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Tuesday, January 25, 2011
31 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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FS gets the boot from the DR and yet JJC survives at the C-N?! UNREAL. FS takes 20 years of local history and knowledge with him out the door while JJC writes generic columns that have no local appeal at all. Which do you think readers will miss more?
ReplyDeleteHad our Christmas party this weekend and now off on my cruise. life after Gannett is the best. The papers are like an abusive relationship. You continue to get beat over and over. You get stabbed in the back over and over. When you have the guts to walk away you look back and say why did I stay. do yourself a favor and get out. There are places that want you to work for them.
ReplyDeletelets be real,I need insurance most of all-then on top of that I get a paycheck,I want to leave have looked at all avenues, but right now I am desperate, & it's not that great of a time to look for a job right now,i've been looking, better to stay were I am right now.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering..
ReplyDeleteNot to be nasty or anything,
but how does it feel to be half way out the
door with a pink slip,week after week.
To be near the edge of the cliff,waiting to
be pushed off ,week after week.
I left a year and a half ago,and it was so very
terrible then. I can't imagine how bad it must be now.
Anybody care to comment,I,am and many others are interested I'm sure.
So the Feb. 4 layoffs... is this just for Jersey or is it company wide?
ReplyDeleteI design ads. We have had the "Ax" over our department for two years. We have gone thru 40% layoffs, furlows, wage freezes - and when ever we even question management we get our "sister" paper has plenty of people who will do our jobs. Nice. Our department has never gotten much respect even though we create the ads, that sell our advertisers products, who continue to advertise, that keep our sales reps employed, and that allows our paper to still be pretty profitable. The ad design centers in Des Moines and Indianapolis were hiring people who started our making more money, than I make after nearly 10 years.
ReplyDeleteSo this spring when our department is consolidated and we lose our jobs there will be a feeling of relief. Just want the umemployment benefits until I can find a new job. I'll miss my co-worker but that is it. It has not been enjoyable working here since IT massive layoffs a couple of years ago. Newspapers are in a tail spin that will leave to a crash.
9:14
ReplyDeleteThanks for that.
I am sure your feelings reflect that of thousands of Gannett workers.
Gannett has a strong financial interest in making life miserable for its workers, especially those who are above salary thresholds, have 3-4 weeks of annual vacation and who consume more health care than they pay for. By fostering job conditions that induce workers to leave, Gannett spares itself the cost of severance payments and its half of the cost of workers' unemployment benefits. This is a big win-win for Gannett when you consider the size of its payroll. It would be great to hear from a former Gannett finance, HR or legal exec who can shed light on this aspect of the company's cost-containment strategy.
ReplyDeleteJust keeping the fact that management was recently awarded bonuses while the rank and file had to take furloughs in the forefront of comments on this site.
ReplyDeleteDon't ever forget that.
"Gannett today joins with Ongo Inc. and leading media companies, The New York Times and The Washington Post, to launch the digital, personal news service, Ongo"--from this morning's Gannett email newsletter.
ReplyDelete9:14 I agree with your sentiments. When ad design consolidation was announced our entire department was told we would be able to apply for jobs at the GPCs. That could not have been farther from the truth. No jobs were ever posted. Considering Gannett posts jobs for us to apply internally I find the lack of communication about the GPCs very disheartening and insulting. We have so much talent in our ad design department, many seasoned people who have great work ethics and who are open and resilient to learning new skill sets and grasping new software concepts as well as being great artists. I realize not everyone can pick up and move however why assume that is a fact for all? Gannett ... what are you thinking?
ReplyDeleteDear 9:14am - I work in Sales and I never gave our ad designers as much respect as they deserved. I never fully appreciated how they could turn my frantic, messy layouts into a a good looking and profitable ad. And how you would put up with the late ads and the numerous changes. Until now. We lost our ad design department over 6 months ago and working with design center has been a disaster. Is it getting better? A little, but I lost several customers and have been screamed at a a lot more. I would like our former ad designers that you are appreciated my more people than you know.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
My sentiments exactly 11:35 p.m. The newspaper industry and the big G is like an abusive relationship if not a toxic, all-consuming one.
ReplyDeleteI feel that those shown the door are given a gift.
The unknown of unemployment is sometimes better than the stifling sterile excuses of today's newsrooms that induce stress and reduce pay!
Not to mention the jump-through-hoops mentality of reapplying for jobs that will go away...again.
1980s: The Evil Empire = Soviet Union
ReplyDelete2010s: The Evil Empire = Gannett
9:14, 10:42 and 12:05: Well put. When my design department was zapped, no one would look us in the eye, let alone speak to us; other staff, management. I was surprised they didn't leave Lugers at our workstations with the Gannett logo on the handle and one round. We, too, had the "opportunity" to apply for open positions -- but the pittance that there were, they were all internal and utterly out of the question in terms of qualifications. But as others have mentioned, now that I'm out of there? My health, which had seriously deteriorated from years of Gannettoiditis, has never been better! My hands aren't moist with sweat every morning, stomach nauseated, walking into some tomb that used to be full of talented, dedicated workers. I have an appetite! And my "significant other" is a helluva lot more happier, too! No job yet, and I've been looking in other industries, but it's a matter of time. Good luck to you all!
ReplyDelete1:23 what were the positions that you had the opportunity to apply for? our ad department will be dissolved in the spring and we've been told that there will be 2-3 positions that we can apply for however there are no job descriptions yet. i'd love to hear from anyone who is aware of the types of jobs and the number of jobs left behind in the ad services department after ad consolidation.
ReplyDelete1:59, from memory only, offers were 1 ad trafficker clerk, 2 integrated media design artist (IMDA, sales), 1 real estate sales supervisor, 1 advertising sales manager, 1 obituary clerk position! From their job descriptions, the IMDA positions were more centered on turning an artist into a suit-and-tie-wearing sales rep with schmoozy PowerPoint presentations in the field hocking multi-platform ad campaigns to client targets -- glorified specs --(to be booted off to the CPC's), rather than being a design artist intimately working with the client as in the past.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know why the top paying managers and VP's who were "asked to leave" in December were sent off with an attractive severance package and we little guys get TPP pay, unemployment and cobra? Employees are employees, right? Just because they are VP's shouldn't justify severance.
ReplyDeleteSounds like someone is following Gannett's path to success...
ReplyDeleteSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Yahoo is laying off about 1% of its staff, mostly in its media and advertising group, All Thing Digital, a technology website owned by Dow Jones, reported Tuesday. The personnel reduction is a part of Yahoo's strategy to better position itself for revenue growth, the Internet company told the website.
Re: 5:02 p.m....Because they're the ones who make the rules, not the rank and file. Those who make the rules, make them favorable to themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat about layoffs (Feb. 4)??? Any info on numbers, divisions, sites or departments?
ReplyDeleteHave reporters at the DR, HNT and CN been told who are goners on 2-4? Will departing columnists be allowed to pen farewell columns?
ReplyDeleteHello Fellow Digital Employees...
ReplyDeleteVerve Wireless is HIRING. Verve Wireless is the leading mobile advertising platform for local media. They are opening up an office in the Washington DC area and have been calling into Wash Post, Clearspring and now Gannett looking to hire business development associates, analysts, product managers, local sales strategists and heads of local sales.
They are offering big cash comp and great equity packages. I just interviewed with their team in San Diego. Send your resumes!!!
did anyone notice that when all the managers took their week off after christmas how well the plants run with out them? hmmmmmm
ReplyDeletesounds like a cost saving measure.
i think the best thing to know is in the long run you are probably better off without GANNETT...it may not seem like it now and it may be a difficult journey but life isn't all about $$$, wouldn't you rather be healthy and not stressed out every day of your life then to keep walking into the sickness that is GANNETT? wouldn't you like to be able to spend more time doing what you love and/or trying to find out what you love?
ReplyDeleteMoney is an external pursuit of happiness, it may buy a nice trip, a fancy car, a huuuuge house, but in the end isn't buying health, happiness, good family and friends...
wouldn't it just be nice to wake up in the morning knowing you do not have to face the fear and worry and dread that is GANNETT?
since i have been let go i feel 100% better in all areas of my life, i have NO JOB still, but i have HOPE for the future and good people surrounding me and can squeak by on unemployment, the bottom line is people do not need that much to survive we are led to believe by society and the media and the money and the "rich" that is what is going to make us HAPPY...
i think when we focus on all the bad that is GANNETT we start to lose focus on all the GOOD that ISN'T GANNETT...
and in some ways that is just what they want you to do, they want you to feel the FEAR and SUFFER...
so don't give them the satisfaction of letting them control your Hopes & Dreams and keep SMILING, (they hate that...)
“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'” ~ George Bernard Shaw
From a story today on the website of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D:
ReplyDeleteA libel lawsuit against the Argus Leader and its publisher has been settled. Dan Scott, the former director of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, had claimed that a satirical column in 2007 by then-Executive Editor Randell Beck had damaged his reputation. Beck now is publisher of Argus Leader Media.
3:38 said:
ReplyDelete"hocking multi-platform ad campaigns to client targets -- glorified specs --(to be booted off to the CPC's),"
Do you mean GPCs? But that reminds me, whatever happened to the groups that were supposed to create advertising targeting each newspaper's biggest (and spendiest) clients--Consumer Solutions Group? Creative Something Something? I think it was 3 letters, starting with a "C". So many acronyms, I can't keep 'em straight! This would be outside of the GPC, maybe five groups in all just like the page design centers.
12:05
ReplyDeleteWhy not contact your favorite ad designer and see if he/she wants to do some work for you? It can't be that difficult!
Has anyone at PointRoll seen Jason Tafler around the office? This guy has been a waste. Good riddance to him!
ReplyDeleteBut not as much of a waste as you, 10:03.
ReplyDeleteClient Solutions Groups. They still exist but not sure where they are headed.
ReplyDelete