Regarding management's handling of buyouts at the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., a reader says: "Newsroom morale has sunk every month in the last year and is now beyond recovery. Gannett has done everything to exacerbate the situation and nothing to remedy it. Meanwhile, the product has slowly deteriorated. The paper is a shadow of its former self. The recent buyout is only the latest scandal. Staff veterans -- the heart and lifeblood of this newspaper -- were treated like disposable refuse."Mad as hell, the commentariat won't take it anymore, in the original post.
This horrible treatment of Courier-Post employees is not limited to the news department. The entire place is in chaos and morale has declined even further. Hard to believe it possible for things to get worse, but every day this comes to fruition. The majority of employees hate coming to work and don't give a damn about the place led by this publisher and his band of imcompetent management especially those he brought in soon after his arrival over a year ago. Topping the list of incompetents is the EE. Seems like Gannett "dumps" their garbage on Cherry Hill because they can't get rid of them for whatever reasons! Stupid, stupid, stupid. The CP is competing in a tough market against the Philly Inquirier which is beefing up their Southern NJ operation to (hopefully) bury the Courier Post once and for all. Evidence: Sports editor left CP for Inquirer and so has a very good young reporter. The Three Stooges could do a better job of running this place, but it's not funny at all. It's sad how this publisher has screwed with the emotions of so many people. What goes around comes around.
ReplyDeleteWhen will Gannett Corporate finally realize that CP Executive Editor E.J. Mitchell is a disastrous choice to run a newsroom? He has neither the journalistic nor personnel skills to run a newsletter, let alone a daily newspaper. When he worked at the Detroit News with the despicable Mark Silverman, he learned many bad management habits. He carried those bad habits--out-of-control arrogance; an inability to listen to anyone but himself; poor news judgment; a penchant for cronyism--to Nashville, where he once again alienated a staff of journalists. Now, he's pulling the same crap in New Jersey. Either Phil Currie is the complete idiot I have long suspected he is OR Currie wants to inflict idiots on the company's newspapers.
ReplyDeleteYes, to all of the above. Anyone associated in close comfort to Silverman ought to be banished to MediaNews or to Turnpike tolltaker.
ReplyDeleteCurrie has no answers. Who wants to work at some of these hellholes...or black holes? Westchester is the same crap. Gannett is doomed...so many of their properties have the same legacy.
Duh, why the surprise? This is the same, the same company that not only tolerated but promoted people like Collins, Watson, Sherlock, Stier, and Silverman.
ReplyDeleteAnd you expect it to be different?
They don't know any better and Dubow can't change it...the company is just too big.
Welcome to New Jersey Mr. Donovan.
I hope someone there has turned your attention to this blog. Even if half of the items are true, you have a big, big problem.
In reference to the 3% wage increases in the U.K. - sure, it's below inflation, but in my 8 years with Gannett I never received anything above my one "outstanding year" raise... 5%. Frankly, I'm amazed they got 3%. Of course, 3% of not enough will always be not enough.
ReplyDeleteJim
ReplyDeleteCan you please ask your corporate connection what HR plans to do with all of the feedback they received from more than a dozen CP staffers earlier this year, as well as the (sadly) highly public documentation of the downfall of the CP in this space and the multitude of exit interview comments its local HR department has gathered from the nearly 25 staffers who have departed since the start of the year?
@11:59 a.m. I've been meaning to get an update, and you've now inspired me. I've sent a series of questions to chief company flack Tara Connell. I'll certainly let you know if she responds.
ReplyDeleteIf the regional VP of HR is doing their job, this ought to have been communicated.
ReplyDeleteWhere is Delores Pinto in the mix?
Or is she just polishing Riddle's head...or making jokes!!!
A complicated mess...where to start?
In case you haven't noticed, ALL
ReplyDeleteGannett HR Depts have one and only one purpose....to keep the company from being sued and violating Federal Laws. There is no concern for the employees....or the sad state of morale in any of the operating units. Employees are treated like rubbish with no more value than a paper clip.
A legal question. Since we were speaking to lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference, legally, between a layoff, and a buyout? If one paper had layoffs in one state but buyouts in another, is there a recourse? Why the difference? And if buyouts get you to a number, but then followed by layoffs, what is the legal recourse, if any?
Can Phoenix have a different buyout package different from New Jersey?
After the buyout, if the positions are re-filled, can that terminated employee re-apply? And what about positions that are essentially the same in description, but are re-titled to conceal discrimination, etc.?
I don't know how Collins got away with his shuffling all those years.
Yes, Corporate has great legal protection. Spin the yarn.
Refuse has a place to go. It gets some consideration at least. More so than the deliberate machinations of Gannett. This is not some thinking soul. They are blanks. Thankless people.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, Mitchell didn't pick up those bad habits from Silverman - working with him might have reinforced them, but his bad habits were already well in place when he was a deputy M.E. in Cincinnati before Detroit. Just ask veteran Metro staffers about his arrogance and his regular use of such strong profanity that it garnered complaints from grizzled journos who thought they'd heard everything. I won't even get into the tabloid-worthy personal antics, but only because of Jim's admonition about libel.
ReplyDeleteFor it to be libel, it has to be a false statement.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very sad day at the Courier-Post. Many veterans, including a writer who began in 1950, are saying their goodbyes today.
ReplyDeleteToo bad the EE will be in Brazil instead of leading his staff on this day. But hey, there will be cake.
EJ is a class act whose hands are tied by corporate. Instead of going after him, focus on Currie and others who control everything any editor in Gannett does.
ReplyDeleteEJ isn't even close to being a class act. Like Silverman, he lords over his employees using fear, threats and intimidation.
ReplyDeleteEJ is just as worthless as the rest of the recent lot of management.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think the publisher would be here seeing off his veterans. But where's Walt? He's off today too.
Can't let a little thing like 10 retirements on one day interfere with the holiday weekend!
The least E.J. could do is gather us as a group and give us some encouragement, some direction, some reason not to despair. But we get nothing.
ReplyDeleteOn a day when we're saying goodbye to five of our best, he's not even here.
You can't blame corporate for that.
The C-P farewell party was a joke. The publisher and executive editor missing in action. The managing editor delivering delicious platitudes. One of the retirees referred to one of his colleagues denied the buy out. Another was absent attending a farewell party arranged by the people she covers. The third was given presents, including a $20 gift certificate. She will probably spend $5 in gas driving to the mall to redeem the certificate. But she's been subsidizing Gannett for decades by accepting the 25 cents per mile the company grants its employees who work and drive. Oh, yes, in addition to honoring the three staff members who were allowed to take buy outs denied to three others, the party honored a couple of staffers who resigned to take positions at a rival paper whose name the managing editor could not speak. Another editor did, in fact, refer to the Philadelphia Inquirer. This was a sad affair despite the platters of hoagies and wraps and the inevitable cake. Yes, like Marie Antoinette, the pusillanimous publisher tells his news room to eat cake. I'll bet Marie Antoinette's parties were more fun. And I will also bet Marie Antoinette had a better grasp on reality. The guillotine is waiting for the Courier-Post to put its head on the block!
ReplyDeleteOn 5/22/2008 at 11:59 a.m., a reader wrote anonymously:
ReplyDelete"Jim: Can you please ask your corporate connection what HR plans to do with all of the feedback they received from more than a dozen CP staffers earlier this year, as well as the (sadly) highly public documentation of the downfall of the CP in this space and the multitude of exit interview comments its local HR department has gathered from the nearly 25 staffers who have departed since the start of the year?"
Asked -- but not answered (yet!) in this new post, featuring my new Ask Tara feature: http://tinyurl.com/528s3a