I'm trying to confirm several tips that The Clarion-Ledger has just cut a significant number of jobs, a figure that would make it the largest so far during the current round of reductions. If true, the number would be especially large for a paper the size of Jackson's.
As well, I'm told that one of the jobs cut was occupied by one of the nation's more prominent African-American journalists.
I've asked Publisher Larry Whitaker for comment.
I do not know the size of the paper's current workforce. Its Monday-Friday circulation is 63,018; Sunday is 76,397, according to the latest ABC data.
Related: Maynard's Richard Prince weighs in. Plus: 2010 National Association of Black Journalsts' print census of newsroom managers
What do you hear? 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.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
59 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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Ronny is EE, not ME
ReplyDeleteHe used to be ME but not for some time now.
Seems to me Leslie is doing what people on this blog always scream for: thinning out top-heavy newsrooms. But still everybody complains.
I think it's a good call for papers that size, but I'm very sorry for those being "thinned"
So, who is gone? The EE or ME? Aren't both of them prominent black journalists?
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ReplyDeleteYes, they both are prominent black journalists and the ME is what's gone. If you look at that region (which is a portion of the south group) MEs were eliminated in several markets.
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ReplyDeleteI'm wondering why teeny tiny Hattiesburg would need an ME more than Jackson???
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ReplyDeletePlease don't post the names of individuals; it's an invasion of their privacy at a time when tensions are already high.
ReplyDeletewas told that 10 jobs were eliminated in the newsroom at clarion ledger
ReplyDeleteIt's awful -- talented veteran journalists and managers are being tossed aside for no reason other than making numbers. Penny wise, pound foolish.
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ReplyDeleteAnd yes...Marshall Ramsey - an award winning cartoonist and an amazing skin cancer survivor and advocate and all around nice guy - was cut back to part time with NO benefits.
ReplyDeleteone desk job in sports was elminated yesterday at CL. A friend who lost job today said they were relieved to find out job was eliminated.. had been anticipating it for awhile and was ready to go.. worse for the poor folks still there.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that this is a newsroom staff that for years has helped reporter Jerry Mitchell in his nationally acclaimed KKK-busting work. Hard to square these cuts with Corporate's renewed push for watchdog reporting.
ReplyDeletevery, very sad day in Jackson. Some exceptional people have lost their jobs.
ReplyDeleteExtraordinary situation now unfolding in Jackson! Whitaker facing many questions today.
ReplyDeleteWow! As a former employee of TCL, who left on my own, it's sad and ironic for some down there ... Karma is a bitch, for some. Looks like we'll be seeing more people apply at marketing/PR firms ...
ReplyDeleteAs a former employee, I have to say Don was probably the best of the management there. Also, the majority of the editors at the CL are black.
ReplyDeleteThe paper has steadily gone downhill since the cuts from about two years ago were made including cutting their most popular columnist. Many people have not gotten over the shock of that even today. I didn't get the reasoning then and I don't get it today. The cartoonist is very popular in the paper and in the community. It will be intersting to see what he decides to do now put in this situation if what others say is true. As someone who has lived through this before.. .. there is a life outside of Gannett..
ReplyDeleteUsed to work in Jackson years ago... left the industry... place was a mess then... now it's a mess that's under staffed... person who should go is the one who uses the "..." all the time!
ReplyDeleteLarry Whitaker, the C-L's publisher, sees the editorial side strictly as a liability, not an asset. When the Ledger dumped its most popular columnist a couple of years back, Executive Editor Ronnie Agnew was stunned by the negative response from the community. Now he has repeated the same mistake by all but ensuring that cartoonist Marshall Ramsey will leave the paper. It's rare that you see a top editor who is so disconnected from his readers, his staff and reality.
ReplyDeleteManaging editor Don Hudson is one of the finest journalists in the biz. This is certainly a sad day for newspapers.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand why the smaller H'Burg place needs an ME when Shreveport and Jackson do not.
ReplyDeleteHattiesburg does not have an executive editor. The ME is the top newsroom position there. Hattiesburg's executive editor and publisher were let go in a previous round of cuts.
ReplyDeleteThe Clarion Ledger.. once staffed by award winning journalists and photographers... they've let go the best ME the paper's EVER had. This is a paper where the investigative reporter, the editorial cartoonist and a black female photographer are Pulitzer Prize nominees. That's huge! The popular columnist let go 2 years ago had his hand on the heartbeat of the community. Once that voice was quieted, readership plunged also. And mgt. didn't get it. Clueless.
ReplyDeleteNone of this seems to matter because of a financial line drawn in the sand.
Here you have a shrinking newshold that costs more for the reader and then the powers that be scratch their collective heads wondering why readership is down! Truly unbelieveable.
As a former C-L staffer, it is certainly hard to see friends and acquaintances lose what they have invested in sweat equity and in the community. There are some very talented people who have found life beyond the C-L and some talented people who are now looking for jobs.
ReplyDeleteI retired from TCL before layoffs started. Could not take it any more. Talked with current employee who says two people are being let go from newsroom and some from other departments. Is there going to still be a Clarion-Ledger in Jackson's future?
ReplyDeleteI'm a former CL employee who left before the cuts began. Cutting more employees there is a huge mistake that should not sit well with the community.
ReplyDeleteBut doing anything to Marshall Ramsey other than promoting him with a massive raise is just plain stupid. And further evidence that Gannett is run by a bunch of bean counters, not journalists.
Comments about content and awards are understood. Our tipoff couple of years ago,that the CL was out of control was when they kept suspending our service (we live in north MS) because their circulation people couldn't, COULD NOT get it together. It took email, phone calls, and written messages with documentation before we could get them to see we'd paid! A real turn off, but we've remained faithful subscribers since then. Just don't use their E Z Pay plan.
ReplyDeleteI left the C-L two years ago and am glad I did. I hate to see the quality of the state's largest newspaper plummeting, though. If it's true about the cartoonist and he happens to leave, the C-L will lose its identity. He's a great guy and deserves better than the C-L. And the Jackson Metro Area deserves better than Gannett.
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed to hear about the loss of the state's top cartoonist at the C-L, but as a small-time newspaper publisher myself, I can only say these are tough times. We all could give a flip when layoffs of 10 people go down at insurance headquarters, but we act as if we feel it's wrong at a newspaper; sad as it is, newspapers are businesses, too (outside of the Daily Journal in Tupelo). It's easy to second guess decisions when we're clueless about the circumstances in which they are made. I'll miss seeing those cartoons, though.
ReplyDeleteAll things considered, I find it a bit ironic that there's an ad on this blog for High-Speed Internet service from AT&T on my page.
ReplyDeleteMcClatchy recently went through another round of cuts and furloughs. Hang tight, b/c I don't see an upswing in employment numbers anytime in the near future. Perhaps the Wall Street Journal's model for expansion can teach us all a lesson.
2 CL photogs were among those let go.
ReplyDeleteAlso in jackson there was 1 person from marketing, 2 in advertising, 2 in production, 1 in finance laid off as part of the 15.
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ReplyDeleteIs this the 'anonymous' blog?
ReplyDeleteThey will work smarter and do more with less. It's the Gannett way.
ReplyDeleteIf ever there was an opportunity for another paper to take control of the state, now is the time. New blood? Existing rags? Who knows ... but the time is now ... TCL management, Gannett execs don't see then end?
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of activity on Ramsey's blog at the Clarion Ledger. Doesn't sound like the reading public is happy one little bit.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to see the history of those who have left, and when ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2903170345
Did you get a comment form the publisher Jim?
ReplyDeleteI understand the need to cut costs, but I don't understand the "logic" of diminishing the quality of the product when you need to be offering readers more, not less. The top dogs admitted yesterday that they didn't have a plan in place to cover the increased workload. How much overtime will be allowed? Why should anyone want to subscribe to a paper with outdated news, fewer ads, sloppy copy and major delivery issues?
ReplyDeleteThe CL was once a great newspaper, but is now mostly an advertising rag. There is no organization to the paper. The comics may be in sports, classified or the mag rag. They dropped Southern Style, for just "Style". Wake up folks! This is the South! I still subscribe, but wonder more and more, WHY, because I am getting less and less. The forums were biasly edited and posters with diverse opinions banned, for disagreeing with management, so now their forum is DEAD!
ReplyDeleteIt IS the perfect time for an up and coming publisher to take control of the Jackson market, though he might want to locate in Madison or Clinton.
9:06 a.m.: No, the publisher has not returned my phone call.
ReplyDeleteImagine that!
ReplyDeleteThe "Gannett way" of working smarter and doing more with less, as poster 7:57 a.m. said, is a sad and pathetic myth.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, with less you always get less. You cannot do more with less. That is a management cliche designed to make the "big bosses" happy even though everyone knows that when you cut staffing, a lot of work just doesn't get done any more. Thoese left cannot do the work of those laid off.
It just isn't possible.
So, since all the "smartest" people are usually the ones laid off, you can't work "smarter." And since you have less, you will do less. The result is an inferior product.
Gannett guarantees few things, but this inferior, poor product is one thing their cuts and poor decisions will guarantee.
A comment from the publisher? WTF?! That would imply that Gannett is in the communication industry. ...
ReplyDeleteExcellent post above. I scanned the Clarion Ledger this morning and see nothing about the layoffs in the paper.(Trying to navigate their web site is nearly impossible it is so badly done). It is no surprise that this time around they decided not to report on their own cuts since they had such a backlash two years ago when they cut Orley Hood's position. The cuts yesterday were reported on at least one of the local TV stations at 10 pm last night. Their story said that 20 people were cut including the popular cartoonist, whom they named.
ReplyDeleteWLBT's website has the news on it: they've confirmed 15 layoffs.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I'm a commentor on Marshall's blog, and none of us are too happy about it. First Orley Hood, and now this? Several people have already cancelled subscriptions in protest, which may be a bad thing: if they want to bring people back, they need more money and more subscribers, not less.
CL used to be an excellent paper. It won the pulitzer in 1983 which I believe was the year after Gannett bought it and the pm paper, The Jackson Daily News. The merged the two papers soon after acquiring them. Clarles Overby, a Jackson native, was the publisher. Many, many fine journalist got their start in Jackson so it is very sad to pick the paper up today and see what it has become.
ReplyDeleteJim, just a shout out to you - thanks for all you do. We Gannetteers would be in the dark without you.
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ReplyDeleteFrom the outside, this appears to have been a very bad move. I might even use the word "devastating" to describe the effect if could potentially have. A Ledger backlash has been rumbling for years, and now it's out in the open. Unlike some markets, Jackson is not a large city. The people who work for that paper as reporters, columnists, photographers and cartoonists (not many are left) are well known personalities, and when you eliminate them, you daringly eliminate every community connection they've ever made. What happened this week at that site is a grave error that should be immediately and humbly corrected by someone at corporate who is keen enough to see and truly understand the individualism of each market, smart enough to find other ways to cut costs and brave enough to do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI think corporate has reached the conclusion it has carried the CL for too long, and the paper now has to carry itself. At least, that is what I read into what has happened.
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ReplyDeleteUsing a bad economy as the reason for recent layoffs at the Clarion-Ledger and other Gannett holdings is pathetic. Notice no Gannett big wig has lost their job! The C/L is making money. Trouble is, it's not making ENOUGH money to sustain the livelihoods of the scum responsible for taking away the jobs of those who actually do the work.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way in hell laying off a handful of ppl is gonna cut costs. It's in-house politics and scare tactics for the poor folks now trapped and looking over their shoulders who still work there.
How do these ppl sleep at night? Considering who was laid off and who remains, especially a certain editor or two, there's no way those that remain bought into the lies told. I'm telling you, they are trapped financially and Gannett knows it.
There is a special place in hell for what you ppl at Gannett have done, are doing and apparently will continue to do.
When karma comes calling, I hope you'll be standing jobless before one of these ppl who lost their jobs because of you. Good luck with that!
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ReplyDeleteGreat guy and a great writer lost from the sports desk.. I don't know what Gannett is thinking.
ReplyDeleteFor all of you who lost your jobs at a Gannett newspaper... here's where your paychecks went.
ReplyDeleteWhat these 3 alone got per job lost and their profit from your heartache, your stress, your missed car payments, your depleted bank accts., defaulted mortgages, your children's college tuition, your lost insurance coverage and everything else in your life tied up with working for people like this who would reap the rewards from kicking you in the teeth.
Craig, Marcia and Bob... with all my heart, I curse you. May all 3 of you burn slowly in hell.
CEO Craig Dubow
(2009 bonus: $1.5 million)
$3,909
per job
COO Gracia Martore
(Bonus: $950,000)
$1,687
per job
Newspaper division chief Bob Dickey
(Bonus: $410,000)