Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday | Nov. 20 | Got news, or a question?
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106 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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Does anyone know if most of the feature sections are being cut and what that means for features editors?
ReplyDeleteIf not now, it just a matter of when. Seems like we will all be on the chopping block in the near future.
ReplyDelete10:26 pm: indy is not the Midwest paper I had in mind when I wrote that post.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's not in the midwest. Could it be in the southeast? The talk here is the Asheville ship just went under.
I don't think we can produce our paper and Asheville's with a staff reduction of 10%.
6:22
ReplyDeleteDo you mean Asheville is going to have a 100% staff reduction? Not 10%?
What does corporate have to approve on the layoff lists?
ReplyDeleteDo they actually go through at the group level and say, "Bob Evans, Sheboygan, $42,000, yea or nay?" "Marie Callender, Lansing, $57,000, yea or nay?" with a roman thumbs up or down?
Or is it more along the lines of "Ellen Leifeld knows what she's doing, just approve Nashville... but this new guy in Ohio, we better look at every number."?
I guess if I survive this round, I'd like to know where the criteria are. I really like working for Gannett, honestly. If I can make myself more valuable to the company, I'll do it.
7:02: You can't make yourself more valuable at this point. Or rather, you can by going out and selling some ads, but that's not going to save your butt this time. Good work doesn't count for crap.
ReplyDeleteLarry St. Cyr joins forces with underdog Dan Donaghy!
ReplyDeleteSt. Cyr & Donaghy to the rescue!!!
6:22
ReplyDeletethat's kind of a vague statement, could you please elaborate? i was just about to leave for work. should i bother?
7:02, I understand Gracia Martore is in charge of calling the shots.
ReplyDeleteMaking yourself valuable to Gannett these days... I'm not even sure what that means anymore. Hard work, common sense and good leadership is not what this company is about. It rewards fly-by-night schemes and schemers, as well as busybodies and gadflies. If you're part of the problem you get raises and promotions. If you're part of the solution you get shown the door.
ReplyDelete7:44 hits the nail on the head as far as Corporate goes.
ReplyDeleteI am hearing the same Asheville will cut it's production and move it to Greenville. That is a shame. Because I have seen both operation's and Asheville is a much more productive site!
ReplyDeleteIt is getting even worse out there. Here's the October ad report from McClatchy, which shows unbelievable drops in ad categories. GCI and other newspapers are facing similar results, but they don't give us monthly reports:
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20081119-906582.html?mod=wsjcrmain
7:02 I wouldn't make the effort. It's all about the numbers and the money.
ReplyDeleteDan Donaghy. Now there's a real leader for you. With people like him at the helm, it's a surprise the ship hasn't sunk before now.
ReplyDeleteHow well you do your job barely matters anymore. Your publisher or group president probably got to start with some sort of list but some quotas were upped after the initial requests, and I would bet there are also just segments of workers who will be included (I'd say some features but I wouldn't say all - that will eventually come though, unless a miracle occurs. Sports and special sections and op-ed and designers are probably also vulnerable). Reporters and photographers are probably safest. So your publisher might think a department is doing a bang-up job, content wise, but he/she can't afford the luxury anymore, and if he/she fights for it, they could get overruled. In our last round, one manager who was laid off was well-thought of by our publisher and it did not save him
ReplyDeleteSmaller properties, what are you hearing about MEs? Some papers let them go last round...
ReplyDelete7:55
ReplyDeletehearing? hearing from where? who? is that a serious "hearing" or just speculation? i've "heard" alot of things but only from people who work at the paper trying to guess what's going to happen next, not from a source that knows.
8:38
ReplyDeleteI know diddly. I was just wondering what everyone thinks about that, as some newsrooms will be greatly reduced with less staff to manage. I'm not in the know, I'm not anti-ME and I'm not an ME. If the question has caused anxiety, I withdraw the question.
"Newsroom management" was a stated target of this round, so I'd say ME's are in the crosshairs. And yes, Martore is the executioner.
ReplyDeleteJim
ReplyDeleteHow low can gci stock go. Any news on Cherry hill cuts.
I understand that we are all scared and worried about our job, the economy and the relative security of our country. This blog is not helping solve any of these problems. In fact, it is creating even more hysteria. I understand everyone needs that "virtual" water cooler, but when you look at the responses, this is not going to help you at all.
ReplyDeleteI believe what goes around comes around and that those of you who are wasting time on this blog bitching and complaining are probably the same people that will get laid off on December 3rd.
I suggest you try to find something positive to post on this blog. It will be therapeutic for you and for the rest of us.
Certainly Craig Dubow has done a poor job as the CEO. When he started as the CEO in 2005 our stock was at $75 a share...Today we are at less than 10% of that value. Yes, we lost over 90% value in this stock and we are all scratching our heads wondering when does the axe fall upon Mr. Dubow and Ms. Martore. The economy is one excuse, the credit market might be another, but the lack of strategy and vision from Martore and Dubow is no excuse.
We need change at those levels! I am pleading to Dubow and Martore to step down and leave Gannett.
I am asking the Board of Directors to help us in removing them from this company. There are good people here that need direction and leadership.
There is significant news about to be announced at USA TODAY, maybe today, maybe next week. But this blog seems more reactionary lately, just a place to vent and commune about stuff we already were told by our managers, so I don't expect the USAT news to be broken here. I get the feeling Jim is just turning the blog over to us and is not attempting to break news anymore. Maybe he's come to the realization that this blog can't provide even a meager income.
ReplyDeleteIt's also somewhat revealing that no one in the know at USAT has the courage anymore to speak here. Looks like the suits have won.
Regardless, I am sure the higher-ups at Jim's old paper are happy to see him taking a much more passive, non-journalistic approach to digging up news at the old flagship. We'll just wait for the official Paulson memo or meeting this time.
As for the news, I don't know the details. I just know some things occurred this week that indicate a major announcement is about to be made. Was hoping to find some info on it here in advance, but Paulson & Co., have succeeded in keeping it under wraps.
This blog is losing its luster to me as it can't seem to scoop the company flaks. Maybe Romensko will have something on the pending USAT announcement.
Any other news on Asheville?
ReplyDeleteThe two winningest college basketball teams in America, including No. 1 ranked North Carolina, play on national TV and the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times doesn't carry a story the next morning on the result. You can't blame that kind of incompetence on the economy.
ReplyDeleteDobow and Martore are no McCorkindale and Miller.
ReplyDelete9:16, a wolf in sheep's clothing sending up a trial balloon?
ReplyDeleteHas anyone actually got their pension money after they were laid off?? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?
ReplyDeleteIt takes several months. I got mine rolled over to an IRA.
ReplyDeleteI opened a Charles Schwab IRA account and rolled my 401k into it after I left. I then filled out all the pension papers with a little help from an advisor. And after four weeks I got my pension check made out to Charles Schwab and myself so I could deposit it into my IRA. No penalties or taxes. Went very smooth.
ReplyDeleteYour publishers were given a $ target for layoffs. They then form a list of who they are going to cut to get to that goal. Corporate is reviewing to make sure 1. no legal concerns. 2. That it is stratigically sound.
ReplyDeleteWhile everyone is talking about the 10% of the workforece, that in reality is an esitmate based on a avg payrate.
What is the deal with Asheville. They were once a thriving newspaper and now what. I know everyone there is worried about there jobs because there is zero in Asheville.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the day when Gannett is bought out by the Scheinhardt Wig Company and gets the true leadership that a man like Jack Donaghy can provide.
ReplyDeletelooks like we may see a $5 dollar stock price today...as Bill Paxton said in Aliens "were toast man"
ReplyDeleteLarry St. CyrVP/Group Controller Gannett Digital Ventures/Gannett
ReplyDeleteEMPLOYEE BUYOUT?
ReplyDeleteRight, now, if every GCI employee took out a $34,000 loan, we could buy the company.
The buildings alone are worth way more than that. Book value is around $28/share, so maybe we could fire everyone, sell off all the assets, and make $100k each on that $34K investment.
Oh, and we'd get to fire the BOD in the process.
9:16 am: I wish I could report exactly how many layoffs will occur at each paper; that's the information everyone wants.
ReplyDeleteBut I do not have those sources. We're talking about budget decisions being made at 83 dailies involving dozens of publishers, directors and others; that's too many individuals for any one person to develop as sources.
I heard that the EE in Cherry Hill is off to Brazil for 2 weeks. Again.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we have nothing important going on here in the next few weeks.
Jim, the recently filed Gannett 10-
ReplyDeleteQ very clearly indicates more reductions in 2009. Any feelings on that?
10:36 am: I expected that Gannett would go through wave after wave of layoffs during 2009 and beyond -- and that was before the economy dipped into recession. My view hasn't changed.
ReplyDeleteI too would like to know what is happening or about to happen at USA Today and why nothing is being reported on here or told to us by management.
ReplyDelete10:27. There's one flaw in your thinking and that would be the companies debt. While you can buy the company for $6.40/share in addition to the buildings and other assets you also acquire billions in debt. The math doesn't work quite the way you hoped. If not for the debt someone might have taken the company private and then divested units. But with the debt involved Gannett costs a lot more than the share price.
ReplyDelete10:27 If GCI were such an attractive value, hedge funds and other corporate raiders would have already appeared to break up the company and sell off the pieces.
ReplyDeleteIf we bought the company and fired the leadership, we would still be on the hook for the golden parachutes that Dubow so wisely set up.
ReplyDeleteIf I were him, I'd be hoping for a buy out and termination right now. He's not that far from retirement, and he would make enough that he would be better off not working. That's the problem with American companies these days.
The CEOs live in a different world than everyone else. Just think about all the auto reps who flew to D.C. in private jets yesterday ... begging for money. They truly believe that the country owes them their extravagant lifestyle no matter how bad their leadership may be.
That's one reason I find it amusing when worker bees here will ding their fellow employees for a lack of work ethic because they make an occassional blog post. The people who lack ethics are the leaders of the company.
Case in point: Anyone who can devalue his company by 90 percent, fire thousands of people, make medical benefits more expensive, yet take zero personal responsibility for the problem is lacking in just about every way.
And, "No," a meager pay cut does not count as personal responsibility. Giving up the golden parachute, giving up all perks beyond the $1.5 million salary, and working for half of that salary would be a reasonable sacrifice under the circumstances. Even if all that was done, our "leader" would still be making about 10 times more than even well paid Gannett underlings. All this, and he would have already been canned were he part of our sales force working on commission.
10:34, I feel your pain. Your EE is an ass. Sorry we dumped him on you from Nashville. But at least you don't have Silverman.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't matter what is going in Cherry Hill because our moron EE is just that, a moron! Maybe he can stay in South America. No one would notice a thing except for those who watch him stumble in the publisher's office looking like he just saw a ghost.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going to happen to Crystal Palace as it empties out, and why do they need all that space now?
ReplyDeleteJust imagine what would happen to papers if the auto companies went belly up. How many dealer ad would be lost? If you think it's bad now...
ReplyDeleteI agree with 9:16. Gannett Blog has lost its "hear it here first" edge. Seems to be just repackaged news/Gannetteer-type announcements and endless open reader/comment forums, which I guess serve some purpose. But where are the fact-based scoops? If there's something brewing at the company's largest paper, as one or two folks have hinted, wouldn't that be the perfect thing to try to shine some light on here? I understand Jim can't do it all, but I would think the big stories would appeal to his journalistic curiosity and sense of wanting to break the news first. Even more motivation, I would presume, since USA Today indirectly booted him.
ReplyDeleteJust logged in for my lunch-time looksee.
ReplyDeleteStock is $6.66.
You can't make that shit up.
OK, Jim How about an update, on the Gannett's blog financial deal.Since you let people mail you money.Is your financial situation getting better? Do you Jim still have the plan, to put the Gannett's blog under, by the end of the year(which is a few weeks away), if you do not raise enough money?
ReplyDeleteIt appears this blog is going down at the end of the year. Just no news here anymore. Just endless thread comments like this one...lol.
ReplyDeleteA lot of blogs die off. Bloggers lose interest or don't have time. In fact, that's a problem in general with the web and why I think newspaper websites aren't going to last long. There will always be something new pushing out something stale.
ReplyDeleteGannett Blog took considerable journalistic skills to get going, but did anyone really expect that kind of effort to continue?
We're going to have to go back to getting our information about our jobs the old fashion way -- through b.s. company meetings and memos.
Yeah...the silly videos were a sign of the decline. I didn't mind seeing them to lighten things up, but not in lieu of good, solid reporting and smart comments and tips.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with all the complaints about Jim's scoops or lack thereof?
ReplyDeleteY'all got tired of bashing each other and needed a new target?
He's not some magician who can conjure stories out of thin air. If nobody's leaking credible information to him, then there's not much he can do.
you can't blame the EE in cherry hill for going on vacation. I am sure he has had some tough decisions to make. I don't think anyone wants to have to lay off 30 people from their newsroom. but to that effect, perhaps your ME should just take his place.
ReplyDeleteSilly videos?
ReplyDeleteI don't call COBRA concerns one bit silly.
Those who are rooting for this blog's demise should be more concerned about Gannett folding by the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteI was laid off in August and got my pension information about 3 weeks ago. I have requested my payout and submitted all the paperwork but have not yet received it. I will roll it over into an IRA when it arrives.
ReplyDeleteTo everyone who is posting about lawsuits: I think it would be a better use of your time to find another job, instead of using the last of your money from your layoff to pay legal fees. I mean come on, a lot of you don't even make that much money to begin with. How much is some undeclared overtime really going to get you? A dinner a Red Lobster perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI think it is time for individual responsibility and accepting the fact that our company did not do the right thing. This is all in the nature of capitalism. We just happen to be the most recent victims. Believe me, if I am laid off on December 2 I am not going to be happy, but I am going to have to accept it.
I am proud of the work I have done and know that this in no way reflects on my abilities and accomplishments. It's just business. Be proud of yourselves people, stop living with so much despair and worry. To me, with those things, you are not living at all. LET IT GO! Better times are ahead for everyone.
9:15AM-- What is your point? This blog is priceless in the respect that it ties in all of the problems nationwide. There is no other way we would know what is going on 3,000 miles away-- and there is often no other way we canknow what is happening right at our own locations. It also helps to take away the horrible feeling of thinking we have been singled out for cruel and unusual treatment. Just knowing that we are not alone and isolated is therapeutic!
ReplyDeleteYour idea of finding something positive to say is not extremely useful. In fact it's even mean, ranking in the same realm as speaking useless "happy thoughts" at a funeral!
I am praying for you all. I wish I could have done a better job and potentially stopped all of this. I will be thinking of all of you and your families this holiday season. God bless you all!
ReplyDeleteeven directors are losing
ReplyDelete11/05/2008 HOWARD D ELIAS
Director 1,000 GCI Open Market Purchase
Cost $12,000.00
10/30/2008 HOWARD D ELIAS
Director 2,300 GCI Award of Stock
*** Undefined Type ***
08/07/2008 ARTHUR H HARPER
Director 3,000 GCI Open Market Purchase
Cost $53,550.00
06/23/2008 ARTHUR H HARPER
Director 2,000 GCI Open Market Purchase
Cost $45,000.00
Jim--
ReplyDeleteI'm still a fan. I think you are on the right track. The videos are a bit fluff, but you are expanding your expertise, something we should all be doing. Those mad at you for not having the scoop are actually mad at the company because there are no details out there.
I hope that those complaining about the journalistic value of this blog are not eddytors in the LIC-TIT centers. Talk about clueless.
ReplyDeleteWatching the stock price is like waiting for a special showing of Final Destination DCLXVI.
How the hell does any work get done anymore?
SCJ, that's a stand-up thing you did by expressing your concern in public.
ReplyDelete1:39, doesn't take long to rewrite a press release these days. Or call up that dog owner who won our pet photo contest.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to address something that a poster said earlier, about "good work doesn't count for crap." These layoffs aren't going to be about who does great work, or productivity, or anything of the sort. It's going to be about how much money you make. I know getting laid off feels like you've failed on some level, but it's just not true in this case. You could have a wall full of awards and still get laid off. It's all about the dollars. Try not to take it personally.
ReplyDeleteFor 12:58 I agree the individual wage and hour suits would produce little money. That is why I favor putting together a much larger suit charging Corporate with conspiracy and using the racketeering statues. With the prospects of needing another job, I have been going to night law school and think we could easily put together a case showing a pattern across GCI properties of wilful violations of the labor laws. If we can show it is a conspiracy, involving much of GCI, then we can not only recover the past lost wages but get triple damages as well. This could reap some handsome returns. The lawyers would get a third, but those who filed the rest. In the past there has been difficulties getting managers to testify about corporate abuses because they sign non disclosure agreements to obtain their buyouts. But with layoffs, there are no disclosure agreements involved, and we should be able to harvest a rich seam of evidence we could use. I am very enthusiastic about the prospects here.
ReplyDeleteFor 2:17 I pity your perspective. As a legal mind, myself, I disagree with your use of statutes in this case. However, you are entitled to your opinion. It was the rest of my post that I was hoping would resonate with people like yourself. Be Well.
ReplyDelete1:42, surely you don't believe that was actually SCJ!
ReplyDeleteGCI is dropping like a stone, could breeze through $6 and end up $5 in two days.
ReplyDeleteThe EE in cherry hill at the courier-post could not possibly be stressed due to the pending layoffs and all the work to prepare. This guy doesn't have the brains to administer something like that and most importantly he was most likely given a list of those to walk the gallows by the publisher, another genius. The real point is that just after a major event such as a layoff of nearly (maybe) 30 people in the newsrooms, one would think that a good manager would stick around to support those who survive and to ensure that the newspaper functions as best as possible under the circumstances. Again, this guy is a moron and there is nothing much more to be said. He was dumped on Cherry Hill probably as punishment to himself and the Courier Post.
ReplyDelete$6:10. Boy if that isn't a message to Dubow & Co. that Wall Street wants something substantial out of GCI, or its curtains. Wanna rethink the wisdom of that mystery $1.2 billion loan Corporate has yet to explain? Wanna explain Ripple6 purchase? Wanna explain corporate bloat? Wanna explain your business plan?
ReplyDelete$6.09
ReplyDelete2:17 PM
ReplyDeleteI like your thinking on OT.
If GCI continues to drop to below $5.00 all hell will break loose. That is when most funds get rid of a stock--no questions asked.
ReplyDeleteThis blog, sadly, is now akin to a corporate deathwatch.
ReplyDelete4:27 I think Corporate has to come up with something really radical to get the stock to reverse and go up. Perhaps a merger, or massive reorganization. These layoffs aren't getting the financial results they were intended to get, and are degrading the product.
ReplyDeleteFrom Mad Money Last Evening................................Cramer also addressed the yields of New York Times(NYT Quote - Cramer on NYT - Stock Picks), which pays a 13% dividend, and Gannett(GCI Quote - Cramer on GCI - Stock Picks), which pays close to 22%. "I don't know," said Cramer. "When I start seeing dividends of 22%, it raises eyebrows."
ReplyDeleteBeyond the overall market collapse, the reason GCI stock is going down is because the company is just about shouting, 'WE DON'T BELIEVE IN OURSELVES!'
ReplyDeleteWe should be hiring, not firing, streamling, reorganizing, repositioning and shouting that we are ready to become a true information center, locally and nationally.
We -- all newspapers -- atre literally giving up WHAT WE DO to TV, bloggers, repackagers, the crowd and anyone else. There is worth in being a news organization. We need to remember that.
And communicate that.
We are almost bankrupt, folks. The market value of GCI is now $1.4 billion. What that means is Corporate would not be able to draw another $1.2 billion loan if it wanted, so buying something else is now out. Total debt is about $7 billion. Dubow is driving us into the pits.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't do it. They did it. They killed it in their Don Quixote-like search for the next Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at the financials, and I see that GCI's payroll jumped from $101 million in 2003 to $144 million last year. We only got pissy 2 or 3 percent pay increases in that period, and we didn't really increase staff. So where in the hell did all that increase money go to? Corporate salaries?
ReplyDelete4:31. There is no magic bullet to solve the underlying problem at Gannett. The company is a dinosaur with a business model that can Never work. The approach to buy success or solvency via acquisitions over the past year have put the nail in the coffin. The stock price is going down because the company has failed.
ReplyDeleteWho was it that said something about a transformation a cuople of years ago, and is he still employed?
ReplyDeleteI for one would like to thank upper management for driving the company straight into the outhouse.
ReplyDeleteNow that Gannett is in danger of being delisted, my Uncle Fred and I have decided to buy the company. We feel like we cannot possible do worse.
Everyone at corporate will immediately be moved to the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio (which Gannett bought from Thompson, the cheapest newspaper company in the world, and then trimmed the fat).
Gannett's love for "Flavor of the Month" journalism is what killed the company. Rather than focus on the keys of newspaper local autonomy, the Tower went nuts for the "Information Centers" and the new "concepts" from Poynter and the like.
ReplyDeleteBut the real dirty little secret is this: The company, and mostother media companies, are not, nor are they anywhere NEAR broke.
These media companies are STILL making a profit margin that most other companies in the private sector would DIE for!
The problem that with ad revenue and circ numbers down, that profit margin is just not as wide at it has been in the past.
Are most of you aware, for instance, that MOST Gannett newspapers are expected to have a profit margin of between 30 and 40%? That's right... 30 to 40%
Now, for the non-business majors among us, that is some heafty profit margins. Major car companies are lucky to see 6% Major grocery chains are lucky to clear a 3% profit margin. Yet media companies have this dirty little secret - they make tons of money hand over fist - and still are!
These cuts simply to retain this profitability. It has nothing to do with the stocks or shares. It is the bottom line P%L Income statement each month - that is all that's important and why so many are being laid off!
Digest that a while.
Gannett drops below $6.00 per share in after-hours trading to $5.85.
ReplyDeleteDubow may like the strategic plan, but the street apparently does not. Perhaps newspapers should quit writing so much about their own deaths and start writing a little more about the value they bring to communities and this economy.
Wow.... under $6 bucks a share?? Don't all Gannett managers get their bonuses and 401K in Gannett stock? Don't they "buy in" at a certain level and they make money only when the share goes OVER that level? Is this all true? If so... then all you Gannett publishers and EEs and MEs, and ad directors... you are all......
ReplyDeleteSKEEEEEE - RUUUWWWWWWED! (Screwed for the phonetically-challenged)
Heheheheh!
5:25: I'd like to see the profits after this most recent quarter. Our ad reps are struggling to sell anything - even tiny ads are a victory. While I think you're right about the general approach being totally skewed (how much would have to be cut if we lowered our profit outlook to just 10 percent?), this economy is hammering everyone.
ReplyDelete5:25: You have no idea what your talking about.
ReplyDeleteOh I just heard USA Today and Four Winds Interactive are entering into the Digital Signage Business...apparently these interactive information centers stream news from USA Today, weather, and GCIs falling stock price.
Uh wait, what does that sound like? A TV tuned to a news channel...Come on, are these the ideas that GCI is coming up with to save the company....give me a break. Its gimmicky and wont last more than a few seasons.
Nice. These days I get all the info I need from my Blackberry or iPhone!
ReplyDelete5:56
ReplyDeleteYou must be an Advertising Director. LOL
5:25 Comparisons between the newspaper industry and the auto or food are ridiculous. People have to buy food 7/365 and the major costs involve transportation and distribution. When the car industry runs into trouble, they furlough employees and save paychecks. Newspapers have huge labor costs to obtain, massage, print, and distribute the news. In good times, sure newspapers cough up a lot of profits, but in bad times (and we are there now), the costs of gathering, publishing, and distribution mean no profits. No other industry works this way.
ReplyDeleteYes, Gannett pushed the envelope and showed that in good times it can reap huge profits. But we have not seen bad times like this, and the thin way they have run the newspapers are now coming home.
5:25 You are wrong. Tbe gross profit margin of supermarkets is 30 percent. Here is a link to Safeway data:
ReplyDeletehttp://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=SWY
Well, I may stand corrected on a few things... however, there is a big difference between gross profit and net profit.
ReplyDeleteAnd labor costs are high if you allow them to be high. The USAT cash cow may be drying up a little, and all those little papers in Ohio and Indiana may not be worth a damn - certainly they weren't worth what Ganett sprung for them in 2000-2001 - but overall the company's broad bottom line is just a bit thinner than in the past.
When times are hard ... what Gannett is doing in canning the best and brightest of its labor force is simply criminal (figuratively, of course) - and it will reap the consequesnces.
You are fooling yourself if you think Dubow and Co. are giving the slightest consideration to keeping the best and brightest. From corporate's view, there are plenty of bright kids coming out of journalism school willing to work their asses off for $24,000, and journalists are just fungible.
ReplyDeleteWhere's that blogger who was on yesterday with news from doing some snooping? Thought maybe you'd have some info for us or was that just bogus? No one at my site is doing any talking at all, and it just seems like business as usual, just alllooooottttt quieter.
ReplyDeleteAgain, anyone out there with any info on the finance consolidation? Lots of ads being "killed" at my site. What's up with that? Anyone else experiencing the same?
The damn stock continued to sink after the exchange closed, and now is off another 4 percent to $5.85..
ReplyDeleteCNN:
ReplyDeleteAP will cut 10%
oops, make that Reuters
ReplyDeleteThe best way to make yourself more valuable is to volunteer for a severance package.
ReplyDeleteNashville and MTCN papers - employee "Awards" meeting with Publisher today. During Q & A session she said they are cutting 100 positions to be announced either the 3rd or 4th of December. 22 of those 100 will be from unfilled openings. So the count is 78 positions.
ReplyDelete6:28
ReplyDeleteYou must be editor that hides behind their desk.
hey 8:38 hearing,hearing is what we all heard and it must be correct! Read Friday's edition of the Asheville paper and you will see where they are merging with Greenville! So I guess someone actually knows what they are talking about! I hate to see all the family's that will suffer from this decision.
ReplyDelete