Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday | May 29 | Your News & Comments
Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)
44 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Honolulu Update:
ReplyDeleteThe 11 pressmen who were laid off are not officially laid off. Apparently, the Sr. VP of Operations and HR Director failed to inform the union of the layoffs. The 11 were told that they would be notified in 2 weeks when the Sr. VP returns from his vacation. In the meantime, these poor souls have to wonder if they will have a job in 2 weeks, while the Sr. VP is enjoying his vacation.
Oh BTW, the Sr. VP won a Presidents Ring for circulation. Like Bob Dickey said, the best of Gannett.
Heard the Zanesville-Coshocton OH newspapers made a cut earlier this week.
ReplyDeleteJust throwing it out there following Jim's news on this blog...
ReplyDeleteIf you are not familiar with Gannettoid.com, please check it out and let me know if you think it would be beneficial to add anything to the site.
I've always kept it as sort of an aggregator of basic Gannett news and links, but forum or blog-style commenting can easily be added, as can just about anything. We could gather a group of citizen journalists and feature news stories about the company or whatever you can think of.
If you're interested, visit the site, contact me either in the anonymous box on the main page below furlough information (yes, it's anonymous, you don't enter an e-mail and it can't and won't be tracked) or e-mail news@gannettoid.com.
Thanks
Gannettoid,
ReplyDeleteYour site is very bad. Seriously, I do not mean to be a dick, but there is no comparison to Jim's GannettBlog.
To Gannettoid.com. I believe before anybody could TRUST your site, you should come out and tell people who you are. Saying your not with Gannett and proving it is one thing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAgain folks.... this is a MYTH! I keep ready this and I challenge anyone out there to specify exactly what federal or even state wage and hour law prohibites "any work at all" during a furlough.
ReplyDeleteI have been told repeatedly when talking the federal and state employment offices that there are NO actual laws - everything Gannett is doing regarding the furlough restrictions is SELF IMPOSED!!! Maybe out of fear of suit or maybe because they THINK there is a wage and hour law... but there is not.
If anyone can quote the actualk law, PLEASE give it on this blog! I'd like to know for my own protection, too!
5/28/2009 10:46 PM
____
I gave you a link: www.law.com.
Why don't you take the time to read a little istead of wanting everything handed to you on a silver platter. Blogspot only allows ~4,000 characters and spaces.
For all corporate clones who defended the USAT mixed martial arts page:
ReplyDeleteHow's that going, huh? Have some web traffic numbers to share?
Better yet, how's the revenue off that project, hyped by company press release? These cheesy ads must be bringing in some serious cash. A real game changer.
This isn't some "whiney" journalist. And frankly, I have better ideas which I've already attempt to move up the line, but in the culture of Gannett, only the handful at the proverbial table ever get heard out on an idea. That's OK. Sergio Non to the rescue
4:55 am: Thank you for caring about the future of this website.
ReplyDeleteNow, without meaning to sound like I'm endorsing any particular approach, today's Gannett Blog is much better than the version I launched on Sept. 11, 2007.
Plus, please bear in mind that I blogged anonymously for four months before I added my name and photograph to Gannett Blog, because I was still a company employee.
10:46 You won't find the specific law you are looking for, but in general the concept is that if you are a hired employee and you work certain hours, you get paid. GCI could indeed find itself sued for back pay if it is found that anyone furloughed is doing any work for the company. Look up uncompensated work in your law book.
ReplyDeleteDetroit News expected to be hit with layoffs today after 25 at Freep a week or so ago.
ReplyDeleteOriginal estimates were 150 for both papers and DMP Haven't heard of any at the agency
Waiting for the ax to fall has been agonizing.
http://tinyurl.com/nbte25
ReplyDeleteInteresting indeed:
Newspaper Publishers Hold Secret Confab On Charging For Web Content
David Kaplan, 05.28.09, 04:36 PM EDT
I thought the following paragraph from yesterday was interesting. They're doing a "consolidation" of the Louisiana newspapers yet "Every person who is now employed... will be able to transfer to the new center". Interesting use of the concept of a "consolidation" where every current employee could keep their job if they move. Maybe I'm just shell-shocked, but does this strike anybody as being odd?
ReplyDeleteWe're consolidating, and everybody can keep their jobs if they move? Do they not have an actual plan for jobs needed to make the consolidation viable both financially and in maintaining a quality product?
"Every person who is now employed at Gannett Louisiana newspapers doing the work that will be done on the consolidated desk will be able to transfer to the new center. In addition to copy editing positions, three supervisory positions will be available in the consolidated center. Employees who decide not to transfer to the center will receive a severance package.
The center will launch July 13, with production of the Monroe, Lafayette and Opelousas newspapers. Shreveport will join the center in August and Alexandria will join in September."
- Leslie Hurst
Vice President
Gannett’s South Group
10:30--We asked the same questions yesterday when management announced the "consolidation" to us at our Louisiana paper.
ReplyDeleteWe were told that there are 29 layout positions spread among the five Gan-La papers now, and there will be 24 positions at the consolidated center. Apparently there are unfilled positions, and corporate is counting on a certain number of people NOT moving, to eliminate those five positions. At most, it'll save, oh $250,000 or $300,000 a year i guess in terms of payroll.
There was also discussion about a couple of papers' problems in finding copy desk staff, so this would help them by providing consistent layout staffing.
The theory is that everyone at the hub will work on every product, from daily to niche pubs, put out by every La. paper.
The reality is that it will be a clusterf***
No consistency or guarantee of quality. The change comes for some of us during FOOTBALL SEASON, the most challenging time of the year deadline-wise.
We knew this was coming, thanks to Gannettblog, but it's still like a punch in the stomach.
Regarding the Louisiana consolidation, someone should look into the huge losses incurred by several papers due to the Center of Excellence call center consolidation. I think The Arizona Republic lost millions of dollars in the "consolidation". Speaking of The Arizona Republic, today's newspaper announced Sunday readership growing to 1,213,500, up 37,900 (a 30% increase) over last year. This despite an April 27, 2009 article in Editor & Publisher from FAS-FAX showing a 0.2% Sunday increase to 516,562 copies. A .2% increase on half million papers is 1,000 papers. They saw a jump exceeding 10,000 subscriptions from the demise of the Tribune which only netted an approximate 1,000 paper increase yet announced a 30% increase in readership?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I've got to stop drinking beer with my eggs, but how do you get a 30% increase in readership on a .2% increase in circulation?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSomeone go to http://ibizaconfidential.blogspot.com/ and post on Jim's other blog. It doesn't seem to be getting much action.
ReplyDeleteDetroit News: We have about half a dozen hourly volunteers (Guild-protected) taking layoffs, and the rumor is five newsroom managers will be cut -- one in each department. One may already have been notified at home.
ReplyDeleteTo 11:09 a.m.:
ReplyDeleteI think the Republic is counting the number of readers, i.e., that the paper is read on average by like 2.5 people. Not the specific number of who PAYS, the true measure of circulation. Of course, not everybody reading the ad will know the difference.
Just another stretching of the truth to inflate ad prices and pat themselves on the back. If last Sunday's paper is any indication--a total and complete embarrassment--then the end is nearer than the marketers would have you believe.
Jeez Louise, 11:12, give it a rest, willya?
ReplyDeleteIt's odd that so many supposed journalists enjoy attacking the messenger. Shouldn't this career give us a little sensitivity in that regard?
Got karma? I have some to spare!
ReplyDeleteAll this "consolidation" stuff is far more meaningful long run than furloughs, pay cuts or even layoffs (except to those laid off, obviously).
ReplyDeleteDisembodied desks, with editors who can't just wave a reporter over for a question, inevitably, even in the age of IM and chat, will try to fix things themselves or say oh the heck with it.
It makes sense on paper, and I'm not against digital worksites and the rest. The reality is person to person -- not through IMs or Twitter but tactile and real -- is the best way to put out any project.
This is a dangerous and predictable trend.
Just to clarify, I do work for Gannett, but I am at a newspaper, not corporate or PR.
ReplyDeleteThe site has no Gannett affiliation.
Thanks,
Gannettoid.com
Good lord it sounds like the Detroit News has it right. Get rid of overpaid, underworked and generally useless management before you start dumping hard workers. I doubt the Free Press even considered that approach. I've heard their sports department has about 1 manager per 2 employees. Pretty sick if true.
ReplyDelete11:09 and 11:49 AM:
ReplyDeleteLooks like somebody put an extra 0 in the percent increase of Sunday AZ Republic readership. A gain of 37,900 readers is only 3% growth.
11:49 I agree regarding The Arizona Republic, but wouldn't the number of readers to circulation be somewhat consistent year over year? How does circulation go up .2% and the number of readers go up 30%?
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting one year from now when they cycle over the gains created by the Tribune's demise and catch up with the industry and their own previous trending. Some may have to give back rings!
Sorry if someone covered this, but it was layoff day in Detroit today. I have about 15 confirmed (myself included, that is in addition to the swell email from newspaper managment last week. Hard to get any further word now that I'm on the outside... Not sure about anyone else, but I got a very small severance despite the company email from a couple weeks ago stating there would be no more severance.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised at the animosity I've been reading towards the sales staff. I'd like to add a couple of things to ponder. First, most advertisers have the knee-jerk reaction of cutting their advertising and marketing budgets in times of economic downturn. The sales staff at my paper are some of the most dedicated people who truly are out pounding the pavement and trying to make their goals. This brings me to my second point - I see that there is a misconception that the sales staff is rolling in dough. Maybe some are at your papers, but here it's like being a waitress. We get paid a low base salary and then we work for "tips". If goals can't be met, then the base wage really isn't live-able for most people.
ReplyDeleteMany of us have fixed lists and can not prospect for new clients. When businesses go under, we are still goaled as though they are in operation. We are also goaled as though the economy were robust, often with 10% increases year over year.
Sadly, as a sales staff member, I know that we feel like news and advertising are in this together. It would be nice if the news staff felt the same.
Hilarious that any criticism of Jim gets deleted now.
ReplyDeleteSo much for an open and honest last few months - but we'll know the truth on Oct. 1 whether Jim can stand giving up the spotlight. I won't be back until then.
Where's today's Jersey Confidential? I know it does not get as much action these days as in the past. But we still need it to be there. Anyway, I believe there are storm's a brewing in Jersey. The end of quarter 2 is creeping up on us. Time will tell. There might be some truth in those rumors circulating around the Jersey group. Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteThe Newspaper Association of America's latest monthly statistical report shows that in April, newsprint consumption fell almost 28% to 350,000 metric tons year-over-year. Over a seven year period, newsprint consumption plunged 50% from April 2003, when the industry consumed roughly 710,000 metric tons of newsprint.
ReplyDeleteOne hour ago, I was kneeling on the sidewalk along San Francisco's busy Market Street, trying to comfort a woman and her toddler son in front of a Nordstrom store. She and her husband came here from Pennsylvania because he thought there'd be work. There wasn't. Her sign said, stranded," her teeth were rotten, and she spoke with an accent that I recognize from my Kentucky days. I gave her almost everything dollar I had on me. I said, "hang in there," and she asked me to not cry, because otherwise, she would, too. I'm more blessed than I know.
ReplyDeleteJim, You are a good guy for helping out that lady on the street! May God bless you for doing this. And thanks for all that you've done for us Gannett people over the many months since you began the blog. It's been the only source of information exchange and has helped so many people since the evil Gannett (a communications company??) doesn't believe in communications or the truth and certainly doesn't give a damn about employees. Oops, I forgot, the big shot suits are taken care of.
ReplyDeleteRegarding 5:28's comments about the sales staff(s). Certainly not all sales departments are a disaster and of course the economic environment is an issue. But I can tell you that the advertising department at our paper the courier post is a sad case. They've kept people on for years who don't pull their own weight while they DO get very hefty base salaries just because they've been in place for so long. If any rumors about reductions in the upcoming quarter are accurate, this would be the ideal time to get rid of these dredges that waste company resources and don't bring in enough money to cover their sorry asses. What is our publisher waiting for?
ReplyDeleteJust a note:
ReplyDeleteIf you mention, during compensation negotiations with a potential employer that the low ball salary they first presented fails to meet the FLSA 2004 regulations, (no matter how polite you are about it) they will most likely not make you an official offer for the job and head to the next not so smart candidate who probably doesn't know the federal Fair Labor Standards.
http://www.btlg.us/articles/FLSA-2004%20changes.html
Final Detroit News newsroom tally: 5 volunteers from hourly positions and 1 part-timer pushed out. Three managers, all decent hard-working guys and not the kind of clueless middle-management deadwood you'd like to see go. In their place survive several useless, lazy and just plain dumb Guild-covered reporters (but not union members) who are too far up the seniority ladder for management to find a way to dismiss.
ReplyDeleteOh, along the line of "sales": corporate is doing a companywide advertising promotion in June call "Big Summer Sale."
ReplyDeleteIn conjunction with that newsrooms are being directed (not asked, but told) to run "consumer" stories.
Anyone else out there gotten the heads-up on this brave new word of advertorial yet?
am close to the 6 month mark of the great december purge.
ReplyDeletefunny thing is that it took no specific talent or courage to do so.
just those at corporate w/o a soul who have done the same so many times it no longer even matters.
oh, and of course those HR opperatives who have the bonus bling of ruining lives.
words to live by:
always tell the truth
always tell the hard truth first
129 Gone From Detroit between News, Freep and Detroit Media Partnership: http://tinyurl.com/kpm9zm
ReplyDeleteNot to be cynical, but your story at 5:51 PM has the ring of a classic scam.
ReplyDeleteI fell for it myself - ONCE - but never again.
Chances are that the lady spent the money on booze or crack.
4:42 is correct, readership growth at The Arizona Republic went up 3% not 30%. However, according to FAS FAX, the Sunday circulation did only go up .2% so it appears the growth in readership did outpace the growth in circulation by 15 fold. It does seem odd that the paper announced growth to 1,213,500 on Sunday compared to FAS FAX showing 516,562. I recognize one counts readers somehow and the other influences advertisers but it does seem as though the Arizona Republic is flaunting some sketchy numbers.
ReplyDeleteAre advertisers falling for this?
Jim,
ReplyDeleteYour 5:51 post provides a needed slap of reality. As much as we complain about the malicious antics of this company we sometimes forget how blessed we are.
I live in PHX and spend way too much time driving around this metro area. I don't have to look far to see people who are in far more desperate straits than any of the Republic employees are.
Am responding to the posts about Detroit - first, thanks to the poster who provided the link to Crain's.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 'get rid of the useless management' at the News, I can tell you it was not the practice used at the Partnership in Detroit. Most of the names I heard were from the peon ranks (my term, not theirs YET). So, the department I left still has three or four directors, two of whom contribute nothing. But, that is the way of the world, I suppose.
Thanks for this blog - it has gotten me through some interesting times at the DMP!
8:15am has it right. Detroit (the Partnership)is so overstaffed with top management. Too many VP's and directors that are useless. But they are playing 'king of the hill' and will make sure that they are employed until the bitter end. But I guess that's the game in Corporate America. If you really want to cut costs in Detroit then eliminate six-figure top management and save the little people who actually do the work while earning 1/5th the salary of the top guys. Besides, the top people have proven their incompetence over the past several years. They haven't had an original idea among themselves, much less an idea that came close to working. Pretty sad work environment.
ReplyDelete