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Sunday, April 24, 2011
17 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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A CEO's job is to maximize the profit per share. A COO is responsible for the health and future. The CFO makes sure everything is done right and care is used making investments in operations. Right?
ReplyDeleteHow many layoffs today or Monday ??
ReplyDeleteHappy Good Friday !! and Easter !!
Aren't holidays special in Gannettland? !!
So Dickey is elected to NAA board as treasurer? They could have just asked me how to throw money out a window.
ReplyDeletePerfect for Dickey. NAA's staff went from about 140 three years ago to about 25 now. Top executive pulls down about $1 million a year and there are well compensated vice presidents. A few shell-shocked worker bees still left are not so well paid.
ReplyDeleteNo comments here at all for Saturday? I would have at least expected the supposed expats to tell us once again how great it is to leave Gannett and start/join their incredibly profitable and generous (yet still anonymous) companies.
ReplyDeleteRather early to convey such resentful envy on an Easter Sunday, eh 7 a.m.?
ReplyDeleteGood morning and Happy Easter to one and all.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to a great day. ANd it's nice to see no reports of the doom predicted for Friday. My place is quiet and operating as always.
A reader writes: As a subscriber to Gannett's Shreveport Times, I can tell you the paper's collapse in customer service and content can be squarely blamed for my decision to cancel a 30-year subscription.
ReplyDeleteDespite a new press, printing problems result in either no paper or one that arrives hours late. This happens, on average, two or three days a week. Calls to circulation or customer service go unanswered or unreturned. The one time I did speak to a person, I still got the press problems excuse. But the paper isn't just late, it never arrives. My carrier claims she waits hours for papers to be released. I'm tired of paying for a paper I never receive.
Aside from these problems, the paper's new format has cut down on the content to the point of making the daily paper irrelevant. I'm sure the remaining employees do their best, but the staff cuts are showing.
I miss reading a good, daily paper. But it has reached the point I won't miss my subscription to the Shreveport Times.
That's my view of what happened to the newspaper industry and Gannett.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWanda has always been a straight shooter and a terrific Gannett asset. She is missed at USA Today.
4/19/2011 6:33 PM "
Your "straight shooter" has decided to let her managers tell hourly employees about the latest wage freeze. She didn't want to be the bearer of bad news.
That's class.
@7 a.m.,
ReplyDeleteI am a Gannett expat, who was "retired" in July, 2009. I did move on to another media company, one that has tentacles longer than GCI, and it was for more money and more adventure.
The money is short-lived when you have to pay taxes in the New England area. The adventure was even shorter-lived when you live out of airports, rental car counters and endless hotels.
Sure, the work is fun and the staff dedicated, but in the end some of us probably still long for the comfort of a paper we can call home.
While GCI has its faults, many of us around the country grew up at a Gannett property and learned our craft on those hallowed grounds. Many of us became quite good at that craft, only to be made to believe we were expendable in the end.
While I share with everyone here a mild disgust at the executive salaries, I have come to realize the decisions made were business-related. We don't have to agree with the decisions, but we do live with them.
Yes, I endured COBRA and TPP and I was, and am, grateful for those benefits. They got me through until I landed another gig.
Is it right? That is a matter of personal opinion, which I will not engage in. Were people hurt? Yes, but look at other industry. Staff there were hurt as well. People have been, and will continue to be hurt until we stop breathing. It's called life.
And life goes on.
As per the Arizona Republic Sunday 4/24/2011
ReplyDeleteGannett footnote: Total for Gannett Co., Inc., includes all locations and properties in Arizona. The 2010 figure does not include corporate employees.
employees 2011 = 2185
employees 2010 = 1750
total gain = 435
Where in the hell our these people??? or are they saying we have 435 corporate employees. This sounds right because they always have to many bosses and not enough workers.
2:52, I am one of Gannett's critics -- and an ex-pat. During most of my employ, given my background, I was encouraged to criticize with some talent, and even given awards for my criticisms -- voted by what is now called the Operating Committee.
ReplyDeleteMy intent was input, input for discussion and for positive resolution.
That entire thing is unthinkable in today's Gannett, as I suddenly found out overnight, me of all people, nearly being fired. It was if I were a new employee just off the street (as they seemed to be accepting then: it's good for institutional lobotomies), my entire history with Gannett not even referenced.
I frequent Gannettblog because I spent many, many years (and all hours at the drop of hat for said years) working for it. Some think I should just take all that time I spent and forget about it, just like that.
I disagree: It's healthy and good to see that I am not alone. I think, since I witnessed Gannett's office "culture" morph more and more into the vapid thing is has become, I think along with many others that its healthy to discuss what might be just a job change for some up-and-comers and yet a fairly traumatic event for longtime employees who gave their all and more.
An attorney friend tells me there's even potential legal cause for a class action suit because there's nothing about a switch from severance to a TTP in the last employee manual my site distributed.
Therefor, the "last we knew" assumption was we expected severance if we were laid off. Additionally, several other changes came down from McClean which never reached the dregs in the trenches who labored under statements since rescinded but never conveyed.
That said, myself, I really appreciated your post in counterbalance. It stands apart from the usual manic black-or-white -- and I hope others appreciate it was well. In fact, it's the only problem I have with Gannettblog: not enough decently differing takes, and too many pissing contests as I posted in the Easter Bunny thread.
So, thanks.
3:01 PM: The executives at each Gannett property are "corporate employees," which means that they are on the corporate payroll, not the local one. These figures include just those on the local payrolls. Like you, I'm intrigued by the growth in employees from 2010 to 2011. Where are they? The Arizona Republic? KPNX-TV? Can Republic and KPNX-TV workers tell us where they have added staff?
ReplyDelete2:52. The decision to give management bonuses is not a business decision. It is about pure greed. Take away the furloughs, which allegedly saved $33 million, and you have no $28 million to hand to executives. Such b.s.
ReplyDelete3:01 PM: Just speculating here, but could the growth in Gannett staff actually be just a change in the way the former Tucson Newspapers Inc. employees are counted? Gannett owns half of the company, even though Lee runs it. Maybe Gannett is including those employees for 2011, but not for 2010. That would more than offset declines in staffing at the Republic and KPNX.
ReplyDeleteA reader writes: As a subscriber to Gannett's Shreveport Times, I can tell you the paper's collapse in customer service and content can be squarely blamed for my decision to cancel a 30-year subscription.
ReplyDeleteThis is the bottom line in the newspaper business, folks. Not the razzle-dazzle going on at HQ or the mumble-jumble GCI tries to sell Wall Street.
GCI's commodity -- information in a variety of formats -- is losing its value to customers and potential customers. Neither content nor service worth their price no matter its form of delivery.
As I've said before, Gannett's dramatic degradation of the quality of its news and information sources will cost it dearly in the long run.
By the time it figures out how to effectively spread news electronically, what's left of its news report won't have much value.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteNo comments here at all for Saturday? I would have at least expected the supposed expats to tell us once again how great it is to leave Gannett and start/join their incredibly profitable and generous (yet still anonymous) companies.
4/24/2011 7:00 AM
Yes, just as anonymous like yourself for example. Sorry, to bust your bubble: just got a 15% pay raise, a hefty bonus and a free ticket flying business class overseas. What did you get from Gannett by staying with them??? Wage freeze, furlough, health care taken away??? What?? Please elaborate of what got by being the loyal loafer!