The memo describes a plan to consolidate all of the papers' newsrooms under a single editor, "to better foster the sharing of content, including work from a new NNCO enterprise reporting team, and provide local sites with complete support for print and online production work. This means all print pages will be built at larger copy desks in Newark and Mansfield, where online content also will be managed."The memo continues: "A key aspect of this plan is the formation of an enterprise and data reporting team of two people based in Newark. Their job is to write in-depth daily and project stories on issues that impact as many NNCO markets as possible. Their efforts, in concert with local sites, will enable us to produce more hard-hitting news key to attracting and keeping readers, especially Boomers. Our current structure does not allow us to produce such stories without unusual efforts, let alone share them easily. And we know strong 'watchdog' journalism is critical to our future in this new media world.
This improvement plan is not part of the Gannett workforce reductions announced last week,'' the memo says. "But its scope is quite large and ambitious and cannot be done without the regrettable elimination of some Information Center jobs. Most of these positions are being repurposed in online, copy editing and content generation efforts at the group and local level. This project was being planned long before the recent news. Human Resources will meet with impacted employees in the next few days."
I've posted a portion of the entire memo, here.
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"Repurposed"?????
ReplyDeleteWhat in hell does that mean??? What a sad, pathetic joke this is.
Well, from what I have seen on this blog, the Ohio folk rarely comment here (mainly out of fear) and tend to be big Kool-Aid drinkers (although why they are such atta-boys is beyond me).
You would think this memo alone would be the last straw.
12:19- there are more Ohio people here than you think. This email was a huge letdown for us. We have been lied to about the progression of this possibility, and now we are losing all of our copy editors the same week some others in the newsroom will be laid off. Because the "restructuring" doesn't count toward the actual general layoffs, even more people will lose their jobs. All this is happening at the same time that the restructuring is ADDING jobs, none of which were opened to applications, I might add.
ReplyDeleteI think we are still processing what's going on, but this is not going to be good in the long run for these papers.
Alright: NO HAIR JOKES! (Unless they're really good.)
ReplyDeleteNNCO already has destroyed the Ohio papers, so now its time to bury them, I guess. Please list the calling hours and service schedule. Oh, and please put a NEWARK dateline on the story for good measure. In lieu of flowers, please send cash to the NNCO chief so she can get a decent haircut.
ReplyDeleteSad. Ohio papers were once well-respected in their communities. Now, they are just jokes.
This has to be a joke. How can one editor oversee 10 newspapers? So other than a dwindling staff of reporters on site in the 10 markets, the papers like Chillicothe, Lancaster, Port Clinton, Zanesville, will be in name only. All developed and made in Newark and Mansfield. How do these folks know what someone in Chillicothe or Zanesville wants to see.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for my friends at Gannett papers.