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Sunday, May 15, 2011
38 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 5 of this comment thread, please go here.
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ReplyDeleteInterns? Anyone know if we are getting interns this year? We certainly could use some help at my place, although people are so busy, the interns won't find many with time to help them.
ReplyDeleteFound this comment in one of the other threads. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Too scared to comment too early, I knew yesterday, but 9:15 and 9:17 are correct. Evidently layoffs were planned for July, moved up to June. No numbers given. Expense reductions as well. For some, that's more in the layoffs as who has anything left to cut but staff.
Maybe some past or present managers can step up to the plate and tell us just how much of a bonus they get per year on average. I'm sure it more than the furlough money they lost.
ReplyDelete10:22 -- I am not in the know at all, but I have heard people speculate about July layoffs for some time, in large part because that would mark the start of the third quarter.
ReplyDeleteSo, if corporate has suddenly decided it needs to cut expenses now (and the Phoenix and Asheville moves seem to indicate this) that post makes complete sense.
I would speculate that advertising managers are being asked for their second quarter revenue projections by this time. I would also venture to guess that nearly 100% of these projections are going to show that the second quarter will be as dismal as the first quarter. They will not be given numbers that were expected to increase,ones that the fearless leaders anticipated.This is no doubt why there will be increased pressures to cut more expenses...now!
ReplyDeleteMeaning layoffs,what other major expenses can be cut?
10:56, as a manager, I can tell you that my income has declined every year for the past six years. Bonuses have gone down every year (as they should when revenues decline)and furloughs eat away at your salary. I've had one raise in the past five years. I suspect this is fairly typical for OC members across Gannett. I'm not complaining; sacrifice should be shared. Which is why most OC members are pissed off at the bonuses paid to top corporate officers.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing, but note My Boss has said more layoffs coming now, and it makes sense in light of what happened in Arizona. I know advertising is bad, and everyone can see that in the paper. There are also strange things going on, including no longer stocking newspaper racks in some stores, indicating they have cut off paper deliveries to low-sales stores. That's suicidal.
ReplyDeleteI subscribe to my local paper on Sunday-only (for the inserts) and yesterday I got a call that they want to give me Thursday through Saturday for a buck, and if I'll take it, they'll give me 6 weeks free, plus a comic umbrella. No end to the promotional price of $8 a month (cover price daily is 75 cents and Sunday is $1.50 single copy.) And if I remain a subscriber until January, they'll give me a free Entertainment Guide valued at $35 (which I normally buy anyway). So I'm paying about $50, or $1 a week, for an entire year for the subscription. This means that print is only slightly more than reading online. And is less than I pay for NYT with paywall. Years ago, there was discussion of free print distribution and people said it'll never happen. Guess what, it's almost here.
ReplyDelete11:57 -- I think free print distribution is the way to go. The weeklies have been doing it for years successfully. The cover price of papers and magazines has never covered the cost of printing. It has always been subsidized by advertising. So, why not go completely free, with only a nominal charge for home delivery?
ReplyDeleteIf you read the financial news, you know the Washington Post is in the same sort of economic problems. Yet in the depths of its misery, it does this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/a-pattern-of-hud-projects-stalled-or-abandoned/2011/03/14/AFWelh3G_story.html?hpid=z1
And USA Today covers American Idol.
If there IS truth to the layoffs in July, maybe they should ask for volunteers before slating who will be next. I know lots of folks that would volunteer at this point!
ReplyDeleteIts not that usatoday covers fluff like Idol or Dancing with the stars so well. Its the piss poor job the paper does where it should count. News and Money are huge jokes. They need better reporters and writers. They definitely need editors with solid news judgement. They need to get rid of the non producers and the editors who bring no value to the paper. Finally, they need veteran news people running the web and mobile platforms. Not neophytes who wouldnt know a big new story, or how to display one, unless it bites them in the posterior. Until this happens, Usat is on a long slope to disaster.
ReplyDeleteDaily Record, Morris Countym nj: I think assistant editor Joe Ungaro eft the paper and Meghan Van Dyk was promoted to his spot.
ReplyDeleteWatch what happens at USA Today when the cuts hit. I am predicting Hunke and Hillkirk will save the verticals and their new staffs, and jettison some of he old-timers who are currently holding the place together. The genius who came up with the American Idol coverage is golden. Just wait and see.
ReplyDeleteA layoff sounds more appealing every day. Hope to resign from TJN (newsroom) very soon. It's been a privelege to work with, and learn from, the talented folks there who still give a damn despite the crap heaped upon us.
ReplyDeleteTo all in Gannettland: Ignore those who pour salt in our wounds as we sail among the icebergs; there will be survivors!
Thanks, Jim. I feel better now. :-)
What has happened to USA Today? It's not just that POS on gun violence, or the story on Christian radio broadcasting judgement day is coming May 21. It's the errors in the headlines and the careless writing. When they put together the paper 20 years ago, it was on a shoestring with borrowed staffers, but they didn't make these silly mistakes and editorial errors. USA Today had a clarity of purpose back then that it doesn't have today.
ReplyDeleteThank you 11:34 for telling it like it is. It's refreshing to see that there are OC members who feel as we "rank and file" types do - that compensation and bonuses for the top executives is out of control. Why isn't this money being reinvested in the company, while there still is something to salvage? Wake up shareholders, before your stock is only worth recycling as toilet paper.
ReplyDelete2:52: the problem is withthe people in charge. There is so one holding the accountable, and they don't hold the people making errors accountable, either./looking busy and having a title is way more important than doing your job.
ReplyDeleteInterns are left up to each site except for folks from the Gannett Mentorship program or the Chips Quinn scholars. Not being in the loop since Feb, I'm not sure if Gannett is participating in either program this year. With their mentorship program, you had to have an open position that you would be willing to hire the intern into if they successfully complete the internship. Not much chance of that happening. I can't remember the stipulations on CQ. Most will go for the interns taking it for class credit in colleges, however the FLSA standards for that has gotten tighter.
ReplyDeleteSeveral reasons for this, but mostly the problem is on Hillkirk. He wont make a decisions and holds no one accountable for errors. He's got to know he has people unqualified below him, he doesnt care.
ReplyDeleteSinking ship
ReplyDeleteNo steering, no rudder. But management thinks its first class.
ReplyDeleteReminds me more of that old tv comedy Hogan's Heroes. Col. Blink, Sgt. Schultz are in charge.
ReplyDelete2:52, haven't you heard? People here are always pointing out how mistakes don't matter, and that if readers can figure out the message, then the number of errors doesn't matter.
ReplyDelete6;29 This is not a professional publication and Jim doesn't have the same standards for protecting his brand as does USA Today. So mistakes of grammar and spelling on this blog don't really matter as we are looking for content. I call up USA Today expecting a professional product and anything that detracts from that image is quite different. The comments on USA Today are held to the same standard as those on this blog.
ReplyDelete3:47's mention of the Chips Quinn scholars reminds me of the days when journalists had a real advocate, with real power, at the corporate level in the person of John Quinn.
ReplyDeleteHis successor, Phil Currie, was a pale imitationr. And
Currie's successor, Kate Marymont, apparently is a figment of the imagination.
Too bad. Very sad.
Top story on the Reno Gazette Journal Web site right now -- http://www.rgj.com/
ReplyDeleteIf you're late to the party, it may have changed, but at the time of this posting its prom photos from a local high school. It gets the No. 1 slot because it's a large photo gallery, and that means it will generate many more hits than, say, a story about something substantive.
free print makes sense when you have the advertising to support it - look for the zip codes that all preprint advertisers want and you have gone from the red to the black very quickly. The revenue per subscriber from preprints (not to mention prorated ROP) far offsets the "give" to the subscriber
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ReplyDeleteI have to say that I'll take typos and homonyms here and there if they will just get rid of the freaking CLEAVAGE PHOTO EVERY DAY on the Cincinnati Enquirer site. Seriously, I get so tired of having to see some skinny white woman in a lowcut top on the front "news" page every day. A house burned down because an exterminator was trying to kill bedbugs in the second most bedbug infested city in the US? police officer killed in the line of duty laid to rest? Who cares, here's a BenGal cheerleader tryout picture!!
ReplyDeleteDo other cities do this crap? I'm not talking MetroMix (which I avoid religiously), I'm talking about the news page.
@12:10 AM: Uh, yes, other cities do, sadly. Plus cute kids and animals, festivals and sports. Anything that will create clicks.
ReplyDeleteGannett needs to implement Page 6 girls in EVERY newspaper. Maybe that will increase circulation -- and charge double rates for ads around it: think bars, national beer/alcohol ads, tire shops, etc. They ought to make Auctions easier to find, too. That market will be the next to fall as more auctioneers move their ads totally to website-only sites.
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