Saturday, March 07, 2009
Saturday | March 7 | Your News & Comments
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90 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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Second.
ReplyDeleteBut are we going to have jobs? What's happening out there?
nope, no one will have jobs. all newspapers will go away in the next two weeks. it was fun while it lasted.
ReplyDeleteSad but true. Gannett facilities are worth more as parking lots than active papers!
ReplyDeleteWhat does everyone think about news people putting together paid advertising supplments, and magazines that are more advertising than news ? Anyone else doing this type of work?
ReplyDelete11:33
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with reporters WRITING the advertorials. I do NOT think there should be a name by-line. For now, I think this will confuse our long-time readers.
Return Gannett the favor.....on March 27th give Gannett a bonus furlough day and stay home, you can be apart of the first ever company wide walk out....an internet based walk out......Gannett will save a ton of money....LOL but at the same time maybe open theirs eyes....think of all the coverage on CNN...Fox...NBC and CBS news...and The History Channel
ReplyDeleteWhen the layoffs start and you did not take the extra day you will be saying "I shoulda woulda coulda" LOL
MARCH 27TH 2009
What good would a walk out do? The company is in trouble. Why give them a reason to fire you? I have more personal integrity than to do that.
ReplyDeleteI'd wear black though.
I don't think a walkout is a good idea either,this company is to vindictive,and I think in this tuff times you would get to many people saying they would,and then would just so they can say look at me,I a company kinda guy.
ReplyDelete3/07/2009 12:15 AM
ReplyDeleteWell....they may want to listen to employee ideas for once in a blue moon...we as employees are just going the extra mile and giving them and extra furlough day.
I've never worked for Gannett but I was once a finalist for an executive editorship at a mid-size Gannett paper. In the interview process I stressed the importance of doing hard news and investigations as a way of building and keeping readers. I didn't get the job. The word was that the "management team" didn't think I would fit into the "Gannett culture."
ReplyDeleteAt the time I was bummed. Now I realize it was the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.
3/07/2009 12:21 AM
ReplyDeleteGannett is very vindictive so why can't we be vindictive right back at them, when layoffs are coming and you know five will be cut at your property on that day, they will let you sit in your office all day wondering when # 5 is coming, then one by one they fall until you hear name #5.....sad but true
1:02 I know you are right,but I have found with Gannett,its like fighting city hall you can not win.They can and will do anything they can,threaten anyone they can,pay off anyone they can just to get what they want.And do you know what? They get it.
ReplyDeleteHmmm a company wide walk out, WOW that would make history, I was once a company man but after seeing the real Gannett over the last year I agree with taking a day off, I use to be the one that even showed up during my vacations if they were in a bind, I deserve the day off!! Besides my job and yours is almost history reguardless, if you miss a day they can't fire you it would be to big of a legal issue.
ReplyDeleteI don't Gannett cares about legal,they seem to buy there way out of everything
ReplyDeletehey, 1:14 a.m., didn't you ever hear,
ReplyDelete"Miss a day, miss a lot."
3/07/2009 1:27 AM
ReplyDeleteWell if they fire me for partaking in a sick out, I will be in court with them, I say fine buy me out to Gannett!!
Hey 3/07/2009 12:10 AM, I saw your post a couple of hours ago, and talked to a few press operators here on the night shift 7 out of the ten said " Oh Hell Yeah "
ReplyDeleteThe power of the press is only limited to the people that can operate one!!!
We are IN!!!! cuz the 3 that said no can't operate the damn thing but get paid like they can!
We are thinking boys night out and do a little 2 steppin....
3/07/2009 12:10 AM
ReplyDeleteI didn't think press production people even looked on here guess I was wrong but anyway we have 2 crews tonight 50% say yes the other half would stay behind and run the presses but make it a very long night....opps web out....oh know folder problem.....but we will get a paper out, we would never stop a paper from the street, we just could not let that happen. So I say paper out just slow it a bit!
i can't stop crying
ReplyDeleteSick out? I'm in
ReplyDelete2:57 am: Why are you crying?
ReplyDeleteRemembering America's great editor, mentor, friend, Jim Bellows. http://tinyurl.com/btgduv
ReplyDeleteThis is one the most ridiculous set postings I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteThe fact you are considering walking out of Gannett for a day is silly. What would you prove? That you are even more of a moron?
You people should be happy that you are working. This economy is taking down some great companies. It is unfortunate to see Gannett in this shape.
How about we start to think of how we should all pitch in to make this company great again?
Hey, nobody in the country is hiring, and there are thousands of applicants to do my job at half my pay.
ReplyDeleteHere's a good idea, why don't I say fock-you to my employer for a day? Just to show who's boss.
You people are idiots.
You want to do something constructive, make sure your advertisers know you use their services because they use yours.
Every time I go into an advertiser, I tell the clerk I see their ads in the paper or online. If it's a manager or owner, I make sure to let them know I work at the paper and I'm with them, because they're with us. I sure as hell never use a competitor's coupon book or Val-Pak!
I'm just a schmuck graphic artist and I know where my bread gets buttered. Whether or not you like the Crystal Palace, the revenue at your location is what's going to make the most difference on your job's future. Make a little effort yourself.
Hey Jim, there was a comment in the mugshot thread yesterday regarding how race or gender didn't matter, as long as a person didn't make dumb decisions. Any chance you could cut and paste that out here? I wanted to grab it and forward it to a friend but then you had to lock down the discussion.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
By the way it's hard to prove, but calling in sick when your not is fraud and could be grounds for dismissal. No I don't work for corporate or HR. I had a friend fired for doing just that.
ReplyDeleteThere is a basic problem with the Gannett model delivering local news and that's hinted at in one of the posts. But, the back and forth reminds me of Gannett discussions -- the local news vs. news of local interest. Gannett bogged itself down in bureaucracy. For example, the Real News, All America, quarterly contests were anchors on the news and life rafts for those who sought benchmarks that had nothing to do with selling newspapers in the real world. Gannett is not alone in the downturn, but it is proving itself unable to turn on a dime and devise new strategies to meet the current crisis. The key might be to let local properties sink or swim on their own without corporate guidelines on the news content. Let local staffs develop what sells. But, that would be a great leap for a company that prided itself on managers who aren't in tune with communities. The management model at Gannett is based on managers with brief stays in communities. How about new ideas for keeping local newspapers alive? How about keeping local people employed? Struggle to do that and the advertiser on Main Street will see his customers are working at the local newspaper. Quality? The older NYT leader Punch used to say his company should give communities the newspaper they can afford. That's a sound concept. Does the average weekly newspaper surviving this downturn count its black and white faces? Probably not. They are likely hearing directly from their customers about such issues. They aren't hiring a corporate staff to monitor such issues and they are using that savings to keep the ship afloat. The bottom line is whether the ship stays afloat. Right now, it looks like the Gannett ship is sinking and I'll bet the corporate types are still counting the chairs on the deck and haven't noticed the water washing up on the deck.
ReplyDelete12:15 a.m.: "I'd wear black though."
ReplyDeleteNow THAT has upper management written all over it!
Fraud? Gannett would not dare point the finger at anyone for fraud. Let's see telling your ad reps to have their businesses believe that credit is still local and not centralize, that is expecting the reps to be fraudelent. Go ahead and walk out on a sick day, although, Gannett doesn't care because it is blatantly obvious the papers will soon be gone.
ReplyDeleteBravo to both 5:36a and 6:00a.
ReplyDeleteWe need people at this company to think this way. Just because President Obama has created a class war in America, you do not have to fall for it here!
Our advertisers support us and we should realize that they want a quality product as do our subscribers.
I know it is hard for the many liberal reporters on this blog to actually swallow it, but we are in business to stay in business and not look for hand outs as many other companies up the creek.
So, stop writing and believing the bullshit from this adminstration and get back to basics in running a healthy business built on true capitalistic values.
And those of you in the union, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves!
The Tennessean is now sharing content with the daily papers in Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the sick-out posters: I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
ReplyDelete9:15 AM, keep your anti-Obama propaganda to yourself, please. And the "liberal reporter" crap. I really resent having to put up with that political manipulation here. The slander makes no point.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the obsession is with Gannett stock price, especially in a Wall Street environment that is showing the same trend.
It seems to me stock price is artificial. It's no different that if my hardware store had 10,000 snow shovels on March 21 and sells cheap to get them off the floor, because he has nowhere to store them until next winter.
The price is stock-consumer driven, not some divine value deigned to our product. Investment companies need cash now and are selling, not buying. This is about their needs, not our worthiness to exist.
That's not to say there aren't consequences, like potential takeover etc., to talk about, but with everyone in the world operating in the same economic collapse, I don't see the cause for obsession with price.
Are you guys out of Junior High School yet?
ReplyDeleteLet's all walk out!
Let's get even!
Let's be BAD !!
Good grief. Grow up, go to work, do a good job and collect your paycheck.
Not everyone has an opportunity to do what you do for pay. Difficult as things may be right now, flouncing around and acting emo won't even be noticed at corporate. All it will do is give your immediate superiors a headache and make them wonder why they kept you instead of the person they laid off in December. And maybe put you at the top of the list for the next round.
9:15
ReplyDeleteI agree with what 5:36 and 6:00 had to say, but not with what you had to say.
This "class war" was here long before Obama.
Do you really think all top paid executives deserve everything they get? Really? They get salaries of $1 million or more plus bonuses out the wazoo WHETHER THEY PERFORM WELL OR NOT. And some are actively ripping people off just to "get theirs." Look at Madoff, Ken Lay, etc. That must stop NOW!
Yes there are union people who abuse their privileges, but there are MANY more who don't. Just because you don't get paid well doesn't mean you are trying to cheat the system. What you are saying is an insult to MILLIONS of hard-working people who do all they can, work unpaid overtime for the good of the company (like me), have good ideas and let their bosses know about them, etc.
Obama is simply saying that EVERYONE must contribute and that a family trying to make decisions whether or not they can afford to pay rent or heat this month (not both) deserves to bear less of the load than those who have money to burn. If that's the definition of socialism in your book (it isn't in mine), then call me a socialist! Who gives a crap about labels anyway.
I average 50 or more hours per week, getting paid for 40. I turn off lights around the building that aren't being used, saving the company who knows how much. I've given my bosses NUMEROUS ideas on how to make things better around here. Not ONE of them have been heeded. That's gone on for YEARS at Gannett! And there are many more like me at other companies.
We deserve to get a fair shake once in a while. Thank GOD Obama is trying to make that happen.
Class war, huh? Well, I guess your side finally realizes there is one. There has been for YEARS!
What ever happened to the mindset that no matter what, the news got printed and delivered. Gannett papers have operated heroically during flood, fire, tornado and hurricane. But along comes a depression, and people are being asked to sacrifice, and suddenly there has to be a work stoppage and people are wearing black?
ReplyDeleteThis is so stupid. The company isn't "vindictive" or "mean." It is a corporation, for God's sakes.
It must make a profit in order to make sure your paycheck doesn't bounce.
Why are all you people taking everything so personal, as if Gannett was out to punish you? They don't care about you. They don't even know who you are. And when you walk out, they won't even miss you.
This class war conversation is garbage. The walk out, for those who are considering this, the unemployment line is no joke, there are no jobs and if there are, so many people are applying for them. Be sensible don't be insane. This is not the depression you signed up for. Get a grip.
ReplyDeleteJim, you seem to be aging fast.
ReplyDelete9:40 AM
ReplyDeleteIf you and other non-exempt workers are working 50 hours a week and only get paid for 40, you are contributing to the problem by allowing the company to skirt wage and hour laws. That's wrong.
9:47 a.m.: "Why are all you people taking everything so personal, as if Gannett was out to punish you? They don't care about you."
ReplyDeleteMaybe if more people had taken more things personally, our country wouldn't be so screwed right now. Maybe if people begin to take things personally, our country can save itself. But I doubt it.
Also: "Gannett papers have operated heroically during flood, fire, tornado and hurricane. But along comes a depression, and people are being asked to sacrifice,..."
What is it with this martyr syndrome in newsrooms? Laid-off people aren't being asked to sacrifice anything. They're being told they no longer have jobs, despite their hard work.
Gannett has systematically killed the geese that lay the golden eggs: the morale of its employees, the interest of its readership and the usefulness/utility of its product. Gannett is a corporation, not a person. It doesn't care about your martyrdom, only profits. That corporate mindset has set the tone for this collapse: nobody is accountable, nobody is responsible, nobody is to blame or accept blame.
Happy motoring!
9:40 AM, you spoke perfectly for me, too.
ReplyDeleteIt is only because the rich are falling losing some of their pedestals that are now noticing there has been a class war for decades. No one deserves more than $1 million annual salary while the minimum wage is $6.25 an hour or whatever.
No one.
You can all make a statement and take the day off...or better yet, quit.
ReplyDeleteI need a job and I would love to have yours.
Army Timeser, when did Gannett buy your paper?
ReplyDeleteI wonder because yours is lumped with ours in certain exclusionary documents related to our entitlement to Gannett Retirement Fund pension money.
10:17
ReplyDeleteI commend you. You really hit the nail on the head! This is smartest post published on this blog site that I have ever read.
ACCOUNTABILITY!!!!
When was the last time Poughkeepsie or Westchester -- or any Gannett paper -- did reporting like this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.motherjones.com:80/politics/2007/08/school-shock
Could that explain more about our own journey to obsolescence than anything?
I know my paper hasn't had the staff to do even marginally investigative reporting since the May buyouts. We are busy filling quotas for puff-piece centerpiece features.
I don't even read my own paper any more, even online. Pieces like this are more compelling to my eyes, and they aren't in any Gannett product.
Yo 12:10 am, how do you figure Gannett saves money? You and your pals will simply call in SICK. You get paid for sick time. Yeah, you're brave!
ReplyDeleteI doubt anyone will actually pay attention to this, but can we possibly use this discussion as a forum for posting the various rumors that people have heard from RELIABLE sources about the future of our jobs? It seems like 50 different things are floating around out there, and they're making people crazy.
ReplyDeleteI got it, let's all hold our breath until we turn blue, then file a workers comp claim. Whoopie. Let's do more stupid things. Wake up people. There is an economic crisis going on. It effects our business. It's bringing us down. It is not always the fault of the company.
ReplyDelete"You can all make a statement and take the day off...or better yet, quit.
ReplyDeleteI need a job and I would love to have yours.
3/07/2009 10:37 AM"
More upper management potential RIGHT THERE!
10:16
ReplyDelete9:40 here. Thank you, but that's not as simple as you make it out to be. Ask ANY journalist with an old fashioned sense of ethics like me. Journalists, even though many of us work hourly, are truly NEVER off duty.
Also, I can't afford to do anything (even if I deserve to) that would jeopardize my job. I can't miss one paycheck, not one. Life is just too expensive. And no, we don't live extravagently. In fact, we're conserving like mad. I've got filled Gatorade bottles in my toilet tanks to help conserve water every time we flush. We've got low-flow shower heads. My turning off lights routine is also practiced at home. But gasoline, health insurance, utility bills, phone bills, food, house payments, etc. etc. etc. leave me and my wife with NOTHING after we get our paychecks.
Accountability, as another poster said, is truly the key. And corporate CEO accountability is also part of that equation. Some, like JetBlue founder David Neeleman, are truly accountable, innovative and excellent CEOs. But he is an exception.
Sadly, Lord Acton's dictum is true. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by authority."
So I have been wondering for my friends still left behind at Gannett ... are there more layoffs looming. I'm surprised that Gannett hasn't laid off in the past three months considering how bad things have gotten.
ReplyDeleteJim, have you heard anything credible? I haven't been on here much in the past week and just jumped on last night and saw someone blathering on about a 20 percent reduction. Is there any truth to that. That seems like an awfully high number.
10:39: Army Times Publishing Company has been a finger on the atrophied arm of Gannett since August 1997.
ReplyDeleteWill Army Times be sold?
I dunno. The Gannett ownership is parasitic at this point; the higher ups there have careers to finish. Got to keep slopping at the teat, you know...
12:08: "Journalists, even though many of us work hourly, are truly NEVER off duty."
ReplyDeleteNewsflash: The Company, Inc., doesn't love you. Never did. Never will.
This is just a terrible experience working in the creative print publishing part of a larger newspaper right now. It has been distracting and hard to focus at work because management is always rearranging us. This had created mistakes and credits. Its just not a good market to be working in right now because of all the changes and fear of layoffs. Manage ment has had a long term plan to reduce the size of the paper because of the web becoming more dominate. The economy tanking sped up the plan. Here is and example of the horror people experience on a daily basis right now. Its very distracting. Just in case more layoffs are announced, they have organized the artists seats and gived them a ranking (1 or 2) in order of how they will be let go. The artists aren't supposed to know this. On top of that, they have put you next to a pal just to make you a little bit happy and distracted so you don't notice the plan. This is horrible for morale and the self esteem of each employee. They feel very marked and are shaking in their seats afraid to stand up because it will look like they are not working. Additionally, the lower ranked artists ask to grow and get no response because the higher ranked ones are gonna stay and there is no need to grow the lower ranked artist because they only have a short time left. The higher ranked artists get to continue to learn new programs and try to come up with ways to make money for the company. People are worried about this summer and how the print division of newspapers will hold up this summer when its really slow in ad sales.
ReplyDelete12:08,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that dose of reality. The people on here who blather about taking time off to study or travel, the value of their stocks, how happy they'd be to leave Gannett - all sound pompous and silly to me.
Like you, I live paycheck to paycheck. I've already cut my expenses severely - I can't go any more without chopping groceries. I have about a thousand bucks in the bank - not enough to even pay one month's expenses, let alone the six months you're supposed to have.
I'd love to leave the stress and agony behind, but there's no other job in this area that'd pay me what I'm making here. So I'm just crossing my fingers, bucking up, working my ass off and praying like hell.
12:08, you're truly speaking for me. I'm cutting it back as much as possible. I've got medical issues, but am now unwilling to go to the doctors I need to see to iron these issues out because I can't afford the medical bills this would generate. And I'm really afraid this is just the beginning.
ReplyDeleteThat said, can we PLEASE stop bitching, and could people PLEASE start sharing what they know?! Me and several others have repeatedly asked if anyone has reliable information from reliable sources about what we can expect in the second quarter, and it's repeatedly shouted down by all of you who have no interest in anything besides seeing your own vitriol in print! I mean, can we all just pop a Xanax and get back to the point?
59th!
ReplyDelete12:08
ReplyDeleteI know newspapers as we know them are dying. You need to understand that your job is going to change or it is going to go away. Think and act accordingly.
1:20 Get your medical issues addressed now because there is still health insurance. If anything happens to GCI, Cobra applies only as long as there is an on-going company. If I understand what is happening, we are now close to failing to have enough money to pay the interest on the debt payments. Or, at least, that is what S&P is implying by downgrading our debt to junk. We are in a very precarious situation. Don't bet your health and future well-being on this company. Read the S&P report if you doubt what I am saying.
ReplyDelete2:01 PM: Furloughs and layoffs are on their way in Q2. Did anyone expect anything different?
ReplyDeleteNo, I won't tell you who I am or how I know. I want to keep my job as much as some of you want to keep yours. As to the rest of you, if you can't stomach the crappy management from corporate, GTFO so the rest of us can get some work done.
12:08 here
ReplyDeleteTo 1:20 and others who share my concerns: My thoughts and prayers are with you, brothers and sisters.
To 1:41: I know. Trust me on this.
To 12:41:
"Newsflash: The Company, Inc., doesn't love you. Never did. Never will."
I don't care that they don't care. I DO care about the job I am doing: at least I STILL do, for now.
Health insurance only works if you can cover your deductible. I think that's what 1:20 was saying. If you're living P2P, you could be screwed.
ReplyDeleteHmm... P2P sounds like a good name for a frugal-living publication... replacing all the B2B crap.
1:20 PM wrote:
ReplyDelete"I've got medical issues, but am now unwilling to go to the doctors I need to see to iron these issues out because I can't afford the medical bills this would generate."
I know times are tough, but please take care of yourself and go get any medical stuff sorted out. You'll regret it later if you don't - especially, as someone else pointed out, you lose your job and all your health insurance.
And, as we've heard from various certain congresscritters lately, health care is a privilege, not a right.
ReplyDelete"I don't care that they don't care. I DO care about the job I am doing: at least I STILL do, for now.
ReplyDelete3/07/2009 2:26 PM"
The cognitive dissonance is strong in this one. The people paying you to do that job DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. Once you understand that, things will become easier.
11:55, I respect your request for reliable information, but you're not going to get it by inviting people to post rumors here. The truth is, this site is filled with people (not Jim, I don't think) who truly enjoy stoking anxiety and repeatedly post bullshit. If you saw Dubow's talk in January, he made it clear there likely would be another round of furloughs in the second quarter. He said that was the last time they could use a furlough and would have to look at other cost cutting measures after that. Anybody posting anything more than that, especially with sourcing like "I heard," is just making shit up.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was downsized last year after 7 years with Gannett I never even got a phone call from our group president.
ReplyDeleteNot only does the corporate team not know or care, the regional presidents don't either.
Grow up, people. It's a big, mean world out there and nobody looks out for you but you.
The new bill passed includes you only have to pay 35% of your cobra. If your unemployed and your cobra administrator has not reached out for you call them immediately. If you paid in advance they have to credit the advance forward.
ReplyDeleteJim -
ReplyDelete2:57 a.m. here - I meant metaphorically crying, i guess.
I think I have moved through anger and the whole state of things now just makes me sad.
You can count on this . . . .
ReplyDeleteThe business model that supports a newspaper has changed. Revenue that came from advertising and circulation to support the operation has declined permanently. Some of the revenue loss is due to a poor economy but the majority of the loss is because the world moved on and newspapers didn't.
Expect more cost cutting such as lay offs, salary reductions and days off. Continued employment will be uncertain for years. If you don't have the financial stability or the constitution to survive in those circumstances you should be looking for alternatives. Find a different job, get a second income, find a roommate to share expense, move in with family, down size, learn another skill, whatever it takes.
Just because you love (and are addicted to)this business doesn't mean it is going to take care of you.
Dear 2:26, 3:12's right but not quite complete. In the end, we are all just business decisions. They don't care about us on a personal level. However, they did hire us to do our jobs well, and they do like us to be instilled with a sense of pride about our work. So I wouldn't take 3:12's remark as a slam against doing good work, just an appeal to be clear about the world and what motivates you - 'cause it ain't the company's warm and fuzzies.
ReplyDelete4:10,
ReplyDeleteThe people who lost jobs prior to 9/1/08 don't qualify for this. And there are plenty of us former GCIers out there.
Off topic a bit here, guys, but the Montgomery Advertiser just this morning found out a longtime employee passed away, the second in a month. She'd worked there for 35 years; the man who passed away last month had been there for 37. No comments about Gannett involved, I just wanted to say that the Advertiser's lost someone, and ask that you please keep her family in your thoughts.
ReplyDelete5:42 The stress of what we are going through hits everyone, from increased drinking, to fights with spouses and children, to the creation of newsroom cliques. Everyone is feeling the problem, so I am not surprised to hear of deaths. I blame management, which didn't have to drag out this affaiar, but could have made the cuts it wanted early in the process, ensuring those who remained behind some additional security. Dragging this out with layoffs, wage freezes, furloughs and benefit cutbacks just adds to the stress. Going to work each day, I never know if this will be my last workday, and I think of that constantly. I think how foolish it was at the end of each day, but the next morning, those nagging fears return. It is a horrible time, moreso because I fear we are seeing the death of an industry and what for many of us has been a way of life.
ReplyDelete9:15 States that "President Obama has created a class war in America". Wow, that man has really done a lot in what less than 60 days. With that kind of power who knows what he'll do next.
ReplyDelete6:00 am commented that "revenue at your location is what is going to make the most difference on your jobs future". Our paper is holding our own in revenue and expenses year over year (we don't rely real heavily on "National Advertisers"). Last period we were considerably under last years expense budget and nicely under projected budget for the period. Do you think they're going to look at us at Corporate and say..."hey, these guys are holding their own, so we're going to leave them alone"? Heck no, they're gonna hit us as hard as anyone else. Maybe not number wise, but percentage wise it'll hurt us just as bad as a big paper. 10% to 1000 hurts as bad as 10% to 100, it's all relative.
Looking for a loophole.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought, but.
Is there, or could there be, a technicality that allows an employee to claim their pension money during their unpaid furlough?
Since we qualify for unemployment, perhaps there is a way that we could kick in the the machinery that spits out the Pension dollars.
I'm only brainstorming here, because I am worried about the future of 10's of thousands of dollars that could be mine.
Re this comment: 4:10,
ReplyDeleteThe people who lost jobs prior to 9/1/08 don't qualify for this. And there are plenty of us former GCIers out there.
I have talked to two Department of Labor people and they differ on the interpretation of the new COBRA benefit. One said I had to have lost my job Sept. 1 or later, but the other said her interpretation was that the new benefit would apply if my COBRA did not kick in until Sept. 1. She said there is much confusion over details of the new law and to stay turned. So, it is worth it to keep checking on what is going on. The Department of Labor website has some helpful info: www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.htlm.
I, too, lost my job in August, and am on COBRA and still have not found a job. So, it is definitely worth checking with DOL to see what the final outcome is.
http://tinyurl.com/afpjuf
ReplyDeleteNot about Gannett, but about age discrimination, a topic that's popped up over and over on this blog.
Layoffs and furloughs are coming again due to declines in sales. Hold on to your seats because this will be the largest yet. This is not a rumor. This is fact. End of March.
ReplyDeleteHey 8:31, I totally believe it, but is your source reliable? Not doubting you, but, you know, journalist. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing an announcement coming on 3/18. Now 8:31 is saying end of March. Does anybody have anything that can be documented? Jim, have you heard it from a high-up source that can corroborate any of these dates?
ReplyDeleteI call bullshit on all of you who are "hearing" specifics on furlough dates. Spend your time doing your job and get a life on your days off. Getting people fired up when you really don't know anything for sure isn't fair.
ReplyDeleteYah 12:08 Have you heard the phrase "nobody likes you and nobody ever will?" That is how you sound. Its ok that corporations don't care about their employees its a huge family they can't really get close to anyone person in a huge company and never will as you said. And they don't care about you or I....I care about me and I am hangin in there. Like others I don't think there are any other jobs out there. But I and all the artists feel like we been through the wash cycle and management is still working on our spots! We will get washed again! I like what I do and so do the other artists. We are concerned that there are more layoffs coming. Especially with the summer coming when the ads sales are low. Maybe they will wait til August?
ReplyDeleteReally 12:08? People say they are gonna take time off to travel and study? I have not heard that....hmmm. Also, are they talking about the poor price of Gannett's stock? Is that what you meant?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, too bad its a bad time to work for print newspapers. It is a wonderfully fun medium. Or at least it was in its day. I guess now as it goes into its winter years and dies its not as fun. We artists wonder when the next layoffs are. We know there are still alot of us and we should loose around 5 or 10 more. Guess I will just keep my expenses low. Furlough my life!
We already know layoffs and buyouts are coming because of the continuing decline in sales. The question is when, and how they are going to be implemented. Rumor (and I stress it is just that) has it that an announcement is coming later this month, but again we do not have details of what is in store for us.
ReplyDeleteLayoff and furloughs WILL be announced on Monday!
ReplyDeleteI used to work with older journalists who had spent years at dailies and wanted to finish their careers at a smaller community newspaper. I did just the opposite, spending all my time at smaller papers and then grabbing at a chance to work at a bigger metro daily. And how did that end up? I got laid off!
ReplyDeleteThere are still a ton of smaller newspapers in the U.S. that need good reporters, writers, editors, page designers. They are the true community newspapers, and I can vouch for how much fun it was over the years working at several of them.
I sense a sincere tone of despair among some posters who fear the work they love so much is coming to an end. Don't despair! Yes, you may have to move but that's what was always kind of cool about being a journalist. Lots of choices. Don't give up just because you are working at the largest media company in the world! Try a smaller paper. Sure the salaries may be lower but chances are the living expenses are, too.
Well..well...decline of unions in the U.S...hmmm. Corporate management throughout the country takes advantage of workers including Gannett. What is really sad there are whiners on this website that don't know how to stand up to Gannett corporate. Not only did my father's generation fight and win WWII but they also knew how to stand up to companies and formed unions. They didn't let companies run over them.
ReplyDelete10:12 PM
ReplyDeleteNice post. Oh so true.
I used to be anti-union, but that was BG. (before Gannett)
Army Timeser!, could you please email me at APPpensions@live.com ?
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the Army Times and the Asbury Park Press share a questionable peculiarity in pension.