U.S. newspapers division President Bob Dickey distributed the following memo today to more than 20,000 employees at virtually all Gannett's 82 U.S. newspapers.
CONFIDENTIAL: CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION
June 21, 2011
To: All US Community Publishing employees
From: Bob Dickey
As we reach the mid-point of the year, the economic recovery is not happening as quickly or favorably as we had hoped and continues to impact our U.S. community media organizations. We have made continued progress on the many initiatives underway to seek new sources of revenue, build a world class sales force and better serve our customers through watchdog reporting and stronger Sunday newspapers. While we are seeing improved circulation results and audience growth, weakness in the real estate sector, slow job creation and now softer auto ad demand continue to challenge revenue growth in the division.
National advertising remains soft and with many of our local advertisers reducing their overall budgets, we need to take further steps to align our costs with the current revenue trends. Each of our local media organizations faces its own market conditions, challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it has been up to each local publisher to determine his or her unique course of action.
While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs. Accordingly, approximately 700 employees within USCP, or about 2% of our company’s overall workforce, will be let go. Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day. It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work. We will do everything we can to help them and to minimize the impact on our other employees going forward. In an effort to reduce the number of people being let go, there will be furloughs in the coming months but they will be limited only to those on the USCP corporate payroll who make over a certain salary. You will be notified by your publisher if you are among this group.
These have been extremely difficult and painful decisions to make. I know the impact is felt by everyone within USCP and companywide.
I appreciate and thank you for all that you do to create and deliver award-winning journalism to our customers and communities every day. Even under these challenging circumstances, I know you will continue to do so and your efforts are greatly appreciated by our customers and colleagues within Gannett.
As always, please feel free to email me directly at rdickey@gannett.com with any questions you may have.
Regards,
Bob
Biggest layoff since '09
Today's disclosure of 700 newspaper layoffs is the single largest round since July 2009, when the U.S. newspaper division eliminated about 1,400 jobs, mostly through layoffs. This is the fourth mass layoff since August 2008.
Gannett had 32,600 employees worldwide at the end of last year, according to the most recent figures available. About 22,400 of those were at U.S. newspapers.
Today's cuts came after many newspaper workers took one-week unpaid furloughs during the current quarter; virtually all took a furlough in the first quarter. And they come three months after GCI disclosed that Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow got paid $9.4 million last year -- twice what he earned in 2009. Other senior executives also got huge raises, company documents show.
Dubow's pay included a $1.75 million cash bonus, based partly on his success in reducing costs through layoffs, furloughs and other austerity measures. Bonuses awarded other executives were also calculated according to that same formula.
We're tracking site-by-site layoffs in this read-only spreadsheet. Please see if your site is included and provide updated figures in the comments section, below.
CONFIDENTIAL: CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION
June 21, 2011
To: All US Community Publishing employees
From: Bob Dickey
As we reach the mid-point of the year, the economic recovery is not happening as quickly or favorably as we had hoped and continues to impact our U.S. community media organizations. We have made continued progress on the many initiatives underway to seek new sources of revenue, build a world class sales force and better serve our customers through watchdog reporting and stronger Sunday newspapers. While we are seeing improved circulation results and audience growth, weakness in the real estate sector, slow job creation and now softer auto ad demand continue to challenge revenue growth in the division.
 |
| Dickey |
While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs. Accordingly, approximately 700 employees within USCP, or about 2% of our company’s overall workforce, will be let go. Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day. It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work. We will do everything we can to help them and to minimize the impact on our other employees going forward. In an effort to reduce the number of people being let go, there will be furloughs in the coming months but they will be limited only to those on the USCP corporate payroll who make over a certain salary. You will be notified by your publisher if you are among this group.
These have been extremely difficult and painful decisions to make. I know the impact is felt by everyone within USCP and companywide.
I appreciate and thank you for all that you do to create and deliver award-winning journalism to our customers and communities every day. Even under these challenging circumstances, I know you will continue to do so and your efforts are greatly appreciated by our customers and colleagues within Gannett.
As always, please feel free to email me directly at rdickey@gannett.com with any questions you may have.
Regards,
Bob
Biggest layoff since '09
Today's disclosure of 700 newspaper layoffs is the single largest round since July 2009, when the U.S. newspaper division eliminated about 1,400 jobs, mostly through layoffs. This is the fourth mass layoff since August 2008.
Gannett had 32,600 employees worldwide at the end of last year, according to the most recent figures available. About 22,400 of those were at U.S. newspapers.
 |
| Dubow |
Dubow's pay included a $1.75 million cash bonus, based partly on his success in reducing costs through layoffs, furloughs and other austerity measures. Bonuses awarded other executives were also calculated according to that same formula.
We're tracking site-by-site layoffs in this read-only spreadsheet. Please see if your site is included and provide updated figures in the comments section, below.
So Gannett spends $15 on a new CCI system. It doesn't work correctly and postpones the startup of the Nashville design hub for about three months. People hired in Nashville for the design hub are sitting around, doing nothing. Instead of laying off a corporate head who came up with this mess, Gannett will lay off 4-5 real workers, and in the end, the corporate head at the end of the year will get a bonus. Wonder why employees deep-down could care less about the product?
ReplyDeleteWhat do all those naysayers about cuts have to say now?
ReplyDeleteSince when are the Nashville design hub people not doing anything. We heard they were busy trying to get the papers out using the new, cludgy software. As far as I can tell, the hub is operating, not postponed. Does 12:52 p.m. know something we don't know?
ReplyDeleteFirst Dickey says this: "We have made continued progress on the many initiatives underway to seek new sources of revenue."
ReplyDeleteThen he says this: "National advertising remains soft and with many of our local advertisers reducing their overall budgets, we need to take further steps to align our costs with the current revenue trends."
What are we to believe?
Obviously nothing that they put out there as news. How can one believe a company's explanation of the reasons for layoffs when they themselves can't be honest with themselves. Hey Journal! How about telling your reader the truth which is, "We're a biased newspaper and we want to report only those things that fit into our agenda but not necessarily the truth." Isn't that a novel idea?
DeleteThe hammer just keeps chipping away and yet the people at the top keep on collecting outrages salaries. Lets see how many of them cash in stock options on the up ticker today. This is just BS but employees just keep swallowing.
ReplyDeleteGetting awfully top heavy Craig ...
ReplyDeleteSeems most if not all papers still have a HEAVY Operating Committee with 10 or more department heads nabbing $100k or more a year (maybe less this year with the 3 weeks of furlough they gave Uncle Craig so far in 2011), but 82 x 10 x 100k = 82 Million dollars before the first dime of profit lands in the bank.
Just in case you're looking for another round of layoffs - you might want to look at that 82 million dollar line on the spreadsheet.
Rearranging deck chairs on the S.S. Gannett.
Run, don't walk to the nearest exit, and find an employer that cares about you as a means to generate profit, not a means of cutting their way to a profit.
I have heard of at least 1 newsroom layoff in Cherry Hill, with a rumor of 10 more outside the newsroom. And the publisher/EE on furlough, too. Hmmm ...
ReplyDeleteYes some people took furloughs during the current quarter. Those making $80,000 or more. They should have taken 2 weeks of furlough.
ReplyDeleteAt least one reporter position eliminated in Louisville at The Courier-Journal
ReplyDelete14 gone in fort myers. Still got a managing editor and an executive editor though. There is that at least. We counted at least 20 positions in the newsroom gone in last few years. Probably 25 percent of overall news staff.
ReplyDeleteIf we could just somehow cut the quality of the product deeply enough I am just sure we could return to growth! I mean really? The mismanagement and ineptness of corporate leadership is worthy at this point of criminal investigation and prosecution.
ReplyDeleteWell, you can't blame Dubow and Martore. After all, they've been receiving those huge bonuses. That must mean they're doing a great job!
ReplyDeleteTurns out being left unemployed when Gannett killed my newspaper in 1991 left me enough time to establish a new career and didn't happen in an economic collapse with resulting high unemployment nationwide.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they can start at the top and stop the Bonus and very high salary if he truly cares about people and the company.
ReplyDelete@1:54 1991? Must have been Little Rock. Hi, old colleague, whoever you are.
ReplyDeleteMarketing director and marketing designer laid off in Lansing.
ReplyDeleteIt should be clear that the streamlining and re-thinking of business should occur in advertising. Instead, Gannett guts the content creators. If no one is buying ads and you can't figure out how to properly use sales people, that is where the streamlining should focus. Continue to cut content and your readers will wander.
ReplyDeletei think its terrible that the executives continue to get more money by laying off people and cutting pay. There has to be something we can do????? Strike!!!!
ReplyDeleteStoney LaDouche - bankrupted JRC, bankrupted Philly Media Holdings, and Gannett will make 'em three for three. Genius, pure genius.
ReplyDeleteWow, y'all! PROOF! (Imagine that.)
ReplyDeleteMarketing? There were still Marketing people left in this shell of a company? Who needs Marketing?
ReplyDelete4 in Wisconsin, positions and papers not announced yet. None in Appleton. I have to agree with 1:26, this company, and these sites, are getting awful top heavy with managers and editors. It's time the axe falls there.
ReplyDelete20 people will be gone from the nashville newsroom. What a shame because those that work already have too much to do and quality is going out the door. Inside local is full of chattanooga and memphis wire stories. state legislature more covered by knoxville and chattanooga, than The Tennessean. Paper just killed its AM zoned news edition.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we have 2 senior editors, a managing editor (who spends all her time entering the paper in contests), 5 regional editors, a sports editor and 3 assistants, a lifestyle editor, 2 assistants --- that's probably $1 M a year in salary---- and they don't produce anything for the paper, just oversee the operation. Maybe they'll be reading copy now. give them a camera and reporter's notebook
After almost 14 years with the company, I left 18 months ago for a family-owned paper in my area. Took only a $1,000/yr pay cut, but lost about 80 percent of the stress in my life. Sad for my Gannett friends today, but glad I'm out. That company IS top heavy at the corporate and local levels. No one seems to care about morale anymore.
ReplyDeleteSure looks silly now for Nashville to spend thousands on a new newsroom, complete with a a giant Keith Urban photo; then spend more on the design center with about 10 big-screen TVs, comfortable couches and chairs and a dazzling array of colors on the walls.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, at least 20 designers, two managers and the head boss at Nashville hub, putting out 1 paper. Yes, there are people sitting around.
Gannett has no conscience.
They "restructured" my department and unfortunately after applying and interviewing, they couldn't "find room" for us amongst the open positions...
ReplyDelete@2:21 - Just thought it was ironic that since Gannett is supposed to be a marketing company now that they chose to let the marketing people go. And, by the way, they were very good, very talented people.
ReplyDelete1:27 - this dude is the EE and GM. Gannett East eliminated the publisher position in Cherry Hill in April.
ReplyDelete2:21 PM True, there isn't anything worth marketing. Certainly don't need marketing to provide strategic direction because it obviously isn't needed. No need for sales presentations apparently either. Competitive analysis is a moot point by now. The brand is crap.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to earn Dickey one heck of a raise next year. Congratulations Bob. Can you spare a dime?
ReplyDeleteGannett has fundamentally not known what the hell they are doing since the adoption of the Internet. Magazines have controlled their content, certain newspapers have, the music industry has, but Gannett hasn't done a thing. Give it away for free and cut content.
ReplyDeleteToday content is king, but ONLY if you can control it. Otherwise, it is virtually worthless.
Gannett needs a BUSINESS model that frankly needs to be invented by Gannett. I'm not sure a 60 year old CEO is the person to do this. It will require looping in everything from print editions to individual reporter's social media streams and CONTROLLING content.
Part of this will also require the best journalism ever produced. Compelling stories that people will WANT to pay for (give breaking news away for free).
Too many ins and out to discuss. The industry (the corporate industry) brought this upon themselves, the "average joe" is the only who suffers most.
@2:23, please update on Wisconsin when you know something.
ReplyDeleteI guess when Dickey, Dubow and the other big wigs go on vacation, they will meet up at some swanky golf course resort with the execs of the big oil companies and plan how to more efficiently screw the little guys for 2012. And how did the double salaries and bonuses happen? Thank goodness they have no souls otherwise how would they sleep at night?
ReplyDeleteAny word about Jackson, Miss.?
ReplyDeletebesides the 20 cut from the Nashville newsroom, the rumor is 14 more outside the newsroom.
ReplyDeleteRumored total of 34. Not confirmed though.
As this develops, it will be interesting to look for trends. Someone mentioned the AM sections in Nashville (which are community, I believe), plus neighborhoods in Louisville. Kentucky bureau in Cincinnati (This is all culled from what's posted here; I have no inside info). But is it safe to say that Gannett papers are moving away from local, local news? Sounds like the young reader pubs may emerge as taking a hit, too. (Pairing Velocity cuts with the changes at Indy a week or two ago). Any other trends? It's always helpful when people can post positions so that we can look for trends.
ReplyDeleteI know you don’t want to hear this but I’ve known Dickey a long time and he agonizes over these cuts. I know, I know I am a troll. My point is it is ok to hate everything about this but to think for a moment this doesn’t eat this guy alive is simply being simplistic and hateful. Hate the bonus, hate the salary, hate the layoff process but I am telling you he is a good guy in an awful situation. It is ok to attack now.
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine the bonus and the salary help him to feel a bit better about himself.
ReplyDeleteWord from Indianapolis is 60-plus. Gannett, 2 percent; Star newsroom, 20 percent.
ReplyDelete3:23 Has Dickey ever refused the bonus? I would bet no. I'll bet he just hated clocking those dollas.
ReplyDeletewhat 3:33 said! If he was a "good guy" and it bothered him so much he would give back his bonuses and find wants to make the company leaner on the top.
ReplyDeleteGawker picks you up but calls it major layoffs. I don't think two percent is major...
ReplyDelete3:33-I agree with you. I am sure he's crying all the way to the bank. After the layoffs began in 2009 in Cherry Hill, the H.R. employee who had to sit through each and every meeting with every single person who got laid off left the company. THAT is a person who got eaten up about this. Not saying he should leave the company, but honestly...perhaps publicly affirming that he's looking into how a company being forced to lay off people for lagging economic recovery can pay those kinds of salaries and bonuses to top execs would be a good start. Knowing that Dickey feels bad about it all is not going to make jobless staffer feel better as he's standing in unemployment being treated like it's his fault he lost his job.
ReplyDeleteThree in circulation and two in adv. from Asheville, so far.
ReplyDeleteI will happily admit I was a naysayer because I didn't believe they would take such a step that will devastate revenues and cause GCI to report even sharper lower financial results later this year. They will pay for this in terms of lousy financial results from the community papers that are the lifeblood of this company. Yes, I was wrong -- terribly wrong -- to say they wouldn't dare do it.
ReplyDelete5 laid off in Salisbury, Md. - I believe circulation and classifieds. No newsroom employees were cut (this time).
ReplyDeleteI was laid off today. I was one of 7 in the newsroom in Rochester, NY. A total of 10-12 people laid off in the building here, I was told.
ReplyDeleteMy Boss is being vindicated by events, yet again. But the size of this cut is only about a quarter or a fifth of the size he originally suggested. So is more coming? You betcha. Other shoes to drop soon at USA Today/Detroit. I also hope eventually at corporate, too.
ReplyDeletePhoenix Offset in Chandler, AZ is closing. They told us this yesterday, but it still is trying to sink in with me. I will be one of the unemployed at the end of July! WOW!
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind the 700 layoffs are all in Community Publishing (formerly the newspaper division). The 2% figure is for the entire Gannett company that would include broadcast and the other companies like Captivate, Point Roll, Moms Like Me, and even - cluck cluck - Deal Chicken. So I am curious what the 700 number represents as a percentage of USCP. Gannett has cut nearly half its workforce in the past three years - the overwhelming majority from the Newspaper Div. Are any other Gannett companies taking hits?
ReplyDelete4:15 It's about 3% of 22,400 USCP employees -- the number at Dec. 31, the most recent made public.
ReplyDeleteAnd who said Gannett’s marketing investments weren’t paying off…it’s effectively used other divisions to dilute the real numbers of those being fired in the newspaper division which is 3.1%. Genius!
ReplyDeleteThough, more than troubling considering this company is supposed to be a trusted news organization.
Confirm 14 in Ft Myers.
ReplyDelete4:29 PM That's not marketing, that's fancy bean counting!
ReplyDeleteOshkosh hasn't had any as of yet.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that spreadsheet is riddled with spelling errors. It's Fond du Lac not Fon du lac. Manitowoc is also spelled horribly wrong.
4:33 Thank you; I've now fixed those misspellings.
ReplyDeleteHere in Asheville we just posted 2 circulation jobs one for an Asst. District Manager part-time and a part-time dock worker. People in this company are being laid-off and we are hiring in Asheville. We already are top heavy in management, someone should look at some of those positions including our so called publisher.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know what happened in Westchester and who got laid off?
ReplyDeleteI heard 17 in Westchester and 5 from Poughkeepsie. Of the 5, 2 were from the newsroom.
ReplyDeleteLayoffs and more layoffs....has anyone considered how difficult it will be to recruit talent after 3 years of layoffs? Top end management rushed to move everything online.....how's it working out for you now?
ReplyDeleteYou know the end is near when the generals (like I was) start getting shot.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me but I think Dickey is living up to his name a Dick for not showing an example by cutting upper management and there high saleries and bonues.
ReplyDeleteGreed is rampant what a shame the hard working caring people now have to break the news to there families and friends.
NJ newspapers lost a lot of people who actually do the work today. Yet somehow Sam Sciliano is still there. All those VP's? cut some of the top heavy management and maybe hold on to people who actually do something. Barely anyone left in circulation, newsroom hit, everyone shell shocked. After that bomb from the big bob dickey how was anyone supposed to do any work? nice classy move.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Kate Marymont, the alleged corporate vice president for news, is a no-show lately. I, too, would be ashamed of collecting a fat paycheck while presiding over the gutting of newsrooms, including firing people who helped her get to where she is today. Shame, shame, shame!
ReplyDeleteThe Courier-Journal is now up to 50, according to Louisville's alt weekly LEO.
ReplyDeleteWhat about all the open positions that are not allowed to be filled. Add those with these and its a much greater number.
ReplyDeleteSports by Brooks -- a website that I bookmark for breaking sports news -- has linked to the Poynter article on the layoffs.
ReplyDeleteYou know these layoffs are a major story when they're mentioned on a sports website.
5:41 PM Don't disagree with you but you should know that all the publisher positions have been eliminated from all the NJ properties except Asbury. Plus, the VP of Circulation and the VP of Marketing were laid off last year. Other editor and management positions have also been eliminated over the past few years. No one knows why Sam Siciliano is still there and not retired.
ReplyDeleteI hear a bunch of "platform managers" and the Features' "YES" crew have been axed in Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteTweet from Louisville Courier-Journal confirms the 50 figure. http://twitter.com/#!/courierjournal/status/83295187106922497
ReplyDeleteFrom Bob's note: "Therefore, it has been up to each local publisher to determine his or her unique course of action."
ReplyDeleteThis is such chicken shit. It reads as if the local publisher or GM looked at their numbers and made decisions specific to their markets -- and all Bob did was approve the choices.
USCP determined a cut number and told sites that it had to come from payroll or wages. The Group Presidents then got their share of the number. Then each group gave each site its share of the number.
So, your local publisher or GM was told cut $XXXX from payroll. You pick what combination of your people to fire so that the sum equals your number. Then, send the list to corporate for review. Then do it on the same day as everyone else.
Doesn't sound like a "local decision" to me.
15 in the newsroom in Cincinnati, don't know about other departments.
ReplyDeleteSpringfield just publicly confessed via the website:
ReplyDeleteBob Dickey, president of U.S. Community Publishing for Gannett, today announced a new round of layoffs, reducing the company’s work force by 700 employees.
At the Springfield News-Leader Media Group, which is owned by Gannett, 18 jobs were eliminated, 12 open positions won’t be filled and two employees’ jobs were changed, according to President and Publisher Linda Ramey-Greiwe.
The layoffs included Sports Editor Pam Clark and Everett Kennell, a local-news editor. Both wrote regular columns.
The News-Leader’s Moms Like Me publication will become an entirely online product.
In a letter to employees, Dickey said the job cuts company-wide represent about 2 percent of the Gannett workforce.
The layoffs were needed because of continuing declines in advertising revenue, he said.
“It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work,” Dickey wrote.
“We will do everything we can to help them and to minimize the impact on our other employees going forward.”
Gannett operates 82 U.S. daily newspapers, including USA TODAY, and 23 television stations.
This story has now been picked up by Drudge:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.drudgereport.com/
Second from the top on the right column, a prominent place.
That is HUGE.
Confirmed layoffs in Brevard are:
ReplyDelete2 in advertising, 1 from AdPro, 1 in accounting, 1 in news (non-daily) and the entire commercial printshop (4). Let me point out, that the commercial printshop have been making money hand over fist for as long as I can remember, and printing not only customer inserts, but also REAL commercial jobs for REAL paying customers, including some weekly and monthly publications from as far as South Florida. Marketing got their printing needs for cost only, and now have to go to our competitors for their nifty do-dads and gizmos.
This makes as much sense as moving print operations of USAT to a competitor.
Oh wait! That is exactly what they are doing.
I got a feeling we are not done yet, since second shift (production) have yet to arrive, so stay tuned.
Shame on Nashville. 20 people in the Newsroom means they are not going after salaries. If they were less people would be let go.
ReplyDeletePay particular attention to this phrase: "It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance."
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean Gannett Corporate is finally acknowledging they're just pulling names out of a hat? It certainly seemed that way in Parsippany, which lost five more. I think I can count everyone left on both hands... and might have a finger or two to spare.
The next round of cuts will likely just fold us, Bridgewater and East Brunswick into the Asbury Park Design Center down the highway.
We need names. Who was let go at Florida Today and what are their ages?
ReplyDeleteSo hundreds of staffers are being laid off, and the top execs are getting millions of dollars in pay and bonuses??? I used to be a copy editor and once worked for Gannett, and with depressing news like this, it's no wonder it's impossible to find a decent job in journalism anymore.
ReplyDeleteI must add that I think it's funny that the memo states "Confidential -- not for public dissemination." I guess that warning didn't work.
What happened in Asbury Park?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Mike Colombo and I'm a reporter at WHAS 11-TV in Louisville. I've spoken with several employees from the Courier-Journal on the phone today. Looks like 24 from the news department, around 50 total. The Velocity and neighborhoods section getting hit the worst.
ReplyDeleteArnold Garson, president and publisher of the Courier-Journal, wouldn't talk. The C-J is apparently going to put out an article detailing the cuts in Louisville.
I hate to attempt to solicit interviews here, but would any former C-J employees be willing to do an interview?
Is there a severance agreement, if so does it prevent those cut from talking? Just wondering.
Thank you!
Sounds like this TV reporter got it, so help him out Louisville
ReplyDeleteHeard about 5 in Morristown. Only 3 at Asbury? They continue to lead a charmed life. Of course, they are really filling the Morristown paper. Don't know why anyone in Morris County keeps reading it.
ReplyDeleteAre they still giving only toilet paper payments inn lieu of real severance?
There are more in Asbury then listed. I don't know the exact number, but there were definitely more than 3.
ReplyDeletewhy is someone getting a $1.75 million bonus for failing? how do these people look themselves in the mirror? disgusting ...
ReplyDeleteAny word on MomsLikeMe positions?
ReplyDeleteA charmed life in Asbury? PLEASE. Get a f'ing clue.
ReplyDelete8:19: It's incredible, isn't it? I have a sick feeling that these same people are going to "give" back some of their bonuses to look better in the eyes of the public and their employees but any such gesture would seem disingenuous at this point. It is a sad day for Gannett. Every publication writing about these layoffs can't help but mention the greed of the corporate executives. It's embarrassing to be associated with this company.
ReplyDeleteI will not name any of the names on the people who were let go at Florida Today due to respect for my now former co-workers. I knew each and every one of them personally, some more than others, and imagining myself in their place, and I certainly do not want to see my name here, unless of course I am the one posting it (which I promise to do if I am laid off).
ReplyDeleteThe number of people laid off, and the departments where they worked, were accurate as of 6pm today.
Hate the bonus, hate the salary, hate the layoff process but I am telling you he is a good guy in an awful situation. It is ok to attack now.
ReplyDelete6/21/2011 3:23 PM
Really?? At this point I pity you, 3:23 p.m., you must have a full Kool-Aid decanter on your desk with refills!
That man is a phony, arrogant SOB with a non-performance issue. Really, that's all he can do? A GOOD man would have stopped bonuses all across the board on the 4th floor of the Crystal Palace where he resides (if he is in the office at all). Hey, Bob, still breezing back and forth between East and West Coast on a regular basis? LOL!
Guess, Gannett doesn't need to save on those trips, right? And my, all these new hires with lofty titles you amassed on the 4th floor? Hmmm, who's paying for all that? I don't think it floats out of your pocket. How many are there now on the 4th floor? 40?
Of course, the Presidents Rings had to be distributed before the bad news. Instead of letting this outdated practice go - no, of course not: nothing as good as getting richer as on the bones of the tired workers that were let go.
If that is a GOOD man, what the hell is a BAD one?
Such a sad day for the employees who lost their jobs, for this company, and decisions that will further weaken the quality of news content. Gannett is firing the talent it depends upon to keep this business viable. We produce content, period. Readers and viewers follow the content and advertisers follow both. Why is that so difficult to understand and put into practice?
ReplyDeleteI feel horribly for Kate Marymount because I'm sure she knows this is destroying the company. She's trapped like so many others in leadership roles forced to push this bs on the masses as an act of self-preservation. I get it.
Everyone wants to believe they'd act on principle but when you have a mortgage or rent payments, college educations to fund or aging parents to support financially and emotionally, you become fearful, and that fear morphs into a great silencer of truth.
To all the Gannett talent we lost today, our sincere thanks for all you've done to help this company. We are grateful to have known you as colleagues, friends even.
We hope you land on your feet real soon, and don't look back.
I was let go November of 2008 and it was the best thing that could have ever have happened to me. The funny thing with Gannett is they never get rid of the bad ones in the managment area. They protect each other. It is sad this is the best way to clean house. They should be and they are not getting rid of the old and bringing in the new that will be the companys downfall in the long run.
ReplyDelete50 from westchester... Not 17.
ReplyDelete"A charmed life in Asbury? PLEASE. Get a f'ing clue."
ReplyDeleteSuch poor grammar. It's "Get an f'ing clue."
Sad day at my NJ paper. The newsroom is decimated. Let's face it - it is soon going to be NJ Press, and the HNT, CN and DR will no longer exists except as bureaus.
ReplyDeleteBlaming the revenue trends on the economy is a smoke screen. Corporate newspapers have been so decimated by bottom line thinking that they are no longer attractive to larger advertisers, and they've priced themselves out of being a consideration for smaller advertisers. The economy isn't in that bad of shape. There is local advertising revenue available, but chain newspapers are particularly ill-suited to grabbing it. Gannett is doomed. They're in a death spiral.
ReplyDelete30 laid off at the Arizona Republic today.
ReplyDelete10:58: I agree. Who has to take the third round of furloughs?
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as was predicted, some years ago, too! Where Digital Media Co's will soon be 'printing money', like never before!
http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/36191-lookingconfident/112499-global-newpapers-will-soon-get-to-print-money-on-the-web#comment_update_link
http://seekingalpha.com/user/36191/profile
LC
Rough day of lay offs at the Courier-Journal. 50 people let go. I can certainly sympathize with those who were cut. Here's my story from tonight on WHAS 11 with a writer let go today. http://t.co/K6eSnr1
ReplyDeletePensacola lost 6 people.
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ReplyDeleteI use to work at Gannett in High School, then through College, for a small local paper. Our office was first shared with 1 daily then 2 then 3. I was always an independent in my political views and believed (still this day) you vote for the best person. Being young and innocent I guess I looked at the world through virgin eyes. I noticed if I wrote a story that I thought was balanced the editor would change it, then when it got to Harrison NY another editor might change it again that would make it sound nothing like the way the story or the news facts were. This would drive me crazy. But I was learning. Our small paper won more NYS awards then the daily’s (A compliment to the local editor). We had a circulation higher then that of the town we served (unheard of for a paper). This was do to people moving away from the town wanting to keep up with the news and College kids who wanted to know what was going on in there town.. After the editor retired, Gannett got rid of the staff and used local news announcements and news from the daily’s to fill the paper. The paper survived for a few more years until its demise by rolling into a section of the daily’s that no one now read.
ReplyDeleteI was there when the unions came in and fights broke out to keep Gannett non union. Which I think was a good thing because USA today would have never come out so soon and quick if there was a union. That aside why is it the “Higher Ups” that are paid millions of dollars and are from what I can see so liberal not care about what happened to good old local reporting instead of pushing there liberal agenda. In westchester county NY Gannett had a monopoly in the newspaper business. They blew it and the spiral continues. Im afraid they wont realize what they have done until the paper is sitting at the bottom of the trash bin. The internet is the new Median where people will continue to click until they read what they like and want. I can only say I’m glad I was in the news business when I was young and got out before it declined. Just my 2 cents…
Dude I survived the cuts once again, lol. Just waiting for next time, cause I dont really care if I get cut from Gannett. I dont make alot money with this company. Please lay me off next time Gannett. Sorry for the people that lost their jobs, but better employment out there than Gannett. The company makes me laugh cause CEO makes millions at the employees expense from furloughs and pay cuts. Thanks dude your awesome. I make less money, then I do less work what you pay me. Fire me please.
ReplyDelete4:43 AM Dude, maybe the reason you keep surviving the cuts IS because your salary is so low. In case you hadn't heard, the process is they fire the seasoned, well paid employees and replace them with inexperienced, low wage hires. But don't call it "age discrimination", it surely isn't THAT.
ReplyDelete"And they come three months after GCI disclosed that Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow got paid $9.4 million last year -- twice what he earned in 2009. Other senior executives also got huge raises, company documents show.
ReplyDeleteDubow's pay included a $1.75 million cash bonus, based partly on his success in reducing costs through layoffs, furloughs and other austerity measures. Bonuses awarded other executives were also calculated according to that same formula."
Anybody can say 'you're out'. It takes real brains to manage people/business in this economy. But we already know corporate America is incapable of this.
I was laid off from Shreveport in '09. This just breaks my heart to hear to hear that Gannett is doing this again.
ReplyDeleteHere's the company "package." Total Media Solutions will handle Gannett's payoff to its loyal employees. It will supplement unemployment insurance with an amount to equal the last paycheck. That's it. No package. And, if you do get a job, all benefits end. So, where's the incentive??? Thanks, Gannett.
ReplyDeleteI worked in Montgomery, Ala., at the Gannett rag they have there. As soon as I realized they were agenda-driven, not news-driven, I bailed. Nice building, but the upper management was a joke. I feel sorry for the workers there getting the slip.
ReplyDeleteRumors are abroad at Brevard about outsourcing Florida Today print operations to a competitor in Orlando within 6 to 8 months. This comes just days after announcing that USA Today print operations also printed at Brevard, would be relocated to the Orlando market at the end of August. 20 staffers were notified that they would no longer be needed as of Aug 27 due to this move. Does anybody have any information regarding this latest rumor?
ReplyDelete7:48 Yes, this has been discussed several times on this board. Use the search engine on the right to search for Florida Today posts (it's a very clunky search engine and doesn't find anything and sometimes has to be prompted a couple of times).
ReplyDeleteWhere we last left this was that USA Today publication is moving to Orlando, which is what you are reporting. News to me is that printing of Florida Today is to follow, but it doesn't really surprise me. That leaves that very modern but very remote building, which no one has said anything about. I know the local market there, and don't see much of a market for an office building with lake when the Space Program is laying off engineers as the Shuttle comes to an end. Until the powers that be give NASA some new mission, you are heading for a recession in that area. You already see this in Titusville and perhaps Cocoa Beach.
Florida Today is also facing major competition from the Treasure Coast papers to the south, and a revived Daytona paper in the north. It's the old squeeze, and I expect both to move to soak up the audience there. This is of course my only opinion, and I personally belive the future of florida Today depends on the health of Al Neuharth, who lives in retirement there.
"stronger Sunday newspapers. ... improved circulation" Still focused too heavily on the business model of yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSo sad to see the newspaper industry "leaders" talk about "reinventing themselves for the future" but still just fall back on selling ads in newspapers.
I see talented people cut by newspapers everyday and work is pushed on lower-wage people without the right skillset to advance digital.
This is one industry that is destroying itself because it doesn't have courageous leaders (why should they be? they are still getting fat paychecks).
They are closing the USAT facility in Chandler and moving the work to the Az Republic downtown in Phoenix. 40 to be layed off on 8/1. No transfers. Rumor is 110 more at the downtown business office, but I have not heard that it is confirmed.
ReplyDeleteBesides outrageous exec pay and bonuses, they waste $$$ like 1,600,000 on press rebuilds that netted no mechanical improvement, and then another 350,000 on upgrades, 2 years before closing the plant.
On top of that, when we had issues with our ink, management had the ink company test their own ink. Conclusion-nothing wrong with the ink. DUH!!!!!!!
Surprise!! Mail Room supervisor got transferred over to the Republic. They must be pretty desperate to figure out how to distribute papers efficiently. They have only been doing a lousy job on the daily for about 100 years.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad day in the world when you get prosecute just for getting a paper out of the trash bend. I known time are hard, but to prosecute for getting a paper out of the trash. When you throwing something in the trash that tell me that you do not need that item anymore. That is your Hattiesburg American paper in Hattiesburg Mississippi
ReplyDeleteSpringfield Offset...any news?
ReplyDeleteYall think its bad where you are? come to Jackson, MS and read the Clarion Ledger, should only take 5 min. not meeting payroll, going up on the price...seriously?? WSJ better watch out...giving the CL the right to throw your customers?? they couldnt handle it before and you think they are going to do it right this time....HA tis to laugh.
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