In the layoff run-up, I read several comments posing a desperate-sounding question: Does anyone know anything about Hattiesburg? That's Mississippi's small Hattiesburg American, of course, in what I called "S.O.S. signals'' in this episode of Gannett Blog TV.
So, all this week, I watched Hattiesburg. Yet, even though I expected bad news, it was still shocking to see: The American is shutting down its presses in February, and moving production to The Clarion-Ledger, 100 miles north in Jackson. The switch wipes out 38 jobs -- more than 20% of the paper's workforce. The American is joining a growing number of papers that are economizing, by junking their presses.
Friday, December 05, 2008
30 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What kind of commercial (if any) work was Hattiesberg printing?
ReplyDeleteThis was a move that's been heading toward Hattiesburg for years.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to saving money in Hattiesburg is to print the paper in Jackson and then truck the papers 90 miles south to Hattiesburg every morning? They can barely deliver the papers PRINTED in Hattiesburg on time now. And things are going to get better?
Hattiesburg is on the way to essentially becoming a bureau to the Clarion Ledger one day. And the "one day" will mean even fewer jobs.
Which will make a Gannett bean counter so very, very happy.
For the people living on Conti Street and Short Katie Street and Mamie Street in Hattiesburg, it will mean fewer people to help their community.
do we have an accurate count of how many pressrooms were closed? i think i counted about 6
ReplyDeleteYou know, I thought the corporatizing of newspapers was supposed to be the savior of the newspaper; Allowing JOAs and such in the same market? What Gannett is doing now is amounting to a wholesale destruction of the American newspaper, to save a wasteful and what appears to be an outmoded corporate infrastructure. That sucking sound again!
ReplyDeleteHey Jim, it's Hattiesburg...not Hattiesberg. :)
ReplyDeleteI feel for those who are left in Hattiesburg. I used to work there and there are some great people who still work there. For the longest time, people there felt that because they print USAT, they were safe. Sort of like an insurance policy. Well, with that gone now, I think a lot of people are fearful that the paper will just shut down now and become a bureau for Jackson, or just close for good. It's really sad.
ReplyDeleteWill Jackson print all those small weeklies that Hattiesburg prints, or at least used to when I worked there?
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in Hattiesburg for a couple years and worked at the Hattiesburg American, I can tell you that the town aches for a well run and locally focused newspaper presence. I need not detail for anyone reading this blog that GCI's prescription for running a small town newspaper constantly fell short of advertiser and reader expectations. It's no different than GCI's failures in many small towns. For being a "newspaper" company, GCI has -- for decades -- been astonishingly tone deaf to the needs of the local market and dismissive of local talent in favor of the "corporate" solution. Hattiesburg is a thriving, warm weather market with an active business community. If you can't operate a highly profitable 20,000 circulation newspaper in that environment -- then you're f*cking doing it wrong.
ReplyDeleteHattiesburg has several commercial customers. It will be interesting to see how this works. They print for the Collins newspaper and about 3 or 4 more. They also do jobs for the University of Southern Mississippi.
ReplyDeleteThe publisher in Hattiesburg feeds everyone full of bull. She told us that Gannett did not want to tell us this until sometime next year and she pushed to tell us now. She also said the severence package was not that great and she demanded they pay more. This is not the first time she feed us full of bull to make herself look good.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you notice her women friends are never on the layoff list.
All of us poor guys in production get the shaft everytime. Look what they did to Mark Wilson the director.
What did they do to Mark Wilson the production director?
ReplyDelete10:54 AM
ReplyDeleteGotta step in and defend Skippy, the publisher. Bless her heart. I think she tries. Really. I do, or that's the way it seemed when I worked there.
Earlier deadlines are inevitable with a setup like this, which means for one thing, that late sports scores won't make the paper. That's one thing a lot of people buy the newspaper for. Just one more way we dig our own grave.
ReplyDeleteMark Wilson was laid off with the last round of layoffs in the summertime...
ReplyDeleteI too will defend Skippy. This woman is not only passionate about what she does, but also cares for each and every person at the American. This is a woman who lived at the paper during Katrina, personally made sure every employee was safe, and has consistently gone to the mat against Jackson and the Crystal Palace whenever she disagreed with their so-called Corporate decisions.
ReplyDeleteEach time someone leaves there, voluntary or not, she dies a little bit and it shows. She knows every single employee there on a first-name basis and genuinely cares what's happening in their lives. How many GCI sites can say that? I consider it a real privilege to have worked with her.
The situation in Production, including Mark Wilson's, was made outside of Hattiesburg and out of her control.......
I too am going to go to Skippy's defensse. I know her when she worked at The Clarion-Ledger and used to spend some time talking with her on smoke breaks. Funny how things change. She went on to become the Publisher of the AA and I had a heart attack and quit smoking and was laid off from TCL in August. During the devastation from Katrina I went to Hattiesburg to aid in the protection of Denise Ivey and help out there for a day. To say that Skippy is anything less than protective of her people is just wrong. Skippy I think you'll know who I am if you read this.
ReplyDeleteDon't speak of Skippy in a bad way. She doesn't deserver it. It just shows you don;'t know her.
Sorry, instead of AA put HA.
ReplyDeleteSeems like Skippy is not the typical Gannett-type Publisher; wonder if GCI will be after her next???? Maybe we're doing her a disservice here lol
ReplyDeleteI don't know what a publisher is supposed to do, but I would think it would involve ensuring readers (online and print) get error-free news they can use. Is that happening in south Mississippi?
ReplyDeleteShe has a lot of you fooled. She looks out for herself and a select few.
ReplyDeletePlease identify the select few. At the HA, that's all they have!
ReplyDeleteWonder why they don't just share a publisher and editing functions with Jackson, and turn Hattiesburg into a bureau?
ReplyDeleteAs a soon to be unemployed production worker.. Skippy has always been nothing more than fair and straight-forward in my dealings with her. She was there for everyone during Katrina, doing whatever she could to assist anyone using all resorces at hand.
ReplyDeleteSome of you are shooting the wrong person. As far as Mark Wilson, thats yet another retarded move from corporate. But I fear not the last.
I totally disagree with these shots about Skippy. No one is more passionate about her people and cares more about the product. She has done as much as she could with a very tough situation. As soon as USA TODAY wanted out of Hattiesburg, there was no way that they could keep the daily on that press.
ReplyDeleteWhy did USAT want out of Hattiesburg?
ReplyDeleteAs a former HA employee, I just want to say "Thank You" to Skippy for what she's done for me.
ReplyDeleteYou won't hear from Skippy that it's a "corporate decision"; she doesn't pass the buck.
Hattiesburg is lucky to have her, and from the looks of it, you should appreciate her while she's there. It doesn't look like there'll be much of a newspaper operation left there soon other than the Clarion-Ledger South bureau.
I have step up for Skippy, too. She's tops when it comes to her people. And Wilson, well, he just talked a good game.
ReplyDeleteAlso the demise of Hattiesburg, IMHO, truly started around 2001. They cut HR, Marketing and part of Finance. Jackson it took them over.
The way Petty explained it to all of us at a company meeting, he just mentioned expense cuts. He didn't say anything about cutting those folks.
USAT did not want out of printing in Hattiesburg. It was GCI's call. Consolidation. One less press to ink up.
ReplyDeleteI remember traveling to the Gulf Coast to cover Katrina and sleeping on the floor at Hattiesburg. I remember the publisher greeting out-of-towners, providing hot meals, tanks of gas and a spot on the floor to get us to the next spot. I'll remember Skippy by that. If she was just looking out for herself, it didn't show during a major natural disaster.... Just one outsider's take.... I salute Hattiesburg and hope y'all hang in there.
ReplyDeleteHattiesburg has always been mismanaged. (in almost all departments) I can say Production was one of the best managed in the building. Now it is gone!
ReplyDeleteThis is sad. Lots of good people hurt and they did their job well. They should have hit other departments first.