2. Use passive language: "Editors, writers, photographers, designers, ad sales people and others associated with the niche publications lost their jobs. [Jim asks: Lost? Or laid off?] Eliminating niche publications sheltered the daily Journal, our core operation. The staff reductions were painful. Many hands were held until the tears could be held. Our next round of cost cutting involves centralizing some jobs."3. Forecast the inevitable: "The next step into centralization involves the design and pagination of the Journal's pages. [Jim: You guys must have considered other options. How about sharing them?] While Journal reporters, writers, photographers and local coverage editors remain in Ithaca, some of our editors accepted [did they have a choice?] jobs on a central editing desk. Late this month those editors will begin producing sports, features and news pages for the three Gannett newspapers in Ithaca, Binghamton and Elmira." [Doesn't this mean control of the news report is shifting even further away from Ithaca?]
My less-varnished version
The Ithaca Journal has tried to preserve its most important mission -- watchdog journalism -- by reducing expenses in less important areas, like daily color comics and energy use. We've laid off employees in the worst economy in decades, while forcing others to accept jobs they didn't want, in communities where they don't live.
But now our rapacious owner, the Gannett Co. Inc., is demanding still more tribute that can only be delivered at the expense of our newsroom. We're trashing a tradition of more than 193 years of public-service journalism, which includes a coveted Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service. We hate this, but Gannett won't stop.
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I quote:
ReplyDelete"Eliminating niche publications sheltered the daily Journal, our core operation. The staff reductions were painful. Many hands were held until the tears could be held."
Oh my Gawd, what amazing drivel! How condescending and trivializing the loss of jobs of these people!
This guy is clearly an idiot. Anyone in his community reading this garbled garbage will see it for what it is.
How embarrassing this story is!
Jim, Jim, Jim ... you'll never land a job in PR by combining trenchant observation with precise prose. The first is a requirement; the second a death sentence.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said here before, Gannett is a marketing organization that just happens to operate in a domain (once) inhabited by truth-tellers. They have never truly been about hard core journalism in the "Who will tell the people?" sense of the term, though many fine reporters and editors inside Gannett properties have bucked the odds to do great work.
Ah, I like Jim's version better.
ReplyDeleteThe people of Ithaca deserve a locally owned news report, whether in print or on the web. Gannett just wants to suck advertising dollars out of the city, put on a nominal showing of journalism, and send most of the money to Virginia to pay unnecessary executives and overhead that contribute NOTHING to the Journal other than bad technology platforms, awful affiliated Web content, and corporate red tape.
ReplyDeleteTo answer Jim's 2 questions:
ReplyDelete"did they have a choice?"
Yes, and some of them chose to be laid off instead.
"Doesn't this mean control of the news report is shifting even further away from Ithaca?"
News decisions will still be made in Ithaca and Elmira. Only page production (design, headlines, etc.) will be done on a consolidated copy desk.
love the subtle Mafia reference - tribute.
ReplyDeletephunny.
this blog rox.
MORE corporate bullshit! How come there is no mention of ads going to India to be done written? Ads going ot India is what caused the elimination of the whole ad services department in Elmira and Ithaca. Not all ads are designed and done in Binghamton!!! Be fair and report it as it is. Good job on leaving out some of the facts on your reporting Estes and more power to you. Hope you will still have a job 6 months from now.
ReplyDeleteMORE corporate bullshit! How come there is no mention of ads going to India to be done written? Ads going ot India is what caused the elimination of the whole ad services department in Elmira and Ithaca. Not all ads are designed and done in Binghamton!!! Be fair and report it as it is. Good job on leaving out some of the facts on your reporting Estes and more power to you. Hope you will still have a job 6 months from now.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's rather condescending, but it is the worst economy in decades, plus the internet has gutted the core profit centers for newspapers.
ReplyDeleteSo, Jim, what would you have them do? Because instead of objectively reporting on this, your own summary is slanted to mock Gannett for trying to keep these newspapers alive.
I'm not saying Gannett is being run by geniuses, but unless someone comes up with a great idea on keeping local papers in the black, consolidation is going to continue.
If anyone has a better solution, why don't they start their own newspaper, so they can keep it all local?
My job!
ReplyDeleteWhere's my job?
I've lost my job. Wilma, have you seen my job laying around here. I've lost it somewhere.
It was here just a bit ago, I remember going to work every day and seeing it.
Now it is gone.
Would you please help me a little. I need to find it. I need to find it right away.
I can't believe I lost that job. I invested so much in it and now it is gone.
my hands were held until my tears could be held.......i want to puke and laugh at this loser's lines of shit! A few more weeks Estes and your paper will be its intention.....2-ply! it will get thinner and thinner and Becker will keep decimating the advertising, she is a loser too.
ReplyDelete12:08 -- In other words: Only the presentation of the stories -- the first things readers see -- will be handled by people who have nothing to do with the community in question.
ReplyDeleteI don't live in New York, but I've watched my Gannett paper become a rag over the past two years. And that's without a system as backward as this one.
I can only imagine how awful this paper is about to become.
7:44 pm: If you think Dubow & Co. are genuinely interested in keeping newspaper alive -- well, you haven't been paying enough attention.
ReplyDeleteIt may be the worst economy in decades, but readers of our newspapers are not stupid. They can see what is happening and Gannett is signing its own death warrant when it keeps cutting back, centralizing and giving readers less product for more money. It would be smarter to settle for a smaller profit margin to ride out this economy and continuing to provide a quality product (such as it is) to retain readers. And subscribers figure out pretty quick that centralization has taken the place of local offices when you call to report that you didn't get a paper and the person on the other end of the line cannot pronounce properly the name of your hometown.
ReplyDeleteA golden opportunity was missed in Ithaca. The opportunity was missed because we try to make one size fit all for our work sites.
ReplyDelete