Easing pressure at least temporarily on CEO Craig Dubow & Co., Gannett shares closed at $19.48 yesterday, up 3.4%, in a broad stock market rally driven partly by a sharp decline in oil prices. But oil was already rebounding this morning, after Iran test-fired nine missiles, "renewing fears of a conflict that could cut global oil supplies,'' the Associated Press says. Dubow now has just seven days before facing Wall Street investors with the company's key second-quarter earnings, scheduled for release July 16.
Good morning Gannett complainers. Have you found a new job yet or are you too busy bitching about how bad your job is on this silly blog?
ReplyDeleteThe earnings will probably be horrible! But if you losers got back to work, perhaps Gannett would do better!
Oh, you think that you are NOT the problem. It must be the other 45,000 employees not doing their jobs.
The unemployment line is waiting for you all.
While Jim enjoying the last few pennies of his "buy-out", you too can take your time and relish in the thought that you and your lover can escape from all of this really soon.
As full disclosure, I am a shareholder (shares at $19.75) and not some mid-to-low level journalist waiting to be fired.
I'm a long-time Gannett employee, and I think this is true for half the people I've worked with. This blog makes it look like all are complainers and aren't hard workers, which is unfortunate. But many are just that -- and now they have a new leader, Chief Bitcher Jim Hopkins.
ReplyDeleteAnon@7:07 a.m.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a shareholder, you're an idiot.
Anon@7:07 a.m.
ReplyDeleteSo you're a shareholder? Big freakin' deal. Any idiot with $20 can be one, too. So am I. At least I got my stock free. You're the moron who actually bought it...
Aren't you glad you got your 50 shares for free loser? Perhaps your "options" would force you to stay there for a few years so that you can vest 12.5 shares a year. Woohoo, you are going to be rich writing those stories.
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel that high school children are taking your jobs!
I am just waiting for a CEO to come in and fire all of your asses so that my stock goes right up.
Better get that resume ready, because you guys are toast.
Yeah, keep hiring those kids. Look where it's gotten us so far. Your Gannett of videos and blogs is headed right down the tubes asshole.
ReplyDeleteJim, your anti-Gannett bias is showing loud and proud with this latest post. If the stock somehow continues to stabilize or (gulp) actually start to rise -- how will you explain it away?
ReplyDeleteI am a Gannett newspaper employee who works hard every day to produce a compelling newspaper and Web site (yes, the new version). I visit this site from time to time to see what others are thinking.
It's clear from YOUR latest post that no matter what good may happen in the company that you and other whiners will find some way to cast it in a negative light.
For a "20-year reporter and editor," I expected better.
Anon @ 9:33 ...
ReplyDeleteI sincerely don't think Jim is any more anti-Gannett than you, or myself. This specific post references world news - Iran's test firing of 9 missiles - and the ramifications in the U.S. and world markets. A rise in oil prices will likely mean a drop in most stocks, including Gannett.
Jim provides an excellent venue in which to keep employees informed about goings on within Gannett (because management is woefully poor at communicating, even in a technologically rich environment), and for employees to vent their frustrations on a number of topics. It provides a voice where some employees feel they might not have one otherwise.
And I doubt those who are voicing concerns and frustrations are "phoning it in" each day at work. Many are just overwhelmed, and have no where or no one to turn to. H.R. certainly isn't going to help.
I'm not telling you - Anon @ 9:33 - that you're wrong, or to back off. I'm just trying to provide another perspective.
If you have an idea in which to improve the site, I'm certain Jim would listen and implement if viable and pertinent.
Finally, thank you for your service to the company. Are you instilling your enthusiasm in others at your site? If so, what have you done, that you can share with everyone who reads this blog, that could be of help to others? Please share. Thank you.
7:07 AM - Your continued hostility and eagerness to pick up where you left off yesterday shows that you’re from the same managerial mold that created the sizeable pod of “certified assholes” that have helped trash this company.
ReplyDeleteWorking harder doesn’t necessarily guarantee better results, especially in environments like yours where employees would obviously feel threatened. All could be busting their asses, but few would risk sharing divergent thoughts and ideas that really would yield better results let alone take other risks that this company needs, if for no other reason than not to interact with people like you. Plus, who wants to be perceived as not being “onboard” at a time when jobs are being cut? Your continued attacks prove my point.
And, since you’ve shared, let me share that my view comes from years of experience at the senior executive level, and not just with Gannett. Given that, it’s clear that this company’s results and its employees have both been harmed by Gannett’s history of openly tolerating “assholes” who behave just like you - something that I shared with Dubow shortly after he took the reins.
10:42 AM, thank you for your insight. There are publishers and directors out there who are very well respected by their staff and treat everyone as equals. If this were encouraged from the top, I think you'd see a major shift in employee's attitudes. It's never too late!
ReplyDeleteThere is no real reason to continue to engage Anon@7:07. He has an agenda, which makes him -- at the core -- no different than the people who work for Gannett and complain. He is whining that people aren't working hard enough and thus driving his stock prices down. And he seemingly chooses to take this action rather than be proactive in his investments.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime he fails to realize that many of the Gannett "complainers" are using this forum to vent because they actually care about the work they produce and the future of the company. The employees he should be most concerned about are those who have never heard of Gannett Blog, those who take no interest in the company's future, and those who simply show up and phone it in.
Interestingly, many of those employees are the high school and college kids he seems to tout as the future of the company. These employees are young, paid poorly and have little experience, giving them less to lose should they be laid off. So, accordingly, many have little investment in the company. Yet, they have become an increasingly large part of the newsroom at many of the smaller dailies.
Anon@7:07 can relish that fact if he likes. And, perhaps, it will result in an eventual increase in stock prices. We'll see.
The sad thing is that this is bad for journalism. Television and radio news went south years ago. Now it's the newspaper's turn. Only when it has completely vanished will we see if anybody truly misses the in-depth reporting that used to drive print.
Why someone would invest in flailing media company without at least an affinity for the product is beyond me. But that seems to be Anon@7:07.
We should all ignore "the stockholder." I too sense he's some management hack. This blog is highly useful for airing our concerns as Gannett employees. The paper I work at, USA TODAY, subtly tries to put a cap on people offering feedback about the paper and the company in general. They don't want to hear anything that even remotely sounds negative (or like the truth), especially since the merger with online. So at least this provides us a venue to vent a bit and to hope we're being heard by those in a position to make a difference. Most of us on here want to do a good job, but in many ways aren't permitted to do so anymore by the same company Mr. Stockholder blindly defends. And make no mistake about it, he is blind.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, there is a valid point out of this discussion: some people prefer to complain and be miserable than do something about the problem. Can't avoid them. Many are here on this blog.
ReplyDeleteHere's something to chew on for the "stockholder"... Gannett employees are being cut; benefits are being slashed or frozen; we're told to do more with less, but what I don't hear from Dubow or Gannett's "Elite 120" is "We're going to lead by example. We will take a 25% cut in salary. Our pension will be frozen and bonuses will be curtailed for the time being." This company has always been led by corporate looters not visionarys... Journalism? They could just as well be in the pipe-fitting business.
ReplyDeleteWork Harder ...
ReplyDeleteYou must really be enjoying the medication you're washing down with the Kool-Aid, because you are so out of touch with reality it's not funny. I left the Asbury Park Press six months ago after five years of 60-hour weeks where I was getting paid for 40 to put out an award-winning PROFITABLE section that was rewarded with 2 percent raises that were obliterated by the skyrocketing share of the health care costs and family problems created by the fact that I never saw mine. And I was one of the lucky ones; at least I didn't have a heart attack like several longtime employees did from the stress created by the hostile management there.
Heart? What's a heart to a Gannett manager.
ReplyDeleteThe stories abound in the news business of burned out employees and managers. Gannett just grew too fast and moved people too fast.
ReplyDeleteI "was" one such person. Dubow must have known of the filthy reputation on the part of upper management. The recent departure of some top people is an acknowledgment of such.
Onward and upward. Hopefully the remnants of the old regime will be outed.
There are those unnamed people that have either died from the stress and pressure and others with serious health issues.
Pro or con...it will settle down at some point.
Bloggers are not journalists so expecting them to behave as such is unrealistic. A key component of a blog is the author's ability to rant, vent, without the constraints of "the man".
ReplyDeleteIf you are unable to deal with the slant or read through it then move on.
Signed,
A twenty-something out producing the gray beards and balding heads around him.
TO Work Harder, shareholders and other Gannett employees: There are plenty of us in this company who care about our jobs and the communities we serve. We don't whine; we simply do our jobs the best we can. We are clerks and reporters, account executives and ad directors, and yes, top-level management. Gannetters: If you are truly committed to public service journalism and the people you report about, sell advertising solutions to and produce content for then you'll refocus your efforts on the task at hand and move forward. Doing any less is a disservice to you and the industry in which you've chosen to work and/or invest. Become a contributor or leave and let the rest of us get our jobs done. It's complainers and whiners that have put our industry in the shape it is in. Democracy depends on a free press; if you want to take that from our country just keep whining. Otherwise leave the real work to us and let us move forward -- without you and your baggage.
ReplyDeletePeople who bitch actually still care. If they didn't care, they'd show up to work, phone it in, collect the paycheck and never talk about it. Many employees need a place to blow off steam, and this forum provides it. (Sure wish this blog existed before I left Gannett.) And bitching doesn't preclude working your ass off. Some of us are better multitaskers than others ...
ReplyDeleteP.S. @2:42: Don't generalize about the "gray beards and balding heads" around you. It only reinforces certain stereotypes about the young'uns newspapers are so eager to hire these days because they're cheaper due to lack of experience.
Rumor on the street has it that approximately 25 Gannett newspapers will increase their daily single copy prices from 50 cents to 75 cents in mid-August. That's a whopping 50% increase.
ReplyDeleteOne publisher in the mid-south group thinks single copy sales will tank 30% or more
I must agree that most of the so called "whiners" are those who actually care deeply about their work and the success of the company.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the double talk from the company side makes even believers into something else.
On the TV side the word is multitask. Technology allows many of use to do just that. Post wirelessly from a computer and air card to all platforms. Cars and small SUV's with digital transmission gear to get on the air ahead of competition.
But guess what? Computers aren't being issued. Wireless subscriptions are being pulled. And cars are locked up at the office forcing workers to trek to the office then back to the field to work. A tremendous waste of time and fuel.
I honestly believe employees are looking for some tangible evidence that "all the talk" is not just that.
I certainly don't understand how some of these posters equate ranting and raving with being unproductive and disinterested in the company. They must be the managers that expect everyone to yes them all the time and not question anything. And boy if that isn't breeding grounds for low morale, low productivity and lack of creativity. If you don't like the conversation log off.
ReplyDeleteAs I sit here and read the comments on the Blog I can't help but believe folks, both complainers and happy folks, just want to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Come on Bob, it is time to show us what the next step is. Show us the innovation SCJ contantly talked about but never produced. Moving folks around and restructuring the division isn't innovation. It is a great starting point but we need to see the "vision" put in place. We are a proud workforce that wants to succeed. Enough with the secrecy and behind the scenes machinations. It is time for swift, awe inspiring action.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 6 p.m. sez: "Rumor on the street has it that approximately 25Gannett newspapers will increase their daily single copy prices from 50 cents to 75 cents in mid-August. That's a whopping 50% increase."
ReplyDeleteI musta missed that day in business class (I only took one, I was a J-schooler) when they discussed the best way to save a product that had
1- Lost market share
2- Compromised quality
3- Let down customers
was to INCREASE COST.
Give the effin' paper away already. Circ numbers help set ad rates, and there's no better way to boost circ rates than to pass the product out gratis.
(Oh wait, we already do that on the Web...)
PS: Workharder? Yeah, the NYC mayor called and he's got plenty of bridges in need of a troll to live under. Might want to check in with him.