Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sunday | Sept. 21 | Got news, or a question?
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36 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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Jim,
ReplyDeleteHave you heard anything definitive about more layoffs? It seems inevitable, given the Wall Street meltdown and the general lack of shopping/car buying, but an earlier post started to sound like another big sweep (not counting the accounting stuff we already know about and the advertising ad design stuff we're already worried about...)But I guess I was foolishly hoping the 1,000 would get us through the holidays at the very least.
Yes there are absolutely more layoffs coming down the pike. They will be bigger than what we have typically seen.
ReplyDeleteMy source is incredibly reliable based on prior events.
She states that Community Newspaper will drop another 5,000 to 7,000 in the next quarter.
Apparently Bob "Dick-less" Dickey (sorry, but that is what every Publisher and Director calls him) has presented some crazy plan to layoff a bunch of people across US Community NP.
Staff is saying that even Dickey is so worried that he has not fully relocated to Corp HQ!
10:18 every pub and director doesn't call Dickey Dick less or whatever sophmoric name you and your small group of friends, if you have any, come up with. in reality you have no idea what you are talking about. I know, I know, thanks for stopping by Craig. anyone who disagrees with you kool aid drinking lemmings is Craig. none of the attack dogs have any recommendations to improve our financial performance. no you spend your days trying to come up with creative Dick jokes. thanks for stopping by Pee Wee Herman.
ReplyDeleteThe layoff numbers will be finalized in tandem with next year's budget. Expect action in time to make your holidays extra happy.
ReplyDeletethanks for stopping by Bob Dickey
ReplyDeleteCheck out the duties for the executive editor---digital and custom content job. It's posted for Indy, but looks like whomever they hire will travel to and have responsibilites at other sites.
ReplyDeleteyo 10:59 yuk, yuk, yuk! With this kind of creativity it is imazing we aren't doing better as a company. Have you been thinking about that comeback for days or did it just come to you? You should quit your day job and go work for Leno.
ReplyDeleteI would like to read this blog and feel the vast majority of information is accurate and from the heart...this "dick" thread is going in a direction that will lead to this blog being less credible. I of course would be interested and concerned if we were indeed looking at another 5k to 7k in layoffs but it is hard for me to find the statement credible due to how it was offered.
ReplyDelete10:11 am: I don't have any more information than what I've been reading here and on other posts. A further reduction in the range of 5,000 to 7,000 sounds high. At the upper end, that would be more than 20% of the approximately 32,000-employee newspaper division. On the other hand, McClatchy has had (I think) two 10% reductions in recent months.
ReplyDeleteThe last time these layoff rumors surfaced, in early August, I didn't post on them because I didn't know the source. Those rumors turned out to be accurate, however. For now, I'm going to wait until something more definitive appears here before I treat these newest ones more seriously. I don't dismiss them out of hand, however.
I can't see how USAT's measly 45 buyouts from last November are going to be enough to satisfy the empty suits. Even the flagship has to be facing further cuts soon in light of everything that is happening on Wall Street and in the industry. As the year winds down, more and more eyes will be looking to this blog and for other signs of what's to come. I hope whatever rumors people post on here are fairly well-founded. We really need solid info which isn't going to come from the company or from wild speculation on here. We need some insider stuff so we can begin to plan for our futures. If you have top-shelf, first-hand tips or info, please post them.
ReplyDeleteThe people at our newspaper refer to Dickey as Dick-less. Not sure which corporate noodle is responding here, but maybe if you all visited an office or two you would see it.
ReplyDeleteHey, when was the last time Craig Dubow visited your newsroom?
When did Dick-less visit your newsroom without doing layoffs?
2:39 PM
ReplyDeleteYou have a valid question there about frequency of visits to sites. I'm guessing nobody will answer, though, since you wrecked your credibility with the name calling. Please stop it. Thanks.
I've given my bosses innovative ideas to succeed in a 21st century media world. They don't get the new environment, so they don't listen to my suggestions.
ReplyDeleteHow might we make the dinosaurs realize they don't know as much as they think they do? We all are doomed to the same unnecessary ice age they're bringing on for newspapers.
I'm serious. How? I'm not here to vent anger. I'm looking for solutions.
What we do is vital to our very democracy, and I fear we won't get it back once the public has forgotten what responsible, professional journalism looks like.
I don't think the Mom's sites are going to help. That CincyMom's post referenced before is an embarressment to our industry. If this is how we have to get customers than I will be looking for a new job.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty much SOP for struggling corporations to clean house before the end of the year to keep from carrying over excess costs into the new year. The end of the fiscal year is when corporations take one-time charges and writeoffs for any number of things, just to be done with them and move on. This can mean laying off workers, shutting down money-losing ventures or products, writing down inventories and receivables, and so on. In past downturns, we saw waves of corporate layoffs in the weeks before Christmas. I don't see why this year would be any different.
ReplyDelete11:57 Jim, I've read the same thing about McClatchy that they've recently made another 10% reduction in staff. From what I've read they are on the verge of bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteIf Gannett is truly looking for that large of a number of layoffs, then that says to me they would be looking to shut down some sites that are no longer profitable.
I don't know a lot, but I do know that top executives are, in fact, quite capable of holding information such as big layoffs and the like quite tightly.
ReplyDeleteSo I would be very suspicious of anyone who purports to know "something is the works". They probably either have bad information or are just part of some rumor stream.
Executives hold back information. It is what they do. It seems ridiculous that this blog would become a sounding board for every rumor heard in the hall or in the lunch room. They are almost always wrong, except for the few times when unfortunately they are right.
Nice to see Jim showing restraint in not immediately assuming everything posted here is the truth. Reporters somehow invariably get it wrong the closer to home things are. Makes one wonder.
5:11: Thank you. Still, bear in mind that lots of publishers and other operating-committee members read this blog -- and many of them are so unhappy with top management that they routinely leak stuff in comments, and in e-mail to me.
ReplyDeleteGannett to date has laid off 3% of the workforce which is frankly very low given the economy and the 10%+ of our competitors. So those grossly overstated numbers in the aforementioned comments are absurd.
ReplyDelete"How Might We.." is a phrase we all learned in the IDEO brainwashing by Michael Maness and his little side kick Laura Ramos.
ReplyDelete"How Might We Fire Craig Dubow?"
"How Might We Change the Executive Leadership?"
"How Might We Get Tara Connell to Communicate ?"
"How Might We Dump 'The Knife' Martore?"
C'mon you guys, McClatchy has made 10% layoffs TWICE now. That light you see at the end of the Gannett tunnel? It's the Layoff Express and it ain't slowin' down TOOT TOOT
ReplyDeleteMight as well get it over with now. Why wait?
There are rumors going around that both Nashville and Reno are going to have something happen next week. Can anyone shed any light on this?
ReplyDelete8:17 - that was damn funny!
ReplyDeleteGannett Corporate HQ 86 (4%)
ReplyDeleteA Gannett newsroom 634 (30%)
Gannett, but not a newsroom 603(29%)
I'm an ex-Gannettoid 575 (27%)
Never worked for Gannett 156 (7%)
I wonder what a statistics professional would make of these nnumbers. As an amature I can make an educated guess, but I'll leave the professionals to quantify it. but it does tell it's own story.
Please keep this blog open Jim, there are obviously more than 500 readers, and those of us wading through the ditches till the enemy strikes again are wanting to know what is coming down that quasi deserted trail.
Keep the weeds in your hats boys to avoid the snipers.
At this point, if I see a rumor here, I believe it. This blog was right about the large layoff in August, it was right about the newspaper reorg that laid people off of the corporate payroll.
ReplyDelete3:00pm: I have no idea. I wish I knew. We still have stories hitting our website straight from print saying "turn to page 5 to see more stories on this subject" and "clip this recipe on the dotted line." We have editors posting 3 day old entertainment wire stories as breaking news. We have staff-run blogs that are only updated once a week and have all the spontaneous charm of a weekly 500 word column. If after all these years of having a news site we can't master these simple concepts, I don't know how we can move forward.
amen, 10:17 p.m.
ReplyDeletethe numbers are right for the future layoffs coming right around the bend.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers include future sales and trades that will allow even more regionalized staffs.
Many that are in the know on this wanted the plan to be complete before October 1st to stay away from the holidays. Dickless didn't care and looks like it will happen sometime right before Thanksgiving. Nice huh? What a guy!What a place!
@9:19 There have been a number of closed door meetings recently in Nashville but who knows. Can't speak for Reno.
ReplyDeleteJim, considering you didn't know about the last round of layoffs on September 9th of the directors, I think it's safe to say that the Publishers are not leaking information to you.
ReplyDeleteIt's just unbelievable that these brain surgeons at Mclean continue to believe that consolidation is anything more than a novelty and diversion. The real answer is local ownership of community papers. Newspapers aren't going to die, just the cookie-cutter model of Gannett where the same tired ideas repackaged by the same tired Ganne-drones circulate. Where are the analysts who should be screaming for NEW, FRESH, OUTSIDE leadership??? Doing the same thing with the same people (or their descendants) will only get the same results. Here's an idea -- the first thing this co. needs to excise are 90% of VPs and various directors at Mclean. When revenues are dropping at 3-5x the rate that expenses are being cut, you're not going to cut/save your way to prosperity. It's almost like watching a large, dying organism take out all stops to stay alive, not realizing that it's slicing into its own vital organs while the parasites actually killing it are making the decisions on where to slice. Darwinism at its finest at work here...
ReplyDeleteActually 12:11, this blog did have reports of the director level layoffs. The blog reported (or others did) that another restructuring was to follow the first round. So, yea, this blog tends to be right on top of what is bound to happen.
ReplyDelete"There have been a number of closed door meetings recently in Nashville..." Guess it couldn't be that it's budget time?
ReplyDelete7:36 - budget time in Gannett speak generally means innovative ways of cutting payroll.
ReplyDeleteOf course more layoffs are coming - if there is a reader/poster here who can't see that - then the head is burried in the sand.
My condolences to those next on the hacking list before the holidays.
607 p.m. wrote: "Gannett to date has laid off 3% of the workforce which is frankly very low given the economy and the 10%+ of our competitors."
ReplyDeleteyeah, but how many open positions were eliminated too?! that number is not reflected in the 3 % layoffs.
It is true that the recent job cuts were low vs. competitors. Here are the numbers in context:
ReplyDeleteThe 1,000 jobs cut last month -- 600 layoffs, plus 400 open positions eliminated -- totaled 3% of the approximately 30,000 positions in the newspaper division.
It's even lower, however, when you consider that those 1,000 positions were only about 2.2% of Gannett's total 46,000 (or so) positions.
Bottom line...
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty much inevitable that more layoffs are coming, unless the economy really improves. Fewer people buying stuff = less advertising = revenues down = jobs cut. Simple math.
Who cares if they're coming in December or January? Some of us are still going to be out of a job, and we'd better start getting ready now.
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The rumor in Wilmington (and it's just a rumor) is that they're looking at closing the two bureau offices at the very least. The small staff in the capital bureau has already been cut back when the legislature's not in session.
The weekly entertainment/"stuff to do" magazine is being combined with the Friday features section, the Spanish-language publication is being axed and one of the TMC products is supposedly being shut down soon.