Warning that "challenges are deepening,'' Gannett is offering an unspecified number of buyouts to Corporate staff at McLean, Va., a reader says, citing a memo today from Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore (left).The memo warns that layoffs could follow if an insufficient number of volunteers steps forward. Eligible staff are those in "certain corporate departments who are age 55 or older and have a minimum of 10 years of credited service,'' the memo say. Corporate officers and certain other managers are not eligible. (Full text of memo, posted by reader.)
The Martore memo says: "All of you here have worked very hard over the past few years to stave off the business and economic conditions that are impacting our industry. Even so, the challenges are deepening and we must face them head on, just as our coworkers in the field continue to do."
Now, here's something I found both revealing and puzzling. The memo says "Corporate already has seen a 10% reduction in staff through attrition or other initiatives.'' I'm surprised those cuts didn't get leaked to this blog earlier; that's the sort of news that might temper some of the criticism Corporate gets here.
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I don't understand why GCI is so reluctant to be up front about the way it has been trimming workforce long before the recent night of 1,000 cuts.
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of chipping and trimming via attrition and smaller layoffs going on in the field for at least a year before the big hit, and there has been more since (e.g. the big exec layoff).
You'd think they'd be bragging about it on Wall Street, where payroll cuts are usually met with joy. I guess we'll have to wait for the annual report to find out exactly how many jobs the company has shed in the last 12 months. I wouldn't be surprised if the total is more than 4K.
Would the VPs who were laid off at various properties recently be included in that 10 percent. My understanding is that those folks are employees of corporate, not of the newspapers where they work.
ReplyDeletewhat makes you think that this hasn't been communicated to wall street analysts?
ReplyDeleteOther initiatives may include delegating to the sites work that corporate used to do, in regards to reports, trend watching, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe entire quality initiative seems to have evaporated. After photo toning went to the RTC's, I stopped caring about the scores, and it appears everyone else did too. How often can you beat the pressmen over the head for quality issues directly tied to no maintenance time?
RTC - Isn't that the place where they have the sign:
ReplyDeleteWe Put the "K" in Kwality
"Corporate officers and vice presidents are not eligible for this offer. Neither are employees in the Publishing, Broadcast or Digital divisions who work in the McLean headquarters."
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean finance, law, library, advertising ... what else?
9:32 again -- I meant, who IS eligible?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with this is that it doesn't address the problem and really excise some real dollars. VP's and Directors are exactly who they need to look at. This is pure tokenism to assuage analysts and other outsiders.
ReplyDeleteHere's a note for all you corporate higher-ups: THE OLD WAY DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE. IT'S TIME FOR CORPORATE "TRADITIONS" AND CRONYISM TO GO ONCE AND FOR ALL.
RTC is atrocious. They get PO'd whenever you call to inquire about an overdue photo, and act like you're some annoying inconsequential pest. At least it's gotten better since the initial launch, when photos just vanished into the ether.
ReplyDeletePeople who work for the divisions are not included in the offer because it's for corporate employees, not division employees. They are totally different staffs. As for reductions I work in a department that has already seen positions not replaced, through attrition. I know others as well. So the 10% reduction isn't publicized, but real.
ReplyDeletethe advertising work I send to RTC2 comes back very quickly, basically within the 15 minute "goal" and certainly less than the 30 minute chosen request. I get good courteous response to any inquiries. (But prior to this week I was communicating DIRECTLY to the site and a Supervisor- starting this week communication both to and from was "outsourced"). At the beginning RTC was returning work RGB, a problem, but now it is nearly flawless.
ReplyDeleteI have few if any problems with RTC. Honestly, I get better and faster service than when we had a couple of punk kids with no training toning our photos in-house.
ReplyDeleteMore layoffs coming, says Gracia Matore, both in publishing and corporate this time. She said details are being put together and will be detailed to investors in New York in December.
ReplyDeleteThe RTC is a joke as far as quality... They are pretty fast, but the quality is awful. We might as well Intellitune them... I've gotten to the point that if something has not been toned I use it uncorrected from the customer.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem we have is when we drop PDFs to be toned and they can't tone them they just delete them. So we end up not knowing if they're still working on them or what. So we have to upload through the website so there is a paper trail. Then sometimes we get an error message back saying there is something wrong with the PDF supplied by the customer. There really needs to be a better way to route things.
It is about time they slashed the exec bloat. These are the no-brainers who got us into this problem, and they should be sent out to pasture. What corporate needs to do is to hire Gallup once again and poll everyone to list their 10 least favorite managers. When they get the poll results, just layoff or buyout the top 15 percent of those named.
ReplyDeleteThey are not talking execs...they are talking all the grunts that work for them. Maybe they'll close the cafeteria and the gym!
ReplyDeleteWhy can't Gracia set a good example and lay herself off first?
ReplyDeleteShe also just suspended monthly revenue reports saying Gannett doesn't run on a month to month basis. At least she got that one right.
There appears to be a major flaw in perception that all people at CHQ are execs and managers. They are not. CHQ is a branch, just like any other, that happens to also house a few execs on the upper floors. The amount of days they spend in the building you could probably count using your hands. But the real people there doing the real work are grunts just like everyone else at any other branch. Yes, there is a cafeteria and a gym, but they aren't free. They have to pay for food and gym membership just like everyone else. And they are not spending all day in the gym when they are supposed to work -- it is after hours and personal time, just like anywhere else. To think that all the grunts at the CHQ branch are getting any privileges that the branches aren't is just ludicrous. These layoffs are going to effect the grunts there just like everyone else. Yes, the employees they need to focus on getting rid of are the execs and managers. But that ain't gonna happen. The ones that are going to get hit are the unsuspecting, hard working, grunts who keep the branch running, not the overpaid, redundant, golden parachute few who spend as little time as possible at the branch. So, if you insist on bashing the CHQ personnel, make sure it is directed in the right place, if you don't mind -- PLEASE!
ReplyDeleteEarlier comment ...Would the VPs who were laid off at various properties recently be included in that 10 percent? My understanding is that those folks are employees of corporate, not of the newspapers where they work.
ReplyDeleteResponse: Most, if not all, of the 100 department heads laid off were corporate employees with monthly corporate paychecks, and corporate benefits that differed from the local units, so yes, we were a part of the so-called 10% corporate reduction.
Sorry, Jim! Bullshit is bullshit no matter how it is disguised.
ReplyDeleteIn response to an earlier post, Advertising is not a part of the corporate staff. It is in newspapers (or broadcast, or USAT). There is no corporate advertising staff.
ReplyDeleteAs to the 10% being made up of field personnel. If they were included staff would be down 20% with that alone. About 500 on corporate staff, 100 department heads left. So I think the corporate reductions were from corporate staff.
I go to GCI & there is nothing wrong with it. They aren't cutting back jobs, they are providing jobs. Jeez.
ReplyDelete