Saturday, March 01, 2008
Offshoring of advertising production work spreads
The Des Moines Register is the latest Gannett paper to start sending ad production work to India, via 2AdPro in Los Angeles, a tipster points out. The paper says today (third item, here) that the move will eliminate five of 22 such jobs, through buyouts. I wrote about this offshoring trend in late January, when a Pensacola News Journal reader warned that "patriotic" advertisers wouldn't like it.
20 comments:
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Monday, March 3, 2008 is the final day for the Des Moines Register graphic artists to decide to take buyouts and let management know. Tuesday an announcement will be made on the employees who take the buyout and their final day of work will be March 28th. This is all about lowering their bottom line by the end of third quarter so that fourth quarter numbers are in line. March 28th is the last day of the third quarter. The stress on employees caused hyperventilating and near fainting on two occasions. The bottom line is all that matters to Gannett, and the way they told ALL graphic designers (22) leads you to believe they won't settle for the 5 is reportedly estimated. If not enough artists take the buyout, look for layoffs. Take the money and don't look back. The taste of saving money in 2AdPro in India is too exciting to only save with 5 artists. Des Moines Register actually reported they estimate only 5 buyouts will happen, which looks like a coverup since they told all 22 artists only 2 jobs are open and they have to apply for them. If not enough take buyouts, look for layoffs. Fourth quarter earnings begin on April 1st. The clock is ticking. Stress in the art department has caused near fainting and hyperventilating on one employee in two instances.
ReplyDeleteGuess what...you're wrong! The NJ Newspapers are the latest to outsource to India. And those graphic designers weren't even offered a buyout. And what's more, all employees were advised to "not let the advertisers know what's happening!"
ReplyDeleteIn Brevard our established goal is 50-80 ads to India per week. Our ad traffic manager, Wanda Sabatino, was just "let go" for not meeting this criteria set by our publisher last Monday.
ReplyDeleteTo say the least it was an interesting week. Our new tyrant wasted no time in moving someone to a "Outsourcing Specialist" position.
NJ, didn't the other media in your area pick up the story? Des Moines had it on TV before the affected employees even got home from work.
ReplyDeleteThe Des Moines Register has also made buyout offers to most departments, including news. Susan Masid Kerss is another news room person to accept a buyout. 3 news writers in December and now Susan Masid Kerss, and who knows how many in news, advertising outsourcing and other departments. The Des Moines Register workers have no trust in its employer any more. My guess is The Des Moines Register might as well be slashing advertising costs to all advertisers since it is so cheap to produce an ad in India, starting at $29.00 an ad. My My won't advertisers be upset they are still paying premium money. Just wait until they reduce the size of the paper, I'm sure that advertisers will definitely sit up and notice they are paying for ads that are actually smaller!
ReplyDeleteThe Iowa City Press Citizen will now be printed at The Des Moines Register, and according to this website http://www.presscitizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080228/NEWS01/802280334/1079 eleven full time staff and 13 part-time staff will lose their jobs.
ReplyDeleteThis is the city of University of Iowa, and 1 hour 30 minutes from Des Moines Register. Watch out other small papers, Susan Patterson Plank and Gannett are coming to axe you.
That's strange: What's the downside for readers and advertisers? See my post on the subject, here: http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-iowa-city-move-whats-downside.html
ReplyDeleteAt The Des Moines Register 5 graphic artists accepted the buyout, and if there had not been 5 people there would have been layoffs, says the managers. This was the magic number Susan Patterson Plank estimated, since she knew what Gannett was demanding, however no one at The Des Moines Register were told how many were needed. You would think they would have let them know how many and not made it so stressful. I guess that was the first round of graphic designers outsourced, and they have to work until March 28th. Until then, expect them to train those India outsourced workers, and then watch for more artists losing their jobs. 22 artists down to 17. If they only wanted 5, they would not have told all the graphic artists to keep copies of all their work. Of course, that was advice before the announcement of the buyoffs in reference to contests.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to anyone that hires the 5 dedicated and talented graphic designers.
Hey there... I stumbled upon this site looking for news on whats happening in the world of Gannett's shipment of Jobs overseas.
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone let Wanda Sabatino go? She loved her job and working for Florida Today, believe it or not. From what I understand, she was a very dedicated employee. Wasn't she there for 20 years, or so? That's a huge loss for the paper.
ReplyDeleteYes, I worked with Wanda for 15 years and there was nothing she wouldn't help out with to get the paper out. Great disposition and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteEvery department has felt the impact of her being let go so coldly and abruptly. She made many sacrifices to her family, then to just get escorted out the door! What a loss, she needs to be offered her job back before morale falls even lower.
Wake up Brevard.
I couldn't say it better myself, 6:04 PM. I hope Wanda is holding her head up high knowing there are other companies that will appreciate her for her incredible knowledge and loyalty. I'm still a little fuzzy on whose idea it was to let her go anyway. Could it be they didn't realize what an asset she really is? Then again, who wouldn't know that? You'd meet her and you would just know. This mistake will be felt for years to come if she's not hired back. This one hurt.
ReplyDeleteJim, I just realized that all this talk about Brevard is only in the Pensacola blog. Shouldn't it also be in the Brevard blog?
ReplyDelete@6:31 a.m.: Good question! Answer: Probably. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to easily direct comments to two different posts: They go where readers place them. This is one of the chief downsides to using Blogger's free-but-uncustomizable software.
ReplyDeleteCan you copy this segment onto Brevard's page so it shows up in both places? I thought I had seen that done elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhere is Wanda?
ReplyDeleteLast I heard she is still licking her wounds from the ridiculous decision to let her go. She was one who actually had been there a long time and didn't feel entitled to do nothing. Shame on you Brevard.
ReplyDeleteRead on another site that Dave Sinclair Buick pulled his advertising for 4 weeks after he learned ads were being outsourced to India. He took a stand saying the unemployment is too high and he wasn't happy with more workers loosing their jobs!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great guy! More advertisers need to know this is happening.
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ReplyDeleteI can feel that Den Moines Register have put in hard efforts. Good job!!
ReplyDeleteSemi Permanent Make Up