"New positions will be added in Shreveport with the consolidation," the story says, "and Monroe employees will be given first option for those positions."
The Times installed a Berliner press last year that produces a newspaper with an 18-inch depth. In addition, the Berliner press allows advertisers to place color advertising on every page, "which is important in today’s changing media environment,'' the paper says.
With this cost-saving step, Monroe becomes the latest paper to consolidate printing at a nearby sister site, or one owned by another publisher. As of December, the latest period available, 68% of Gannett's 82 U.S. papers had moved printing off-site.
Monroe's circulation weekdays is 29,245. Sunday's is 28,500.
Related: So far in the current quarter, GCI has eliminated an estimated 52 jobs at 10 sites, according to Gannett Blog reader reports. This spreadsheet gives a site-by-site count.
I gather this means the Monroe paper will become a Berliner? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
[Image: today's News Star, Newseum]
One hundred miles apart? Wonder if that will mean the press time for the News-Star will have to be earlier.
ReplyDeleteOK, I read the story and the last graf answered my question.
ReplyDeleteReaders, Petty said, should notice no difference in content since The News- Star’s current deadlines will be maintained.
Odd ... Monroe had installed a new (reconditioned) press not too long ago. Someone is going to eat a ton of depreciation.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't they keep depreciating Monroe's press, even after it's been shut down?
ReplyDeleteTaking the press out of service wouldn’t necessarily accelerate the current depreciation schedule.
ReplyDeleteIf they’re lucky they’ll be able to “sell” the press to another business unit or entity to get that expense completely off their books sooner than later. And, if they did any commercial work, then they’d want to do it as soon as they can as those monies - which helped them to ultimately lower their press costs, will be gone as a result of this change.
Jim: Captious criticism maybe but you ought to correct the typo in the last sentence of the first paragraph. You mean 'sites' not 'cites.'
ReplyDeleteHow in the hell do you maintain existing deadlines if you have to add two hours of trucking time to get the papers from Shreveport to the unbundling point in Monroe?
ReplyDeleteMonroe's Sunday circ is less than weekdays? That's odd.
ReplyDelete5:17 Strange, yes. Those are the March 31 figures from ABC.
ReplyDelete3:20 Thanks. I meant "cities."
ReplyDeleteJust be glad you don't get snow like in Wisconsin. I can't remember how many times this winter the papers got delivered late or not until the next day, pissing off readers and advertisers. That's 10 papers printing at three sites; four in central Wisconsin, five in Appleton and one at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
ReplyDelete(1) All those layoffs and Gannett only gave 45 days notice. Doesn't the federal WARN Act require 60 days?
ReplyDelete(2) If the News-Star is to convert to Berliner format, Gannett should have started planning for it long before today.
Shreveport is 100 miles west of Monroe, La. The News-Star began notifying some subscribers east of Monroe last month that home delivery would no longer be offered. Those same subscribers, some living 10 to 20 minutes from The News-Star's physical plant, were offered mail delivery but told to expect papers to arrive one or two days later. Um, no thanks.
ReplyDeleteTypical ass-backward thinking by Gannett. It's not unlike those charity events and community groups that push "tickets may be ordered by mailing a check".
ReplyDeleteAt least Monroe isn't in Canada, where striking postal workers have been locked out and all big-city mail delivery suspended.
Interesting that the comments have been disabled on this online update. Other news updates today by The News-Star still offer the comment option. Not interested in feedback from your readers Petty?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteChucky at 6:23 The WARN act -- also known as the factory shutdown law -- basically applies only when 50 or more employees are laid off at a single site within any 30-day period.
ReplyDeleteFor that reason, Monroe wouldn't be covered.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAre we putting all our eggs in one basket??
ReplyDeleteRegarding the press relocation:
ReplyDelete1. The deadlines will likely change. They may stick to the "no changes in deadlines" story for now, but it won't last... believe me, I've seen this over and over... Give it a few months. maybe a few weeks.
2. Hope they never have storms there and lose power... AND hope the local T-1 line or cable company Internet line never fails since all the pages will have to be transmitted electronically the 100 miles every day.
3. And if you have faith in the electonic technology of transmitting pdf pages from one site to the other consistentely day after day, you are a fool. These connections go down ALL THE TIME.
4. 100 miles is a LONG way. If the lines go down or the power fails, putting those pages on a DVD or CD and driving them to the plant just don't work unless you have the gannett corporate jet at your disposal.
The bottom line - prepare for a LOT of late papers! Or no papers at all.
The format issue will be an interesting one for the centralized design hubs. Their speed savings come with template use. If one paper assigned to a hub is a Berliner format and all of the others are Gannett's standard not quite so broadsheet size designing pages based on templates is going to be tough.
ReplyDeleteWe in Shreveport expect earlier deadlines for both papers eventually. I dread football season and elections nights.
ReplyDeleteMonroe is in for its final fail. The market area is the poorest in the US. The twin cities are isolated and the town, the paper and future are dim. The digital move will leave them in the dust as high speed internet use per household is very low. It's an issue of income and education which are at the bottom of the country.
ReplyDeleteNow ad late papers and early deadlines to the mix and you have shutdown in view. If you work at the paper and have any talent you need to get out now. Your skills may transfer to another industry but not in Monroe. There is no other industry in Monroe other than paper mills.
Scuttlebutt has it, that USAT/Gannett want to move the printing of USAT in Brevard to the Orlando Sentinel, with the idea that the move will save production cost. Keep in mind, that even money spent on production is spent inside the organisation, and a move to the Sentinel puts money into the Tribune Company, which owns the Sentinel. This is not even taking into account, that the Sentinel is in dire financial straits, supposedly going through some restructure of its operations in order to stay afloat.
ReplyDeleteCurrently Brevard prints the USAT and the local rag (Florida Today) allowing for at least some backup in case of equipment failures. At the Sentinel there is no backup plan at all.
If USAT/Gannett moves the printing operations to Orlando, one could speculate on the future of Brevard as a printing site for Florida Today, and then leave only the commercial print shop behind in production.
In most cases the extracting of USA today from the print schedule means you are not going to be printing papers soon, it has not shuttered Fort Myers or Salem yet
ReplyDeleteIt'll never work! I live in Shreveport and ourm paper is hours late about twice a week...always blamed on press problems. I guess I will be cancelling my subscription.
ReplyDelete6:20 If that scuttlebutt is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, that is the end of Florida Today, which is barely hanging on. Scripps Treasure Coast is very strong, and I hear Daytona is making a comeback under its new owners. There's a huge recession for the Florida Today readership as the Space Coast cuts payrolls and realigns the workforce for whatever future space mission NASA decides on like Mars, if there is federal money to be one. Not sure, but the result could easily be ta-ta-Today.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I often think the only reason for Florida Today is to give some local Gannett paper for Neuharth to read in his Felice beachfront housing estate, (which incidentally isn't selling).
ReplyDeleteRe: 9:37 - you do realize when everyone switches to NewsGate, every paper in the chain will get their pages transmitted electronically. It's called the internet. And bigger sites will have redundant lines. But if you lose internet access, you basically are screwed until it gets back up. You won't be able to get content on the pages. Maybe someone else can produce a wire section for you, and transmit it back when your internet is restored.
ReplyDelete5:56 is correct. The pages will be flying all over the country, but no worries. Redundancies are built into the system.
ReplyDeleteYou'll note that Wave2 hasn't failed for six days straight, so your obits have gotten in the paper on time. The last big issue at GPC was 4 hours of downtime last month that pushed Sunday proofs out on Saturday. No biggie. Nobody can tell when the Circ service centers are down, level of service is the same....
Have faith! And anyway, editions are like buses, you miss this one, we'll probably have one tomorrow.
dammit, I forgot to turn on the endless optimist font in that last post. Sorry!
ReplyDelete9:33 Got a link for that Felice real estate listing?
ReplyDelete6:57 What is Wave2; what's it used for, and what's been the recent problems with it?
9:33 here. Well, got to Redfin and type in Coco Beach and the street name Felice, and you will find several listings of $600,000. He lives with his family in one of these, and the others he has up for sale. There are about a row of 12 built there now, and from looking at the placing of utility lines, there are plans for another two rows. I guess that's why they don't sell.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I know about all of this because I have in-laws who live not far away, and I've been going there for a couple of days each year for the last six years. I could never find the Pumpkin Center, but did discover this which, I guess (don't know for sure) replaced the log cabin. I hear Florida's voracious termites really like pumpkin, but I talked to the neighbors and they look at me curiously and don't ever remember a log cabin being there.
I guess you could call it beachfront because there is only U.S. Route 1 in front of the houses.
P.S. The Felice address checks out in the local directory, and the wife's business is certainly there.
Funeral homes and the public can access a website to enter obituaries on their own, including adding photos, icons (cross/flag/mil. insignia)and other options. They choose the publication and date, see a press-ready proof and pay for it online. The background software is called Wave2 and can also accommodate other self-service advertising like wedding announcements, and with the right templates, automotive, real estate, service - basically all types of display advertising.
ReplyDeleteProblems have been varied - pricing doesn't flow, it took years to get correct interfaces with the business systems, etc. but the end result is that if it's down, ain't nobody running obits tomorrow.
9:33 here again. Here's one of them. They all look like this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.trulia.com/property/3051259936-333-Felice-Place-Cocoa-Beach-FL-32931
9:33 for last time. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but what I also find strange is there is no evidence of any kids around that developments -- abandoned bikes or skate boards. Yet I read he and his wife have this huge multi-radical family of adopted kids. When I go to see my in-laws, I pass by that place three or four times a day, and at various times. Yet no sign of kids.
ReplyDelete10:47 Ironic isn't it that it was a phony picture of a Cuban maid Jack Kelley said was killed in a boat trip from Cuba that brought him down and cost him his job. Kelley soared at USA Today for his role in the Jetcapades.
ReplyDeleteAlexandria will be next. It is about the same distance. Wondering what took so long anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlexandria's press was shuttered at least 2 years ago. Their paper is printed by Lafayette's press.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good move, the way Production is now a days, distance is not a factor. Plus they don't give a crap if they get the daily paper in a timely manner. This has been going on for years and will continue, until their is nothing left to print
ReplyDeleteDeadlines and deliveries will be effected. If something happens after 8:30 p.m. It does not go into the Town Talk for two days. Fri. night football scores are in Sunday's Paper. The Town Talk never missed a day for 126 years. Missed several since being printed in Lafayette.
ReplyDelete