there are additional perks under a “flexible perquisites program” discussed in the last proxy) track the ones current CEO Ledsinger has: a car allowance, membership at a dining and/or recreational club, and 25 hours a year of personal travel on company aircraft. However, Joyce goes the old CEO one better. He’s “fully grossed up” for all these perks, including the air travel, while Ledsinger has to pay his own taxes on personal jet-setting.  

Of course, Joyce is also eligible for the “Stay at Choice” program Michelle recently footnoted, which invites directors to lodge at Choice’s humble hotel chains. As Michelle pointed out, this perk hasn’t been wildly popular. We shall see whether or not Joyce, a former Marriott executive, feels that sleeping at a Comfort Inn is out of his comfort zone.

Back in January, I wrote this post about Rite Aid Corporation (RAD), noting that all my neighborhood Rite Aids seemed incapable of consistently stocking mundane items like cleaning supplies and toilet paper.  I referred to this phenomenon, rather snidely, as Soviet Economy Syndrome. One of these local stores was, in its former life, a pleasant, well-stocked Eckerd Drugs. I observed that as soon as Rite Aid began to fold in the Brooks Eckerd chain, that location developed the same malaise.

In honor of the unusual number of comments that post has generated over the past few months, and Rite Aid’s recent 10-K filing, an update seems appropriate.

A few days after the post went up, a huge display of attractively priced toilet paper appeared at a nearby Rite Aid. Whether this proves the power of the blogosphere or the randomness of the universe, who knows? Either way, I stocked up my bathroom.  Since then, the shelves at local Rite Aids have been slightly less bare, but the problem persists. All too often I walk out of the store without the ordinary item I went in for.

All the commenters criticized the company, with the exception of one person who identified himself as a Rite Aid pharmacist. Others who said they worked at Rite Aid stores complained about low pay, low morale, and yes, low inventory. One said: “I’ve watched customer after customer leave and go to Walgreens because we’re out of stock or our pharmacy is closed. This post would be funny to me too, if my career wasn’t hooked to such an incompetent company.” (Any comments on today’s post will be held and published after Michelle returns on Wednesday.)

According to the 10-K filed last week, the company now has “a customer focused store visit guide that can be used by field management to assess the quality of customer service provided by specific stores.” Let’s hope this “store visit guide” explains that customers generally prefer having merchandise on the shelves.

In an update on the Eckerd integration, the 10-K says: “We…are well on our way to completing systems conversions in all of the acquired stores by the end of May 2008.”  So maybe the chain will get its act together soon. If not, Soviet Economy Syndrome will be officially renamed. Hello, Rite Aid Syndrome.