Tribune Publishing Company Emailed Their Reporters About Bonuses. It Was a Phishing Test.

Journalists who work for Tribune Publishing Company — which owns the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, New York Daily News, and several other newspapers — were sent an email to their staff about bonuses this year. Given that these newspapers have been subject to non-stop layoffs and other cost-cutting measures — furloughs, newsroom closures — for well over a decade now, receiving this email about bonuses ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 must have been a remarkably wonderful surprise. Except, the email was actually intended to test their susceptibility to phishing scams.

These tweets are from Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun and Gregory Pratt of the Chicago Tribune:

After slashing our staff, closing newsrooms, furloughing reporters and cutting pay during a pandemic, @tribpub thought a neat lil way to test our susceptibility to phishing was to send a spoof email announcing large bonuses. Fire everyone involved. pic.twitter.com/tFZsSNrf30

— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) September 23, 2020

Tribune Publishing sent @chicagotribune journalists a faux phishing email saying we're getting $5,000-$10,000 bonuses if we just click <here> as a sort of security test.

Considering Alden, and the economic challenged faced by our members @CTGuild, it's a gross exercise.

— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) September 23, 2020

David Heinzmann, also of the Chicago Tribune, interpreted the email as to say executives would get the bonuses for enacting cost cuts (and thus be even more tantalizing to click):

It didn't say "we" were getting bonuses. It said execs were getting them for slashing costs, as if sent it to us inadvertently. All the more tantalizing. First we get trolled by our own columnist, now we get trolled by management. But by all means, keep doing more with less. https://t.co/1NMavPXfu2

— David Heinzmann (@davidheinzmann) September 23, 2020

However you read it: Suffice to say morale is not high at these outlets as far as their parent company is concerned. Recall a few weeks ago, when longtime Chicago Tribune baseball reporter Paul Sullivan wondered aloud how many journalists had to be furloughed to pay for an ad at Wrigley Field.