Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday | Feb. 13 | Your News & Comments
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100 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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Friday the 13th!
ReplyDeleteSo what is the story? More layoffs or not? And what's happening in Westchester?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.niemanlab.org/2009/02/pension-funding-gap-looms-as-another-newspaper-problem/
ReplyDeleteThis is worthy of a repeat for the day, so as to not get lost as one of the last posts of yesterday...
I realize the position that Gary Watson held with Gannett. Can someone tell me what the hell Greg Watson does? He's had various positions and titles, but I think they all amount to nothing.
ReplyDeleteAccording to an attorney in the Midwest, only one week of furlough is allowed per year. If two weeks are taken, employees are allowed to file for unemployment. It may depend on the state, but that was one opinion. So those that are concerned about a second round of furlough's might be able to relax....depending on the state.
ReplyDeleteTell me again why USAT Field Operations is still in existence?
ReplyDeleteThey are outdated and useless and should fall under Gannett Corporate Production. This should of happened years ago and would result in savings.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/12/newspapers-usa-today-ken-paulson-business-media_0212_paulson.html?partner=yahootix
ReplyDeleteHuh?
Reacting to a few comments yesterday, I know it disrupts the storyline, but Al Neuharth is not pulling any Gannett or USA TODAY strings, though he probably wishes he could.
ReplyDelete(Although it would not be bad if someone did start pulling some strings! Anyone? Anyone?)
I think it's time to start using, oh, a crowbar analogy, now.
ReplyDeletehave any other info centers seen a new personal day policy? here in cherry hill, surprise, surprise, we are no longer allowed to call out and use the day as a personal day. according to an e-mail from the executive editor, personal days must be scheduled at least a week in advance. should you try to use a personal day the day of, you must provide a reason and the executive editor will determine if it is acceptable or not. what's so "personal" about that?
ReplyDeleteword is this stems from posts on gannettblog. seems the managers know employees are using vacay and personal days in lieu of sick days to score additional vacation days the next calendar year.
this place, cherry hill, that is, is fubar.
Remember, you cant spell furlough without F-U
ReplyDelete1:29 am: I don't get how using vacation and personal days instead of sick days allows you to "score" additional vacation days in the next year. I thought vacation time was determined by length of service.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading the recent Forbes article on Paulson and stopped dead in my tracks when I got to this part of the interview:
ReplyDelete"I think the major redesigns of papers like the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun are risky. They're being dramatically repackaged to be more colorful and engaging. 'Wait a minute--you're the outgoing editor of USA Today and you're criticizing newspapers for being colorful?' What I meant was that you shouldn't risk alienating readers who will read you until their dying day ... Part of why we've been successful is that USA Today is the most consistent newspaper on the planet. We don't mess with what works."
Um, yeah... I guess USAT is going on 250 years next year? Why not change the look of USAT to look like the Gray Lady? After all, wouldn't that make readers even more happy with the product?
"Gannett Rumor"
ReplyDeleteIs Jim the annoying middle man?
@1:51am
ReplyDeleteI heard a rumor that Gannett was starting a Rumor blog to capture the ip addresses of those that generate, and pass along rumors. Is this true?
"word is this stems from posts on gannettblog. seems the managers know employees are using vacay and personal days in lieu of sick days to score additional vacation days the next calendar year."
ReplyDeleteHow does THAT work? Out here in normal land if you don't use sick/vacation/personal time by Dec. 31 you lose it, you don't get it tagged onto next year.
I find it hilarious that top directors/ vice presidents are going on to facebook, most likely to avoid having the administrative assistant see their emails.
ReplyDeleteI suppose no one figured out that most of those directors will tell their admins to set up the facebook account for them, and thus have all the passwords......
Yes, a director has told me to set up his facebook page. His wife will email me a photo to use, I'm told.
Thee EE needs to approve your same-day request? There's someone who clearly does not have enough work to do...
ReplyDeleteIn the Forbes story, Paulson said, "USA Today has not eliminated stocks or television listings. These are defining elements of the American newspaper."
ReplyDeleteYou're telling me that simple agate, available anywhere and with no value added by reporters or editors, is the "defining element" of our product? No wonder we're losing readers in droves!
Boy, am I glad this turd is gone.
COURIER NEWS CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO THE RESCUE...
ReplyDeletechoo choo choo choo ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh
ReplyDeleteOMG!
ReplyDeleteHere's how Dubow is spending the dollars from our sweat and brow.
Yesterday, I got a call from Maritz Research asking me to submit to a 5-minute survey about how well the Gannett Benefits Center did addressing my recent issue. I declined the survey but spent a couple of minutes interviewing the interviewer.
Gannett has a contract with this company to research employee satisfaction. http://www.maritz.com/
Maybe it's just my cynical mind, but this isn't the kind of expense I'd commit to my household in these trouble economic times, if it were my household budget.
However, if I had to answer to a board, I might hire someone to provide a report that I am sure will conclude what I want it to conclude ... much like expert testimony in court.
Kate Marymont's letter about GNS shows just what a sham ContentOne is. Nearly everything produced by the GNS Washington bureau is local news, and Phoenix doesn't care about stories written for Greenville or Burlington.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly is ContentOne? It's not a website. It's not a computer platform. It's not even Gannett's since another company owns the trademark. It's an empty shell sold to Wall Street as a way of magically leveraging all Gannett's content to everyone. Except that all its news and videos produced by anyone outside of USAT is hyperlocal and of very limited use. Can anyone explain the real value of ContentOne?
1:29 a.m. wrote: "seems the managers know employees are using vacay and personal days in lieu of sick days to score additional vacation days the next calendar year."
ReplyDeleteI don't quite follow this. How do I get additional vacation days next year by not using sick days this year? In our shop, vacation time is determined solely by years of service.
Oh, and furthermore, it really hacked me off that I can't get a name or company ID number to hold the person answering me accountable at Gannett Benefits Center, but it gives my name and phone number to some third-party company (Maritz Research) that I've never heard of and have THAT company call ME for Gannett's unrelated purposes.
ReplyDeleteFurloughs have consequences.
ReplyDeleteI heard this from a former colleague at a Gannett property:
A weekend project had to hold because there was a problem with a graphic/chart that accompanied the piece. The person was on furlough that Friday and couldn't be called so the entire project had to hold.
Not fun for the editors there with such challenges.
The reason for the change in use of personal day in Cherry Hill probably has more to do with the suggestion here for a one-day strike companywide.
ReplyDeleteIf the handbook doesn't have that week-notice caveat, I'm not sure it would hold up in DOL action if Cherry Hill fired people for using an emergency personal day. Emergencies are what those days are intended for.
What's going on with Tucson? 6 weeks to go. Any buyers? What happens to the production VP? Isn't he the West Group VP?
ReplyDelete8:41 AM
ReplyDeleteThat's horrible if information--even your contact information--- is being shared for what seems like a company sponsored survey, maybe?
Is there anyway you could make a request, and find out exactly what "employee benefit" information was shared, with whom and why.
The weeks' notice for personal day use in Cherry Hill probably has to do with the suggestion here for a one-day companywide strike.
ReplyDeleteIf notice isn't in the employee handbook, though, I wonder if firing someone for using that earned benefit same-day would hold up in DOL action. I thought it was designed for emergency, non-sick use, such as when you wake up and find your pipes froze and burst or your kid is sent home with lice.
Plane crash near Buffalo last night -- 49 people killed, all 48 on the plane plus 1 on the ground. WGRZ-2 is allowing comments on the story. The usual lowlifes who go off on tangents and mouth-breathers who won't turn off caps lock are posting comments.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody at Gannett understand the meaning of the word "tact"?
About the attorney in the Midwest and furloughs: Gannett, best I know, isn't discouraging people from applying for unemployment during furloughs, so I can't imagine there will be a restriction on how often this could be done. In some states your second week of unemployment (which, when furloughed, you are unemployed) can count for benefits, even if you'll be returning to work afterwards. So I wouldn't be under the belief that they won't furlough again because of unemployment issues.
ReplyDeleteanother day without a job. sigh
ReplyDeleteCamden does the "don't use your sick days in the year" get two vacation days free the following year. This is policy.
ReplyDelete"The weeks' notice for personal day use in Cherry Hill probably has to do with the suggestion here for a one-day companywide strike."
ReplyDeleteIf everyone had just waited to notify their manager on the last possible week and take off right before the deadline, the company would have been forced to cancel the furlough. No action could have been taken because the employees followed the furlough guidelines as set forth by corporate itself. The whole damned plan would have imploded.
Sometimes doing nothing is the best course of action.
2/13/2009 8:41 AM
ReplyDeleteThey can't do that. It's illegal to give your information to anyone without your written consent.
Sue 'em.
8:54, I didn't word that well.
ReplyDeleteI have been dealing with Gannett Benefits Center on an issue. Each email, I ask for the responding party's name or company ID. The people there flatly refuse to tell me who is answering my questions. Thus, I can't hold anyone accountable for the answer, or nonanswer, or erroneous answer, as the case may be.
Yet, Gannett obviously has given this third-party marketing company the names and home phone numbers of those of us who contact Gannett Benefits Center.
Who knows what other of our personal information Gannett is giving out to third parties without our knowing it? And the irony -- or nonsense -- of it is that I have been asking for customer service ID information so I can report a problem, if there is one, and I can't get that information.
I ran into something similar with Chapman-Kelly, a third-party vendor hired to find employee insurance fraud. It told me the birth certificates for my kids weren't satisfactory to prove they are my dependents. (Mind you, I gave birth to them while working for the company; their births -- to me -- were paid through the company's insurance at the time; and I damn near gave birth to the last one on the newsroom floor, instead of 50 minutes after I moved the last edition by deadline.)
My always-incorrect HR told me I should mail a copy of my tax return to Chapman-Kelly to prove they are dependents. When I questioned what relationship the company has with CK and what assurance my tax return would be shredded and not copied or filed, the notion that I'd just sent everything needed for ID theft to some anonymous third party didn't seem to faze the nutjob.
Argh, typo on my 9:13 AM post: send, not sent. I was not so dumb as to have sent my tax return to Chapman-Kelly.
ReplyDeleteI also should note that I once called the Benefits Center. I asked and received the first name and company ID of the person answering the phone. I told him from the start I was ticked about an unsigned form letter I got from the Benefits Center instructing me only that I must call its 800 number, but not telling me why or who to ask for.
That guy bent over backwards to help, and when I told him at the end of the call how helpful he had been, he confessed he was terrified of not satisfying me after I told him the unsigned letter pissed me off. Now I see he was under the Maritz Research microscope and probably was being recorded, which in this state is legal without notice.
Word verification: pleas
9:13 AM
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure companies like Gannett have to approve a contractor's records storage and destruction procedures. Since it's your information that's being handed off, maybe you could request copies of the contract with CK and this other marketing place.
Good luck to you.
Late last night an email came out that 10 USAT employees are being awarded $3,500 EACH as a bonus for various work performed. Mass email sent to all of us.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they send out an email like that knowing we are all taking furloughs and our pay is frozen? Talk about getting kicked when you are down.....that's more than I gross in an entire month!
9:42
ReplyDeleteAnd to think garbage collectors make $80,000 per year in New York City. Time for a career change.
They are giving out bonuses to select employees to neutralize the uproar that will come when the management bonuses are detailed. I hear they average $35,000 to $50,000, and are only disclosed publicly as a lump sum, not who gets them.
ReplyDelete9:42. I can't believe USA TODAY did that. They love awards there, but the awards often do more damage than good. In this case, just seems totally inappropriate to hand out large amounts of cash.
ReplyDeleteWonder if managing editors at USA TODAY are still getting bonuses for hiring minorities? That was always a little dirty secret at the flagship. When someone of color or ethnicity was hired, who was grossly and obviously under qualified, I always wondered if it were just to fill quotas and/or satisfy perceptions. It wasn't, at least not totally. It was done to put cash in the pockets of the managing editors. Nice, huh? I don't see how anyone, of any race, could feel good about that. But that's typical of Gannett/USAT. Another little ploy that makes working there a nightmare for many people who are the ones on the front lines dealing with the aftermath of this kind of crap.
Cherry Hill:
ReplyDeleteWhy would you use a personal day when you can use your sick days? When they lay you off, they have to pay you for your personal day. They do not have to pay you for your sick time.
I say use all your sick time, there's no reason to accrue it anymore.
9:42 and 10:32 You are just jealous because you didn't get one.
ReplyDeleteCan someone give a breakdown of these awards and the age of the award recipients please.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone in their right mind think that Gannett isn't going to furlough everyone 20 work days a year? Look around you at other private businesses and in the public sector. More than likely you won't have a job in six months.
ReplyDeleteAny good Hollis Towns stories yet out of Asbury Park? Has he accused reporters of hiding in the weeds yet? Has he told anyone they can leave if they don't like what he has to say?
ReplyDeleteMy prediction, based on nothing more than a suspicious mind: Before long, Gannett will announce that it is reducing the amount of vacation time and personal days. They need to do something to make up for the production lost due to furloughs.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more with anonymous 12:26. Why is USAT Field Operations is still in existence?
ReplyDeleteThey are outdated and useless and should fall under Gannett Corporate Production. Why are some things so obvious and still no action is taken?
8:42 a.m. no shit furloughs have consequences. I know someone at a smaller site where hardly anyone knows how to paginate. Add a furlough for one to a sick day for another and they're screwed.
ReplyDeleteTo 10:45--They do NOT pay you for unused personal or sick time. Just vacation time
ReplyDeleteKen Paulson is a fucking idiot. Why is Forbes, or anyone for that matter, kissing his ass? Good riddance. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Kennie Boy.
ReplyDeleteLook at the research. Sick rates at companies with lousy morale is double that of companies where employees feel their work is worthy. So GCI tells employees they are sh*t by buyouts, layoffs and furloughs, then they see sick leave skyrocket. Hey, Corporate, wake up: not wanting to come to work is a sickness. It is a psychological reaction to the caustic way you treat your workforce. Enjoy your in-your-face and GCI-subsidized golfing boondoggles.
ReplyDeleteLies, racism...you sure find it all at the good ol' Gannett Blog.
ReplyDeleteFor the record:
-- If any employees at USA Today are getting $3,500 bonuses, that is news to anyone who works there. At least in the editorial department.
-- No managing editors ever got bonuses of any kind for "hiring minorities."
I think the "creator" of USA Today might have also "created" the EEOC, or at least that's how I read his column today.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Paulson interview in Forbes:
ReplyDeleteF: Newsprint is now about 34 cents a pound. You're saying that if someone invented a form of cellulose that costs a fraction of this, the industry would be saved?
KP: I think the problem would be largely solved.
He must be kidding...
Our paper weighed less than a quarter pounder earlier this week. That's 8 cents worth of paper. If it cost 1 cent, it wouldn't suddenly create more ads.
Someone mentioned a letter from Kate Marymount about GNS.
ReplyDeleteIf it was posted here, I must have missed it. Anyone have a copy to post here? Would be interesting.
Ken Paulson has made some astounding quotes, but the Forbes article was worth reading for this alone:
ReplyDelete"USA Today invented the Web page."
The Marymont "letter" actually is this week's edition of NewsWatch, available on gannett.com.
ReplyDeleteIt is a dizzying spin job.
Paulson's claim that USAT invented the Web page is just part of the fiction that these fabuluators perpetuate. I think it was behind the drive for the Newseum, to proclaim they are putting out great world-quality newspapers while cutting the staffs and reducing expenses.
ReplyDelete"NEW JERSEY PAPERS ROCK"
ReplyDeleteHey Cherry Hill folks! First of all the EE is a jerk, but you knew that. Secondly, everyone should use every sick day allotted. Remember, when the dump you, you don't get any credit or $$ for sick days un-used. They'll screw you in a second so look out for number one...not those butt heads at Gannett.
ReplyDeleteWatch out everyone there are spies everywhere.
ReplyDeleteEJ didn't do this. The little guy who is trying to make the paper BIGGER - Walt Lafferty did.
ReplyDeleteyes yes, look out for number one, but make sure not to step in number two!
ReplyDelete"FYI" If you get layed off you do not get paid for unused personal days .You will only receive pro- rated vacation days up until the day you get layed off.Thats why you want to use personal days as soon as possible .Read your employee manual it tells you right there what is payable .Also in New Jersey you get paid for the 1st week on furlough just be sure to apply online the very first day you go out and your check will be delivered in the mail .Ijust got my $560.00 unemployment check today !!! thank you
ReplyDelete10:32 said: "When someone of color or ethnicity was hired, who was grossly and obviously under qualified, I always wondered if it were just to fill quotas and/or satisfy perceptions. It wasn't, at least not totally. It was done to put cash in the pockets of the managing editors."
ReplyDeleteCouldn't have been much of an issue at USAT. Minority representation peaked more than a decade ago there, especially in decision-making positions. Such a lame excuse for a paper brought down by vision-less leadership. By the way, what did you wonder about when underqualified whites were hired, or did that never happen?
Re: 8:51 Tucson
ReplyDeleteWouldn't affect production because the morning paper (Lee) still goes out, but would affect the shift workers who handle the Citizen. But you sure don't need a President of the JOA if there is no JOA, eh?
Ah get born, keep warm
ReplyDeleteShort pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Dont steal, dont lift
Twenty years of schoolin
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Dont wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Dont wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump dont work
cause the vandals took the handles
Greg Watson does what Michelle Krans does....nothing. Pays to be connected.
ReplyDeleteThose looking for how employees rate their companies should check out glassdoor.com
ReplyDeleteYou have to register and provide a review of your employer (or former employer) to see the rankings, but it is an eye-opener.
You can see that Gannett ranks quite low compares to some of the high-tech companies.
You can also see salary information for jobs, very helpful.
I hope everyone here goes to the site and puts in their information.
Waves of layoffs today announced at the Sacramento Bee and the Baltimore Sun. This will be the 5th round for the Sun. Publishers seem determined to cut expenses with layoffs. I am waiting to hear GCI is following the pattern
ReplyDeleteI just posted about layoffs in upstate NY. It didn't show up.
ReplyDeleteBinghamton=5, Elmira=2 this week
ReplyDeletelayoffs here they come
ReplyDelete3:13 I agree. dickey has documaent loaded and ready to fire. too bad this will not help the stock price. two words would help: LOCAL CONTROL
ReplyDeleteAny reason legal would be looking at the WARN Act?
ReplyDeleteYeah, "USA Today invented the Web page." and Al Gore invented the internet!
ReplyDeleteRight.
How many people were laid off in Binghamton-Ithaca-Elmira this week?
ReplyDeleteElmira=2 layoffs +1 resigns, Ithaca 2 resigns (no word on layoffs), Bing=5 layoffs. 90% of these layoffs/resigns are in Adv.
ReplyDelete8:42: Yeah, furloughs have consequences... we realized that when we were told our lone graphic artist is out for the week and we couldn't even dig up a file map... when we're scraping the bottom of the barrel for stories because so many people are off... etc. No one thought furloughs wouldn't have consequences.
ReplyDelete9:10 wrote: "If everyone had just waited to notify their manager on the last possible week and take off right before the deadline, the company would have been forced to cancel the furlough. No action could have been taken because the employees followed the furlough guidelines as set forth by corporate itself. The whole damned plan would have imploded."
With deep respect, are you an idiot? This is like the third time I've read this sentiment here, and it's stupidity at the extreme. I don't know where you work, but in my shop, we had to submit furlough request dates ASAP. None of this take-it-when-you-want-it stuff. Just because a corporate FAQ doesn't spell out detail of the procedure for requesting furlough days doesn't mean you can just make your own policy. Geez.
12:20 AM
ReplyDeletejust for clarification, I was cut loose in September. so no suck up agenda here.
I worked with Greg Watson at Florida Today. I can tell you that I knew him to be a brilliant kid. He absolutely earned his pay and his position.
I don't know where he is now, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't very succesful doing whatever he is doing.
As Gordon Gecko's character said in Wall Street, stay with the same scum that got you into this mess.
ReplyDeleteScum = Crystal Palace lead by Craig Dubow.
This company has become a joke because its leadership is laughable.
5:05 p.m. I had your same thoughts. Like some of these people still are in high school and are planning the senior skip day.
ReplyDeleteI think the FAQ said something about scheduling your furlough with your supervisor, similar to a vacation request. I got all of my department on paper right away, and gave them what they wanted if it worked out. It still sucks enormously each week that someone's off. A friend in another department worked an extra 30 hours the week before her furlough so it didn't all fall apart when she was gone. Unfortunately her boss is clueless so she had to do the work or we would have potentially lost ad revenue.
1:04. It think you might have misinterpreted my remarks. I simply wanted to state a fact. Managing editors at USA Today have received bonuses for hiring minorities. Not sure if they still do. It was never publicized, and I suspect might even be denied, but I know it is true. Everyone is free to decide whether that was/is a good thing or not. However, to point it out, that it existed, isn't a racist act!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, MEs didn't received bonuses for hiring whites. And yes, they hired plenty of incompetent people of all races and ethnic backgrounds, they just didn't get extra money to hire incompetent whites.
Little sensitive, eh? That's the problem with our society. Everyone picks apart the perception of nuances in a comment, turns into some allegation without even knowing that person, and misses the major factual point. And that point was that USA Today/GCI was lining the pockets of MEs to hire minorities and that some MEs were, without a doubt, disregarding competency levels in order to personally profit from bad hires that they knew were bad hires. I am not sure how anyone can condone that, regardless of what color you are or how much you support affirmative action. Ultimately, it doesn't benefit anyone, not even the person who got the job.
Hiring good people is in part what MEs receive big salaries to do. Why the extra money to hire minorities? Why the blatant disregard for competency in some cases?
It's a dirty little secret at the flagship, and one that is going to draw out emotions. I personally dislike the secrecy of it and the wasteful spending involved, particularly in times like these. You can accomplish the same thing without giving bonuses. However, I am also a believer in hiring the best person available, regardless or race. But I know that's probably outdated thinking.
I can do you better on the bonus-for-hiring-minority employees topic.
ReplyDeleteI got a significant mid-year raise in base pay -- about 10%, better than a bonus! -- for hiring a minority employee when I was a section editor at one Gannett paper.
That was because I was paid so little, and the new employee was offered so much, that they came in at a pay level well above mine -- even though I was their soon-to-be new boss. That forced management to give me the raise.
I am stunned by the share price decline. Stunned.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this mean on a practical basis?
Anyone been in those rumored executive editor meetings?
I just heard from a senior executive that Gannett will ABSOLUTELY conduct another furlough in Q2 AND will also conduct a large scale layoff in April. I was told that they want to do the layoff before the next furlough so as not to "really" screw over employees.
ReplyDelete7:46p I heard the same thing from my manager. First layoff's then furloughs. They are talking big numbers for the layoff's.
ReplyDeleteAngie Phillips to the Rescue!! And she is hot too!
ReplyDeleteThe Detroit bomb goes off in March. Originally heralded as a product of the pure IDEO research process, insiders say the Free Press managing editor, editor and publisher have thrown out much of the research to impose their own traditional values on the new, smaller product.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLayoff's or buy out's ? that is the
ReplyDeletequestion.
Angie is Hot hot hot! (in an older sort of way ;) You go girl!
ReplyDelete8:54 - A birth certificate is an acceptable form of documentation to provide proof of dependent eligibility. I work in HR and have had numerous employees provide certificates. Have your HR represenative call with you as I have with employees, to get the situation fixed. You should NOT have to provide tax returns!
ReplyDeleteBuyouts are over, long, long gone.
ReplyDeleteNo furloughs
ReplyDeleteNo layoffs
for now or at least through June
trust me
There is such nonsense on this blog. For all the good work done here, the poison perpetrated for the sheer fun of it by trolls is really awful.
ReplyDeleteTrust ME: Anyone who knows whether there are going to be layoffs or furloughs isn't going to be telling subordinates. So don't believe it until it happens -- IF it does.
The entire key is advertising. If somehow ads pick up nationwide Gannett and the entire industry may find some breathing room.
For a while at least.
12:03, if you think the entire key is advertising, then you are guilty of the same archaic thinking that our company leaders are, provided you aren't one of them yourself. It isn't advertising - it's a mindset. And it's people in charge who are not recognizing the changes that have passed them by all around them. This company once likely was ahead of the pack in terms of the industry, but now it is sorely behind offering little to nothing new to win back readers, or even keep them. When "advertising" comes back, my bet is the people (a.k.a. subscribers) will already be long gone. People aren't that stupid. But, apparently the people are who believe this whole problem will all just settle down when the economy improves. Whatever you tell yourself to sleep at night.
ReplyDelete