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Friday, July 08, 2011
42 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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Sometimes I wonder if the direction the NJ Gannett papers are going (at least) is to make the print product a Sunday-only tabloid, and then make the websites a spot for breaking news and video. Can anyone say whether this has been examined or not? The M-F papers keep getting thinner and thinner and at some point, I imagine, it's got to be more cost effective to become a weekly.
ReplyDeletePosters here, Gannett employees,thought the layoffs were over.They cling to the idea that maybe once again their jobs are safe for life.
ReplyDeleteWhen will people wake up ?
Your Gannett job will always be in jepardy,what does it take to make Gannett employees understand that fact?
Some of treat your Gannett job as thought you will perish if you can't work for the mighty Gannett! Is it that your self esteem is so low that you don't believe that you could ever get hired by some other employers.
Or are you just blind to all the layoffs going on and truly believe it can never be you?
After all this time ,I can't believe their are so many who post here ,that truly believe they could not survive away from Gannett.Otherwise why in the hell would you put up with the day after day stress of not knowing when the pink slip will be given to you?
7:09pm hit the nail on the head. The same holds true for the other tower in Crystal Palace, the GCI side. A great number of people let go during the last three years were "threats" to others; most didn't deserve the kick in the ass. What remains on that GCI side can't politely be described in words here.
ReplyDelete7:15pm, Hunke is leaving for personal reasons? What have I missed?!?!
ReplyDelete@8:57: Indeed. I couldn't imagine life outside the CP. Even though I worked in a cramped cubicle. No privacy. Managers constantly in hush-hush meetings, coming out always anxious. Every few weeks, banal insipid pronouncements from up above. Everyone scared. Scared meaning that we hoped that pay freezes and furloughs would be the ONLY thing we'd suffer that year. And the next. And the next ...
ReplyDeleteThis time, there was more. Big downsizing comes. My number is called. Bye CP.
Eight months on my own. I was already prepared. I saved a lot. I had ways to make a living without a fulltime employer. So do you. If you know what's coming -- and, by now, every single GCI employee other than CD surely must know this is them -- you either get busy workin' on your next plan or you get busy dyin.' (Hint: The day to put that plan in play was yesterday, GCI folks. Not tomorrow.)
Today, that CP dungeon of fear seems so far away. Working with my own private office, for more money than GCI would ever pay, at a place where work-life balance and strong performance is appreciated.
So, yeah, there is life after GCI, folks.
Sorry. 'work life balance and strong performance ARE appreciated.'
ReplyDeleteLast day at Phoenix USA Today printing plant in Chandler, AZ is July 27th. At least 50 people canned. Phoenix marketing manager canned this week. Plant has printed USA Today for 28 years. In 2005, Phoenix office named one of the top 3 performing markets in the country. It pushed USA Today past NYT and WSJ. Since then Offices closed, plant closed, delivery contractors cancelled, circulation nosedived, just 6 employees left as of today. Another success story.....murdered by Gannett while Corporate awards themselves millions.
ReplyDelete8:57, no need to be a smart-aleck about it. Here's the deal: if you want to work in newspapers, and some of us do, there aren't a whole lot of options left. If I leave the Gannett paper where I work, I have to leave the newspaper industry. I can't move because my family has set deep roots here. It's absurd to accuse people of being blind to the layoffs; you think all this isn't tearing some of us up? Leave and go where? Do what? Look at the latest employment figures; there's nothing out there. So some of us are going to hang on to what we have as long as we can, and do the best we can in the job that once gave us great satisfaction. There's no blinders, no clinging to thinking we have a safe job. We know the reality of it. Why don't you think about that and have a little compassion?
ReplyDeleteAnd who's printing USAT now?
ReplyDeleteOur paper is going up to a dollar the 18th. USA printing here, which is where it was born, is going to the rival paper. What????
ReplyDeleteI know it's Gannett as a whole but it's really sad to watch our paper slide like it has, like it is.
Hey 10:19AM - Name of PHX Marketing Manager?
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard the reason why phx ad production department has been taken off the schedule? what did they do differntly than the other papers that were consolidated?
ReplyDeleteSorry, 11:02, but you're not looking for compassion. You're looking for sympathy. And if you're sitting there in your cubicle churning away for greedy GCI with a "hey, I'll just hang here and wish really hard that nothing bad happens .." mindset, well, you need a cold splash of water/reality. Sometimes tough love is what's needed, right?
ReplyDeleteYou're doing you/your family no favors by clinging to your GCI newspaper job and resigning yourself to trying to dodge what's amounting to a quarterly layoff bullet ... How long is THAT plan gonna work for ya?
And please. Enough with the counter-argument, "Look at the latest employment figures; there's nothing out there ..." You work in a newsroom, right? Which means you can write, can't cha? It's a highly transferable skill. Highly transferable for those who don't limit themselves to the tiny, little box that is the newspaper industry.
11:02 -- Have you thought about starting a competing weekly? It wouldn't be easy, but if I really wanted to stay in newspapers I think I'd be leaning toward something like that right about now.
ReplyDeleteI'm not the original poster, but he/she is right. Gannett will continue downsizing staff for the foreseeable future, as it's problems were expedited, but not caused, by the economy.
Also, Gannett has so diminished the quality of its products that it is a perfect target for competition. If you grow strong roots for your business while Gannett is still cost cutting, you might establish yourself well enough to have a great future. And you would be able to work for your vision of a real newspaper instead of the rags that most Gannett products have become.
I know it's risky, but it's an idea that more hardcore newspaper folks should consider. Personally, I'm done with this industry, but I respect it enough that I'd like to see some of the people who really love it build their own products.
12:12 not taken off the schedule, just pushed back. everybody's going, like it or not.
ReplyDeletea couple of weeks after our consolidation our manager said that the date for PHX had been pushed back. personally i don't think GPC is ready for the enormous task of taking on PHX.
Can someone share when Phoenix will join GPC hell? I would like to take that week off. ITs going to be a nightmare for other sites. Our ads that look like a 4th grader that did them will now look like masterpieces by the students on a shortbus
ReplyDeleteHeard that USA Today cut two of the best managers they have ever had in circulation this week. What are they thinking? It doesn't seem logical at all - losing the people who bring in new business and work closely with the customers?! They are quietly letting people go in small numbers so no coverage.
ReplyDeleteUSA Today management clearly thinks big expansive (and expensive) circulation is a burden. If you grow circulation you're viewed as a problem.
ReplyDeleteThere are quiet cuts all across the board. Not just people. Anyone seeing the old "Shave a little circ here, shave a little circ there" trick at their site. The ad stack is getting crazy and more and more clients are saying they've never see such a small paper.
ReplyDelete9:32 I'm wishing, but as I said the weathervane shows the wind not working in my direction.
ReplyDeleteCould we please cool it with the psychobabble (well-intentioned or not), about why do people stay at CGI, and why torture yourself or you're a fool not to leave, and all the rest?
ReplyDeleteOne post suggesting journalists start their own competing weekly publication reminds me of that retirement advice ad, where the guy says, 'A vineyard??'
Of course people should think about what might be next if the ax falls, but leaving sometimes well-paying jobs is no easy thing, and folks should not be belittled if they still get in the car and go into work, gloomy or not.
The "I got out, you should too" crowd is a small demographic and most of the workforce is pretty much stuck in place -- financially, geographically, even emotionally -- until the worst happens.
So advice is great, but please give we great unwashed a psychic break.
Sure, I can write, I can edit, I can innovate and salute. But who's going to hire a nearly 62-year-old mid-level newsroom supervisor?
ReplyDeleteNo kidding, 2:36. Here's another vote for leaving us wretches alone in the depths of our misery - no need to point out we have no meat in our gravy.
ReplyDeleteI do feel compassion for those left behind and scared. But the truth is, you DO have control over your future. You may have to let go of your vision of what your future would be that you dreamed up 10 years ago. Your future might be radically different from that. But it is YOUR future, and you can decide what to do with it. I hear you saying that you like newspapers and want to stay in it as long as possible, and OK. Do it! But also plan for the day that may come when that is no longer a possibility. You can do both at the same time. The more you feel in control of your own life, the less scared you will be. I PROMISE you that.
ReplyDelete2:36, no, it's not easy but I'll bet that almost no one is doing as much as they could to help themselves. People keep saying "I mailed out 100 resumes and no answer", mailing resumes is for suckers. Get out there and network, volunteer, learn new skills, do contract work, start a business, there's a million things you can do. Just mailing out resumes that say "Worked as X in newsroom for 25 years" is not looking for a job.
ReplyDeleteThanks, really. Having mastered the dexterity required to turn on a computer and bang my ape fists against a keyboard, I had no idea that it might take more than sending out resumes to find a job in this market.
ReplyDeleteSincerely, thank you for leading me from the wilderness.
Your sarcasm is someone else's reality, I promise you.
ReplyDeleteHey ,the start a new weekly can work.Everyone in
ReplyDeletethis small community dislikes Gannett and it's continous layoff plan.
We started a small weekly with a shopper to compete with the Gannett local and we are prospering and growing each month.
We work hard and our advertisers and subscribers love our new product.
So yes ,with good , experienced ,harding working employees who truly care about the content and our publications it can work.
Now listen to all the nay sayers posting that this is a fictious post.Just ask my customers
(and my banker) !!!!
1:53, can you give us initials of the two let go in circulation at USA today?
ReplyDelete3:41 provides a lot of value in what he/she has written. My guess is that the people who don't want to hear it would rather just wish good things would happen instead of making them happen.
ReplyDeleteI mean, building up your Plan B takes actual work after all, on top of your fulltime job. It's much easier to say "I'm too old ... I've been in newspapers all my life and employers don't like that ... Gosh, there are no jobs out there anyway. why bother? ..." Then, when you get laid off and you did absolutely nothing to prepare for it, you can feel good feeling sorry for yourself, right?
But for those on the editorial side who are more pro-active about taking control of their destiny, here's an encouraging observation from the 'life after GCI' front:
HARDLY ANYONE OUT THERE CAN WRITE OR EDIT!
That means your time-proven wordsmith skills have value. Really. Even in today's twitter/texting universe.
As to where you go to transfer these skills, it's up to you. There are plenty of opportunities out there. You have to figure out what you want to pursue and find them. And given that many of these opps are virtual, excuses about your age/race, etc. are completely invalid.
USA Today cut two of the best managers they have ever had in circulation this week? Who What are their initials?
ReplyDeleteFormer Gannett advertising exec Colleen Brewer has a new gig at the Austin Statesman: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/theticker/entries/2011/07/08/statesman_hires_vp_of_sales.html
ReplyDeleteAnyone see this? http://www.mediaite.com/print/usa-today-graphic-gets-a-lot-of-attention-due-to-a-suggestive-illustration/
ReplyDelete10:19. I work at Republic. Word around here is that Rep circ will be taking over the work of the remaining six people in the Phoenix market.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the idiotic liar who said there would be layoffs at the Tennessean today? WRONG! Why in the world would you make up something like that?
ReplyDeleteIf all the people on this board who claim to have started local competitive weeklies really had .... every market would have one. So a little test: Does anyone, in any Gannett market, compete with a small weekly that launched in the past two years? Acceptable answers will include the name of the market and competing publication.
ReplyDelete8:55 PM – The real question isn’t how many have started during the past two years, it’s how many more will because Gannett’s opened the door through a “transformation” process that’s really only resulted in higher prices and less coverage and reach to a base of advertisers who increasingly find greater value elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteAt least three have started in one Gannett market in the Midwest. In regards to specifically where you can dig for that on your own as I certainly have no interest in helping to quantify the growing threat Gannett faces.
Why? Because Gannett’s been an increasingly horrible steward of its own weeklies and since they won’t put the needs of the marketplace first, its time others did. More will.
8:01 p.m.
ReplyDeleteIt was not that many years ago that several heads would roll for something like this "hand job" graphic.
Today? *Sigh)
(Word verification: FELES)
Poughkeepsie competes with some new weeklies that started up in the past two years. But between them and Poughkeepsie, there still is not enough journalism to do what used to be done a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteI agree, enough with the psychobabble about hanging on. Sounds more like bragging than helping.
OK, where's the moron who claimed there would be layoffs at the Tennessean? Come back, moron, and take your medicine!
ReplyDeletewhen did brewer become a former employee? there are still a few national accounts that need to reduce their spending due to her team presenting inappropriate ideas to.
ReplyDeletelooks like leslie G used another one of the 9 lives
And who here takes career advice from anonymous total strangers who have no clue about you, your life, your situation? Blah, blah, blah. You know what everybody should do, don't you?
ReplyDeleteTake your "you should" hobby to Helpful Hints from Heloise. They might have a clue for you.