"The synergies available to us through The News Journal's production facility, combined with new business models being adopted by publishers, allow us this aggressive approach to further achieve our business performance goals."
-- Greg Bassett, general manager and executive editor, in a story today in The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md. Printing of the paper, plus affiliated weeklies, will be shifted to the News Journal of Wilmington, Del., over the next three weeks. The move will cost 17 of 21 jobs, the Times says -- nearly 12% of the total 143 employees.
Translation from this corporate speech: Firing people is profitable.
ReplyDeleteSalisbury purchased a new press more than two years ago and moved into a larger facility -- to accomodate the larger press -- at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYipes: There goes many millions of dollars down the toilet.
ReplyDeleteIt is 95 miles distant from Wilmington to Salisbury but the drive takes three hours each way in the middle of the beachfront tourist season, night or day. If the paper gives up on the community, the community will give up on the paper.
ReplyDeleteBassett sure knows how to sling the Gannett bull! What a crock of corporate crap! These people are probably given scripts (by the idiots in Virginia) because no one in their right mind could possibly compose something as outrageously ridiculous as what he has vomited up.
ReplyDeleteIt's about 2 1/2 hours to Salisbury from the News Journal plant in New Castle via the Route 1 toll road. If Delaware highways are closed by a blizzard like they were last year, lower Delaware and the Eastern Shore won't get the Daily Times at all.
ReplyDeleteThe two TV news stations in Salisbury are quietly cheering.
There WILL be more press consolidations. Gannett main concern is cutting expenses. They could care less if customers get their papers delivered on time. The bottom line is the bottom line. Everybodys name is on an Excel spreadsheet somewhere with a tentative termination date. Nobody has long term job security at Gannett!
ReplyDeleteSmells like Austin Ryan just dropped another dump
ReplyDeleteHow does corporate justify writing off that kind of investment? Sell the press and facility to recoup something? If the Salisbury press is less than 5 years old, it sounds more and more like Gannett is flailing to find savings without any strategic plan.
ReplyDeleteHow does corporate justify writing off that kind of investment?
ReplyDeleteFYI: It is just not he press but the ancillary equipment that goes with it. There seems to be no thought process in shutting down a print site. Money is wasted and thrown in the dumpster by bringing in outside contractors to scrap a pre-press/pressroom/packaging center. These people have no idea of the worth of some things except for "how much per pound." There is a lot of stuff that is worth *LOTS* of bucks tied up in test equipment, tools and machinery, not to mention electronic spares. When I speak of tools, I do not mean a wrench or a screwdriver. I mean highly calibrated items worth their weight in gold.
Been there.
Is the tax write-off that great??
Just my 2 cents.
It is truly amazing how many of the posters don't know a thing about how depreciation works. People before you take shots at the financial acumen of the leadership educate yourself about how the Federal tax system works otherwise you just look ignorant.
ReplyDeleteHow do they justify the expense?
ReplyDeleteBusiness can write off machinery purchases against their taxes, so most of the costs of the press have been written off. They actually will make some money if they can sell the iron for something other than junk. Since it is relatively new, that is possible. It's somewhat like selling a used car.
It sounds likes what Gannett did to the production facility,at the Mansfield, NewsJournal> Totally shutting down, their printing,where the presses are not that old.
ReplyDeleteThe equipment is one thing, the facility another. The old building was a dump, but they owned it outright. The new facility is a rental, needed massive reconditioning (several months of work) in order to accomodate a newspaper press. Now they're going to be paying rent on an extremely large unused space. The original building, as far as I know, hasn't been sold.
ReplyDeleteGannett purchased building and did no repairs and allowed the building's condition to decline without spending any money. It was in the middle of town at a great site, was sold to the hospital across the street which uses it as a dump storage site for its no longer wanted items. Ceilings now falling in and the interior is showing real problems and even the hospital isn't doing anything to improve the building. The paper moved way out of town and for a year, busineses had to ask how to find it. Gannett made a horrible mistake to move the offices that have been there since the mid 50s to a rented site. Its circulation figures are well down figures of 20 years ago and so is advertising revenue.
ReplyDelete