Sunday, November 28, 2010
Week Nov. 22-28 | Your News & Comments: Part 2
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82 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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For Part 1 of this comment thread, please go here.
ReplyDeleteIn an e-mail today, a reader told me: "Three reporters and one website producer have quit at Asbury Park Press this month. One to Bergen Record the rest to Patch. Patch is aggressively headhunting in the Press newsroom. The bosses just ignore it. More are likely to go. The word is no one is being replaced."
ReplyDeleteYou don't know me but you should. I can't really say anything except my wife and I are reviewing all our options and MIGHT sell out house. Or maybe buy a new car. Hard to tell because a new teaching job is only on Thursday nights but it MIGHT mean I'm being courted for big things. Or retirement. Or maybe I'll stay as editor. Hard to say.
ReplyDeleteFull of myself I am. Fired not I'll be. You'll see. From anger comes pain and from pain comes SUFFERING.
Will I run? And if so, will I serve? I shall not seek, nor shall I accept my party's nomination for a second term.... What? I've been fired? But I was just getting into it...
-- From Profile of a Delusional Cincinnatian
It is amazing how much hate malcontents have
ReplyDeleteIf you listen closely, you can hear Nero fiddling in the background.........
ReplyDeleteWas that Nero?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was the big bad wolf.
I thought I'd get out long ago, but I remain. The grass outside is just a different shade. The work is still good in the biz and not everything place on Gannett is really a Gannett-only challenge.
ReplyDeleteWe are thankful to have a chance to help people in and outside of my paper each day. We make mistakes but love the moments of journalism we still find time to do. Those opportunities are getting less and less. When they are gone, I'll go too. Until then, let's be glad we have a chance to do something meaningful. The fact that it has been weakened should be our call to figure out how to still do our best.
I hope that all Gannettoids have a
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving.
I remember 2 years ago in the first week of
December when the axes started coming down at my site.
Gannettland was good til then.Everyone was happy
and merry Christmas was in the air.
Then the Gannett world changed...peoples lives changed,friends were told they would no longer
be needed and they would be out of a job and out
of our lives in the workplace.
Do you all remember this ?
A career at Gannett meant a good job now, and
until retirement if you chose.Life was good,
the workplace was fun and moral was great...It was great to come to work each day!We put out great products with a full staff to make sure that every issue was perfect,advertisers were happy and spending,Budgets were strong. Remember ?
Then every 6 months or so when you thought it could not get worse,it did get worse and more
friends were layed off,then whole departments.
Fast forward to now....
Only a skeleton crew of writers,a few ad sales
people and some administration is all that's left. Those that are still employed there come to work like the walking dead,dreading each Gannett day.Stressed beyond break point and waiting,week after week, to see if they will be next.I know still know those folks
and it is hell for them.
I am one who is longer there,but the memories of the faces of people that I had to
let know they were no longer employed will linger for a long time.
This a story ,I am certain, can be told a hundred times over,site by site and will ring
true with all.
By the way...there is a life after Gannett.
I find it simply amazing at my location the management doesn't seem to care about all the after Thanksgiving ads that are on desk and leaving the grounds. Amazing.
ReplyDelete9:12 what else is new-
ReplyDeletenot even a HAPPY THANKSGIVING
like you said management doesn't seem to care-
but they can care to leave
they still get theirs
Ex-USA Today Publisher Cathie Black is in a bind re her new job as New York City schools chancellor. The NY State Education Dept. has insisted that the city appoint a co-chancellor with a background in education. (Ms. Black is chairman of Hearst's magazine division.) It doesn't help that she sent her own children to a boarding school out of state.
ReplyDeleteFront page today in the NY Daily News and NY Post.
I am beginning to think Cathie Black won't be getting this job after all. There is some really hostile coverage.
ReplyDelete10:06 p.m.: I think you're right. I bet she withdraws her application, saying she doesn't want to become a distraction for Bloomberg's administration.
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ReplyDeleteAt Thanksgiving, I'd like to give thanks to Jim for his work here. It's a great guide to navigating what Gannett has become (and maybe always was). I'm better prepared for what lies ahead for having read this for the past couple of years. Thank you, sir.
ReplyDeleteHere, here; I thank Jim as well at this Thanksgiving time of year! In addition, I thank all of the contributors who've contributed to the input on this blog.
ReplyDeleteYep, have a great Thanksgiving Jim and everyone else here, GCIers and ex-ones. As one of the latter (position "eliminated" early this year), I can assure you all there is life after GCI. If you're working on your exit strategy now, leaving should only liberate you.
ReplyDeleteEverybody have as great a Thanksgiving as you most possibly can!
ReplyDeleteJim, and everyone that contributes to this blog, a big shout out!
I enjoy reading the many different opinions posted daily, i.e. the hilarious ones, the good and also the not so good ones!
As for me, ... guess for lunch, I'll enjoy my Turkey-Spam Sandwich in the peace and quiet of my humble cardboard box!
Happy Thanksgiving
ReplyDeleteHope you still hanging on Gannettoids are still employed for Christmas holiday.
Institute Plan B ,you know December is layoff month in terms of end of the year cutbacks to start the new fiscal with less expense.
Managers are probably trying to figure out who can go as they enjoy their Thanksgiving and count their next bonus.
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
ReplyDeleteYep, December was the month when half of my co-workers lost their jobs, and I was out the door just a few months later. Getcha' Plan B workin' now, loyal Gannetteers.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that I stayed away from this blog for several days and avoided the daily whining.
ReplyDeleteI am also thankful that I no longer have to work with the type of people who whine here daily.
I would be even more thankful if Jim would grow up, move on, and stop giving a voice to the sad, sorry people here.
You should also be thankful for the memory of Jim making an ass of himself at the stockholders meeting.
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ReplyDeleteI'm building a press one piece at a time, a la Johnny Cash's song. Anybody have an idea how I can get a Goss Community frame out in my lunch box?
ReplyDeleteSad thing is.....The people who still believe in Gannett,still work for them,still whore
ReplyDeletethemselves for the good of the Gannett bottom line.
They should be revengeful for all the hell that they have been put through and their friends and co workers have been put through.
If they had any self respect, the next time Gannett announced layoffs at their site,
they would all just walk out and lock the door
behind them.
The Gannett Corp deserves to go bankrupt,period.
These employees just keep the doors open long enough for Gannett to bleed every revenue dollar they can before that happens.
Have some gumption and leave before they lead you to the gallows.
11:52: You sound like the 75-year-old grump in his chair who complains all day about the TV program he's watching but refuses to turn it off or walk away from the TV. If you don't want to read what's posted here, you have a choice: Don't call up the site.
ReplyDeleteAs for whining? Your level of resentment of the rank and file is extraordinary even by troll standards. Clearly, if you don't work for GCI anymore as you claim, you must have had a very successful career as a GCI senior manager.
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ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the annual meeting, I saw where bloggers have to send in credentials. Is that new? Also, the notice says no recording devices allowed. Is that new too?
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ReplyDelete12:37 how about we are not paranoid naysayers who see every glass half empty?
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ReplyDelete11:27: I guess that means if you walk around the CP or other GCI properties these days, you'd look at all of the empty desks -- heck, entirely empty offices -- say "This building isn't half-empty. It's half-full!!"
ReplyDelete12:37 has it right on target. The deconstruction of this company is solely about senior managers making as much as humanly possible before turning out the lights. It is like the Johnny Cash song mentioned above, only, in this case, it's a dis-assembly of a once-proud company, "one piece at a time."
11:49 nothing in life, no company in the world, is like it used to be. Every company has had to change, reduce staff, change direction. Folks like you always look for someone to blame. In your world there has to be a villain and of course you are always the good guy. Your unwillingness to change with the times is part of the reason we are struggling today. Ahhhh don't we all feel better now?
ReplyDeleteCaptain 'Toid
Captain 'Toid (the Brooklynese pronunciation of the word) is no doubt an aspiring Gannett middle-manager who has deluded himself into believing that a wonderful digital Nirvana awaits the company by gutting its papers, stations and websites of compelling content and replacing it with girlie peepshows and generic material you can find anywhere. Yeah, keep rah-rahing your way to bonuses, stock options, a Christmas party pat on the back from your favorite crevices for brown-nosing, maybe even a promotion or two. You'll snap out of it someday. Check back with us in a couple more years.
ReplyDelete10:02 a.m.: The restrictions on using electronic devices during the annual shareholders' meeting, including for live-blogging, have been in place at least since the spring of 2008.
ReplyDeleteResearchers have concluded that the best strategy for a company to avoid the Peter Principle (people get promoted until they gain a position in which they are incompetent) is for companies to randomly promote employees. Gannett has frequently achieved the Peter Principle - maybe it's now time to pursue the random "strategy."
ReplyDeleteRead study here: http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.0455
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ReplyDeleteDoes Callinan's departure from Cincy make Indy's Ryerson Gannett's senior editor? If so, does Ryerson know what that means? Old and successful journalists have no place in GCI, as Callinan's heave-ho suggests. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteIf not Ryerson, what or who has become Gannett's model for editors...that's the role Callinan so ably filled for so many years under Mr. Currie.
Dreadfully Droll Dennis Ryerson, as some call him, seems to fill that role with the new news regime. But what other GCI editors have the ear and trust of VP Kate Marymont? It'd be interesting to be able to put a face on who/what the news VP holds in high regard. It can't be that key thing because Callinan got his 15th or 16th just last spring. When they say may the force be with you, of whom do they speak?
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ReplyDeleteAs much as GCI has mistreated everyone, people complaining here ultimately have only themselves to blame for allowing your fortunes to be tied so closely to the company you work for. It might be a generational thing, but nobody I know around my age believes that the company they work for will be there for them forever, and we plan accordingly. If the company you work for becomes unbearable, you leave no questions asked and you have emergency funds saved up for exactly that purpose. That's exactly what I did with GCI, and there are other jobs out there if you take the time to look.
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ReplyDeleteWho in the hell is in charge of the POS GPC and why haven't their a$$es been fired for incompetence? While I'm at it, who the hell's idea was to ruin a perfectly good ad creation system we had and go with the sheitty GPC?
ReplyDeleteI know most of the people on here are from the news side, so take it from someone in advertising, sheit like the GPC is one reason this company won't be around in 5 years.
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ReplyDelete8:52 it is you and your pals that make it difficult to work here. I'd bet a meal at my local Applebees that you are a long term employee that is so unhappy with their lack of progress in your own career that you poison the well for the rest is us. You've been complaining since Clinton was President. No doubt about it. Some of us actually enjoy life.
ReplyDeleteFolks, this site is like crack to a former Gannettoid of nearly 20 years. I was a company man, through and through. A supervisor of the year. Gannett helped feed my family … then left me. So I have mixed feelings. It is like being jilted after a long love affair. It did wake me up to think that you have to be -- as trite as it sounds -- the master of your own destiny and do what is right for you and your family. Never forget that. I spent hours away from my family (I always worked the holidays like this weekend) because of loyalty. That is the way that many of us are built. It is what motivates us. Am I jaded now? I think of it more as clear-headed. I miss those who I worked with and I had many good sincere bosses. Yes, and a few bad or mediocre ones. I still have restless nights wondering if I did enough in standing up for my folks. And I look at friends in other professions and, guess what? Different titles, same results. It is not right on this blog to paint only evil or good. It is more complicated than that. Many try to do the best they can to keep it all going so families can keep feeding families. That is honorable. Perhaps even idealistic. But if we lose that idealism, do we become lesser people? I repeat that in the end you have to set your own course or someone will set it for you. Be in control of your life. It is not easy in these tense and very scary times. But if you do not, you will end up hating yourself, not just those who decide your fate if you let them. Before he died my dad said the worst part of his life was sometimes sacrificing his principles to keep his family fed. As we near 2011, I pray we all can hold our heads high as we persevere with dignity. It is, after all, our legacy.
ReplyDeleteAmen, 8:26! I'd be removing fewer comments if I had more like yours.
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ReplyDeleteFollowing is an edited version of a comment posted at 10:27 p.m.:
ReplyDeleteWow, 8:26, that's one of the most well written, emotionally honest and best presented postings here ever. [XXXXX] Best of luck to you and God bless.
And let your words be a lesson [XXXXX] that this company has proven over and over again that it will slice and dice careers with no corporate shame whatsoever if Dubow et al think it will get them another couple thousand or so on their next bonus.
Many of the complaints I see here about Gannett I heard about my former company, too. I also hear them about McClatchy, Lee, Morris and all the other newspaper companies out there. It's certainly understandable to be bitter. I've not always liked what I've seen or had to do, but many of those choices are now made by talking heads who don't know any of the people they're making decisions about. And maybe it's better that way. It keeps the emotion out of the person deciding whom to lay off and whom to keep.
ReplyDeleteGannett will not be gone in five years, or even 10. It won't be the company it was, it won't be the company it is now. It might be owned by someone else, or not. The bottom line is the newsprint product still produces the most revenue, along with the most expenses. While they need to cut the expenses in some place to keep up with rising newsprint costs, a good CFO can manage this with less impact than one who is just a number cruncher and hasn't taken the time to actually understand the business.
Whatever it is, I know I'm stuck here for a while. This job market isn't kind to journalists, no matter how hard you try. There's at least 100 qualified, out-of-work journalists for every potential job that opens up. I'm thankful I still have a job, underpaid and underappreciated as I may be (and always have been during my 30 years in newspapers).
8:26. Thank you for your wonderful comments. It is principled people like you that make those who worked in this industry proud. Of course, now, it is all gone. There is no "industry" left. Only corporate suck ups who have long since compromised whatever principles they had to remain employed. They may have a job. But they lost any semblance of dignity long ago.
ReplyDeleteSome of the recent posts have been good.
ReplyDeleteBut Jim is too much of a banshee to stop stirring the pot.
Regarding the GPC comment above - I know us advertising types are few and far between, but what has been your experience?
ReplyDeletePersonally, if I see one more ad chock full of Helvetica top to bottom, without even a Bold Italic thrown in, I'm gonna barf.
I don't understand why anyone would concede the inevitability of Gannett being around in 5 or 10 years. The chain/rollup model of local news media is dead, and the time has come for Gannett to shrewdly sell individual papers and stations to buyers willing to pay an acceptable amount for them based on their current and projected cash flow. If you haven't noticed, Wall Street has assigned a price-to-earnings multiple of 5 -- 5!! -- to Gannett shares. That's your smart-money barometer for Gannett's future. Gannett leadership, including the board of directors, are simply too entrenched in compensation and job security to take any worthwhile steps in the name of enhancing shareholder value, which is their fiduciary duty to the real owners of the company, the shareholders. Unfortunately it's going to take a hostile raider to light the necessary fire under the lard asses of Dumbow and Martyr. I say bring it on. The parts of the company are worth more than the whole.
ReplyDeleteSomeone earlier posted something about cynicism. I once worked for someone who pointed out the difference between that and skepticism. He said something like a healthy dose of skepticism is welcome in the newsroom, as long as it doesn't cross the line into cynicism. I never will forget that.
ReplyDeleteI want to marry and live happily ever after with 8:26! Thanks for the reality check.
ReplyDelete8:09 should walk the plank. It's "insight" like that we don't need.
ReplyDeleteA friend who works for WPIX, the Tribune owned TV station in New York City, tells me that in addition to Cablevision, Gannett is now considered a strong candidate to buy the station. Cablevision bought Newsday about two years ago, cut staff and turned the website into a pay-wall product. It would be good for the struggling Journal News to have a media partner in New York.
ReplyDelete11:48 If you are correct about the value of Gannett properties, then there will be an indication of it in the current Freedom Communications sale. If Freedom's properties bring a good price, then there is value in GCI for a raider to take it over and break it up. I am very skeptical that this will happen, and I do not think the Freedom sale will go well. There isn't much value left in newspapers, and I think their destiny will be like the steel mills of Pittsburg, which were left to just wither away and disappear.
ReplyDeleteLooks like New York City cut a deal with New York state to let ex-USA Today Publisher Cathie Black become NYC schools chancellor.
ReplyDeleteOne way or another, Bloomberg-Black always win
ReplyDeleteAbout the GPC. WHAT A FREAKIN' DISASTER! Not only do they churn out pure crap, but they're costing the company (and me-which is more important)revenue. At my site the local retail numbers are down about 10% from last year. No one will say it, but everyone knows it's directly attributable to the GPC. They've thrown and huge wrench in in our cleint fulfilment.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or is Cathie Black a dead-ringer for Zera from Planet of the Apes?
ReplyDeleteThe GPC is why I (and my minions) lost my job after some 20 odd years of ad design excellence. I do miss it, damn it, although I've been doing the same since. For a smaller publication, though, and building ads for the internet as well as designing websites in conjunction with the above. I would consider going back because I miss the good old days but I know it would never be the same. However, every once in a while I get hold of our local Gannett paper and examine the quality of the ads; even check the spelling and punctuation so as to find an error. To be honest with you all, they don't look as bad as I would have like to see. Of course, they could be better and more effective ads. Thank God for the quality perpetually seen in the national ads!
ReplyDeleteThe largest newspaper company in the country and we can't produce a professional print ad, thanks GPC!
ReplyDelete9:42
ReplyDeleteBe thankful for being only down 10% !
I know the Ad Manager of a site that is down 40% from last year.
Go figure why their still around and not
shuttered,even he can't figure it out.
To 6:44-
ReplyDeleteI truly miss both personally and proffesionally all my design people. Gannett continues to throw its talent out the door, and it will take down the company.
There are two main reasons why the ads aren't as bad as you would have "hoped".
1. the ad reps have to go through 79 corrections to get them close. Thus the reason sales are down at my site. Who has time to go out and sell when your babysitting ads all day.
2. On the 80th correction it goes to one of the poor designers still left to fix.
This is why the GPC is costing us dearly. We now waste a ton of man hours on something that used to take ten minutes. Way to go Gannett!
Umm, to enlighten the rest of us who may not know exactly what this conversation refers to: What is GPC? What does it stand for and what exactly does it do with respect to the production of ads?
ReplyDeleteGood questions, 1:45 p.m. The Gannett Production Centers (GPCs) are in Des Moines and Indianapolis, two sites where Gannett has increasingly been consolidating work around finance, marketing and, in this case, design and production of advertising "creatives" -- the ads we see in print and online.
ReplyDeleteAll this year, and scheduled through at least early 2011, Gannett has been moving ad design and production to the GPCs from individual Gannett community papers, where artists have long done this work.
The most-up-to-date schedule for completion of this consolidation hasn't been made public. At one time, newspaper division President Bob Dickey said all the work would be transferred by January 2011.
Also never disclosed was the number of jobs being eliminated at the local level. My ballpark guess has been a minimum of 400 and possibly as high as 800. That would be based on an average five to 10 artists at each of the 80 community dailies.
The company has promoted the GPCs as a way to save money as part of an overall efficiency drive. But critics say the GPCs reduce customer service and slow turnaround time, as ads are built far from the communities where advertisers do business. Critics have also said the GPCs will result in more errors in ads because fewer eyes will view each one. And they've said advertisers will turn to other publishers that keep jobs local.
Other readers may now want to add their own thoughts.
I see the Reno Momslikeme Web site is now being moderated by the presentation editor who also oversees the copy desk -- what's left of it anyway. How does it feel to do three jobs now, Jackie?
ReplyDeleteCourier Post update; 12 people in classfied;gone. Mailers; in contract negociation for 1 and half years. Taike it or leave it attitude. 7 1/2 pay cut. Existing contract; Gutted. Vote Dec 7.
ReplyDeleteDrivers; hanging on; hoping to get better deal.
CP had 12 people in classified? OMG. my paper is more than twice it's size and we have less than that!
ReplyDeleteJim had a thorough and "press release" like explanation of what the GPC is. What he failed to mention, and probably doesn't know..... is that most of the ads are built in India through 2adpro. It's a dirty little secret that the crystal palace doesn't want to have out there.
ReplyDeleteI'm also assuming that the poster who posed the initial question is a watcher of Gannett (in what ever capacity that may be).
For that person I have the following comment.
The Gannett Production Center was a great theory from a management perspective. In reality it was executed by the folks in Virginia, and has been an epic fail. If an organization with any credibilty (meaning NOT Gannett) were to audit the efficacy and cost savings of the program. They would find that it now costs MORE to produce creative. On paper I'm sure it looks good. What no one is calculating in is how much time the Sales Executives are now spending in ad production, and lost revenue due to dissatified clients. Not to mention the general apathy of an entire sales force who find it far more difficult fulfill a sale than it's worth having in the first place.
That's right Mr. Poster. This Sales Exec has killed a sale because I didn't want to have to deal with the GPC. At least I have base pay.
I thought 2AdPro was only supposed to do 25% of the creatives when the GPCs went online. Was I misinformed, or did something change? Also, whose brainchild is the GPC idea?
ReplyDeleteAt the courierpost the car dealer sales people are classified. In that 12 they are probably including a few admin/office positions. The real "pork" which could and should be trimmed are at least half dozen in advertising sales. One overpaid butt kisser got the ax a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteWas the butt kisser a ?. Don't want to say lady.
ReplyDeleteHad a desk or office all my her self.
in regards to GPC, and gannett in general...
ReplyDelete8:12 is spot on. good in theory, largely unpractical in reality. the success of early consolidation efforts such as the RTC (or regional toning centers) prompted gannett to do the same for ad production. building ads however is an entirely different beast. its not merely dropping photographs through an automated color queue and picking them up on the other end.. ad building requires analysis; evaluations on scale, structure, design, color, messaging and placement. in short, the creative process is arguably the only branch within any organization that cannot and should not be centralized (or, at least not in the manner in which gannett approaches it). most other divisions can reasonably be templated with a set of rules and procedures but creativity simply cannot be mass produced. local talent is key because they are tuned into the markets they serve and often times have direct contact with clients(or via sales reps). admittedly, the vast majority of ads that are placed in newspapers dont require the finely honed eye of a capable local designer. but, when local resources are eliminated, advertising is left with a broken GPC machine that cannot service the needs of the entire gannett chain. the nuances in each market, each paper, each ad are endless. the interactions between clients and sales and sales to designers is hands on. many communications cannot be translated otherwise. no form, no template or phone conversation can replace this..so what's left? a GPC frantically shipping orders to 2adpro going back and fourth until the sale is no longer even worth the effort in production. perhaps the most tragic part of all of this is that gannett has thought this through and believed that it would be more efficient. it came long before the editorial equivalent design studios or super hubs. GPC has been researched, meticulously documented evaluating skills sets vs. hours spent on ads...etc.etc.. perhaps one could even say well planned but in essence, the only real plan is to build a franchise on saving costs rather than innovate.. i think warren buffet said it best..something to the effect that "the only real goal of the newspaper industry is to siphon as much money out while it is still alive" -- i think gannett has taken this to literally