Saturday, January 17, 2009
Saturday | Jan. 17 | Your News & Comments
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67 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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There: I've written the first comment. Now, you won't be the first one out there on the dance floor.
ReplyDeleteCan we say "KARMA"
ReplyDeleteI've been a working journalist/editor for nearly 30 years. I loved my job, and wouldn't trade it for anything. And that's the problem - I love writing/editing/getting to know people. I just hate the business end of this industry.
ReplyDeleteSomeone, somewhere, please say that our industry is not dying ... and my soul along with it!
I know this is a Gannett blog, but what's the status with other corporations, such as Scripps-Howard? How are those papers doing, in particular the Times Record News in Wichita Falls ...
ReplyDeleteI did not address this sooner because I wanted to crunch the numbers. One week without pay is a 2.3% salary decrease per year.
ReplyDeleteShould this occur for each quarter of 2009, it is as close to a !0% salary decrease as you can come.
If there are no performance raises, that 10% becomes 12%.
Things get uglier for there. Any said salary decrease MEANS less going into a 401K WITH less matching funds.
So... if you make 50,000 a year, you just lost 10 grand for this year and your 401K pretty much sucks too...
To continue, at minus 43% for the year in 2008 on a 401K or retirement plan means you will be working up until the day you die...
ReplyDeleteIf your employer is kind (has a clue) and you have a job, you shouldn't starve to death earlier than you would have died otherwise.
THIS IS YOUR BONUS!
As much I think unionism brings the best to their knees to hold hands with those that do not hold their weight... maybe it is time to go back to those values.
This isn't a statement as much as it is a question. Start thinking!
In my best effort to "supplement my income" with the coming furlough being forced on me I have thrown together a few "print-to-order" products. I invite all others that find themselves in my same position to take a look, and at the very least have a laugh on me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cafepress.com/paperfurlough
ENJOY YOUR "VACATIONS!"
We need to quit talking about ways that Gannett is going to cut cost's,because those non-thinkers are probably taking the idea's from post's on here and using them as there own. You know they take your idea's at the papers when you present one to your boss and use it as there own,so who's to say there not doing the same thing here.
ReplyDeleteSo let's make them work a little
Somebody please explain to me why Cincinnati is still hiring new employees, yet telling us we must take a week furlough? New employees will not be affected by the furlough. Doesn't make sense to me. During the December layoffs, they secretly hired several digitial sales reps. Yet laid off more than a fair share of advertising reps. Doesn't it sound as though they are just cleaning house, and blaming it all on the economy, and the lack of advertising revenue? Comments please.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea. Let employees buy the papers and create and ESOP. Lets offer them pennies on the dollar and see if they bite. Aren't they taking bids?
Hey, Jim, I owe you an apology. I said a few weeks ago I'd be sending some money, and I didn't do it. As much as I'd like to blame the holidays and the economy, sheer laziness is probably most responsible. I think what you do here is incredibly valuable, and I've learned more about the company in the few weeks you've been doing this than in the 20-plus years I have worked for them. I'm sending $20 in the mail today. I wish I could afford more. Keep up the good -- make that great -- work.
ReplyDeleteI do think that 12% of $50,000 is $6,000 (a $10,000 cut on $50,000 would be a 20% cut). You will also lose (or not gain depending on the cut or the lack of an increase) the portion of your 401k match equal to the 12% cut, which would be about $300. You can always increase 401K contributions to make up for anything.
ReplyDeleteSo, you still have a job and still seeing a pay check. And the alternative? If you don't like it, find another job. Good luck with that this year!
AP: At the least Towns is staying clear. CP's Lafferty lies openly.
ReplyDeleteOur beloved New Jersey group has a paper that takes the Triple Crown. Here's a glance at today's Courier News:
ReplyDeleteFront page: Story with bad grammar in 2nd graf and a run-on sentence in 3rd graf. The story is about a poetry festival shutting down.
Inside: Handout about a baseball banquet runs twice, once on the Community News page and once in the sports section.
Business page: "South Amboy partners bring gourmet grocery to Broadway", a hed that accompanies a story about a copying shop in Perth Amboy. Both cities are outside the C-N area. Meanwhile a story that affects the C-N area -- Circuit City going out of business -- gets all of 2 grafs. (Circuit City has a store in Bridgewater.)
wouldn't gannett be smarter to simply reduce the work week -- and thus the pay -- by x percent across the board? (and include the board, the ceo, etc. -- just a token gesture but better than nothing).
ReplyDeletelosing a whole week's pay all at once will be extremely painful for those at the bottom of the pay scale, and may send some of them to food banks (if they're not going already).
reporting, editing and most other functions probably would be done better by people working a half-hour less per day than by those forced to take a week off. the burden would be shared over time, rather than go through like a slow-mo wave, disrupting everything. and there'd be no scheduling nightmare for management.
it's not like there's no precedent. for instance,
in the '70s or '80s, washington star staff worked 80% hours for 80% pay, keeping the paper afloat long enough for it to be sold. if i recall correctly, unions convinced management that this was a better plan than laying off 20% of the staff.
meanwhile, in indianapolis, the guild is voting on the furlough plan, something the company cannot unilaterally impose on editorial, library and building services staff because of the contract. i expect it will be approved, because the alternative is layoffs.
i also expect there will be guild efforts to help members facing the greatest hardships. at the time of the december layoffs, enough guild members gave back their $25 grocery gift certificates that laid off members received $100 apiece.
At the start of the day-- I just need to hear from one New Jersey employee who took a voluntary buyout last May. Even though after the voluntary buyout my job was terminated, it seems that you still need to fight for unemployment once the salary continuation ends. Please share what happened to you. "New Jersey" and "voluntary layoffs" are the key words here.
ReplyDeleteYou may email me directly at
RRandyTBear@aol.com
Thank you!
In addition to RIFS and furloughs, Gannett wants to discourage as many other people as possible and just force them to quit. This done by getting in their faces at work, bad reviews, etc.
ReplyDeleteHere's a question - have any journalists who got laid off in December found a new job? If so, please share your success stories here.
ReplyDelete5:23 AM
ReplyDeleteIf I still worked for Gannett, I'd be so happy if it's really true the company is not making new employees take the furlough---or pay cut, or what ever you want to call it.
I'd be happy because it seems all the EEOC investigator would probably have to do with a complaint is get a list of all the new hires (the ones reportedly exempt from the furlough and corresponding reduction in pay, benefits), record the ages of the new hires getting "preferential" treatment, compare that list to the ages of the people suffering the losses in pay (wages) and benefits (401-K match) and present the findings.
From last night....
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
With apologies to the Tucson folks: How come we can't get Gannett to sell the Wisconsin Rapids paper? How many time do we have to send them proposals? Locally owned would have an awesome ring.
1/16/2009 11:25 PM
Gannett raped Wis. Rapids, Marshfield and Stevens Point of their presses over the years. There is nothing but buildings for a buyer to... well....buy.
3:24, Good work!
ReplyDeleteTo 8:42 a.m.--regarding the CN, you forgot to mention the two different spellings of Israel in editorial page headlines and the announcement on the front page that Publishers Circulation Fulfillment takes over Monday.
ReplyDeleteAlso whenever you see "Staff Report," it means it's a canned press release.
1:10 a.m.: OK, I'll say it – this industry is not dying. However, it is going through some major changes. The rise of computers and the Internet are forcing newspapers to have some form of Web presence along with a print edition. Eventually some print editions will go away. While you still have the demographic that wants that print edition, the younger people are getting more information off the Internet because you can get that information right now. (Think about the recent plane crash in New York City – where did you turn to when you first heard about it?)
ReplyDeleteThe problem for newspapers is revenue related. Right now, all revenue comes from advertising inside the print editions. As they transfer to Internet, how do you make that profitable as well? You can sell ad spots on the Web site that take the viewer to the ad itself or is a link to the advertiser's Web site. And eventually, newspapers may have to sell subscriptions to the Web site in order to get a complete online edition. Otherwise non-subscribers would only get partial stories, and only a few of them.
But no matter what, there will still be a need for reporters and journalists, especially the more local you go. You can get national and international news from a variety of sources. But where will your readers learn about what their city council did, or how their high school basketball team did? The papers that cover the local events and happenings and give readers something that they cannot get elsewhere are the ones that will succeed.
But if management continues to cut positions so that the quality of the product goes down, then those papers will fail. They need to remember that the readers are the #1 priority. Without them, the advertisers do not advertise in the product, and the revenue goes away. Readers are not dumb like management thinks they are. They know when they are paying for for a product and getting less. Treat them like crap, and they go away.
Sorry if my answer is a little long. I just needed to vent a little.
To everyone: take care.
You want news about another media co?
ReplyDeleteClear Channel is cutting staff.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123214134302591501.html
I actually saw the headline on another site, citing WSJ, so WSJ gets my link even though it's sending you to subscriber database
I was laid off in August and am now working for a much smaller paper in a neighboring town. The pay is a lot less, but a livable wage, and I'm grateful to still be working in newspapers. I feel like I won the lottery.
ReplyDeleteEven though, like at every paper, we're worried about the paper's future, there's a lot less corporate b.s. so we can spend more time thinking about putting out the paper and less worrying about what s***storm is coming next.
Hang in there, folks.
How equally distributed is this furlough? Dubow told employees in Tucson they were exempted, and Hunke at the Freep says he's exempting his employees. Unionized employees amouting to more than 4,000 corporate-wide mare exempted unless they opt-in. Then we have special cases that only the Crystal Towers knows about. So it looks to me that some are favored and will get full paychecks this quarter, and some will not. How unfair is that/
ReplyDeleteCongrats to the TRIPLE CROWN NJ GROUP:
ReplyDeleteGannett/Cherry Hill won honorable mention in pin the tail on the donkey. Sure have enough ass's around.
12:34, Tucson was exempted for a few reasons. One of which is that they operate under a JOA, and while this might not affect the newsroom employees, the JOA partner would have to approve the rest of the employees - especially in advertising, which is fighting for every bit of revenue they can get - taking a week off. Then of course they had the news about the Citizen's impending sale or closure up their sleeve, something that was surely being worked out for a while. So while Tucson may have been exempted, the news here is a lot, lot scarier than a week without pay.
ReplyDelete2:01 (Think about the recent plane crash in New York City – where did you turn to when you first heard about it?)
ReplyDeleteI don't think you want to ask that question because Twitter is all a-twitter about how people tweeted info on the plane crash as an info. source. We are being overwhelmed by technology, and I doubt the idiots who run this company know how to confront and deal with it. We are on a real downward slide.
Re 10:04, new jobs:
ReplyDeleteThis laid-off editor's only nibble so far is a barback job at the new CityCenter in Las Vegas.
However, one other Dec. layoff reportedly has a job in a small Ariz. town full of senior citizens who still read their printed daily newspaper.
A couple laidoff photogs are doing sorta OK with steady freelance gigs.
A summer buyout landed a PR job with a local medical research firm that needs to tell its success stories in plain English.
Very little other good news to report.
Everyone, it's time to think outside the journalism box on what you all can do after being laid off. You have gained VERY valuable skills in many areas due to having to know a little about a lot of things. You can do more than writing, editing, designing for a newspaper. You can. Your Plan B doesn't have to be something you do forever. It just needs to get you through a transition period, either until things pick up again and media figure themselves out, or until you find that you are much happier in your Plan B and the benefits it offers (and worries you no longer have to deal with) to ever look back.
ReplyDeleteCan SOMEBODY, a journalism organization or something, please create some kind of marketing campaign or create a job networking forum that will put journalists in touch with other journalists for job opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThese organizations that profess to have the best interests of journalists at heart really need to do something like this so that job opportunities will be available for those who are forced out of the industry.
Laid off in August, still jobless. You will do better if you can relocate.
ReplyDeleteThe really scary thing - because you were last hired, the odds are even you will be laid off once or twice more from replacement jobs until the economy rights itself. People are shoplifting sandwich meat, cheese and 39 cent cans of biscuit dough. That's how bad it is. The groundswell is now working itself up the social strata, coming soon to a home near you.
ReplyDeleteThese organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists and magazines like American Journalism Review and other journalism-related groups that profess to have the best interests of journalists at heart, should DO SOMETHING.
ReplyDeleteThey should start some kind of online job networking forum or Web site so that journalists who have moved on can help others being forced out of the industry make that transition by offering jobs, etc.
They should also create a marketing campaign that talks about how valuable and transferable journalism skills are into other professions and work with colleges to help establish some sort of scholarship fund for ex-journalists or opportunities for them to return to school.
To 1:10 am.......Our industry is not dying. Wait until Tuesday and see how many extra papers are printed and purchased. You can't replace the product people love to collect. Printing it off the internet just wouldn't be the same. Hang tight and ride out the storm. We'll still be around in 10 years.
ReplyDeleteThis is to the Jim Jones follower. You ride out the storm. Other News groups may not be done in the future. Gannett is!
ReplyDeleteAny new talk about the Hattiesburg rumor?
ReplyDeleteI have become reconciled to the future vision which Corporate is now following, and that is to drain the community papers and TV of resources to put into USAT. USAT has not been hit to the same measure as the community papers, and certainly not shutting down, collapsing sections, or publishing just on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. USAT is clearly getting special kids-glove treatment with continued health club, subsidized cafeteria, and higher salaries. So those of us working in community newspapering should take the message that Gannett doesn't need us anymore, and we are not the favored sons. It's not fair, but that's the decision Corporate has made.
ReplyDeleteSomebody please explain to me why Cincinnati is still hiring new employees, yet telling us we must take a week furlough? New employees will not be affected by the furlough. Doesn't make sense to me. During the December layoffs, they secretly hired several digitial sales reps. Yet laid off more than a fair share of advertising reps. Doesn't it sound as though they are just cleaning house, and blaming it all on the economy, and the lack of advertising revenue? Comments please.
ReplyDelete1/17/2009 5:23 AM
One of the sales reps laid-off was a 5-time "Pinnacle" award winner. This rep had outstanding reviews, and had already made her yearly goal as of Nov 30th. So Dec 5th she was laid-off. If you need new business, why would you layoff one of your best sales reps. She already has another job and some other media companies have on their radar. Some companies understand the value of dedicated sales reps. I'm friend of hers making this post. She left the Enquirer with her head held high and with her dignity in tact.
3:22 Wait until Tuesday and see how many extra papers are printed and purchased.
ReplyDeletean industry isn't going to be saved by a few events that happen every now and then.
Do you really think people will buy the inauguration paper and then say "gee, I should get a subscription too". No, they won't. They'll put the paper away and go back to getting their news online.
I love how people talk about the importance of having a Web presence but ignore the fact that some Gannett Web sites are clunky pieces of !@#$. They take forever to load, are like mazes to navigate and are sloppily edited and assembled. Yeah, that'll attract and keep young readers.
ReplyDeleteHey..I have a job. Will be selling advertising against a Gannett newspaper. Took me two months.
ReplyDeleteWell said Anonymous! If Gannett took a look at the web years ago like we told them to do. They wouldn't be in this situation. They were instead interested in special publications taking away from the core product and not implimenting online. They had enough newspaper sites to make a massive presence. Idiots
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school here in Central NJ back in the 1970's, I was the yearbook photographer. I remember one day at a soccer game, the long-before-Gannett Asbury Park Press sports reporter approached me on the sidelines at a soccer game and asked if I could get a photo over to the Press for tomorrow's edition. I ran home, fired up the darkroom, developed the film and printed the photo, and had my Mom drive me over to the Press building in the heart of Asbury Park.
ReplyDeleteAs I ventured into the building, i was directed across the newsroom to the sports desk, and lo and behold, my photo was splashed across the sports page. I received the check about a week later, for about $15.00 I think. Talk about excitement! My photo in the nespaper!
That began a several year "freelance" association with the Press, and their Chief photographer Frank Beardsley. For the next few years Mr. Beardsley took me under his wing, and gave me an occasional assignment, and, I also brought some general interst photos in to him from time to time, which he used as space allowed.
I remember those long ago days days fondly, and still have my portfolio with those tear sheets. Although college and my professional career took me far away from the newspaper business, the decline of the Press, and all papers in general saddens me. I know that my own son would never have the opportunity to experience a newsroom in such a way I did. I wish you all well.
5:29 PM - Our websites are pieces of shit because of corporate. We use to have a nice, fast and well used website. Now we have the cookie cutter that corporate forced on us and 33% less visitors (year over year). That's a larger decrease than the last 6 print circulation numbers combined!
ReplyDeleteMarion Star: Carl Lovern you still out there?
ReplyDeleteTo all you Gannett newspaper people out there, stop crying about losing a week's pay. I've been on a permanent furlough thanks to being laid off and the prospects for new jobs are so dim it's enough to make me scream. So count your blessings or take a buyout next time it's offered or sell your soul for the unpaid week you have to endure. Either way, you, unlike millions in this country, still ARE EMPLOYED. Quit the whining please.
ReplyDelete3:10,
ReplyDeleteThere are a ton of journalism jobs sites - most notably, JournalismJobs. I'm puzzled by what else you think the big national organizations can do.
We have one of those pieces of shit. It saved them money why else?
ReplyDeleteHow many Gannett Sites out there still have Director positions filled?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThank you to the one who wrote:
Anonymous said...
You say yes, I say no.
I say stop and you say go go go, furlough.
I say goodbye and you say furlough
Furlough Furlough
You wonder why I say goodbye, You say furlough
Furlough Furlough
You wonder why I say goodbye, You say furlough
1/15/2009 10:18 AM
I had a really rough day today at work & that is so funny I laughed out loud! Good news for you..a song writing career awaits. A guy at work has a reverse furough dance-funny, funny- you have to see it!
Anyway good humor sure helps when things seem so outta control!
1/16/2009 8:59 PM
You are welcome. This might be the first "Thank you" I've had a from a fellow Gannettoid in months!
The president of SPJ is David Aeikens. I looked him up and he works at The St. Cloud Times in Minnesota (a Gannett paper). His email address is daeikens@stcloud.gannett.com. Contact him to urge SPJ to do something for displaced journalists.
ReplyDeleteThere are all sorts of jobs out there. I know, because I got one of them.
ReplyDeleteTo 5:29 and 6:28, you are right on. Our Web site (Wisconsin) is clunky and cookie cutter and slow and it just plain sucks. Compared to what we had before the conversion last year; well, there's no comparision. We've had readers complain since the new sites's inception, to no avail. They actually think we can fix the wrongs and are wising up to the fact that it just ain't gonna happen. What a way to drive avid Web site readers AWAY from our site! All the freaking photo galleries (with their glaring cutline errors) in the world will not make up for the fact that our site sucks.It makes me sad.
ReplyDelete6:31 pm asked about Carl Lovern. Here's a guy who is the perfect Gannett management type: clueless, empty suit who is so full of it. He was at Cherry Hill for quite a while and was pushed out by a publisher who knew what a loser Lovern was and is. Anyone know if he is still with Gannett and where?
ReplyDeleteQuite the rollercoaster on Wednesday morning - I work for a large Gannett daily with a local team still in the NFL playoffs - was part of a Circ standing ovation for returning 1.4 million dollars back to corporate for 2008...and then found the furlough email awaiting back at the desk!!! No good deeds go unpunished, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd YES to the individual asking if we had to pick a week pretty much right there on the spot -
I've been trying to get a day Spring Baseball game for years but Gannett would never let me call in sick!!
Planning for the "Targeted"
ReplyDeletelayoffs,terminations and buyouts started over ten (10) years ago .
My VP, who has since retired told me
due to my age and salary, I would be forced to retire long before I wanted.
He was completely right.
Every VP had to provide a list of probable "hits" during an OC meeting.
As my boss said.....everyone had to put their 'dirty laundry' on the table.
I sat in numerous Publisher meetings where older "deadwood" prospects were discussed by name . These meetings started in 2000. Bad economic times or not, these mass layoffs were going to happen and the basic plan laid out long ago.
0 High Younger
0 Hire Cheaper
0 Hire more females
So much for ethical behavior at GCI
Everyone thinks hiring women or hiring minorities is part of some altruistic plan to bring equality to the newsroom. Bullshit.
ReplyDeleteEven today, nationally those groups make 75 cents on the dollar compared to us white guys. You can bemoan pay inequality all you want on the editorial page, but if your employees expect to be paid less, why not give them what they want?
I don't think it's right - when six women are making 75% of the going rate, try to get the going rate for yourself - but if everyone shared their hire rate and their current rate, you'd be amazed.
It's even worse in the union. Everyone starts at the rate some lifer thinks is fair - years after he got his, and after he traded your starting wage for his job security.
Ethical behavior? you guys are lucky. Try working for the NJ group.
ReplyDeleteTo 9:24 PM:
ReplyDeleteShame on you.
Carl Lovern is as fine a human being as I have ever met. He is smart, dedicated, and loyal. He is most certainly NOT like Gannett management. He is honest, trustworthy, and hardworking.
Your opinion says more about you than him. Name calling and negative personal attacks just bring the blog down. How bout keeping it to yourself.
Ok, here's my story...I've been with Gannett for 25yrs. I was hired to work the part-time 30 OR MORE level which is described on page 89 of the Oct06 Gannett handbook as.."Employees who work 30hours a week or more are considered full-time and are eligible for those benefits provided full-time employees." Paid time off benefits (vacation, sick leave, holidays, floating holidays, etc.) are pro-rated based on percent of regular workweek regularly scheduled to work." I have been receiving such benefits for years, including the
ReplyDelete4-week paid vacation. Well, as of Jan.12,09 I was informed that all paid benefits are no longer available to me. I am no longer eligible for the time off vaca, sick leave, holidays, etc. Thankfully they let me keep my medical benefits. I still question this change because I DO NOT fall under the level of "MORE THAN 20 AND FEWER THAN 30 HOURS PER WEEK" And think it's highly unfair to be stripped of the benefits I've had for so many years. I work an average of 34 to 36 hrs per week.
6:30 your argument is old and tiresome. You ahve no proof of your facts. you are spouting off figures that circulate around teh web. Prove it before you fly off at the mouth. I've worked for this company for years and never, not once did someone say we can pay this woman less than her male couterpart. Not once and Iv' been at many sites. You have no proof other than something someone told you that they heard from someone else.
ReplyDeleteTo 9:24 PM:
ReplyDeleteYour comments about Carl Lovern are off base. Sure the guy was full of himself, but Lovern did a lot with basically no budget in Cherry Hill. Your comment about the publisher who basically pushed him out the door is even more rediculous. That publisher's was mentored by Bobby Collin's - need I say more?!! He is now doing to Philadelphia what he did to Cherry Hills.
Let them eat vegatables.
ReplyDelete3:10 and 8:11:
ReplyDeleteI know SPJ President Aeikens. Word to the wise: There's no help there, unless you are offering an interview on national media (he's in love with himself).
Don't waste your time. Or the time he should be spending on his work for the paper. A LOT of SPJ biz gets done on Gannett's dime.
With the furloughs and all, I guess that's kind of our dime.
With anybody losing money how can anyone be so negative angau=inst a compny brother like some of these people are! Where do these people come from? that belittle fellow employees because they are not the ones getting cheated and Think the company has a special palce for only them!!!!!!! Yes they do !! haha
ReplyDelete