Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Urgent: Gannett employment plunged 16% in 2009; after broad layoffs, workforce now totals 35,000; U.S. newspapers took biggest hit: 4,500 jobs cut


[Annual company-wide employment at the end of each year]

Wielding big layoffs and other cuts, Gannett slashed its workforce 16% last year, to 35,000 employees, the company disclosed today in its annual 2009 10-K report to federal regulators. The new company-wide total is down from 41,500 a year before. It was the largest annual decline since 1994, according to readily available records, and likely the biggest in the company's 104-year history.

The U.S. newspapers accounted for the most job losses by division: 4,500, says the report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But the U.K. newspapers experienced the biggest percentage decline: 23%.

The employment drop in the U.S. Community Publishing Division -- 4,500 jobs -- is a particularly striking figure. Late last June, based on a well-regarded source, I asked Corporate whether USCP was on the verge of laying off exactly that number of employees. The company disputed that forecast, and division President Bob Dickey told employees in a memo the actual number for that July layoff would be far smaller: 1,400.

Gannett's new 35,000 total includes 1,600 employees at jobs site CareerBuilder. Although GCI owns barely 51% of the company, it counts all the employees as though they worked entirely for Gannett. That was an accounting change that began with the 2008 annual report.

The complete breakdown by major divisions:

U.S. newspapers
2008: 29,200
2009: 24,700
Change: down 15%

Newsquest
2008: 6,600
2009: 5,100
Change: down 23%

Broadcasting
2008: 2,700
2009: 2,500
Change: down 8%

CareerBuilder
2008: 2,000
2009: 1,600
Change: down 20%

How is your worksite contending with fewer employees than a year ago? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

3 comments:

  1. I don't know how it is for the other divisions, but I know that in broadcasting people are leaving voluntarily when possible. Three people (including me) have left a major-market Gannett station's news department in the past six months -- and we weren't fired. We CHOSE to go. Plus, I heard that two more people -- one in marketing and one in sales -- left just this week.

    It's not just that people are being fired. It's that people still working at Gannett are starting to realize things aren't getting better and, when your station is at the bottom of the market, it won't improve -- sales won't be able to sell to big clients, so there won't be money to hire new people, so there won't be good coverage or innovations that aren't INSANE, so clients won't see a reason to buy ads... etc.

    And the TV station still renews the contract of the legacy anchor who makes $800k or so a year instead of making sure they can hire and retain producers, editors, and reporters -- the people who make sure the legacy anchor HAS NEWS TO REPORT ON IN THE FIRST PLACE.

    It wouldn't be so bad if said anchor was a little nicer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Last June, I asked then-chief publicist Tara Connell about a tip that the company was about to eliminate 4,500 jobs in the U.S. newspaper division. She did not respond to my e-mail.

    Instead, she spoke to The New York Times for a story that reported the following: "Tara Connell, the company’s chief spokeswoman, declined to comment on the matter, except to contend that numbers cited by Mr. Hopkins had often turned out to be incorrect."

    Soon after, division President Bob Dickey said the division would lay off 1,400 newspaper workers in early July.

    Now, comes the annual report, showing that the division reduced employment by, indeed, 4,500 jobs during the year. Certainly, many of those jobs may have been eliminated before, or after, the July layoff.

    Nonetheless, I would say my source -- an anonymous reader known as "My Boss" -- was far closer to being accurate than the company's official statements suggested at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Does anyone know how many employees are at Clipper Magazine (which Gannett bought a few years ago) and in which category they fall. Also, how are they doing and what about layoffs there over this past year of bloodbaths??

    ReplyDelete

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.