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Monday, August 29, 2011
51 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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So why is it we are so broke, laying people off left and right and yet we fly people here and there for training when webinars would we just as effective
ReplyDeleteThey do NOT care about laying people off.
ReplyDeleteIt is totally irrelevant to them,a business decision,as though deciding to buy a Mac or a PC nothing different.
As a former Gannetteer ,I know this.
I am off to work now,in my new carreer and loving going to work ,and loving life again and oh yeah, making a very good income.
Have a great day !
Copy editors and reporters all need to be laid off and made to re- apply, This is a great idea to clean house of the poor skilled writers who are not worth a hoot any more.
ReplyDeleteDid I forgot to mention they are the biggest babies on this blog, all they do is cry about everything.
I work in Production, and I would love to see GCI lay all production workers let go, and be forced to apply if you still wanted a job...way to many are not worth what they get paid. If you do not agree, you are in a union or you do not know how to do your job. Wish I worked at Corp. I would get things done. Sincerely, a 25 year vet of Press Operations
I see what's happened.
ReplyDeleteThe same bile-soaked bozos who ruined newspaper comment forums have found Gannett Blog.
In addition to a thick stream of anti-union drool, this blog has recently featured the impassioned claim that weather coverage is "part of the globalist's agenda."
It's probably stereotyping to suggest that most of these comments come from doctrinaire, right-wing ideologues who wouldn't know their own self-interest if it bit them in the billfold. So I won't do that.
Wow - no AP photos on Lohud cover page today for the first time since Hurricane Irene came. WOO HOO!!! Way to step up guys with actual locally produced photos two days after the hurricane hit!
ReplyDeleteYou do understand layoff king that roughly 8% of Gannett employees are represented by a union, right? Gannett has had pretty much free reign hiring whomever they want... even you, for a long time. So, what you're saying is that your co-workers aren't worth a damn? These co-workers by-in-large are non-union. Hummm? Interesting. Have fun running the press all by yourself.
ReplyDeleteSign me a thirty-seven year press operator.
Another day, another VP at USA TODAY...
ReplyDeleteMCLEAN, Va., Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Laura Del Greco has been named to the newly created position of vice president of client solutions for USA TODAY. Del Greco will be based in New York City and report to Sandra Micek, senior vice president of marketing.
"Laura is an accomplished media executive, known for her ability to work with clients to develop compelling marketing solutions across all platforms. She is strategic, creative and results oriented and we are thrilled to have her leading our client solutions team," said Micek.
Del Greco's background includes Turner Entertainment Sales where she was the vice president of sales programming strategy. In that role, she oversaw relationships with top brand marketers looking to creatively expand their message across TBS and TNT's programming and established Turner Entertainment's branded entertainment efforts.
"USA TODAY is an iconic brand," said Del Greco. "This is an exciting opportunity to work in partnership with clients to engage their consumers across all USA TODAY's powerful platforms. I'm looking forward to being part of this dynamic team committed to providing consumers with the best news and information anytime, anywhere."
Prior to joining Turner, Del Greco was vice president of corporate integrated marketing for Warner Music Group where she established the first ever cross-label corporate marketing team. Before that, she was director of corporate worldwide promotions for Warner Bros. Studios where she directed business development and studio alliance strategy efforts across all divisions. Del Greco began her entertainment marketing career at Sony Pictures Entertainment in strategic marketing and promotions.
What does the new USAT hire mean for the current USAT Ad Sales Chief? Seems like that is his job? What a mess. Also, was this another person hired who currently was unemployed? Can't we recruit some real talent and not cast offs?
ReplyDeleteExplains why Michek got rid of Cassidy. To bring in her own people. Sad.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else notice it's been ALL women hired by Banikarim's new team?
11:21 This is Hunke's No. 16.
ReplyDelete"Iconic brand" is the phrase du summer.
From the announcement in June of Micek's appointment:
"'USA TODAY is focused on growing its iconic brand and I am looking forward to leading that effort,' said Micek."
As a veteran national-award winning editorial person for Gannett, I will conceded to Mr. I-work-in-production that indeed, many reporters, and editors, are nearly as good as they should be, and in many cases could be. BUT, Gannett made this bed, now they can lie in it. They hired folks well below the necessary skill set, well be below the needed experience level, for a long time. They never trained them. There were never enough editors to train them, and the editors themselves needed training. At my paper at least, there are no formal job descriptions. There are no merit raises or bonuses for doing well. And certainly no promotions to be had. They have never been told what to do right, nor what to do to advance their careers and make themselves valuable to the company. Annual reviews are a joke. Now the inexperienced, underskilled staff, demoralized by repeated layoffs, furloughs, lack of incentive or leadership, does not do nearly the amount of work it should. Gee, surprise on that one. With all the technological efficiency we have, a smart, well-paid staff, could do so much more. But why do that when you can have people cheap? Mr. Production, your answer is to make these people the victim of long-standing decisions made by others. I think the company has a fair amount of responsibility to bear here. It's easy to sit in a big meeting and lament your workers. Better managers to improve their leadership. Sorry, the company has bought at the Dollar Store. It got what it paid for. If it wants different results, it needs to do something different.
ReplyDelete10:51, as usual, the Journal News was a day late and a dollar short in its failed attempt at covering Irene in a respectable, timely way.
ReplyDelete11:18 AM Agree that this job sounds like USAT Ad Sales Chief. Heck, since she will "develop compelling marketing solutions across all platforms" it sounds like Micek and Banikarim's job descriptions!
ReplyDeleteHowever, as one of the 20,000 people laid off by Gannett I take great exception to your comment that if the person hired was unemployed they are an unwanted castoff. Way to support all those of us who have been laid off. If you truly believe all of us are "castoffs" you are sadly misaken. You know you could easily be next.
10:51 and 12:21 The readers don't agree with you. Just read the comments on the site. But thanks for checking in former colleagues.
ReplyDelete1:01, Journal News may have finally stepped up after getting their lunch handed to them by EVERY other news source in the Hudson Valley for the last two years but lets see if they have the ability to keep it up. Marshaling their meager forces for a weekend is not the same as being a constant and consistent news presence in a region who's readers expect a lot.
ReplyDelete1:10 p.m. Thanks for your wise counsel. It's pretty obvious to everyone that the competition and former employees come to this site regularly to bash The Journal News for self-serving reasons. It's especially obvious in this case. You should have picked another time to weigh in. You just look silly now.
ReplyDelete1:01, if the Journal News so-called "coverage" of Irene was stepping up, that's just sad. All weekend they ran nothing but AP photos from North Carolina on the homepage while Westchester was getting pummeled by flooding/winds. Pathetic!
ReplyDeleteI don't see how this latest VP will conflict with the SVP of Sales. She'll probably be responsible for developing packages for the team to the sell....more of a marketing role. The current SVP's job will likely conflict more with the sports vertical's new SVP of sales. How will those two work together is anyone's guess.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, until all these new VPs actually accomplish something, they will be met with the same skepticism the others are faced with. Hunke's leadership team is wildly over-bloated and there seems to be no end in sight.
1:37 I don't know what site you were looking at, but it wasn't The Journal News.
ReplyDelete1:43 - Excuse me. "LoHud" - sorry I didn't spell it out. But that's just nitpicking.
ReplyDeleteLack of talent caused by mainstreaming, young hires who arent trained and older, unproductive dead weight that is not canned. We need competent reporter/writers first and foremost. Good copy editors, too.
ReplyDelete2:37 It wasn't LoHud either because they changed the photos numerous times each day through the weekend. Your sour grapes are showing.
ReplyDeleteNoted for the record: On June 30, Anonymous@3:02 p.m. wrote in this comment thread: "Ax to fall at Florida Today soon. Word has it 25 newsroom layoffs."
ReplyDeleteJim, I'm Anonymous@3:02 and my source for that info was pretty close to the mark (20 less newsroom staffers) in the last layoff a few weeks ago. I learned from that person this weekend that Brevard's Q3 revenue is down more than 50% and as a result, despite the valiant "reorganization" effort at Florida Today, another 10-15 newsroom staffers will be gone by Nov. 15.
There are layoffs happening as posted .
ReplyDeleteThey are not all listed/posted here.It is more widespread than known.Not every Gannett site has people who post here.I know of another smaller site (my former) where employees near retirement have been asked ( right,asked ) to leave and not replaced.Same as layoff.
Whoa...some Journal News faithful feeling emboldened! I love it! I hope you still feel that sense of pride and accomplishment when a spot news event happens that you didn't have 3 days to prep for. You REALLY are the silly ones.
ReplyDelete4:07 Seems to me that it would take more than one quarter's revenue plunge -- even as much as 50% -- to reduce employment that much.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a permanent cut for what might be a one-quarter blip.
Plus, Brevard is scheduled to lose copy desk employees to the Design Hub in Nashville. I don't know the exact number, but it may be at the low end of your 10-15 layoff range. Perhaps those are the jobs you're talking about?
Jim, Florida Today last week let their pre-press, usat press crew and what staff assigned to usat in the mailroom go. I'm guessing 15 or so. That's a good 35+ employees in a month.
ReplyDeleteI know as I was one of the ones let go last week. I'm going to use my transitional pay up before I even think about another job. I deserve a long vacation on Gannett's pay.
12:37 apologies. I have great sympathy and empathy for anyone laid off. My words were too strong.
ReplyDeleteBest to you.
6:20 pm - I don't know how many weeks of TPP you get, but you don't want to wait until it's done before you **look** for a job.
ReplyDeleteI had 9 years of service and got 9 weeks of TPP. It took four months, many jobs applied to, and many interviews before I got an offer. I've been told that that was pretty fast.
You have to get your resume into the pipeline, and start applying for jobs right away.
I would have an educated guess that the 50%
ReplyDeleterevenue loss at Brevard has most likely been building up to that over more than one quarter.
That would be hard to imagine, that all of a sudden in one quarter you could lose that much.
Probably quarters one and two were not much better and slowly and consistently losing revenue.
6:34 PM Thank you, apology accepted. I figured you meant those from Univision and NBC but it is difficult not to be sensitive when someone says layoff people are "castoffs" because that is the mentality of a lot of business people unfortunately.
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ReplyDeleteUSA Today WAS an "iconic brand." Now, after abandoning things like quality control and journalistic integrity, it's just another poorly packaged piece of Gannett crap like most of the other newspapers/websites run by the chain gang. USAT has an amateurish feel to it and gets beat so often that I have given up on going to the website for breaking news. Going to take a long time to become a respected brand after what appears to have been massive self-inflicted wounds over recent years. In fact, I doubt USAT will ever totally recover. I see no Harley Davidson-type reversals for a news brand that doesn't take its product seriously.
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ReplyDeleteSo why is corporate specializing in finding out-of-the-loop former players? del Greco's been gone from Turner nearly two years. Her chief accomplishment since? A Web series promoting a new kind of razor. Here's info del Greco's Linked In profile:
ReplyDeletePrincipal dG Entertainment Marketing
Entertainment industry
January 2010 – August 2011 (1 year 8 months)
Independent Consultant - specializing in content based ad solutions and innovations.
Clients Include Content & Co. - Devised and implemented go-to-market strategy for an original twelve-episode web-series, CLEAN BREAK, to support the launch of the Schick Hydro razor
Successfully led team comprised of partners from Sony Crackle, Facebook, YouTube, New Media Strategies, MEC, Amplitude and show production to a timely, effective and on-brand program launch – CLEAN BREAK was named one of the top ten web series of 2010 by "Fast Company"
Vice President Sales Programming Strategy Turner Entertainment
Public Company; TWX; Broadcast Media industry
2005 – December 2009 (4 years)
Recruited by both the President and the EVP of Turner Entertainment Sales to deliver greater advertiser value and revenue to Turner via the development of strategic marketing and original content innovations for linear and digital
• Produced competitive advantage for Turner’s branded networks, (tbs, TNT & truTV) and delivered over $40 MM in incremental revenue via the development & implementation of on-brand strategic marketing innovations and advertiser partnerships including the micro-series
8:16 yes I am upset in general about this new marketing team firing great people in order to bring in their own agenda and team.
ReplyDeleteEd Cassidy was let go in order to hire this new VP.
I have great sympathy for Gannett employees being disposed of in order to "try" something new with people who have not a clue "from the outside". TV is NOT print. And yet every new marketing person is a TV person. uggh
Makes me really sad.
Del Greco left Turner nearly two years ago, according to her Linked In profile. Her most recent gig, as a self-employed consultant, was a Web series called Clean Break to promote a new kind of razor. Maybe consulting slowed down along with the economy and she started looking for work like millions of others.
ReplyDeleteLayoffs were announced today for many of the advertising artists at The Republic. Some who were notified that they would be leaving were told they could apply for "senior" positions.
ReplyDeleteAt Florida Today sales are tanking worse due largely to readers opening the pages and finding stories from Ft. Myers, Used to be rival Orlando Sentinel, USA Today, and the like. Very few locally written stories anymore. Heck even the opinions are from places like the Tallahassee Democrat, Ft. Myers, etc. What used to be "Our Views" has now become "Other Views". It's like Gannett just up and abandoned this once proud newspaper. An awful lot of people in this county still want the newspaper and Florida Today/Gannett is just flipping the bird at them. Totally assinine.
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ReplyDelete11:01
ReplyDeleteYou know darn well that most of the so called Press ops are not worth their weight in Gold. Especially in a big union shop, were I was in charge, half these clowns did not know or give a shit to know how to run the press. They all like to sit on the back sides down in the reel room and get paid a journeymen wage and are worth nothing as far as getting the paper out. Yes, I blame the unions for some of the problems with in the company. And yes most days I run the press by my self with the help of one other fine press op. The rest are not worth a shit
Just out of curiosity Jim, but when the stock closes down as much as it rose today, you'd do some kind of front-page acknowledgment all alone, but when it rises ... nothing.
ReplyDeletebecause Jim is a hater first and foremost, 3:11. Like some deranged TV evangelist, he expounds syrupy half truths, then asks blind supporters who dont know better to send money. and doggone it, they do. Its Lord Jimbo.
ReplyDelete3:11, expect Jim to say either nothing at all, or to come back with his patented "I'm just one small overworked blogger" defense, complete with a "my bad" that's supposed to wash lack of judgment and bias aside. Personally, I love those lack of judgment moments, like hinting at affairs of top execs. Waiting for the next Jimplosion!
ReplyDeleteJealous? Evidently.
ReplyDeleteJim was around when gannett shares were trading north of 85 a share. He has the perspective you haters dont. long term shareholders have been hit hard. you obviously havent been around to feel the pain.
ReplyDeleteJim cares about the shareholders? Jim is in this - judged by his actions - for the average worker, the "common man." He seems to have a personal hatred of executives. He has a long track record of fighting the upper class, something that was true long before this blog. If he cared about the shareholder, he would approve of downsizing, and would be a proponent of cutting the company up into pieces to be sold off. And fyi, I've been following the stock since it was in low single digits. I'm not talking about two years ago.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how many trolls monitor this blog for any opportunity to pounce on Jim. This blog has changed their lives forever. Rightfully.
ReplyDelete8:01 is dead on, judging by the lemming trolls who have come in to stumble all over themselves, as usual.
ReplyDeleteJimplosion is a great word. I, too, like the quarterly Jimfits, especially when he then decides to censor another word. I'd recite the current list, but -- well, you know.