Sunday, February 08, 2009
Sunday | Feb. 8 | Your News & Comments
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55 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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First!
ReplyDeleteSecond!
ReplyDeleteKinda funny that a guy without the balls to ask a question face-to-face at last year's shareholders meeting would threaten the Board with violence if they don't do what he wants at their next meeting.
ReplyDeleteJim, will you be joining us at the shareholders meeting this year?
Bonuses need to be cut on all levels - top Executives to Directors at local sites. Those bonues would save thousands of jobs. The leadership of the company is not worthy of receiving any type of bonus when the company is tanking and people are losing their jobs and taking furloughs right and left.
ReplyDelete1:13 am: That's terrible! Who's threatening the board of directors?
ReplyDeleteAs to your question: Maybe. And maybe not.
I am now on furlough and it feels weird.
ReplyDelete3:17 am: What makes it feel weird?
ReplyDeleteI'm coming off furlough. Thank god.
ReplyDelete2/08/2009 1:21 AM
ReplyDeleteYour right!!!!!!!!!!
It is amazing that we now have a President who has been very vocal about executive pay and now everyone on this blog believes that management should have their salaries capped.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you are all losers that will always remain low level workers who despise wealth.
It is disgusting to see such hatred of the people who employ you. If you are all upset about what you do, how much you get paid and all the "benefits" you receive, then get the fuck out of this company and go join the Obama Youth Army. Where Socialism is #1 and worthless "workers" like you can become the true blood suckers that you are!
I too think the CEO of this company sucks, but you all lose credibility when you start comparing what you make and what the CEO or CFO make.
You dirtbags should all be thrown out of this place. Go ahead and find another job writing for another newspaper. Why don't you all learn a new skill, like flipping burgers at McDonalds.
Jim: get some sleep.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if it would be a violation of the furlough policy to talk with local business leaders to put together the financing for a new paper on our week off? I was going to go to the Caribbean but the air fare is kinda high with Spring Break rates.
ReplyDelete@1:13 You need to read this: http://ashvegas.squarespace.com/journal/2009/1/14/former-citizen-times-online-director-yenne-weighs-in-on-the-1.html
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for my furlough week...taking a blonde to Mexico for four days!
ReplyDeleteThre is a sadly instructive story in today's NYTimes about a suburb of Fort Myers. It is the sort of story that wasn't covered as it unfolded the past two years in the News-Press, the newspaper that until recently was headed by our new Information Center czaress, Kate Marymont. Draw your own conclusions.
ReplyDeleteThe link is http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/us/08lehigh.html?_r=1&em
"taking a blonde to Mexico.'' Sounds like our sports editor. And sounds like it's 1976.
ReplyDeleteBravo on your stand, Jim, opposing bonuses for the Board of Directors.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for it, too. Greedy bums!
As long as I get my bonus as scheduled, of course.
6:50 a.m. said:
ReplyDeleteyou all lose credibility when you start comparing what you make and what the CEO or CFO make.
Why?
I have wondered if the fact that we did that, even back in the "good" 1980s, was the reason that corporate quit printing and distributing the Gannett annual report. Beautiful, slick stiff paper, lovely photos, occasionally featuring stories about top papers in each circulation categories and, in the back, the executive compensation was listed. The first time I looked at it I was making $24,000 and people of the top were earning $2.2 million and up.
I was working my guts out and I wondered, even then, how hard those people at corporate worked.
I think the people generating the income which fuels the corporation and supports CEOs and CFOs lavish lifestyles have far more cred than people who feel justified in calling us losers.
You've just reminded me that I was featured in Gannett's annual report around 1997. I gotta dig up that photo!
ReplyDeleteIf Dickey has to give publishers goals to make X sales calls, then he has the wrong people in place to begin with. And, if Dickey thinks edicts like those are the way to turn things around, well then, his name fits as that type of micro-management leadership is part of why Gannett has so many issues now.
ReplyDeleteTo 6:50 a.m.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure a lot of us who read this blog resent your name-calling and sweeping generalizations about everything. I'm not a dirtbag and never was and the same can be said for most of my former Gannett co-workers. I spent a small fortune to leave a newspaper where I was appreciated and well-established, and move to a new state to work at a Gannett newspaper that kicked me to the door less than two years later. The fact that I and others are dismayed over the state of this company does not mean we are socialists or dirtbags. Those of us laid off who write here are still suffering from grief over the loss of our careers, health benefits, self-confidence, and probably lastly, our incomes.
I had a wonderful career in the newspaper business over the years which ended abruptly on Dec. 2, 2008. I'm near retirement age. I'd flip burgers but I made a pact not to get any job that requires that I wear a hat because they give me headaches. So McDonald's is out.
I'd like to know what you do at your Gannett newspaper? Do you have the cojones to answer honestly?
Of course Gannett and the rest of the news industry are in trouble, but we laid-off Gannetteers still feel the irony when, like today, the AzRep's Biz CP is:
ReplyDelete"Saying goodbye to a laid-off co-worker"
Reporter Chad Graham's lede:
"The dreaded moment has arrived. Your company has announced layoffs. The stunned workers who are being shown the door are heading to their desks to collect personal items. A tense silence hangs over the office.
It is tough to know how to say goodbye - from the departing employees, to the workers who've kept their jobs to managers whose response may be muted by company policy or workplace law. Yet the situation can be handled tactfully and with common sense.
...."
See it here, if you like:
http://tinyurl.com/cahqd6
Thanks for the memories.
Now we need an article for what laid-off workers to say to those they're leaving behind.
I suspect somewhere between,
"So long, suckers"
and
"Don't worry, you take care of yourself, I'll be just fine."
This is funny. In italic is the reply from Gannett's benefits staff about my MIA 401k rollover. My local banker and I had asked for the name of the individual handling this or answering my correspondence.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that you had got the letter was because we had received a request for Rollout of the Plan. Since this is a paperless transaction and has to be processed on the YBR site or with a benefits representative. This is way the communication was sent out. But you have already done the transaction.
I do show that the Rollover transaction processed on xxxxx. Funds were made payable to xxxx. The funds were mailed out on xxxx. It is coming from Mellon Bank which is out of Pittsburgh, PA. I see that it is getting mailed out to xxx.
The letter is a generic communication, which will not obtain a benefit representative's name. Nor will it generate a name through our communications thru this messaging system. If you have any other questions regarding this matter you can give us a call at 1-866-343-2333.
Thank you for using Your Benefits Resources.
And Gannett laid me off Dec. 2 because my word skills no longer were needed in the company? Scary times, folks. Scary times.
First, 10:37 am - You are SO RIGHT and comment your comments! What happened to you is precisely why there is so much bitterness and anger toward this near-criminal company.
ReplyDeleteSeconly, regardly Ft. Myers, the NYT article and coverage (lack thereof) of the demise of this community over the last two years, here is how it probably went:
Any time the paper started covering the downturn in the economy, housing market, etc., several "big shot" realty or car advertisers, plus Chamber types would decend on the publisher's office and whine about how all the "negative" headlines and "bad news on the front page" is hurting the community.
These "big shots" would then say that the Florida Today or Ft. Myers coverage would "hurt advertising" hint, hint hint.
The publisher... and who was that, by the way?????..... would then say to the EE .."We need to look at the upside of all this and not dwell on the negative ... hint hint hint... or maybe even be more direct... just tell them to stop the bad economy coverage.
Folks, lift up your jaws... it happens at Gannett papers all the time... especially the past couple of years.
So... the NYT story did what the Ft. Myers paper has been afraid to do for two years... shake up the "big shots" in town... who by now, by the way, have probably stopped advertising in their paper anyway since they have ironically gone broke.
Everyone had their heads in ther sand together, the newspaper and the business community... and look where they are now!
THAT is why the Ft. Myers paper ignored the bad news in that community. I suspect the same thing happened across Gannett.
Am I wrong??
6:50 AM, your attitude is the one that has destroyed Gannett's credibility as a news source. Good luck with that going forward. Readers have wised up and are the ones who have moved on.
ReplyDelete11:22 am: Spot-on! Especially this: ""We need to look at the upside of all this and not dwell on the negative ... hint hint hint... or maybe even be more direct... just tell them to stop the bad economy coverage."
ReplyDelete7:35 am
ReplyDeleteTo start a new paper or publication of any sort, you first get the advertisers committed and then go forward from there. Gannett often has news come up with a new publication idea and then have advertising try to sell it--that's assbackwards. Get the major advertisers committed to say three to six months, make your rates reasonable, lock up distribution, and have a cover story that people want to read and you have a newspaper! Go for it!
11:22 AM. I can confirm your speculation that at least one Gannett paper (not Ft Meyers) kills news copy that reflects poorly on advertisers -- and even when the news value is critical.
ReplyDeleteAbout two years ago, I wrote about the housing crisis using the real play-by-play of a local guy who lost about three-quarters of a million after being lured into one of these no-credit-check mortgages that he didn't even need to buy a nice home, lien-free and clear.
I was told my copy was killed because the ME thought it would reflect poorly on our advertiser, a real estate company that hooked the guy and ended up with the lion's share of his money, while he ended up penniless on a friend's couch and without transportation, even.
I often wonder how many borrowers' lifestyles might have been saved if my copy had run back when the nation's eyes first started opening to Wall Street's legalized predatory lending scheme.
It's a sad irony that at a time when the economy is in free fall and news about business and finance is especially important to readers, newspapers at Gannett and elsewhere have slashed their business coverage. That's one way to keep down the level of negativity.
ReplyDeleteNewsroom without walls: Advertising/publisher can kill stories they don't like about advertisers, or simply their line of business. It does happen, and it's shameful.
ReplyDelete6:50am says, "...then get the fuck out of this company"
ReplyDeleteI DID!!! Gannett followed me. Their turn to leave!
Hey 11:04am... Another article in the Arizona Republic (and another bit of irony) ran Saturday, pg. B1, "Park director received 11% raise" which put him in a higher benefit package upon his soon-to-be retirement. The Republic feels compelled to report on these questionable doings but can't seem to apply the same logic or the pen to their own business practices.
ReplyDelete1:46 PM - be specific. Who at the Arizona Republic are you alluding to?
ReplyDeleteHey 1:46, yes, I was amazed that the article specifically states that the guy's raise was retroactive SO HIS RETIREMENT BENEFITS WOULD BE INCREASED. But then it didn't go into any analysis, or comments from people about whether that's "kosher" - a state employee to have a raise given and get EIGHT MONTHS retroactive pay SPECIFICALLY TO INCREASE HIS RETIREMENT BENNIES.
ReplyDeleteOh, all while other state employees are being laid off. And the guy makes close to $150K. There's a story there people!!!!
more azrep irony today: back inside on the "Business Insiders" page is a new columnist, under the headline "When to jump corporate ship? How about now?"
ReplyDeleteUnder the columnist's mug:
"
NAME
HERE
Republic
Columnist
"
http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/jobview.asp?joid=87076&page=7
ReplyDeleteTwo questions come to mind on this job post for a news director for a Gannett property in N.C.:
None of the 4,000+ employees whose "positions were terminated" in the past year included one with news editor qualifications, and no one on the list for the next round of layoffs is qualified?
Is Gannett still a Fortune 500 company and industry leader, as it advertises, now that it's at penny-stock prices and with the lowest possible Moody's credit rating?
I have a question about the weekly corporate missive for years called NewsWatch.
ReplyDeleteIn the past few years, we've been coerced to call the places where reporters, editors, photographers and others work a local information center (not newsroom).
More recently, the group of reporters that badly trail AP has now been dubbed ContentOne (not Gannett News Service).
So, shouldn't the previously mentioned NewsWatch be changed to reflect the times? Ya know, remove the news like everywhere else? Like ContentWatch, Advertiser-ApprovedStoryWatch, or the more appropriate IdiotRamblings?
Re poor economic coverage
ReplyDeleteWhat the Fort Myers comments remind me of:
All those hokey, inflated chamber of commerce stories in the past few years saying, 'business is great, tourists are back after all the hurricane damage of years ago. The beach is open for business. The snow birds are back...." yeah, whatever.
I could not believe the paper (florida) would let these "sources" paint this rosy picture when everyone knew then things were bad. And only going to get worse.
So Jim you choked last year at the board meeting. Sat their like a shy six year old whose mommy left him at the daycare too long. You can play tough all you want but when you had the moment to ask teh tough question you didn't. You can argue with the truth. I look forward to seeing this on the blog.
ReplyDelete1:46 PM - be specific. Who at the Arizona Republic are you alluding to?
ReplyDeleteFair question.
I'm alluding to the fact that in one sense, "Newspapers, historically, do not like to air their dirty laundry." Quote from Ex-publisher Pat Murphy.
In another sense, business-wise, Gannett does much the same thing that is being reported in this story.
3:24,
ReplyDeleteGannett was No. 332 on the Fortune 500 list last year.
There are bound to be some huge changes within the next year, as some companies - Circuit City, anyone? - will have fallen off entirely.
So who knows where Gannett will rank.
You dirtbags should all be thrown out of this place. Go ahead and find another job writing for another newspaper. Why don't you all learn a new skill, like flipping burgers at McDonalds.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for people like this. They don't have the compassion to see outside of their own little bubble of unreality. I feel no anger toward them but sadness. They will never know the joy of giving a family food because they have nothing to eat. The warmness you feel in your heart to cook a senior a meal and listen to them. People like this live miserable lives obsessed with how much money they can make and lose the real reason we are here. It truly is no way to live. They will never be truly happy because they've lost sight of what is truly important in life. I n the next few years, they will experience the same things workers all over the USA are experiencing. Hopefully they will grow and learn. If they don't they will continue to be miserable in their own misery.
Happy early Birthday!
ReplyDeleteAnything planned for you and Sparky!
I love San Francisco. What a great
place to celebrate.
Have a great one!
Note to 6:50 a.m. (who must surely be 6:07 p.m.): You are a foul-smelling windbag. You are like 10 pounds of crap stuffed into a five-pound bag. You are like a bad smell; you just won't go away. Why don't you just fuck off already? Oh, wait. That was rather rude. I apologize and rephrase: Please fuck off.
ReplyDeleteJim-
ReplyDeleteGannett has lost a huge amount of talent in the past several years. Many top-talent individuals have left on their own for greener pastures; many others were laid off.
It might be good to start a "where are they now?" feature, gathering crowdsourcing information where readers can chime in. It would be good to know where some of our brightest colleagues have ended up, and it could be fun, too.
If it gets enough interaction, create a searchable database of user input.
I find it interesting that KUSA in Denver forced two veteran photographers to retire last month. And just this past week, in a hiring freeze, they hired two part time BPJs with little to no experience. Frightening!
ReplyDeleteSaturday night I was sitting at the laundromat next to a teenager who was talking on her cell phone and eating some fries. In her lap was the local Gannett daily's sports section. She was reading about high school games. She couldn't have been more than 13 or 14. And she was reading while she was eating and talking on a cell phone at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI almost said something to her. I almost said, Hi, I used to work for that paper. Do you always read it? Do your friends like to read it? What do they like to read?
I refrained, I didn't want to scare her!
But in that moment, I realized that yes, there is HOPE for newspapers. If you give the younger generations more of what they want to read, maybe this industry can turn itself around. How can it be that difficult?
And another thing: How about charging something for reading on the Web sites all the features and news series that take reporters and editors so long to write and get to the press? I know, the NYT tried that and it didn't work out. Well, then, figure something else out. Come on, people. You're supposed to be educated and creative.
Please, Gannett leaders, recognize the "strategic direction" you've been trying to go is just not going to generate revenue and cut corners some other way than layoffs. Or target the layoffs on performance metrics and not age, sex, who likes whom etc., which is how it looks like they've been determined thus far.
As for saving money, why shouldn't a corporation cut back the same way the economy has forced so many millions of us to cut back? By cutting down on things like electricity and heat. I saw more office paper wasted where I used to work than ever in my entire career. No one cared. Lights and computers were left on all night. Why? Kind of chilly in the newsroom? Well, wear a sweater, like we do at home because turning up the heat is too damn expensive.
I know, this sounds juvenile. But it adds up. I would think those costs are in the operating budgets. Cut anything but talent, please.lucon
Anyone in Cincinnati that was laid off Dec. 2 having problems getting unemployment? I have been denied and I have to assume it is because I'm getting a severance. I know the unemployment office sent paper work to confirm my severance but they never got word back from the company. Now, I've been denied. Don't mean to double dip, but eveb the unemployment office told me I did the right thing to file asap. Anyone else in Cincy having problems?
ReplyDeleteTo Cincy layoff:
ReplyDeleteI'm not in Cincy, but where I live, unemployment was approved but checks were not processed until I reported no wages the week after severance wages were earned. Didn't you get a letter stating your job was eliminated and that unemployment would not be contested?
8:52 Cincy Layoff response:
ReplyDeleteYes, I got the letter and was told they would not contest unemployment on my last day. I'm wondering if it is the unemployment office because I'm getting a severance. I'm calling them tomorrow. I didn't know if they expect you to wait until your severance is over which will be six months.
9:58 What gets me about the real estate puffery, like that in Ft. Myers, is that readers see right through it. The editors and writers are not fooling anyone by pumping out b.s. real estate stories. Tell anyone today how great an investment real estate is and see their reaction. Yet I read stories about how investing in real estate is lucrative for investors, and how house prices are certain to rebound. Readers, who already see newspapers as a 5th column undermining their way of life, read these unreal stories as justification in their belief the newspaper is lying, and advertisers have no respect for newspapers that have no guts.
ReplyDelete8:40,
ReplyDeleteI also have wondered about things such as office paper, lights, computers left on 24/7, coffeemakers constantly plugged in, etc.
At my shop, editors at the budget meeting all get a hard-copy version of the daily budget - despite having the capability of showing on an overhead projector, and despite only two or three editors actually NEEDING the full thing. A complete waste.
Conservation Before Cuts!
Anyone having problems with their W-2s -- I know of at least two that seem to have an unusually low amount taken out for taxes.
ReplyDelete9:26 pm - You are exactly right - readers DO see through all the crap like what Ft. Myers has been producing the last few years.
ReplyDeleteBut the point is - Gannett doesn't care. The readers and circulation are irrelevent compared to the almighty advertisers and stockholders.
The readers interests come last at gannett.
Why do you think the circulations of almost all Gannett newspapers have PLUNGED the last couple of years???
My Gawd... just look at the numbers. And Gannett still doesn't care.
Regarding W-2's. There may be a problem with mine. I've contacted my local HR department which responded that it was a "payroll issue." They (supposedly) notified "payroll" but I've heard nothing back about the problem. I suggest that everyone check their W-2 numbers against the final pay check for 2008. If there is any difference or if boxes aren't filled in, you might have a problem. Better to address this now before there is a problem when you file your taxes.
ReplyDelete