Sunday, March 14, 2010
Week March 8-14 | Your News & Comments
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53 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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I'm curious, reporters. What is your work environment like now?
ReplyDelete1:23 -- I can only speak for myself, but I find it extremely depressing. The economy doesn't help, but the real morale killer is all the stupid initiatives that Gannett forces down our throats. People are routinely made to work on things they care little about and a beat that is made out to be the most important thing in the world one month is completely abandoned the next.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, being a reporter has become nothing more than a job. You clock in, you clock out and then you forget about it the rest of the day. It's just to depressing if you take the job home with you.
I am no longer at Gannett however I can tell you that in the spring and summer of 2009 - after the December layoffs and before the ones in July and, ultimately, asking us to reapply for our jobs - I felt editors cared more that there was copy to fill the pages no matter what the copy contained.
ReplyDeleteLike 6:30 AM, some days I feel I'm turning out copy to fill space. All of us at the mid-sized Southern daily where I work are tugged in several directions. There's little chance to do indepth or investigative reporting. There's virtually no followup on stories. The old-timers (15 plus years in the business) are aghast at the lack of depth and quality in even daily stories. We've effectively been down an editor since Christmas because of illness, vacations and furloughs, and no one in our newsroom management team has stepped up to take on a leadership role, even when big breaking news happens. It's up to us to figure out how to cover and present stories. There's no editing for clarity or content, just basic grammar and punctuation. There's no coaching or brainstorming. Photos are lackluster, and the presentation ranges from poor to average, thanks to our consolidated copy desk. Frustrating all around.
ReplyDeleteCorrections and clarifications are copy too.
ReplyDeleteIf we go around fixing our mistakes before they run today, what in the world will we feed the daily monster tomorrow?
Funny that Gannett is considering a mass promotion of their "brand" just when it's draining itself of the company's lifeblood -- the staff content generators. You can only go so far hustling the public to serve as "contributors" and running self-serving PR pictures that are "Photo provided." Replacing reporters, photographers and illustrators with information processors with software and Web skills simply ensures Gannett's slow and painful death. Everybody's beating Gannett papers and stations to the news now. What is most offensive is that the papers and stations have to pony up a big percentage of their profit every month to support the humongous salaries of Gannett executives who do nothing but suck the blood from their subsidiaries, then burp and issue occasional pronouncements that do absolutely nothing. These are vampire executives, and until someone steps up and drives stakes through their hearts, the blood drain is just going to continue.
ReplyDeleteWriting to fill space. More to do and most of it meaningless. Editorial direction spinning like a weathervane in a tornado.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was just Westchester, but it seems to be the Gannett newsroom model.
Oh well, I always said if you've seen one Gannett paper you've seen them all!
There's a lack of excitement for anything, even big stories. It's like we do it for our own satisfaction, knowing editors will beat it to death demanding follow-ups. People work their 40 (or less) and leave the job at the door. I've never seen that so widespread in 25+ years. We're just told to be glad we have a job, even if we are making less than we did 4 years ago.
ReplyDelete11:18 -- I agree. I've never seen so many people basically putting in their time and leaving, but that is the environment Gannett has fostered. And, hey, for the first time in my career, I'm one of those people. I do my work and then try to forget that I'm a journalist. Gannett made it clear through its money-first policies that our jobs are just that -- jobs. They are not a calling. Hell, when working for Gannett, they aren't even careers. They are what we're doing right now to make money, and the quality with which we do the job makes no difference in what we get paid.
ReplyDeleteSince all Gannett wants is pages filled, I will fill them in the manner that is easiest for me. I hate to be like this, but it won't change until the company shows me that it cares about its employees, which it doesn't. The managers in my company basically have an "if you don't like it you can leave" attitude. So, they're getting an "if you don't like my work you can lay me off and try to meet corporate content demands with one less staff member" attitude in return.
Anyone hear anything about second-quarter furloughs or layoffs later in the year?
ReplyDeleteSince all Gannett wants is pages filled, I will fill them in the manner that is easiest for me. I hate to be like this, but it won't change until the company shows me that it cares about its employees, which it doesn't. The managers in my company basically have an "if you don't like it you can leave" attitude. So, they're getting an "if you don't like my work you can lay me off and try to meet corporate content demands with one less staff member" attitude in return.
ReplyDelete3/08/2010 11:28 PM
You rock! Right on! Can't say that I blame you. I've learned a long time ago that it is the only solution to a growing problem: Only give as much as you receive! Perfectly understandable and the way to go. We're going in to work, do our work as best we can under the circumstances and go home. Putting forth extra effort? For what?
So how did The Journal News and Poughkeepsie Journal printing turn out at the New Jersey plant? Were deadlines adjusted? Any noticable change in the papers? Are deadlines different on weekends?
ReplyDeleteSize of Paper is smaller.Color is better. So advertisers are getting a smaller ad for their money
ReplyDeleteYes, The Journal News is for sale, not only the building but the paper. I worked there for years and management does not tell the whole story, only pieces at a time. Eventually it will come out that the paper is also up for sale but like another post said who would buy it. Do not be surprised if next TJN does not go the way of Detroit and print only 4 days a week. They can say it is too expensive to send the truck from New Jersey everyday especially since they still have to maintain and pay taxes onthe property and building in White Plains- Westchester Taxes !!! Gannett wants to run out of Westchester if it can. JH must go
ReplyDeleteGannett used to be such a smartly run company with a vision for what the reader wanted. Now it is run by bean counters with no operational experience. Make no mistake, Gannett's newsrooms are still filled with fine journalists. But the despair and surrender is overwhelming. If the huge leadership void were filled, would Gannett recover? My guess is that it would take at least 10 years.
ReplyDelete7:09 am: Wall Street has rewarded this leadership team with a resurgent stock in the past year, suggesting there won't be any big changes anytime soon.
ReplyDelete7:09 -- You know more about this than I, so I'm wondering what you think. Although Wall Street has rewarded current management with a stock price that's well above the low of $1.85 a share, the value of the company is still at least 50% lower than it was just a few years ago. And stock prices are about a quarter of what they were less than 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteDo people really view this sort of monumental failure as success? I don't have a financial background, but I have little hesitation stating that I could lead a company to a 75% de-valuation.
Add to this the fact that the leadership team trots out a new "plan to save the company" every four weeks and it's pretty clear that the only vision it has is the looming image of the next round of bonuses. The company's stripped down news organizations have less quality content than ever, and the big plan is to market that content under the "Gannett" brand while retreating from the "Web first" platform that management has been pushing for years.
At what point will stockholders demand more than an encouraging rally from an unthinkable low and a bunch of doublespeak? Anyone who bought Gannett stock five years ago and held is still way underwater, and it looks like its quite comfortable hovering around $16 a share.
With the NJ printing, Poughkeepsie's deadline for copy moved up a half hour to 8:30. Can't even cover elections live for the next day's paper. Journal News lost 90 minutes.
ReplyDeleteReferring to 1:25 p.m. post - Talk about becoming more irrelevant than The Journal News already is!
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean they lose night sports, meetings, late-breaking cop stuff? Or do reporters still cover games, meetings and do late cop calls, then just file on the Web?
I saw a story recently about professional game coverage not counting anymore because it was already old news by the time the papers came out.
I don't think that's true about high school or local college games. Everyone wants to read the stories even if they're "old."
The East Valley Tribune (a Freedom owned newspaper here in Phoenix) has been sold to Thirteenth Street Media (1013 Communications LLC.) What has caught my eye, however, is the new publisher’s name; Randy Miller, a former executive with Lee Enterprises and… drum roll please, GANNETT!
ReplyDeleteAnyone know anything about this man? Did he leave Gannett because he was fed up or is he a disciple of Gannett’s slash and burn policies?
If he is anything like Chip Weil (a former Gannett man, who as then publisher of The Arizona Republic affectively set up the sale of this once great and respected newspaper to Gannett back in 2000) he will gut this newspaper and feed off the once proud name.
I wish the employees of the Tribune the best of luck. I know that they are under paid and over worked now, and their best days may be behind them.
If Randy Miller is a good guy, I apologize. However, I have never met an ex-Gannett acolyte who is anything but a ruthless cutthroat.
Found this comment on Gannettoid.com. Found it interesting. Anyone know if this is the next area to regionalize? :
ReplyDeleteWe've heard whispers in the wind in NJ of pagination moving to a regionalized site. New software will be implemented for pagination Gannett-wide so that all paginators are using the same system. Sounds like the same thing that happened to other ad services people - everyone had to jump on DPS, and CS4 - and why? So that it would be easier to regionalize. So look out paginators - no one is safe anywhere in Gannett - well maybe the managers as we've seen time and time again. I think it will take the APP at least another year + before they can send pagination to the midwest, but you never know....
I'm a former Gannett writer and editor from Springfield, Mo.
ReplyDeleteI'm now a PR Web Director for the NWTF, a national non-profit conservation organization. I have a position open for a PR manager, which supervises a staff of three PR specialists and works closely with our Web site manager. If you're interested, see the job description and apply at www.nwtf.org. The "jobs" button is at the very top of the page.
Thanks
Brent Lawrence
Regarding the remote printing issue, a follow-up. The big snowstorm that hit the Poughkeepsie area and south on Thursday, Feb. 25, got trucks stuck on Interstate 84 along with tons of people. I didn't get my Friday paper until Saturday. Not sure what impact this has financially, but if I were an advertiser, I'd ask for a credit.
ReplyDeletei called my local Gannett paper in Reno about an error in word usage. The story was about bicyclists. But instead of writing pedalers, the copy editor wrote peddlers. No big deal, but still a dumb error, probably produced by short-staffing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I called the correction hotline, the woman said she did not have a paper near her, but would inform the editors if warranted. Of course, no correction appeared.
Re: Anonymous 6:49's comment.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that Gannett is looking at converting all its papers to a standard pagination system within the next three years. They are looking at a PC-based system, I believe CSS. Doubtless this is so certain content/pages can be mass-produced and fewer page designers and copy editors needed.
9:03 -- Things like that are common in Reno. It's really too bad.
ReplyDeleteFYI -- Newspapers don't generally run corrections for spelling errors. They would probably run one if a person's name was printed incorrectly, but if Gannett ran a correction every time a typo or grammatical error made it into one of its papers, there wouldn't be much room for "news."
Simple question for someone.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens to a news organization that run ads that later turn out to be bogus?
The typical reporter at my site is exhausted, bitter, and looking for another job. My goal is to last long enough to hear upper management whine about high turnover rates. The "marketing solutions company" is a gigantic leech that doesn't care about journalism, its employees, or the communities it has bled dry.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Salazar the Controller at Fort Collins either left or was let go last Friday.
ReplyDeleteThe remaining management has not even mentioned it to the remaining staff.
They couldn’t even send out an email letting people know that she is no longer working there or telling staff that reported to her who will be taking over her duties and who they should report to.
WTF!
Advertiser workers receive layoff notices
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2010/03/08/daily38.html
Employees of The Honolulu Advertiser have received official layoff notices from Gannett Co. Inc.
The Advertiser has an estimated 600 workers.
A letter dated March 9 from Advertiser Publisher Lee Webber states that the workers would be terminated at the closing of the sale of the Advertiser to the owner of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Oahu Publications Inc., on or between April 12 and April 30.
Both publications are daily newspapers whose origins date to the 19th century.
Advertiser workers will have no “bumping rights,” though all are expected to be offered jobs by a management services company, which will be contracted by Oahu Publications to continue publishing the Advertiser for an unspecified period.
Oahu Publications Owner David Black, who also owns the MidWeek weekly newspaper, has put the Star-Bulletin up for sale.
Black does not expect the Star-Bulletin to sell, though, and plans to combine operations with the Advertiser in the second quarter.
In regards to pagination, what are you referring to? Do you mean what we used to call dummying, i.e. laying out the adstack? Or are you talking about the process of spraying wire copy over the adstack to fill up the pages? Or, is it the laying down of the classified section?
ReplyDeleteI've heard it all three ways.
Pagination, in regard to laying out the paper, magazines, etc. Basically laying out the sections to determine where ads will be placed and where editorial and or classified copy will be. There was a rumor on the other blog that these jobs will also be regionalized. Currently they are done by each individual paper and a digital and paper copy is given to designers to determine what areas of the sections/magazines they need to design.
ReplyDeleteOooh 12:02, tell more. I still have enough old-school investigative juice left to be interested.
ReplyDeleteTo everyone else in Gannettland: any word of 2nd Q furloughs?
No, no. It will be regionalizing the whole thing, from copy editing to laying out ads and individual pages. It is hyper-centralization. Takes care of both commercial and editorial, and saves GCI oodles of money, since they no longer need layout people, dummies, copy editors and paginators at individual papers.
ReplyDeleteI've asked my boss a number of times and no one has an answer on 2Q furloughs. Is it possible that each paper gets to make its own furlough decision based on their $$$?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know about a division called Gannett Retail Advertising Group in Chicago? My boss is meeting with them today and I can't find any info about them on the intranet site. Could they be a new division to oversee selling advetising for all the papers?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gannett.com/news/pressrelease/1997/pr071797.htm
ReplyDeleteLooks like it's nothing new.
I just received an unsolicited email from the editor of the Reno paper about improvements being made in the Sunday paper. Among them are a new Voices section and more features aimed at women. Just curious: Who will staff these sections since there is no word about staff hires.
ReplyDeleteSo I just placed an order for a three month supply of a drug I take. It's not available in generic and if I dont take it, I die. The last time I filled the order in December my copay was $87. Now? $175.50!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks GAnnett A$$holes.
5:10 you give yourself away by the term "Just curious." How's the van running these days
ReplyDelete5:49 - I have four meds that cost me $350 last year. Going outside of Caremark, I thought I'd give Walmart's $10 a chance - no luck. The pharmacist there told me to fill those scrips would be over $1,100.
ReplyDeleteI'm not crazy about the new prices either - which was why I cheaped out last Christmas to get one last hit at the old prices. But I gotta say, using Caremark saved me $3,000 last year over not having any insurance.
Am I happy dropping $6,000 a year on health insurance? No. Am I happy that my rate is based on a salary range I don't even make because of furloughs? EXTREMELY no.
But as the people in Washington are fond of saying, a crap plan is better than no plan.
3/12/2010 10:44 AM said:
ReplyDelete”No, no. It will be regionalizing the whole thing, from copy editing to laying out ads and individual pages. It is hyper-centralization. Takes care of both commercial and editorial, and saves GCI oodles of money, since they no longer need layout people, dummies, copy editors and paginators at individual papers.“
Do you have any idea the time table on this? Do you think this will include all products, including magazines? Sure makes you wonder who will be left! There was a rumor months ago about regionalizing online, did you ever hear that?
Another Hitler spoof:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/Kauaidjx
I hate this blog and i hate all of you....arron barrett
ReplyDeleteSecond quarter furlough announcement is expected sometime in the coming week.
ReplyDeleteCentralized pagination is in the works, though don't know when. Too any editorial systems to consolidate right now, and they're finding the cost a little higher than expected in terms of putting in new systems. CCI is the likely vendor of choice. Some local editing would be maintained, but they've got software that's supposed to know who the mayor of say, Westchester is when the pagination and copy editing is being done in Wilmington, or something like that.
Not furloughs in 2nd quarter - LayOffs
ReplyDeleteLooks like this has become the Gannett Editorial blog, especially the way Jim started of this bitch session. And it also looks like Jim is making a half-hearted effort with posts about every other day. There is either no news or no effort. Don't know which and really don't know why Jim still does this other than to cultivate a few hits for the ads over to your right..
ReplyDelete4:31
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering why you come here if you an unhappy with this blog and Jim's efforts.
4:31 pm: I've had limited Internet access this week, so haven't been able to post much. Also, advertising provides very little income for me.
ReplyDeleteWill it be layoffs across the board again or are specific sites/positions being targeted?
ReplyDeleteCould someone explain the changes in the Pagination consolidation. As a Gannett Broadcast employee I am not entirely certain the jobs performed by these people. Is this a job once held by the composing room? Are these positions that are traditionally represented at the Unionized sites? Can this work be off-shored? Just curious.
ReplyDeletePagination consolidation could be worked off shore, but that's not likely in the works. It will look more like what's happening in Tennessee, where Nashville is responsible for all the Tennessee papers. Reporter will either submit stories via text files or some web app. The local site retains control of story location within the paper, but the actual design of the pages takes place in Nashville. It allows more sharing of wire content (read less payments to AP for more sites). Depending upon staffing at the pagination center, positions could be added, a la the combined ad production center, while the local sites would cut FTEs, with some hopefully ending up at the pagination center. From a financial point of view, it makes sense in the long run, but the initial capital outlay is more than expected. Gannett has tons of CCI licenses available, but hardware and services from CCI will still be costly during the consolidation process.
ReplyDeleteAppears this person was right on. We received information this week about no furloughs in second quarter:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Second quarter furlough announcement is expected sometime in the coming week.
Centralized pagination is in the works, though don't know when. Too any editorial systems to consolidate right now, and they're finding the cost a little higher than expected in terms of putting in new systems. CCI is the likely vendor of choice. Some local editing would be maintained, but they've got software that's supposed to know who the mayor of say, Westchester is when the pagination and copy editing is being done in Wilmington, or something like that.