Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Tuesday | Sept. 16 | Got news, or a question?
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46 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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I've just started this new open-comments thread. You can always return to earlier editions by clicking on the Real Time Comments label in the blue sidebar, to the right.
ReplyDeleteIn an e-mail, a reader wrote the following, which I'm posting here:
ReplyDeleteFrom ANONYMOUS in the Midwest:
We imagine that Bob Dickey's nickname growing up was Dick. Kids can be so insightful.
I loved my job with Gannett for years. But watching what is happening over the past 2 years, esp. since the beginning of 2008 is a nightmare - at least if you are running a business. I came from owning my own businesses for 25 years over to Gannett.......so the direction that Dick is taking Gannett makes no sense unless you are closing it down. DIck can write whatever he wants to about moving forward, but anyone who has ever owned or observed a successful business knows that if you only CUT expenses and people, you will create exactly what you fear.......less revenue! I just hope local investors buy up some of the real community newspapers that Gannett is systematically dismantling....seemingly on an accelerated schedule right now.
There are some really talented people who are gone from Gannett and they are the lucky ones, because when the big ship sinks there will be no severance of any kind for the majority let alone a rotten one. I sincerely hope that others left after the last layoffs GET IT and GET ANOTHER JOB NOW, before it's too late for them.
From: exGannetteer/anonymous
Anyone having trouble logging to the benefits resource site? I wanted to see how bad my 401K looked after black Monday. The site locks up my browser evry time I try to access it.
ReplyDeleteI just logged in, no problems. Down 22% for the year, but hey, that's better than some companies. Good thing I have 40 years before I retire to make it up, or die at my desk....
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the run-up in GCI debt in 2003/04, I sold ALL my GCI (company match stock) I have been selling every 2-to-4 weeks since then. Because of random timing of my order to sell on pay day and the execution on the following Monday or Tuesday, I have actually made 5.3% on GANNETT Stock in 2008.
ReplyDeleteObama/St. Cyr.
ReplyDeleteThat's the ticket!
Jim, which papers out there still have a fully staffed OC? From the roll call blog, it's obvious that Fort Myers and Brevard do, they even have VP's over directors. What other ones are out there?
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News at Westchester County, N.Y., is seeking a vice president/advertising.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody here remember the Dick Clapp? (No, seriously. A Gannett VP of something or other several years ago.)
ReplyDeleteJim: This went out about an hour ago
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Hollis Towns on his promotion to the top editing position at the Asbury Park Press.
Rather than replace his position, we will be restructuring plan the news division with six directors who will partner with me in managing the Local Information Center.
My revised title will be Editor and Vice President/Content.
Here’s the team, responsible for all content and operations across digital and print platforms.
Julie Engebrecht, Director, News channel.
Local News, Business, news content online. Carolyn will remain on the NOC and report to her.
Michael Perry, Director Entertainment channel.
Features, Sports, Moms, Metromix, Non-daily. Bill C. and Josh will report to him.
Brian Butts, Director, Digital and Technology. Chris Graves will report to him.
Lee Ann Hamilton, Director Operations.
Copy desks, special projects, planning. Kathy McDermott will report to her. Lee Ann’s involvement with the night operation will be more judgment than operational. She already runs the 4 p.m. news meeting and will be involved in those type of decisions on importance and sensitivity, etc.
Michael McCarter, Director Visuals.
Photo, Video, Graphics, Design. Ken Amos will report to Michael and focus on the latter two areas.
David Wells, Community Conversation.
I don’t want the Editorial page separate from this top management team. David also brings intelligence and institutional knowledge to the table.
Dennis Hetzel, Susan McHugh and Ben Boggess will continue to report to me as well.
Please congratulate these superb editors on their promotions. Hollis leaves big shoes to fill. But I am confident that this team will collaboratively continue to strengthen our news operation online, in print and whatever comes next.
word is advertising layoffs today in Phoenix.. anyone know anything?
ReplyDeleteReal life in the comics.
ReplyDeleteAnyone reading Doonesbury these days? One of the lead characters, reporter Rick Redfern, is in the process of being bought out from his paper, the Washington Post. Art imitating life.
WOW, APP passed over the guy doing all the grunt work as acting EE, handling buyouts and layoffs and general discontent, to give top slot to the cincy guy. Nice. Way to reward someone.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.citybeat.com/porkopolis/2008/09/enquirers-top-e.html
ReplyDeleteCincy's got more editors than we have editorial staff.
ReplyDeleteWe should split the big papers away from the little ones, let separate groups decide how to maximize profit for each market - and not shove metro ideas down the throat of the community sized NDM's.
Sounds like Cincinnati is going to spend a lot of the money they're saving on Towns' to pay all of these newly promoted people. Typical.
ReplyDeleteHere's the pushback elsewhere in the industry:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/09/scroll_down_for_details_o.php
Scroll down for details on Zell lawsuit
12:44 PM Tuesday
A few minutes ago I added the names of the Los Angeles Times columnist and former reporters who sued Sam Zell in federal court today, alleging he messed with the employees' stock plan. Here's the link.
Here's a wrinkle: Many of the Times staffers who were laid off in July have to decide this week whether to sign the waiver promising not to sue the company. I've already heard from a few who say it's a personal conundrum: sign the waiver and get the severance package, or refuse to sign and possibly lose the money.
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/09/extimes_reporters_sue_zel.php
Ex-Times reporters sue Zell *
Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email
I'm told that lawyers representing current and former Los Angeles Times newsroom staffers are filing a class-action federal lawsuit against Sam Zell and Tribune this morning in Los Angeles, alleging breaches of fiduciary duty, conflicts of interest and other violations of ERISA, the law that safeguards the proper handling of retirement benefits like pensions and trusts. The plaintiffs include several familiar bylines and at least one current Times star. A team has been looking into Zell's leveraged takeover of Tribune almost since he used employee money to get the company. Details to come.
* Can now report: The suit has been formally filed and the plaintiffs include Dan Neil, the paper's Pulitzer-winning auto columnist; Jack Nelson, the much-honored retired Washington bureau chief; Henry Weinstein, the legal affairs writer who took a buyout to join the UC Irvine School of Law; Myron Levin, an investigative reporter who left recently; and Corie Brown, who most recently covered food and wine.
The gist, from the release:
...since completing his takeover of the Tribune Company in December 2007, Sam Zell’s illegal and irresponsible actions and public statements have damaged the reputation and business of the company he purports to want to preserve. According to the filed complaint, through both the structure of his takeover and his subsequent conduct, Zell and his accessories have diminished the value of the employee-owned company to benefit himself and his fellow board members. It alleges further that through their destructive management and self-dealings at the expense of employees, Zell and his co-fiduciaries have repeatedly breached their fiduciary duties to beneficiaries of the Tribune Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
Release follows after the jump.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16, 2008 -- Today current and former employees of the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune Company filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against Sam Zell, a Chicago billionaire real-estate speculator who in December 2007 took control of the Tribune Company in a controversial deal that has mired the company in more than $13 billion of debt. The lawsuit was filed by Joseph Cotchett and Philip Gregory of the law firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.
As current and former members of the Employee Stock Option Plan that owns 100% of the Tribune Company and participants in various Tribune retirement plans, the plaintiffs filed this action alleging it is time to call the Zell-orchestrated acquisition what it really is: A scam. The lawsuit contends that, since the inception of the deal, it appears that Zell and his accessories have planned to enrich themselves, tax-free, by perverting laws passed by Congress intended to benefit rank and file American workers. The employee-owners of Tribune Company have everything, including their retirement plans, at great risk and little to gain in this deal, while Zell has everything to gain and little at risk. Among the deal's outrages outlined in the complaint: Zell has set up a mechanism to buy 40% of the company – valued at more than $8 billion at the time the ESOP took ownership – for as little as $500 million. It’s a classic grift, played out under the cover of legal technicalities. The real losers in this deal, however, are Americans who rely on news and information collected and disseminated by the respected Tribune news organizations.
The plaintiff-employees in this suit do not seek to enrich themselves. Rather, their announced intentions are: to protect Tribune Company’s pension and retirement funds; to give the employee-owners a place at the table with regard to management of their assets; and to remove Zell and his cronies from the Tribune Company’s board in order to save what is left of a still great news gathering operation.
In the 1970s and later in the 1980s when Senators Bob Dole (R-Kansas), Russell Long (D-Louisiana) and others in Congress spearheaded efforts to promote ESOPs with generous tax benefits, the intent was to empower employees eager to own and manage the companies where they work. When it comes to Tribune Company’s ESOP, nothing could be further from the truth. Employees were never asked if they wanted to own Tribune Company. They had no opportunity to question the wisdom of saddling a media company with $13 billion in debt at a time when the industry faces serious challenges. Even though they are nominally the owners, they have no voice on the company’s board and no say in its management.
When Zell hung “You own this place now” banners at the Los Angeles Times, employees could not know the high price they would pay for this “privilege.” According to the complaint, Zell has de-funded employees retirement packages, raided the employee pension fund for more than $400 million, and eliminated more than a thousand Tribune Co. jobs. Meanwhile, Zell and his band of publishing rookies are wrecking the company’s marquee properties – including the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Chicago Tribune – alienating readers by launching aimless redesigns while dramatically cutting coverage. Seemingly ignorant of journalistic ethics, they have, for instance, turned control of the Los Angeles Times Magazine over to the advertising staff, with no indication to the reader that this product is now a “pay-to-play” advertorial. All the while, revenues have continued to decline.
The saga of the Los Angeles Times follows a familiar path in American media. Los Angeles’ Chandler family controlled the newspaper for generations, making it the flagship of the powerful Times-Mirror Company. In 2000, the Chandler heirs merged the family-controlled company with the Chicago-based Tribune Company. Even considering the debt to finance the merger, the company maintained profit margins in excess of 20%.
Despite a slowing economy, a precipitous drop in ad revenue in the real estate, classified, and automotive sectors along with the de-monetizing of content put on the web and the spiraling cost of newsprint – the Tribune Company continued to be profitable throughout this decade. Without the staggering debt load from the Zell deal, the Los Angeles Times would be solidly profitable today – without eviscerating news gathering operations.
It is flat wrong to regard the Tribune Company's troubles as the death throes of the newspaper industry. Americans are not rejecting the industry’s editorial product. The Los Angeles Times has millions more readers than it did a few years ago – over 20 million discrete readers at latimes.com in August 2008. In that month alone, the paper chalked up more than 120 million page views. Its besieged editorial staff continues to produce some of America’s finest journalism.
The media landscape is changing and, yes, newspapers are just learning how to navigate this new world. Unfortunately, current management is making things worse, led by Zell and his Chicago gang who can't shoot straight. Zell does not consider himself a publisher and has shown nothing but contempt for journalism. He notoriously said “F… you” to an employee-photographer who dared question his leadership. Speaking to the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times, Zell referred to the staff as “overhead, not producing any revenue.” Zell’s history is specializing in profiting from the purchase and sale of distressed properties. He has said he expects to make a fortune for himself during his tenure at the Tribune Company. And, as it stands, he can do that while leaving the coffers of the Tribune ESOP empty and the readers of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company’s other news outlets without an authoritative local source for news and information.
Should these institutions, vitally important to the life of the nation – indeed, never more so – be allowed to fall victim to ruthless corporate raiding and the pump-and-dump machinations of predatory “investors”? News organizations are both businesses and public trusts. A free press is the only business stipulated by the Constitution. No other entity – no website, no blogger – is on the horizon to replace the boots on the ground around the world providing Americans with the information we need to function in a global economy. The Los Angeles Times, alone, spends $2 million a month to support its Baghdad bureau, making its war coverage among the finest in the world. If Zell and his cronies continue to cut the staffs of these news organizations, it means inevitably that they will give their readers less content that is valuable to them. As these newspapers become less valuable to readers, they become less valuable to advertisers as well.
To that point, Zell and his cronies say they plan to close the Los Angeles Times’ Baghdad bureau.
-- Dan Neil, Corie Brown, Henry Weinstein, Walter Roche, Myron Levin & Jack Nelson
For more information contact:
Attorney for the Plaintiffs Plaintiffs’ spokesman
Joseph W. Cotchett Dan Neil
Philip L. Gregory (818) 508-1000
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy
San Francisco Airport Office Center
840 Malcolm Road, Suite 200
Burlingame, CA 94010
Westchester should layoff the publisher. What a loser...wants everyone to like him but hasn't done a thing to positively impact things. E mails, memos and talk...
ReplyDeleteA message from Ellen Leifeld to the Nashville and Middle Tennessee employees:
ReplyDeleteAs recent changes in department structures have demonstrated, our continued success requires us to create new ways of doing business and improve efficiency. To continue that progress, we will begin consolidating our Advertising design staff for all Gannett Tennessee newspapers later this month.
Specifically, we will create a centralized team of designers by moving 22 positions from our newspapers in Clarksville, Jackson, Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Dickson and Franklin to Nashville. Designers at those newspapers will be given the opportunity to apply for these 22 positions. We will still have at least one person remain at each of the respective newspapers to coordinate the flow of ad material from the newspaper, to Nashville and back to the newspaper. Overall, this change will result in the elimination of nine positions.
Centralizing our design services will allow us to make the best use of the skills we have at all locations, as well as standardize procedures and improve work flow. Additional benefits include better sharing of technology and a more effective proofing system, which directly benefits our customers.
For the sales staff, we will provide training so they understand how to submit ad materials in this new structure. For other departments, there should be little or no affect. The transition will be done by newspaper, and be completed before the end of the year.
What about 2AdPro? Does it make sense to centralize Tennessee if all those jobs are going to go to India in the next year??
ReplyDeleteThe problem in Westchester is that the publisher has no idea how bad the upper management is under him. Things are not done there to make the site better, they are done to to keep the jobs secure for a few. Teamwork is gone, you mostly have individuals that want to save their own jobs. These people are obviously not talented to find work elsewhere so they parade themselves around trying to take credit for things.
ReplyDeleteThey are in the process of doing the same thing to the design departments in the broadcast division. They have centralized master control and rumor has it the business departments and traffic departments are next up.
ReplyDeleteThe Arizona Republic laid off 37 today, not from what departments. Here is Zidich's memo to the staff.
ReplyDelete"During the past 30 days I've shared with you the difficult personnel decisions that have been made throughout the newspaper division. Those decisions were made based on unstable business conditions across the country. While the announcements were communicated at the corporate level, the necessary decisions to realign resources for each market are a local one. In Phoenix, the process of realignment has been in the works for many months driven in large part by the far reaching economic impact of the housing market. Every department has gone through an assessment to determine ways to operate their respective areas more efficiently. During the past two months we have restructured several departments and offered early retirement options to reduce payroll. Today, we had an additional reduction with the elimination of 37 positions.
This is a tough day for each of these employees and for all of us. These individuals made valuable contributions to the company and will be missed.
Your company plays an important role in this community and will in the future. I appreciate all that you do and know that together we will get through the tough times.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to stop by and see me.
John"
you gotta love all of these "if you have any questions, don't hesitate to give me a call" (Dickey) and "if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to stop by and see me" (Zidich)love taps...
ReplyDeleteYeah, give me a call or stop by and see me so you will no longer be flying under the radar and you might be next!!
Does anyone know what type of jobs they lost in AZ.
ReplyDeleteHere's some more "info" floating around at Phoenix
ReplyDelete1. Floors 7, 8, and 9 will be leased to the outside of their downtown building.
2. (big gossip) The Arizona Republic's Deer Valley plant "may" start printing USA Today. (Obviously the USA Today plant in Mesa, AZ may not be needed if they do that)
3. They are so hard up to get money "anywhere" they are even going to lease out some of their downtown parking structure to the ASU students and new hotel that's nearby. (Even though they did that before they didn't learn that by doing that the employees and bigwigs will have to deal with damages to their vehicles and condoms in the elevators.)
There is not a sector of the economy not plaqued by lay offs and downsizing. It is far reaching: construction, retail, housing, automotive, wall street, media, advertising, temps, packaged goods. Give me one sector not feeling any pain. Its depressing.
ReplyDeleteI'm frankly glad I still have a job.
QUOTE
ReplyDeleteThere is not a sector of the economy not plaqued by lay offs and downsizing. It is far reaching: construction, retail, housing, automotive, wall street, media, advertising, temps, packaged goods. Give me one sector not feeling any pain.
UNQUOTE
george W's whitehouse, but that's because it has NO clue.
re az rep layoffs advertising was one dept hit and 4 managers tho i don't know what dept they were from
Wow, McClatchy Newspapers Tuesday announced a 10 percent across-the-board layoff and cut the company's stock dividend 50 percent. This on top of company-wide layoffs completed in June. As the economy worsens, the newspaper industry is coming back for even more cuts, so I think the warnings on this blogs of more layoffs to come were quite correct. I don't know where these bodies will come from, but watch out.
ReplyDeleteTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
ReplyDeleteCarnage!... McClatchy says it will eliminate 10 percent of its workforce... also slashes dividend in half **updated**
Separately McClatchy announced an additional cost restructuring to reduce its workforce by about 10%, or approximately 1,150 full-time equivalent employee positions (FTE's) as the company manages through today's difficult advertising downturn and positions itself for future success in an increasingly competitive environment. McClatchy said roughly half of the staff reductions are coming through voluntary programs and managed attrition. The company expects to achieve savings of $100 million over the next four quarters, excluding severance costs of approximately $20 million, from the staff reductions along with other savings initiatives. This represents a savings of more than 6% of total cash expenses based on cash expenses over the last 12 months.
This would explain the closed-door meetings yesterday and today the EE has convened. I knew there was another layoff wave coming. Once they start doing this, they come back for more.
ReplyDeleteJohn Zidich is leader by his title and title only. As The Arizona Republic laid off about 50 employees today - the CEO sat in his plush corner office peering down high from the ivory towers as his henchmen tore lives apart one by one. John, displayed his vast amount of leadership by hiding behind his granite desk and firing off an email out at the end of the day.
ReplyDeleteI was going to copy the email in this comment but you would all be confused other than him saying - thanks for helping us look better to Virgina.
I wish the best to all of my friends who have to endure the grave future of the once proud arizona republic.
I hope that everyone still there takes john up on his offer to "come see him" and express thier apologies for making him so uncomfortable he would not set foot on any floor but the scary dark one above 9.
I am outtie.....
8:40 PM, as the Republic continues to lose circulation faster than a leaky balloon loses air, it would make more sense for the behemoth Deer Valley facility to close and the more cost efficient USA Today facility to print the republic.
ReplyDeleteI have enormous respect for journalists. It is an incredibly important job. I am rooting for great journalists to endure. I realize Americans get their news from many media: TV, Radio, Print, Online. That should not matter. What matters most is to have real journalists with real objectivity and the gift to communicate. Gannett has many gifted journalists. I am rooting for the company to prosper, to build the digital capability stronger while maintaining core print products.
ReplyDeleteOur work is too important. Times are tough but we will come out of these transitional times and be strong. As an industry, we must.
What I am hearing at a local TV station is the company continues to look at ways to cut costs. People are being told to look as busy as possible, learn as many things around the place you work, so they can bypass you the next time cuts have to be made. Many employees feel they are on death row. Each time cuts are made and they survive them, it is like being pardoned. I think we all know more cuts are coming soon and for those who think this is just a place for people to bitch, take it from someone who has worked hard for this company for twenty plus years... read the writing on the wall.
ReplyDeleteHere's something we've been looking at for the last two years or so on the Publicus main menu. Corporate has known for years that Publicus is less than ideal for posting breaking news. "Tips of the day" like this tell us how much thought the developers put into the Publicus interface. (less than Microsoft did in Windows 3.1)
ReplyDelete"Tip of the day
You can easily create your own shortcuts based on what you do most in Publicus. Just click the "Edit shortcuts" button in the menubar.
However, make sure that you don't put too many, more than a line's worth. If you do, some menus will be cropped including "Edit shortcuts." And then, you can't edit to reduce the menu any more."
I'd also like to know what's going on in Arizona- not just Phoenix, but Tucson.
ReplyDeletefrom real time comments from yesterday
ReplyDeletere 44 inch web
az rep is in the middle of converting to a 44 in web. from what they tell us it will be corporate wide in the near future
You know talking about outsoursing the "Arizona Republic" to the "USA today" plant in phonix isn't a bad idea since the so called union people in the pressroom already agreed to that in thier last contract for a 500.00 dollar signing bonus............now really who are the "Bozo's"?
ReplyDeleteArizona Republic is the first company union I ever encountered and the people walk around wearing union shirts but are truthfully balless. If any of the reps had a spine the memebership is running when it comes to solidarity andthey actually vote for the best person that is appeasing the company and don't believe that rocking the boat and saying "NO" is the right thing to do? Jeesh dorthy I am not in kansas anymore. You derseve what you vote for and the apathy in phoenix you could feed India with!!
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:40 pm said:
ReplyDelete1. Floors 7, 8, and 9 will be leased to the outside of their downtown building.
-----
Leased to whom, I wonder? Floors 8 and 9 are exclusively editorial. Floor 7 is web, sports and some advertising.
It would be misguided if not unethical to mix their use with something from outside the building.
Ronald Reagan, the cannonized saint of republicans, was one other president that believed that deregulation was the best road to go down.........washington shouldn't tell companies what to do and we had the savings and loan bailout along with chrysler too. And now we voted for a "Court jester" and a seconfd term republican has delivered on the deregulatory wall street and corporational greed , oops forgot to mention both spent us to oblivion and still called themselves conservatives, and now people are still actually thinking that "McCain and the party" in charge foe 6 years in majority stands for change? Are we too focised on the wrong priorities like a hockey mom? When are the "true" americans going to wake up after how many Republican bailouts..............thats not raising taxes like they blme always the democrats? theivery has no boundrys and these guys are magicians!
ReplyDeleteI always thought newspapers would be around forever but there is too much overhead cost and the "KINDLE" will tech wise when it becomes affordable out do the industry! It is new to the playing field but only your old parents remember the milk man delivering milk in a horse drawn cart! Guess what the paper is coming in on its last days please any young person check out and google "the Kindle"!
ReplyDeleteI was recently "down-sized" by Gannett. I was a long term employee starting in 1964. I left the company after 27 years (1991) and was re-hired in 1998, one day before paper was sold to Gannett.
ReplyDeleteBy my figures that means I had 37"years of service". But I was told that Gannett uses the date of re-hire for layoffs, so I got only 10 weeks of severance pay. I am very unhappy about that! Is anyone else in this situation? I can't find anything in writing from Gannett about the meaning of "years of service".
I believe any break in service over 1 year starts the clock ticking back at zero, at least for 401k vesting. That's probably the standard they applied to be somewhat consistent.
ReplyDeleteThat should be in your site's employee manual, though it might be hard to find.
11:56:
ReplyDeleteFrom what I had heard about breaks in service...and this is a bit screwie...if your break in service is longer the years of your first employment, you don't bridge. If your break is shorter, you bridge the service.
So...you were out of Gannett for about 5 years? Your service should bridge and they should pay out the total.