This just in from one of several readers: "You probably know Gannett News Service is hearing about layoffs right now. Could be no more GNS after this, from what I hear. The meeting was set for 1 p.m. ET."These tips follow speculation that the 65-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning news service will be merged into the recently launched ContentOne web news and pagination system.
iPhone Update at 3:15 p.m. ET: Details about this still-unfolding GNS drama are now leaking out in a fascinating way. Also, I've been live-blogging some GNS developments on Twitter; it's much faster.
From the company's history: "Gannett News Service, founded in 1943 as the Gannett National Service, continues to provide Gannett newspapers with national enterprise and stories with a local angle from its Washington office and bureaus across the nation."
Can anyone else confirm today's GNS developments -- and add detail? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
ContentOne is a brilliant idea: layout a page with content in Washington, then leave it to the local newspaper to fill it up with ads before putting it on the press. The trouble is, centralized page layouts and distribution have been tried before and failed a decade ago. Copley aggressively pushed the idea for its newspapers in the 1980's, and Scripps followed with its papers. Both experiments didn't work, because local newspapers ended up having to rip up the layouts, or run house ads in the holes left for ads. ContentOne is a really stale and unworkable plan, designed IMO only to reduce payroll numbers.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have the experience I had with the first ContentOne experiment and the Obama inauguration? At my local Safeway, they were GIVING away these papers free of charge because no one bought them. They are going to repeat this error with the Superbowl, and March madness. Sigh.
ReplyDelete1 p.m. meeting at the GNS side of the D.C. Bureau is completed. The two dozen or so GNS staffers there now know their futures. The 3:30 p.m. meeting at GNS Tysons will be starting in about 10 minutes. And the two dozen or so there will soon know their futures too. More TK.
ReplyDeleteTo some degree, I wish I lived in a Gannett market so that I could see this train wreck that is ContentOne. But, I have my own hometown McClatchy paper to look at. I don't think I could handle Gannett.
ReplyDeleteHaving been laid off in August (and still haven't received my pension money!!!) I am so glad that I'm gone from all the negativity Gannett dishes out. I now have a job making less money but I'm actually happy in that I no longer have to deal with all the crap that Gannett hands out to it's employees. It's so obvious that the only people that reap any benefit whatsoever are either corporate or directors. Everyone else is going to be screwed regardless of how much a** you kiss on a daily basis. My new boss is actually appreciative of the work I produce and never belittles me or makes me feel threatened in any way.
ReplyDeleteGetting laid off was a good thing for me. Best of all, I no longer have a supervisor that is dumb as a box of rocks telling me how to do what I've done for the past 30 years!!!
Told you so.
ReplyDelete3:10 p.m. That's a great point...
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they let the page designers work the copy into pages that make sense with the local ads? Forcing ads into pre-set holes is a disaster. Makes pick ups virtually impossible.
I think it's remarkable that actual announcements were made at GNS today -- at two locations, and very publically -- and no one bothers to post here what was said.
ReplyDeleteI think it shows that despite the great work Jim does here, the overall tone and mean-spiritedness of most of the posters -- and the continuing bad information that becomes 'sorta true' weeks later but not quite -- has people thinking this place isn't worth telling the truth to.
Or something.
But it is weird that the GNS news remains within two buildings, even many hours later. And somehow it makes me smile.
8:53
ReplyDeletethat makes sense. It'll never happen.
The Copley experiment with centralized layout of pages didn't work because local papers saw it only as a job-saving concept, and sabotaged the idea. Ditto Scripps and other chains that tried this. The resistance to innovations like this is unbelievable as local publishers and editors devise ways of ensuring it isn't allowed to survive. What is left of their autonomy is at stake, and they will fight like banshies to save their dignity.
ReplyDelete11:50 you are so wrong. We tried it with the inauguration pages and it was a DISASTER for our site. The pages were formated wrong for our computer systems, and we have many people who are tech savvy, young and old. It was excruciating to pull those pages down and get them to work for us. It would have been easier to build those pages from scratch.
ReplyDeleteWe tried and we got screwed. Don't blather on about resistance to innovation.
Yep. Following the 'spectacular' rollout of Content One, GNS is headed for dinosaur status. Not buyouts, but 'a voluntary severance program.' Two weeks pay for every year of service, up to 39 weeks (so much for loyal employees who have spent most of their adult lives with Ma Gannett). And it's still hazy. They MAY accept your decision and they MAY ask you to stay on for a while if they acknowledge that the job you do may actually be important. Decisions must be made by Feb. 4. On Feb 5, they will tell you if they accept your goodbye, and then if not enough people accept, layoffs will be announced. Yeah, I'm really inspired to go in and continue busting my ass because our ranks already were seriously depleted.
ReplyDeleteThis is really too bad. Although, at this point, I really wish they'd make a buyout offer like this at my mid-sized daily.
ReplyDeleteOur last round of layoffs included only one week's pay for every year of service, so this is a much sweeter deal. I'm still employed but am truly disappointed that I was never given a deal as sweet as this or the one offered to some of my older co-workers more than a year ago.
As a mid-career professional, I would jump at the opportunity to receive severance of two weeks for every year plus medical benefits. That would give me enough time to be well on my way to a new job, and it would certainly save the company more money than furloughs.
GCI -- If you're listening, please offer across the board buyouts with the above terms. You may be surprised how many people take them, and you will then retain employees who actually still believe in your mission and have a desire to stay with the company.
I don't, and will gladly leave but I can't afford to go without a cushion to get me from job to job.
ContentOne in Cherry Hill was a disaster following inauguration, the biggest news day since the election. To peruse the ghastly Web site forced on us by Gannett was to be unable to find any local stories and photos without wanting to tear your hair out. This is how we're going to survive as a local news source?
ReplyDeleteAnon @7:21... You were laid off in August and still don't have your pension. Have you called the Gannett Pension Office? I was laid off in December and have already received and mailed off my paperwork. They say it should take about 4 weeks to get my money rolled over... Have you gotten your paperwork yet?
ReplyDelete2:15 a.m., with two weeks for every year worked and a week to decide, you're getting a much more generous severance and departure arrangement than was given to thousands of Gannetteers who were laid off last year and immediately ushered out of the workplace. Yes, it sucks, but in relative terms, your deal sucks a little less.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Your deal sucks A LOT LESS. There were people at my paper who got NOTHING. Take the buyout; Believe this if nothing else: Corporate ALREADY HAS A LIST of who they want to keep and who they want to go. They've had it for months. They didn't just decide to make this decision a month or two ago. It's been in the works for years and the last three executive editors knew it. What's more, that list of people they want to get rid of is based on SALARY and SKILL set. Take the buyout. If they want you to stay they will tell you. If not, you run the risk of losing that two-week severance for every year worked for a one week severance - or even worse, a pink slip and a handshake and an escort to the door.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for all those people wondering why they need 30 to 50 percent of the staff to take the buyouts or get riffed is this - there is no more GNS. Why do you think they began compiling the Gannett archive years ago? People at what's left of the papers/websites can get their content from the archive. Who has a DC bureau covering politics for papers anymore? Hardly anyone. GCI will take whatever money they save from the buyouts and apply them to NEW people with NEW skills to run Content One; or train all those people earning less than $70 grand to do it. Haven't you looked at all those job advertisements?? Do any of you possess any of those skills? No? Then leave. Take the package and if you're still unemployed, file for unemployment before the state you live in runs out of money to pay it (like California) - you may even be able to collect unemployment while you're collecting severance - check with the unemployment office in your state.
Good luck. You're going to need it.