Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sunday | Nov. 16 | Got news, or a question?
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53 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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How's it going?
ReplyDeleteAre you asking me?
ReplyDeleteI can't sleep. Started 6 days off on Friday and I can't sleep at night. I hate Gannett. Maybe they'll lay me off during my so-called vacation week! I hate Gannett.
ReplyDeleteSleepless in NJ
Good morning 2:29 - are you still up? I've been tossing and turning myself and decided the hell with it and got up. This is what this whole layoff thing has boiled down to - a mass of sleepless, nervous, quivering bunch of people who can't function like the rest of the world due to inhumane treatment by a corporation who just doesn't seem to care! Hey you in the towers - GET IT OVER WITH NOW!!!! Let us all have our normal lives back and quit treating us like POW's - doesn't the Geneva convention rule apply in the USA? I am sooooo tired of the torture!!! It's really unprofessional and unnecessary!
ReplyDeleteI guess it is like being lined up on a ledge of a building with all your coworkers waiting for your number to be called so you can jump.
ReplyDeleteFor god sake will somebody push me already.
Interesting report from API about a summit involving high-level newspaper executives on "saving an industry in crisis."
ReplyDeleteBob Dickey, Gannett's president of community publishing, and Michelle Krans, Gannett's SVP of strategy, both attended.
Here's the link:
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/pages/resources/2008/11/ceo_summit_on_saving_an_indust/
A meeting of the minds,and nobody shows up!!!!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know anything on papers in Mississippi? The lay offs concerning the Clarion Ledger and Hattisburg?
ReplyDeleteYea, nothing there. I remember my dad telling me about the comic team, Bob and Ray. Well these two have resurfaced at the top of the division. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteThat API summit must have been something. This excerpt certainly gives that impression:
ReplyDeleteJames Shein, Ph.D., turnaround specialist and professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, who researched the basic financials of the public companies represented at the summit, concluded that as a whole the industry is at or approaching full-blown crisis stage, though individual companies are in various phases on the continuum. And he is pessimistic about their ability to halt their fall without outside help.
"The biggest hurdles to progress the industry's senior leadership, including some of the people in this room." Shein told the group. "I am not sure you can take a look at your industry with fresh eyes."
"Interesting report from API about a summit involving high-level newspaper executives on 'saving an industry in crisis.'
ReplyDeleteBob Dickey, Gannett's president of community publishing, and Michelle Krans, Gannett's SVP of strategy, both attended."
Interesting. Were those two there to serve as the case study for the rest of the group?
A reader in Michigan wrote the following in an e-mail; I'm posting it below, edited to remove any identifying information:
ReplyDeleteGannett is laying off in Port Huron as well. My husband and I are actually fantasizing about the potential for severance pay and unemployment. Working in his [department] has become a 60-hour a week nightmare, and I’m pretty sure getting laid off now might actually save his life. Your blog helps me realize we are certainly not alone in our predicament. Please keep me anonymous if you post this on the blog.
E&p also had an article about the summit.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003891430
And there was a link listing everyone who attended.
I read that E&P report, especially the graf involving hiring bank regulators as reporters. Wow, how clueless can these executives be. Hire bank regulators for $35,000-a-year to write about how great the local bank business is these days. ROFL. What is so dismal is that some execs blame reporters for getting newspapers into this mess.
ReplyDeleteJim - thanks for advising that you have no word on the "finance project" but - doesn't anyone out there have any scoop? Maybe a middle management type would want to let us in on the big secret! Why aren't these plans being broadcast to all sites? Don't any of the sites get any input into how things are run at the street level or have the Tower People got it all figured out? Shouldn't each site have someone out in the mid-west to help with the transition of their Biggest ad clients. Not left to a faceless person handling the account and possibly not even caring that the client has been with the paper for a hundred years and should be handled with kid gloves or even just treated with a little respect - not just another $$ amt coming in? And, shouldn't some of the slaves in finance at least be aware of when they have to face the firing squad?!?
ReplyDeleteSorry if this has already been posted and I missed it, but did anyone see this on E&P & Romenesko?
ReplyDelete"NEW YORK The Huffington Post gained the most unique readers among all outlets on a list of top 30 news destinations in October, in the latest monthly data from Nielsen Online. The site grew its uniques year-over-year by a whopping 448% to 8.1 million ....
Almost all the sites on the list showed gains in election campaign-crazed October with a few exceptions, including Gannett newspapers, down 5% to 12.9 million."
IN ONE OF THE biggest news events in memory, the presidential election, when other outlets were scooping up new readers like jellybeans in a jar, Gannett was one of the few who actually lost online audience.
Way to go, Gannett. Perhaps photos of clubbing girls in low-cut tops isn't what readers are wanting during these times of national upheaval.
The clueless exec at the API summit was probably Dickey. He was there and he's always blamed reporters for the economic troubles GCI faces.
ReplyDeleteThe layoff saved my life! I worked for over twenty five years in the newspaper business.
ReplyDeleteThree months before my departure I was hearing rumblings of layoffs and names. I approached my supervisor and asked him pointblank if I should be looking for another job? The answer was no, everythings fine he assured me. The week before my promotion to pedestrian I saw him walking through the newsroom when I approached him he put up his hand and said “I haven’t got time to talk I’m headed to a meeting. Five minutes later I saw him in line at Starbucks. He couldn’t look me in the eyes he said hello as he walked out. This made me chuckle. I knew at that moment I was soon to be out the door. I spent the next few days downloading the manager’s manual and making copies of all me e-mail notes received and sent, all files in the server and all my outside contact information. I got my resume together and spent the next few days looking for jobs online.
Friday rolled around and I was asked to attend a meeting at 2pm by my” heading to a meeting no time to talk coffee drinking supervisor” I thought Friday afternoon 2pm, at least I will beat rush hour traffic home. My requests for attendance to this meeting came through our office e-mail. I decided to have some fun and make him squirm a bit. I sent back an e-mail stating that I had put in for four hours vacation time, and would be leaving at noon today. I then made my way to his office and sat near the back of the newsroom for the flurry of visitors he was about to receive. First to arrive the publisher, then managing editor in tow was the asst. managing editor the hr guy was next followed by a payroll and finally the woman who collected and compiled the newsroom time cards. After a minute of watching them go over time sheets I decided to pop my head in the door. The look on their faces, it was like they saw a dead person standing before them.
I said wow, if you try to squeeze in any more people into this office your going to need a lubricant. Not one laugh or chuckle came from any of them. I chuckled and made the comment. “This group all together at one time someone’s getting the axe today” I then explained that I had made a mistake on my time card and would be working a half day next Friday not this Friday. I laughed all the way back to my office.
The previous Sunday I had cleaned out my office and cleared out my file cabinets locked the drawers to my cabinet and desk tossed the keys in the trash and placed newspapers on my desk giving the impression that I had no idea what was heading my way in five days.
So, Friday afternoon 1:55pm I make my way to the conference room, every head in the newsroom turns and looks at me, but no one makes eye contact except my four buddies who are making stabbing and choking gestures as I a pass. Waiting for me is the guy from HR and the assistant managing editor. What no coffee swilling supervisor? A spineless pussy to the end! I was given two weeks of severance for every year of service and three years medical.
I was told that if I waited a couple of minutes my personal belongs from my desk would be brought to me to carry out. I explained that wouldn’t be necessary and that I’m ready to go. They both had a puzzled look on their faces and looked at each other not knowing what to say and I explained to them that I had cleaned out my desk a week ago. They asked how I knew it was coming. At that moment right then I knew that leaving this company was the best thing for me. ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR ASKED HOW I KNEW IT WAS COMING? I work in the information business its called a newspaper!
I smiled shook their hands and met my four buddies who were waiting outside the door along with a security guard who I have known for the last twenty years ( He asked for this assignment) He smiled I smiled and to the exit we headed. I made it home before Friday night rush hour. I heard the following Monday evening that they had to have keys made to open my file cabinets and desk drawers in each drawer were 20 Xerox copies of my ass, each with a personal note to the Gannett guns starting with Sue Clark and working my way down to the Assistant Managing editor. I heard everyone wanted a copy except for Sue.
Was it easy to leave? No. It was a job that I did well for over twenty years with not one bad job performance review. I sent out 140 resumes and received two offers. I took the one lesser paying job in the city and my pay was cut by a third.
It will be one year November 23rd. My wife and I made some tough choices but it’s worked out well for us. I’m healthier, happier and my wife say's I’m a much nicer person to be around. I’m a nicer person to be around! That’s the person I want to be.
Walk out the door cancel your paper
and get on with your life. Gannett needs you more than you need them
1:10 Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThere have been some unfounded accusations that it's the reporters at the Courier News who are responsible for the over-all poor quality of the product. It is totally untrue. They are the testosterone driven boys who write excellent features when they are allowed to do so. The demanded sorry-assed local news articles are the problem. Brandon, Marty, Jared, Mike, etc. are the cream of the crop. The higher ups in the newsroom write the copy which total strangers complain about when they find out you work for Gannett. Reading the Courier on Tuesdays and Saturdays is a tip-off on the lack of talent and ability in editorial positions. Even the letters to the editor are better!
ReplyDeleteOne elderly man was overheard telling another in a local supermarket: "How did this newspaper get so bad so fast"? He then put down the Courier and bought The Trentonian!
The best answer I give when asked if I work for Gannett is a lie. I tell them "NO" and am quite certain it will no longer be a lie in a few weeks.
1:31, I would take it even further. The Courier doesn't suck because of anyone in the building now, it sucks because of the two chowderheads (the skirt-chaser and "Abe Lincoln") who ran it into the ground over a several-year period.
ReplyDelete1:10
ReplyDeleteI did almost the same thing when I quit. Good for you. And as we both know it is much sunnier on the outside.
Why6 does ANYONE find ANY of this ANY surprise at all? This de-emphasis or real news coverage started back in the 1990 by Gannett and a lot of other media companies with all the "flavor of the month" journailism - all this stuff about diversity, quotas, information centers, News 2000, and on and on and on. The message to editors seemed to be that the "basics" of just good journalism was no longer the point of newspapers - it was some other "mission" to please Phil Curry and corporate. This crappy "citizen journailism" concept" and a host of other trendy ideas just kept us from doing our main jobh - providing news for our readers. readers don't find our papers usefull, compelling or interesting anymore because we have made them that way. We are trying to please our bosses in McClain instead of at home! Period.
ReplyDelete1:10 - Payback is wonderful, isn't it? I too hate this miseable company, but I widely quit years ago and cashed out my stock when it was $80+ a share. I was lucky to have a spiteful, petty, moron of a publisher who ruined my career, so I quit in disgust. "Lucky" because otherwise I would have gone crazy from this pathetic company. My bitterness toward Gannett will never go away... it is a hatred I kindle daily, and this website is so great! I laugh at all the misery and hatred I see. It makes me feel better and keeps the animosity fired up! Thanks Jim, for this site. I thought I was only one ruined by this company. Glad to see there are thousands more just like me. Do any pro-Gannettoids DARE respond to this??? Thought not.
ReplyDelete1:31, Local management would never blame itself for any problem.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, it's the janitor's fault the paper has problem with local news coverage... it's the receptionist's fault that circ is tanking in Bridgewater, Hillsboro and Plainfield!
They are blaming the worker bees for what is obviously their own fault.
"Abe Lincoln" is busy doing much of the same where he is now. And I always thought the skirt chaser preferred a few nights a week chasing trousers!
Any one else think its hillarious that we have a SVP of strategy and development? 4 people will lose thier job so this person can keep thiers.
ReplyDeleteI shared my story because I thought it would help others to make the transition.
ReplyDeleteLet me make it perfectly clear. I do not hate Gannett and the weasels in management!
They paid for my 4800 square ft home, put my kids thru college and paid for my wife’s Lexus and my SUV and our summer vacations in Europe. I was disappointed that they didn’t respect me enough to let me know what was going on up front. Would I have walked three months early if they had let me in on the secret? No! I felt a sense of ownership and loyalty towards the company. The company didn’t trust me enough to make the right decision, that’s what really hurt. Hating this company will send you to an early grave. The company saved my life by letting me go. I’m thankful to them. I got out when jobs were still obtainable in my field.
Here's a question that isn't laid-off related.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else experiencing a problem access the corporate email website at https:// webmail.east.gannett.com?
It hasn't been working for a couple weeks and I tried on several computers. Did the address change?
Help!
Thanks. :-)
They changed it to were you dont need to use the east any more.
ReplyDeletewww.webmail.gannett.com
looking through old posts ... re one from mid-week: "seems to me the cherry hill facility would make a nice hq for the Inky, complete with a printing plant for their sj edition ... can't be too long before the viability of the courier is such that the real estate is worth more than the subscriber list ... can you spell fire sale?"
ReplyDeleteanybody hearing anything about this? seems plausible since Cherry Hill is considered an "outsider" in the NJ group and they are too far away from Wilmington to do anyhing strategic with that paper either. Time to give up on South Jersey?
The NJ group hired a Digital Development Director at the end of the summer. So you think "hey, Gannett's going to really shine in NJ when it comes to the web sites! Maybe there will be better quality control or some innovative programming."
ReplyDeleteInstead, they spend weeks focusing on staff blogs. Crazy innovation going on there. I wonder how many real jobs will go so this guy can teach reporters how to use Twitter?
3:37 PM wrote: "Is anyone else experiencing a problem access the corporate email website at https:// webmail.east.gannett.com?"
ReplyDeleteI just solved this mystery myself today. Try just https:// webmail.gannett.com - apparently the "east" part has disappeared.
Nice if someone had told us, but what do you expect?
4:47 Please dont post internal systems information. I know just the address to your webmail isnt a HUGE issue but comeon. There no reason to put stuff like that on here? This is not a help desk. Any gannett systems info can be used to disrupt our systems. So, please, just dont. thanks.
ReplyDeleteI think the remote email portal is down at the moment. I checked it earlier today ... no problems then.
ReplyDelete4:52 PM wrote: "Please dont post internal systems information. I know just the address to your webmail isnt a HUGE issue but comeon."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I bet a hacker would NEVER think of webmail.gannett.com as a valid address.
You're right - my mistake.
When Craig Dubow came to our paper a while back he insisted that companies like Google wanted desperately to have what we have "local". If that’s the case why is it that at just under 2 billion market cap they do not want to buy us. We could be theirs. I just checked their balance sheet and they have around 8 billion in cash alone with almost 0 liabilities. So if they really wanted anything that we have they could just buy use and it wouldn’t even be much of an impact on their financials. Hell, they could just write a check for us.
ReplyDelete5:05 - I told you it wasnt a HUGE issue but why post it here?? Posting systems info is a slippery slope. Next people are posting more secrete information. Its best just to not post anything at all about our systems. There is no value in posting it so why post it at all?
ReplyDelete5:09 PM said: "There is no value in posting it so why post it at all?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe because someone asked ...?
I knew the security Nazis were patrolling this blog. Idiots. You think no one outside of Gannett knows about the Gannett email system and protocols. Come on. Get serious. Do your dirty work at work if you must, but don't bother us here.
ReplyDelete5:16
ReplyDeleteMaybe because someone asked ...?
Hey 5:16, whats your credit card number? I just asked you so I guess it would be appropriate for you to post that here too?
You all have no argument here. This is not the place for Systems questions or answers. There is no value of it being posted in here. If you have a question about your newspaper's IT, ask your IT people.
the nj digital development director is another clueless writer brought on to the digital side. He knows nothing about the web just social networking. Biggest waste of money.
ReplyDeleteI wish corporate would just get out of the way and let each individual paper make its own decisions. Individually, they couldn't do any worse. There are a lot of people with good ideas at our paper but no one really cares anymore. They know that sharing them is futile because in order to get anything done, they'd have to have corporate approval. So we just sit around and wait for the next questionable corporate mandate to come down the line and usually scoff at it when it does because we've totally lost faith in the company.
ReplyDelete4:27 p.m.
ReplyDeleteLord knows anything is possible, but the Inky can't afford to keep the building it has, so I don't see it leaping at a chance to buy a dying newspaper.
6:33 PM wrote: "Hey 5:16, whats your credit card number? I just asked you so I guess it would be appropriate for you to post that here too?"
ReplyDeleteMan, if this is the best argument you can come up with, then you'd better pack it up right there.
I hope the people in my IT department are smarter than you. Somehow I know they are.
If someone knows how to hack into webmail.gannett.com, they probably know the URL to webmail.gannett.com
ReplyDeleteThe person laid off and gave a great account of his final day, THEN disappointed me my saying he does not hate Ganett and has great loyalty to company... it paid for his wife's Lexus and their trip to Europe. Huh????? First, I worked for gannett and could never afford any of this stuff. And loyalty? Gannett feels no loyalty to the employees. And employee who today feels loyal to gannett is a fool. Plain and simple. You - are - a - fool. I hate Gannett and do everything I can to hurt them in whatever ways I can! If you Ganettoids were smart, you'd jump ship like I did. And why is everyone afraid to respond?
ReplyDelete9:54 you clearly will die early from carrying around all that hatred. you sound like a 13 year old who hurt your feelings so now you wills how them! Its rediculous. Move on.
ReplyDeleteWell, gee, I'm not a big fan of Gannett, but I do have a great deal of respect for the Gannett-owned newspaper I work for, and for its readers. I consider myself to be working for them.
ReplyDeleteTo the extent I can, I protect them from Gannett's BS by holding to the highest journalistic standards I can despite whatever Gannett does vis a vis the bottom line, or regardless of whatever silly trend it wants us to chase.
As a journalist I can do no less and hold my head up. I know other people at my paper who feel the same.
Amen. When I talk to my neighbors, I tell them I work for the newspaper, not Gannett. I'm the one who works with the advertisers that employ them. I'm the one they call when their paper is late. I'm the one who gets the business for those damn liberal/conservative editors. And I'm the one they ask on how to get coverage for their fundraiser, public event, sports team.
ReplyDeleteOur readers tell us when we do stuff that stinks up "their" paper. We owe it to them, whether electronic or print, to provide the best community service we can. Gannett is just the holding company that owns the building. The people inside are the neighbors that cover neighbors.
"I hate Gannett and do everything I can to hurt them in whatever ways I can!"
ReplyDeleteI hope you lose your job today. You should not be poisoning the workplace for the rest of us.
Does anyone know anything about the new Careerbulider call center that Gannett Digital opened in Indy? It looks like it will be taking away the employment revenue for lots of newspapers? What have you heard?
ReplyDeleteJim or someone---
ReplyDeleteCan someone draw a graphic, showing how the money flow all fits together for Gannett, Career Builder, Pulse 360, Ripple6, cars.com, Shop Local----as it relates to page views and clicks?
I just don't get it.
I need basics, telling me who gets the money if I click on a CareerBuilder government-posted job on a Gannett newspaper site.
I just found this blog - it is nice to see I'm not alone: My husband works for Gannett at The Indianapolis Star and the impending layoffs (AFTER the Super Bowl) are making me/us sick. I'm so tired of worrying ... I'm really tired of thinking about it. These layoffs have been going on for years and it's taken over our lives. I actually found relief in the earlier post about somebody knowing that a layoff would probably save their husband's life. I think this every day. Of course, I'm not sure how we'd survive on only my income. But we'd make do. I want soooooo badly to do something to Gannett to make them pay for their awful behavior; a petition, a boycott, a stoning!
ReplyDelete