U.S. newspapers division President Bob Dickey sent the following memo to employees today:
I want to thank everyone within USCP for your efforts on what was a very difficult day for all of us yesterday. We wanted to reach everyone who was impacted by the end of the day Tuesday and with only a few exceptions, we were able to do so. We will do all that we can to avoid further layoffs outside of those related to ongoing consolidations. The economy, of course, will also play a role in determining future decisions.
These are challenging times, but I want to assure you that the steps we are taking now help us all going forward. Our business continues to change and we need to continue to adapt and respond to the new technologies and consumer trends that are driving these changes. While our local media organizations of tomorrow will look quite different from how we once were or even how we are today, newspapers are and will be a vital part of Gannett’s overall portfolio as one of the many different ways we reach consumers.
You are an important part of our team and our future. The work you do for our communities and our customers makes a difference and the opportunities ahead are promising. I believe in our future and I believe in what each of you as individuals can and will contribute to it. Your work and commitment is greatly appreciated by all -- our customers, communities, colleagues and me.
Thank you.
Bob
I want to thank everyone within USCP for your efforts on what was a very difficult day for all of us yesterday. We wanted to reach everyone who was impacted by the end of the day Tuesday and with only a few exceptions, we were able to do so. We will do all that we can to avoid further layoffs outside of those related to ongoing consolidations. The economy, of course, will also play a role in determining future decisions.
These are challenging times, but I want to assure you that the steps we are taking now help us all going forward. Our business continues to change and we need to continue to adapt and respond to the new technologies and consumer trends that are driving these changes. While our local media organizations of tomorrow will look quite different from how we once were or even how we are today, newspapers are and will be a vital part of Gannett’s overall portfolio as one of the many different ways we reach consumers.
You are an important part of our team and our future. The work you do for our communities and our customers makes a difference and the opportunities ahead are promising. I believe in our future and I believe in what each of you as individuals can and will contribute to it. Your work and commitment is greatly appreciated by all -- our customers, communities, colleagues and me.
Thank you.
Bob
Is one of the steps he is taking reducing his personal compensation?
ReplyDeleteThis is clearly a knee-jerk reaction to the unfavorable response by Wall Street.
ReplyDeleteHow very oily of you - Dickster. I'll bet it was difficult for you. Probably spoiled your after on the links.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have we heard this promise though?
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that as long as print revenue continues to decline, layoffs will be on the table. Since print revenue isn't going to recover, Dickey and the rest of the GCI management team know that they will break this promise again.
'We will do all that we can to avoid further layoffs outside of those related to ongoing consolidations'
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one reading "We'll do everything we can to avoid further layoffs outside of the other layoffs that we have planned."
Someone told me yesterday that they were getting such hints.
Not all of us got this memo. Does that mean we don't count? Or maybe we're on "the list".
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the type of memo that Dubow wrote two years ago after the layoffs and the idiot in Westchester replied to it by mistake? Someone please hit the REPLY button again.
ReplyDeleteRead my lips: NO new layoffs....
ReplyDeleteI am so over the phrases "going forward" and "moving forward." Did Gannett issue some kind of trainig for all managers and directors to use these phrases over and over and over?
ReplyDeleteIn new memo, I say:
ReplyDeleteBite me.
Memo to Bob:
ReplyDeleteLick My Nuts!
2:55 agree.
ReplyDeletePerhaps going solutionable or moving solutionward would be better.
OK, I'll go along with what Dickey tells me. But prithee, what are these "consumer trends that are driving these changes." Are people no longer reading news stories? Not if I see the proliferation of various news sites on the Internet, they are not. My guess is that's whetting the taste for good stories, not dulling interest in what good newspapers publish. So a real "consumer trend" as the marketing professionals would tell us, is best met with quality news and stories readers can't find elswhere. Dumping long-time veteran features reporters who know how to write this stuff isn't going to help, is it? Ditto replacing professional columnists with citizen journalists who are passionate about a very few issues, but little else. There's a reason newspapers have veterans, and that is the process winnows out the unsuccessful and unaccomplished, and the cream eventually rises to the top. Come along now and lop off their heads, and you have just destroyed more than two decades of someone's very careful work. So way to go Dickey, you certainly earned your bonus this year.
ReplyDeleteBob's note is a nice gesture, perhaps better than nothing, but fails to mention that many sites have been directed to reduce pay by up to 5 percent in order to further cut payroll. It also fails to rule out further furloughs (beyond the ones coming this quarter for staffers on corporate payroll).
ReplyDeleteThere are further "placeholders" in most of the USCP site budgets, each assuming (hoping?) that Evan would have gotten us a better deal on newsprint pricing. Since that didn't happen, there will be another round (not as visible as this) just after Labor Day before we enter Q4.
Then, there will be another quiet trim before we close the books on 2011, so that we enter 2012 as lean and mean as we can be.
Bob, I'd love to believe you when you say there are no more layoffs. Unfortunately, after June-July 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, our company muscle memory -- and perhaps the best branding campaign we've ever executed to our employees -- is that we do the big, showy layoffs every summer, always before July 4, and the steathly ones before the end of the third and fourth quarters.
Little bit of puke in my throat.
ReplyDeleteDoes Kate Marymount actually do anything?
ReplyDeleteThere will continue to be layoffs as long as the company continues to give promotions/raises to the higher echilon; in an already top heavy managerial regime. The rhetoric of, and I paraphrase, "We are doing everything possible to keep from having layoffs..." is an illogical statment when viewed from the fact that these raises have to be funded from somewhere. They rationalize among themselves, "The peasants will pay for the opulent living within our Ivory Towers."
ReplyDeleteTheir plebeian actions are so ordinary and common, that it immediately interprets them to be completely lacking in imagination and judgement.
"Cut off the toes and fingers," they reason, "then there will be more blood flow to the brain which will make us wiser and think smarter.", which leads to the old proverb, "The fool always thinks himself 7 times wiser than any other."
The unfortunate reality is the newspaper industry is in decline and much quicker than anybody could have imagined. And there is no hope in sight other than creative ways of spinning any minor gains that can be reported. Corporate has taken to balancing books by eliminating jobs which will only speed up the declining process. Circulation is no longer looking to increase sales, but reduce costs by reducing print production. This causing retailers to re-think providing prime locations for newspaper racks empty at 8:00am. Home delivery is suffering as reduced expenses are effecting the cost of "buying" new subscribers. Sales commissions in advertising are dwindling and content is suffering and recent layoffs will only make all worse. In addition, any gains in the economy will immediately result in anybody left finding new jobs.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to be so negative, but does anybody see things differently whether at Gannett or any other paper? This is literally the scene in the movie where the seats, food and fuel are thrown from the airplane to keep it in the air, if only for a few more minutes.
What's most amazing is that the people at the top still have their jobs as I've seen no plan for the future, but that's to be expected as they're too busy mapping the current elimination of seats, food and fuel.
5:08 Why is it that the NYT isn't suffering as much as we are? They have been hit as hard by the headwins as we were, and it's certainly still stormy, but the consensus from the NYT is they're going to make it through. Look at the Boston Globe and that Poynter column Jim cited yesterday.
ReplyDeleteMight I note that in spite of all this gloom and misery, GCI is still the most wildly profitable chain of the group. Before these cutbacks, GCI had a net profit margin of 11 percent, compared to less than 5 percent for the NYT. What do these personnel cutbacks do to the profit margin -- boost it to 20 percent where it was before the recession?
This company wasn't headed for the rocks before these cutbacks, and I doubt it is headed for the rocks now. But it was founded by a visionary Frank Gannett, who -- whatever his considerable shortcomings -- loved his properties and cared for them. I get the impression from this cadre of leadership that the only thing they care about is the size of their paychecks and special bonuses.
Also, I cannot speak for anyone else, but yes, I have a plan for the future. I know exactly what I am going to be doing between now and my retirement. And I am planing on making it through that retirement without Social Security because, as we all are told, it is going bankrupt, too.
Yes, I see things completely differently from the viewpoint of Corporate because I'm not making these personnel cuts just in order to collect a very handsome bonus check at the end of the year. And I just don't get it.
5:37 PM Unless Gannett goes private and has a profit margin similar to most other companies, they will continue to make expenese cuts because revenue gains are not going to happen. It can only last so long and apparently the Gannett "leaders" plan to milk this for as long as they can until the teats run dry.
ReplyDeleteAnon@537P: The New York Times Co. is being propped up by mucho pesos from a Mexican billionaire. It also sold its hugely profitable TV stations 2-3 years ago.
ReplyDeleteEver since golfgate, dickey has lost all respect of the community papers. Not that this self dealing jerk would care...
ReplyDelete5:37 if the NYT is your example of a company doing things right you better get out of this discussion and stop embarrassing yourself. They are losing huge dollars.
ReplyDeleteI wrote the 5:08 post and wanted to clarify, I love newspapers and don't love Gannett. I spent 10 years at The Arizona Republic and would ask anybody to find a newspaper or newspaper company not in trouble. Best case is they would suck less than others, but nobody's doing well, (and I'm not including a paper with a somewhat good month or two). This is an industry in deep decline with no clear plan for the future. Gannett seems to be in the people shuffling business lately, with virtually no new blood, direction of ideas. Publishers bouncing around, promotions... No new additions at the corporate level will have any effect other than a mention to impress Wall Street because the top leaders are the same who've been misguiding the company for several years. Wall Street will eventually realize Gannett (and other papers) are simply treading water and getting very tired. Or another way, Wall Street will eventually realize the plane is still flying despite everything needed to land was thrown out to save weight and stay in the air! Wait and see how the corporate minds react to the stock as it drops below $10. Wall Street will only buy the same excuse so many times.
ReplyDeleteHow about everybody at corporate who has any thing to do with community publishing join the furlough group, including HR(no accountability in the field now with bosses hundreds & thousands of miles away), legal, especially ALL the executives. OR, they can take 2 weeks decrease in pay for every 100k they make. AND of course NO BONUSES or company shares for anybody in 2011 since these are "challenging" times.
ReplyDeleteNo 21st century business plan to take advantage of the emerging digital world of smartphones and tablets (oops, it's here!) means no new stream of revenue to replace the losses in print. I'm not an MBA, but I can see that is the path to the future (go where the customers are going, dummy) why can't these overpaid top execs see this?
ReplyDeleteBecause the answer is, if they put money into the company, they can't put it in their own pockets. The product is being diminished, deadlines are moved up because of lack of people to edit and process copy and now there aren't even enough press people in some locations to run the presses in the post layoff world.
So loyal customer, you can wait to get your news in print a day, sometimes two or more late. Even getting news on the websites on time is a challenge because, oh look, digital editors got laid off.
Unless there is a massive turnaround in the mindset of upper management to rebuild the product (which will take $$$ and people) you can expect more of what we saw on the 21st.
Well spoken, 9:42 a.m.
ReplyDelete"... if they put money into the company, they can't put it in their own pockets."
The End.