On Oct. 2, a week after he arrived, Ted (not his real name) swung the ax at CMP San Francisco, which had seen all kinds of layoffs, large and small. I am sure there was no memo, just a Mafia-like “Nice old, expensive editor out there. Shame if anything happened to his job. Capisce?”

As I entered the conference room I had a CMP 20-year pin. I was treated as a 20-year veteran in terms of vacation and benefits. Gerry Leeds had written me to say he considered my 14-month service break at Ziff/PC Week to be “a sabbatical, paid for by Ziff.” When the Leeds family generously chose to share the proceeds of the company’s sale with staff, my share was based on 20 years of service.

Once I was in the room, 8 years of service disappeared in a puff of British cigar smoke. I’m not saying 24 weeks of severance was a bad thing: it was more than was legally required, and so quite generous. But 40 would have been nicer.

Under UBM’s own announced terms, and based on my HR-confirmed status of the day before, I was not treated fairly. But, of course UBM figured out they could save .003 percent of what they had just overpaid for CMP. The money saved easily paid the fare to London for a champagne celebration at the men’s club. “Let’s drink to Paul Schindler.”

And I was illegally, under coercion, forced to sign a document promising not to sue for age discrimination. Or else no severance. Because of the coercion, the agreement I signed was null and void. If only there were no statute of limitations, or anyone left to sue.