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Monday, March 28, 2011
47 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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How does your week look so far?
ReplyDeleteHere's a good one: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/03/26/20110326zidich-hard-times-focus-jobs.html
ReplyDeleteHow many people did Zidich lay off at The Arizona Republic in the last two years?
This is ,once again the last week of the quarter.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the revenue at your site went up,way up.
But chances are,like at this site, it went way down.The prevailing attitude that I have gathered ,seems to be that most employees will just be relieved when they finally get laid .
The waiting is the worst part.
The print revenue for the quarter is way,way down again .If there is a site out there that shows an uptrend we would love to hear of it.
So once again ,as after every quarter,everyone braces for layoffs.More people have health issues because of the stress,more families are broken because of stress,loss of income,mental health issues and all other issues that surround working for Gannett.
So ,who will and how many ,will win the layoff
lottery in this upcoming round of cost cutting!!!
I agree that waiting is the worst part. My site isn't a paper or newstation, so I am not really sure what to expect. I know our numbers are still down and every attempt we make at adding on revenue is failing. I wish the company would be upfront with what to expect instead of letting employee's minds wander to the worst possible conclusion. Morale is about 6 feet under here.
ReplyDeleteIs it true the Journal News shut down the advertising office in Mount Kisco? How many were laid off?
ReplyDeleteHere's a good one: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/03/26/20110326zidich-hard-times-focus-jobs.html
ReplyDeleteHow many people did Zidich lay off at The Arizona Republic in the last two years?
3/28/2011 4:04 AM
The funny thing too, is that the week prior to Sunday the 27th, the paper was promoting a Super Sunday Job Section, well Sunday comes and it looks EXACTLY the same as usual NO DIFFERENCE what so ever and Zidich had a little letter he wrote at the top about blah blah blah how this is the best section ever. Really, Really now did he even look at his own product, obviously not. That Arizona Republic is out of their minds.
eBay to buy GSI. Chris strikes gold again.
ReplyDeleteGeez, Saridakis comes out smelling like roses. He walked out of here with a ton of cash after corporate bought him out, then goes to GSI and within six months is bought out again. Wow. Why did we let him go?
ReplyDeleteSaridakis gets his cut of $2.4 billion. Much better than dealing with these corporate pikers.
ReplyDeleteHe's magic.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard furlough or layoffs coming 2nd quarter?
ReplyDeleteShouldn't Zidich disclose that Career Builder is not only an online partner but, in part, owned by the same company. Oh, that's right. We are a marketing company not a news organization anymore. I wonder if the majority of readers understand that.
ReplyDeleteSo what his note really says is, "Nothing is more vital to the health of our community than jobs, but since we are a D.C.-based company we don't care about the health of our community and went ahead and fired much of our staff. But if you're one of those peopley, we'd love to take advantage of you by pointing you to another one of our crappy corporate products."
"The point is that Gannett is still 70 percent revenues in print, it's not so easy to just shut down papers and try to survive overnight. Therefore, ALL papers are in "transformation" mode....
ReplyDeleteAbove from a previous post. What most people don't realize (and Jim as a business reporter you probably know this) but almost all of Gannett's digital revenue is from Careerbuilder (upwards of 90%) so of the 30% revenue figure almost all is from Careerbuilder. However, since Gannett owns 51% of Careerbuilder they count 100% of Careerbuilders revenue in their annual revenue (which is an allowable accounting practice) but is not reality. So the bottom line is that the digital revenue that does not come from Careerbuilder is incredible smaller compared to the overall picture and what Careerbuilder revenue that is counted is doubled. Hope that makes sense to all of you, no math and account types, but Gannett is so heavily dependent on print and with declines continue basically forever, GCI will find themselves in a very tight financial situation soon.
De-coding Craig's love note from this morning:
ReplyDelete- accelerate our internal rate of change (translation: we’re drowning)
- an integrated, cross-divisional effort (translation: we’ll take help anywhere we can find it)
- strategic initiatives and teams (translation: vague plans and big groups so nobody gets blamed)
- transformational ideas (translation: we haven’t tried this in at east 3 years)
- Content Monetization (translation: how can we make more money?)
- Content Vertical Expansion (translation: where can we make the most money?)
- Business Adjacencies (translation: whose money can we take?)
- Transformational Cost Restructuring (translation: OK, we’ll jack up the prices)
Terrific story in USA Today questioning the spectacular jumps in test scores in D.C. schools.
ReplyDeleteInvestigative reporting is alive and well, at least for a day, and a reminder what the business is really about.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm
SARIDAKIS ROCKS!!!! THIS GUY IS UNBELIEVABLE. I NEED TO FOLLOW THIS GUY.
ReplyDeleteFOR ALL THOSE PEOPLE ON THIS BLOG DOUBTING THIS GUY...F-OFF!!!!
Saridakis is my hero! Maybe he can help sell our company too, since these idiots can't find rtheir way out of a paper bag!!!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Chris!!!!
Craig, shave for craps sake.
ReplyDeleteYour inner Neanderthal is showing.
Then put your hardworking people back on a pension program...
Stop being such a lame, elitist pree-ick.
Talk some straight talk. Are you capable?
When does the ball drop on layoffs/furloughs announcement?
ReplyDeleteThey'll probably give any layoff/furlough announcement a few more days to separate them further from the recent disclosure of executive pay. I'm sure they don't care what employees think, but they make themselves easy media targets if information about their huge bonuses is immediately followed by the announcement of more cuts.
ReplyDeleteFortunately for them, most media outlets have extremely short memories, meaning they can wait three or four days and everybody will be on to something else. Then fewer people will write critical stories.
The thorn in their side, of course, is that Jim will, no doubt, point out the incongruities of huge bonuses and furloughs. That means some of the outside media folks who read this blog will latch onto the story because it has been spoon fed to them.
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ReplyDeleteThis is close week for March as well as a quarter-stop.
ReplyDeleteOnce the financials have been reviewed, we'll see layoffs starting again next week. It's now a new quarter, but they'll try to cut expenses as early as possible, hoping to salvage something by the end of June.
There aren't any forecasts of advertising recovery so far; revenue continues to fall short of expectations (which are, frankly, pie in the sky anyway).
And, 1:33 pm, I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be "announcing" ANY layoffs. They'll just do it. They haven't made announcements in the recent past, so what's different now? Only if some media investigators happen to know someone or read this blog will there even be any general awareness of layoffs (and that's ONLY if they choose to write about it).
1:33 Corporate is screwed on the timing of any furlough announcement.
ReplyDeleteThe disclosure about executive pay always comes around the beginning of the second quarter.
Meanwhile, any furloughs for the second quarter need to be announced near the quarter's start.
Also, for comparison, the current round of furloughs was announced Jan. 4 -- four days into the quarter.
12;06 How many readers do we have who send their kids to D.C. public schools?
ReplyDeleteat 8:59
ReplyDeleteI know everyone at my site will be relieved when they finally get laid.
Oh, oh, you probably meant LAID OFF. Not so much, then.
2:15 raises a good point. The reason it's a national-interest story is because Michelle Rhee has had so much potential influence in education circles across the country.
ReplyDeleteThat point was referenced in the story, although Rhee's national profile wasn't mentioned until the 13th paragraph, well after the "jump" to an inside page.
I would have made that part of a stronger "nut'' paragraph, higher up in the otherwise excellent article, explaining to readers outside D.C. why this was of importance to them.
I would say ,judging by the revenue short falls
ReplyDeleteonce again at this quarters end,Jim should start to refine his lay off list .
Maybe it should be upgraded to be able to include the huge numbers that may follow.
Historically for Gannett we will start to hear reports begin coming in at end of the first
week following quarter end.So next week ,let the fun begin.
Read this...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.espressopundit.com/2011/03/pure-bcs.html#comments
2:12 -- I'm 1:33 and you're absolutely right. I suppose I was thinking primarily about a furlough announcement, as that would have to be announced ... at least internally.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they won't announce any layoffs. Hell, if some of the other posters here are right (and their posts sound reasonable) maybe they're waiting until after layoffs to announce the furloughs. I mean, why make all those poor soon-to-be-fired folks fill out the furlough date requests?
Just wondering if Ebay's purchase of GSI means a sudden closing of the revolving door of digital people streaming up I-95 to be with Chris in King of Prussia? I would imagine the pending purchase has shut the door on new GSI hires as the transition takes place. Anyone know if that's right or not?
ReplyDelete5:56p I think Saridakis will just get started on hiring. He hires great people, but has been very selective with Pointroll employees. His team at GSI have interviewed over 35 people from Pointroll (I know, I interviewed with GSI and they said Pointroll resumes come in every day)
ReplyDeleteHow's this for a Web hed?
ReplyDeleteWiscibsub schools told to hold off on new contract
I usually spell my state's name "Wisconsin."
Still too many stupid people here. Get a grip and move on, folks. Some of you have been dumped from Gannett for more than 27 months now.
ReplyDeleteGet lives. Stop whining and blaming.
@11:58, that was brilliant, and probably quite accurate. Thanks for the chuckle.
ReplyDeleteSo how come no mention of the finalists for Gannett Manager of the year?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I'm told furlough letter will be out on Friday April 1st and that's not an April fools joke. I really don't think corporate cares what employees think about their bonuses. I think that's pretty evident in the 29 million in 4 years in pay and bonuses for our fearless leader.
ReplyDelete8:28, I don't believe one single "manager" qualifies at GCI Corporate.
ReplyDeleteHuge problems with Yahoo at my site
ReplyDeleteHuge Problems? Could you be mire vague? Could you? Geez!
ReplyDeleteSunday morning and I'm in the quickie mart down the street from my house. Opposite the cash registers there's a big rack filled with the Sunday Courier News. The endcap sign announces "Largest Employment Section of the Year" and has the Courier News logo, below which reads A Gannett Company.
ReplyDeleteYes, the corporate branding uber alles is becoming a hard sell.
"Largest Employment Section of the Year"
ReplyDeleteHA!!!! Ours had barely 2 pages
8:28 I think Corporate puts out a separate announcement, due later, about the manager finalists.
ReplyDelete5:16 points to an interesting blog post about The Arizona Republic and its publisher, John Zidich. The article asks how the paper can investigate a scandal at the college Fiesta Bowl while Zidich is third in line to run the organization. Here's a recent Republic story: http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2011/02/14/20110214fiesta-bowl-john-junker-leave.html Note the Zidich reference. That conflict hasn't been disclosed in every story. See this one, for example: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/02/19/20110219fiesta-bowl-investigations-of-finances.html
ReplyDeleteThe AP says the Fiesta Bowl investigation will be released soon. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/sports/ncaafootball/20sportsbriefs-fiesta.html
ReplyDeletewww.politico.com
ReplyDeletePOLITICO 44 is a new and innovative way to cover the Obama presidency, minute-by-minute. Powered by the largest White House staff around, it will be the go-to place for news and analysis about the president, the staff, the first lady, the vice president, and the new administration.
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ReplyDeleteYou missed the announcement Jim.
ReplyDelete