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Tuesday, August 09, 2011
65 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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Here's a quick question for the people that blast Jim and or the blog. Why come here to read it if you hate it so much. I would never go to one of your Koop aid parties.
ReplyDeleteKool aid
ReplyDeleteSomeone made a remark in part 1 dismissive of the importance of the GCI stock price. You can bet that at the executive level, life is ENTIRELY about the stock price. It is the stock price from which the fountains of fortune and pleasure flow. The more they can pump it up (and pimp it up), the more money they make from options, stock awards and other forms of compensation. Of course, Gannett's hypnotized board of directors doesn't hold management accountable and pays them richly regardless. But as a general rule, corporate executive compensation takes off when the stock price does.
ReplyDeleteLove him or hate him, Jim has the only game in town for Gannett followers. So if you still have a vested interest, you come here to see what Jim or others are saying. I would ask the same of those who have been gone for a year, or two, or more, who routinely come here and vent, as angry as they were when they exited. Why can't those folks give it a rest? And why is it such a problem that some of us want to hold Jim to the same standards he expects from execs? He routinely roasts them for screwing up. But he screws the pooch and we should joyfully accept "my bad?"
ReplyDeleteSo here is why you should care about the stock price. You think things are bad now? Of the stock price falls the board may decide to break up the company. Oh I can hear you haters cheer. When the various parts are sold the new owners recoup their investment through HUGE layoffs. Don't believe it, ask the folks in San Diego. So don't cheer too loudly for the demise of Gannett, there are some investment bankers who really don't give a rats ass, especially if you work at a newspaper site. And they do not care about journalism
ReplyDelete8:05 tiny difference is gannett has ton of executives that make millions of dollars. Jim by himself for the most part working for basically free. You really think they should be held to same standards? As for ex workers I was fired in 2007 for complaining about the way the company treats people and the way I felt they were ruining the product. So I come here enjoying the demise of the company. Hate management and not a big fan of coworkers because they seem to only care when it directly impacts them. Plus as close as you think you are with you coworkers they pretty quick to distance themselves from you when things go bad. Saw it first hand with myself and observed it with others.
ReplyDeleteExactly my sentiments, 9:29. I have ink in my veins, but that matters not to the bean counters that run this POS company. They're NOT journalists, and never will be. All they know how to do is shoot the top producers (especially if they're older and therefore higher-paid.)
ReplyDeleteI will be cheering my lungs out when the parts are finally sold off. Because that means the local azzhats that ran once-great papers into the ground will all get the boot.
Jim, I just checked my email at home and saw a note from our publisher in Wilmington that our production director has left. Gone. No two weeks notice. Nothing. I am keeping my head down, all the while looking for a new job because Griffin is just running the News Journal into the ground. He's got Journal Register history so maybe that's why Gannett brought him in ... to squeeze every last DIME out of the place, along with the LIFE. God help us all.
ReplyDeleteSay what you will about Jim, his reporting on the company is better than anything being done anywhere else, including the mainstream media. We have a vested interested in his continued success because without him we'd be mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed crap.
ReplyDeleteHow many times has someone in the Crusted Palace said "things are getting better and the turn around is coming" or "we anticipate no more job eliminations at this time" or "we have complete confidence in our digital future" only to learn days later that there is no turn around and layoffs are not planned "at this time" but for next week? Well that's different. And our digital future? It doesn't include newspapers (witness DealChicken) and so far has largely been a failure. (DC excepted because it's too new the jury is still out.)
Jim and this blog are the only things that keep them anywhere near honest. Witness Dubow's comment on this "blasted blog." This blasted blog is a lot more honest than anything, absolutely anything, coming out of the Crusted Palace.
Is it any wonder corporate pays people to come here and spread lies about Jim and buck up the corporate spin? They have two goals - discredit Jim and spread misinformation about corporate and our future. Jim deserves a huge thanks and our continued support.
As the stock price continues to sink along with the rest of the economy, this blog is going to become even more important.
9:29 - why would you ever mistake your co-workers with friends?
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm stupid:) actually at some point we were. We would socialize exchange Christmas cards go to each others weddings and different events. Then Gannett came and poisoned the entire place. There was always gossip but it went to a new level. Plus constant turnover and people trying to position themselves to make sure management thinks they are team player and Kool Aid drinker. Funny thing is ee, publisher, local and corporate HR all said I was a cancer and had attitude that impacted newsroom morale. They do just fine crushing morale without me.
ReplyDeleteThe Stock Market will bounce back. Gannett- Not so much.
ReplyDeleteIs it true that The Westchester Journal News now has a part time VP of advertising?
ReplyDeleteSomeday we'll see Gannett Stock featured on the Deal Chicken. It's called feedback loop.
ReplyDeleteI believe the stock will continue to drop like a rock.The first stocks to come back will be those with a value rating.Not so with Gannett's
ReplyDeletevery questionable and unstable margins.
I for one ,as should others ,will be glad if the stock goes so low that the corp is broken into pieces.There is a small group of investors here that are ready to form a new publishing company and re-start a small town newspaper once there is no more Gannett.
I've worked for a variety of newspaper companies in my career. Some wonderful. Some just awful. Gannett tops the list of the just awful. I left the company earlier this year and couldn't be happier. However, what I see happening to my old newspaper is tragic. Good people shuffled out the door, other good people being picked on by managers who couldn't find their butts with both hands. From my friends still there, the atmosphere is oppressive and many folks have resumes out there and can't wait to escape. One can't continue to cut, cut, cut without readers noticing. Gannett has gone past that. Dubrow is not a newsperson. Never was. He's a salesman and he came from the broadcast side of things. I read this blog regularly and have never seen anything about his vision for the company. What's the goal of this company? Where and how is he positioning the comnpany for the future? The missives that come out of corporate sounds like they've been written by an HR consultant with all the appropriate buzz words the bloodsuckers on Wall Street like to hear.
ReplyDeleteWhat a mess!
The real question is when will the institutional investors wake up, look at the direction of the company and demand that the five failures be ousted before Gannett is at the point of no return. I know firing the likes of Craig and dis-Grace means their Golden Parachutes will be deployed, but you know they are not going away without a pay day. The question is, do they go while there is still a company left to salvage and turnaround or will it be after the iceberg has been struck and they take the last lifeboat?
ReplyDeleteAhoy!
Printing of The Times in Shreveport fell "a few hundred copies short" of what was needed this morning, so they had to go around the building collecting all the extras to give the carriers.
ReplyDeleteHow does someone make a mistake of that size?
There have been scads of scathing comments on the Times Facebook page about missing coupons and ad inserts Sunday, too. Couponers are cranky.
The sudden global attention to the U.S. credit rating has caused investors to pay closer attention to the creditworthiness of individual debt-issuers like Gannett. Having a "junk" BB rating from Standard & Poor's is making investors look askance at GCI shares. Gannett should have cleaned up its balance sheet when times were good.
ReplyDeleteHere's how S&P explains its BB rating:
BB, B, CCC, and CC: Obligors rated 'BB', 'B', 'CCC', and 'CC' are regarded as having significant speculative characteristics. 'BB' indicates the least degree of speculation and 'CC' the highest. While such obligors will likely have some quality and protective characteristics, these may be outweighed by large uncertainties or major exposures
to adverse conditions.
BB: An obligor rated 'BB' is less vulnerable in the near term than other lower-rated obligors. However, it faces major ongoing uncertainties and exposure to adverse business, financial, or economic conditions, which could lead to the
obligor's inadequate capacity to meet its financial commitments.
9:58...common occurance here in Brevard. Must say though most of the shortages with the mains has to do with wrong in bundle counts, making 40's when should have been 30's. Also here they would load the wrong counts on the trucks for the outer zones which of course creates a "shortage" at the end. Most common though is not enough inserts with daily's sometimes, and ALWAYS on Sundays. They get the first few routes/zones out ok, then stuff 2-3-4 or more of the same ad in 1 paper which ultimately leads to no ads/coupons left for the last 2-4 routes. And this stuff happened before they started letting go people who "knew better" and cared.
ReplyDeleteOver the years it seems it's a common happening all throughout Gannett.
Newspaper giant Tribune Co. developing tablet device. http://tiny.cc/dy2ps
ReplyDeleteSome GCIers pushed for development of this (then called "digital ink") more than a decade ago. Few listened. "It would kill print," they said. Indeed. But it would have vaulted GCI to levels we can't even dream about now.
In the past six months, GCI's share price has fallen more than 40 percent. The S&P 500 is down only 15+ percent during the same time. In other words, the world isn't buying Gannett's persistent storyline about digital transformation and everything being "within reach."
ReplyDelete11:25, a decade ago it would have been ill-received, the project would have failed, and there would be more grousing about how all the company's initiatives are terrible.
ReplyDeleteNow, five years ago, maybe, would have been perfect timing.
Looking forward to hunke making a pompous ass of himself at thursday's staff meeting.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the company's ulterior motive here? Can someone from HR give us the straight scoop?
ReplyDeleteFrom: Gannett Benefits
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 11:08 AM
Subject: An Important Message from Roxanne Horning - Your Input Needed for a Total Rewards Survey
Last week you heard from Craig Dubow, our Chairman and CEO, about the strategic plans the company is undertaking to position Gannett for long-term success. As Craig noted in his letter, during the next 90 days we will be further developing the business cases on several initiatives, as well as identifying competencies and resources needed to build and execute on them.
One critical question that has surfaced as part of this work is whether our total rewards program (pay, benefits, learning & development and work/life programs) provides the right package of competitive employee rewards and benefits to support these efforts and our business moving forward.
Your input into this process is critical. To help us better understand what aspects of our total rewards are most valued and important to you, we will launch our first Total Rewards Survey on Wednesday, August 10, 2011.
This survey is a tool to gather your feedback about which aspects of Gannett's total rewards program are most valued and important to you. We would appreciate it if you took some time to complete the survey. It is important to note that this survey may be different than other surveys you have taken in the past. It is designed to make you choose between two or more options; often more than one option sounds appealing, but the point of the survey is to pinpoint which programs are truly the most important to you. It is estimated the survey will take between 20 and 30 minutes.
The survey is being administered by Towers Watson, a global consulting firm with expertise in total rewards and benefit plan design. On August 10, you will receive an email invitation from Gannett.RewardSurvey2011@towerswatson.com to complete the Gannett Total Rewards Survey. The email will contain a link to the survey, instructions and a password to begin the survey.
The survey will be open for two weeks and will be available to you 24/7 from any computer. I encourage you to take the time to complete the survey and provide your feedback.
Once the survey is closed, Towers Watson will compile survey results and provide a recommendations report to Gannett. We will share the results with employees. It is important to note that your individual responses are confidential and will not be provided to Gannett; Towers Watson will only provide results in summary form.
Gannett is committed to offering a competitive total rewards program that positions our company for future growth and success. By completing the Gannett Total Reward Survey, you guarantee that your voice will be heard in this process. I’d like to both encourage you to complete this important survey and thank you for your attention and participation.
Best regards,
Roxanne V. Horning
Senior Vice President/Human Resources
At the heart of Gannett’s problems lies this: the way it operates and communicates.
ReplyDeleteIt’s always top down with little to zero collaboration from those who have to execute corporate and local edicts. Dare share an alternative view or even quietly offer valid dissent one-on-one and your career is most often stalled or ended. Worse yet is that Gannett appears to celebrate those who enforce those rules, often adorning them with rings.
Restructuring the company with fewer deck chairs, new offerings and fewer of the same "leaders" who lead it into the mess Gannett is in now does little without formally attacking this company’s self-destructive culture.
Sadly, more of the same declines will occur until it does.
11:25 Yes, McClatchy and Hearst stood by that sort of idea even when others walked away. The golden dream has always to get rid of the costs of the presses and the pressroom, but how can it possibly be a newspaper without a press, and who among us knows how a press operates. All we need now is blackouts to be forced back to moveable type and Gutenberg. Or the hieroglyps on Egyptian tombs, which are essentially stories.
ReplyDeleteNew innovations but not at Gannett
ReplyDeleteWhats your take?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/09/tribune.tablet/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Big news from Wilmington - Only $10 off for $20 worth of Kangaroo Meat! I guess you take whoever you can when you're launching DUD Chicken. Er, I mean Deal Chicken?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dealchicken.com/wilmington-de/226?source=IP|mod|odypromo
Stoney LaDouche loses another one as the mass exodus of the Wilmington OC continues. Another defection was announced yesterday. This one left without so much as a wave good-bye.
ReplyDeleteLast week you heard from Craig Dubow, our Chairman and CEO, about the strategic plans the company is undertaking to position Gannett for long-term success. As Craig noted in his letter, during the next 90 days we will be further developing the business cases on several initiatives, as well as identifying competencies and resources needed to build and execute on them.
ReplyDeleteOne critical question that has surfaced as part of this work is whether our total rewards program (pay, benefits, learning & development and work/life programs) provides the right package of competitive employee rewards and benefits to support these efforts and our business moving forward.
Your input into this process is critical. To help us better understand what aspects of our total rewards are most valued and important to you, we will launch our first Total Rewards Survey on Wednesday, August 10, 2011.
This survey is a tool to gather your feedback about which aspects of Gannett's total rewards program are most valued and important to you. We would appreciate it if you took some time to complete the survey. It is important to note that this survey may be different than other surveys you have taken in the past. It is designed to make you choose between two or more options; often more than one option sounds appealing, but the point of the survey is to pinpoint which programs are truly the most important to you. It is estimated the survey will take between 20 and 30 minutes.
The survey is being administered by Towers Watson, a global consulting firm with expertise in total rewards and benefit plan design. On August 10, you will receive an email invitation from Gannett.RewardSurvey2011@towerswatson.com to complete the Gannett Total Rewards Survey. The email will contain a link to the survey, instructions and a password to begin the survey.
The survey will be open for two weeks and will be available to you 24/7 from any computer. I encourage you to take the time to complete the survey and provide your feedback.
Once the survey is closed, Towers Watson will compile survey results and provide a recommendations report to Gannett. We will share the results with employees. It is important to note that your individual responses are confidential and will not be provided to Gannett; Towers Watson will only provide results in summary form.
Gannett is committed to offering a competitive total rewards program that positions our company for future growth and success. By completing the Gannett Total Reward Survey, you guarantee that your voice will be heard in this process. I’d like to both encourage you to complete this important survey and thank you for your attention and participation.
Best regards,
Roxanne V. Horning
Senior Vice President/Human Resources
@1:05 p.m. - Well, at least it's a somewhat sensible idea being put into practice, something I never see with Gannett. But I think it's flawed. The big issue is that being able to read a newspaper on a tablet is not a primary driver that makes a person buy a tablet. At best it's a value-add for people who consume news through various websites. Just because you're giving your subscribers a physical thing to read your paper on digitally doesn't mean that all those other people who expect to read the news for free online are suddenly going to sign up with you for a subscription. Think about it - I can go out and buy an iPad tomorrow and access the websites of any Tribune newspaper for free.
ReplyDeleteI know the Philly news cartel is trying a version of this - they're gonna bundle an Android tablet in with subscriptions. In that case I view the tablet as nothing more than an incentive to subscribe, not as an actual reason to subscribe.
The only way the whole tablet offering thing makes sense is if you put up a paywall like the WSJ. If the WSJ did this and offered even a standard Android tablet with preloaded WSJ apps, it would sell like hotcakes, methinks. But very few newspapers have the brand recognition and power to pull this off. They've already weakened their products too much to make people want to pay anything more for them.
Apple will have sold roughly 80 million iPads by the end of the year, one of them to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't want some cheap-ass proprietary tablet in addition to the iPad I already have -- just to read one particular newspaper.
Sorry.
Notice that GCI stock has resumed its plunge, minutes after the Fed announcement of no more stimulus and expected near-flatline economy for next two years. Were investors still long in GCI disappointed? Did they think the Fed was going to turn on its money-printing machine just for GCI? Maybe coincidence, maybe a big institutional is selling, but seems weird.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks that the Gannett Board of Directors is going to oust Dubow, Martore, etc. is dilusional. It's not going to happen, folks. They are a token board, made up of yes-men puppets who are there to nod, approve what is spoon-fed to them and collect a check and a ride in a luxury limo to the Crystal Palace.
ReplyDeleteIf there were ever a time that a Fortune 500 company's board of directors would take action on the leadership they oversee and hold it accountable for their dismal performance, it would have been over the past year.
Instead of taking appropriate action, they awarded big bonuses to the very people who drove this company into the ditch. Do tell me...do you really think that's the kind of board that really has any balls at all to do the right thing and pink-slip these idiots??? Nope!
Dec. 3, 2009.
ReplyDeleteI think that;'s the last time this POS stock closed under $10. Look for it to happen in an hour.
How's those options doing, Dubozo?
Tablets will get cheaper over the next few years, at which point it'll make sense to sell them to subscribers really cheaply or even throw them in as a free premium. A propriety machine -- nope, no good.
ReplyDeleteThe only response to Horning's request is that any notion that Gannett has positioned its 'rewards' offerings as anything other than incredibly demoralizing and insulting is a joke. Pay? Uh-huh. Constant freezes and furloughs ... That's a 'winning' way to present a competitive package, Roxanne. Continued learning? When you know you don't have any semblance of job security, why would you even want to train me? Work/life balance? Oh, there's plenty of that ... Furloughs offer LOTS of opportunities for the "life" thing, as well as the inevitable layoff! Thanks for caring, CD and Co. You guys are the best!
ReplyDeleteWith less than 30 minutes before stock markets close, GCI's stock is down 5 cents, even as major indexes are up more than 1%.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, GCI traded at yet another new 52-week low today: $9.61 a share.
The Roxanne letter means they're gonna start cutting your benefits now. Don't worry. It won't last long. Soon they'll just eliminate you all together.
ReplyDeleteIf you think this is snarky, sorry. It's entirely true.
Sell. Sell. Sell. If we think real hard we can stock to close below 10, it's at 9.99 right now.
ReplyDeleteThis is all we need, roxanne, another overpaid gannett exec, blueskying company compensation practices with some bullshit survey to/make things better for us? This is a woman who asked employees to provide birth certicates for employee kids in order to keep them on company insurance. Shame on you, ms. hornung
ReplyDeleteRoxanne needs to survey her next message to the troops. Her bullshit meter is off the charts, even for a Gannett executive.
ReplyDeleteWow she wants to know what we think and that's a bad thing. There is no pleasing some people. These are the same folks that won't respond and then will complain about the results.
ReplyDeleteI sold all my Gannett stock a few weeks ago. I didn't get much money, but after being laid off, I was just glad to get rid of the stock and the association with Gannett.I guess looking back I was lucky to get $13 a share because it's a lot lower now.
ReplyDeleteTheir surveys are worthless. Gannett executives start with a position and then create a survey that supports where they are already going. If they are wanting to turn positions into part-time with no benefits, they will position questions to work/life balance. If they want to reduce base pay they will structure questions so it will appear that sales wants to control more of their own pay. This is just another tactic to appear that they are doing something. They already know what that is. The survey is window dressing. And they use overpaid consultants so they don't have to take responsibility for the outcome.
ReplyDelete8:11 He complains over and over again that the company doesn't value his opinion or ask him for feedback. They finally do and he complains. You can't have it both ways. Sad really
ReplyDeleteRAGBRAI, the (Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bicycle Race Across Iowa, was held last week. A 4-year-old girl in Coralville -- near Iowa City, another Gannett town -- set up a lemonade stand so all the riders could grab a cold drink and get rehydrated. Guess what happened? Coralville police shut her lemonade stand down because she didn't have a permit. Who exposed this latest act of the Nanny State? Not the Iowa City Press-Citizen and certainly not the Register. A non-Gannett TV station in Cedar Rapids broke the story. It was quickly picked up by the AP, whose version was posted by news outlets everywhere. The Press-Citizen finally mentioned this story in passing within a RAGBRAI-related item.
ReplyDeleteTailoring content to protect "family values" politicians, suppressing a story that would embarrass the Nanny State ... no wonder Gannett has a major image problem.
Jim:
ReplyDeleteWas the company able to refinance the $180 million due in July?
Any word on other refinancing?
WTF is up with Wilmington? How could something spiral downward so rapidly? It's a tough business. No doubt. But with rumors of mass defections and the possiblity they won't even be able to put a paper out. Well. It's a sad state of affairs for one of the one time cash cows.
ReplyDeleteIMHO
ReplyDeleteIf people are feeling uneasy and queasy about that survey, that feeling is absolutely correct and on point! I don't know if they realize this but what they are doing is creating more stress in an already stressful and stressed-out environment!
This "critical" part:
"One critical question that has surfaced as part of this work is whether our total rewards program (pay, benefits, learning & development and work/life programs) provides the right package of competitive employee rewards and benefits to support these efforts and our business moving forward."
IMHO this is an insult to one's intelligence! They already know the answers and if they don't they need to go back and research what was done in the past (before they each got there and most of the employees enjoyed working there) and then implement some of those programs and ideas! At one time Gannett was a very successful company! Mostly everyone in journalism, advertising, and the like WANTED TO WORK AND BE THERE!
So to me, if you make one false move and answer that survey in a way in which it does not line up with the direction that they want to now take this company, well then you will know within your hearts that you could possibly be the next one(s) in line to be laid off in the next round(s)!
May the FORCE be with you!
Ex-GCI'er, left of my own volition but chased by pay cuts. I don't have any ill feelings towards the people I worked with on the news side, which is why I say this with no malice: You are being run over by the Internet. The internal turmoil at GCI masks the teutonic shift toward online content and what it means for the business. When other news websites can gather as many visitors as GCI's largest dailies with 1/50th of the staff, the business has not just changed but metamorphed. GCI simply isn't capable of making the transition -- no matter who's in charge. If you want to jump and stay in journalism, be prepared to swim fast, and with new strokes. There's no sense in waiting to be pushed. or until everyone's in the water.
ReplyDeleteIowa City just lost their most experienced reporter to the local patch.com site. I don't know if he got a raise out of it, or if he jumped just to avoid being pushed.
ReplyDeleteWhat Roxanne's survey really means in a nutshell: we're going to be taking away some benefits to save money and we've brought in a consulting group to let us know which cuts will create the least uproar.
ReplyDeleteExactly, 11:07.
ReplyDelete"One critical question that has surfaced as part of this work is whether our total rewards program (pay, benefits, learning & development and work/life programs) provides the right package of competitive employee rewards and benefits to support these efforts and our business moving forward."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, help us decide which benefit should we cut?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTo 9:15 pm, Mostly everyone in journalism, advertising, and the like WANTED TO WORK AND BE THERE!
ReplyDeleteI have never worked at Gannett and what you say contradicts everything I was told. So many good papers destroyed. I can only guess that what you refer to was some golden age prior to the 1980s.
The phrase I was told: When you work at Gannett you want two things: more money and out.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete"Ink in the veins" is the only profitable thing Gannett has going for it right now. Like it or not.
ReplyDelete1:23 is an imposter, obviously.
ReplyDeleteAnon 1:14 AM said:
ReplyDelete"I have never worked at Gannett and what you say contradicts everything I was told. So many good papers destroyed. I can only guess that what you refer to was some golden age prior to the 1980s."
RESPONSE:
Yes!
That is absolutely on point! Even though I'm doing something completely different now, and totally enjoy it, I worked for the same newspaper (both before and after it was bought by the big "G") for over 3 decades so, in other words: I Know From Whence I Speak!
Print is still valuable. Highly.
ReplyDeleteThe fantastically huge Baby Boom generation is generally wealthy, retired, and they like reading on paper.
As for the current crop of business whiz kids (as opposed to actual journalist types), why bother with expecting them to have any history of journalistic sense, let alone a thumb on such archaic ideas like "community?"
To them,there is no community. There is only a corporation which signs a paycheck and a market and its product that would have gotten me thrown out the window my first week majoring in journalism in two universities.
Things have changed.
The production director has had this move in the plan for months. We all knew it was a matter of time. He moved to Voorhees NJ with his old VP of production, AF. She apparently had an opening and he jumped on it, since he lives in NJ and has to travel an hour plus to Delaware. This had nothing to do with the publisher – but had to do with more money and enjoying working with his old VP. He left so suddenly because he is now working for a competitor and that is how Gannett has always worked. You have to leave the same day. So leave the rumors aside and congratulate him on making a great move away from Gannett!
ReplyDeleteJim, I just checked my email at home and saw a note from our publisher in Wilmington that our production director has left. Gone. No two weeks notice. Nothing. I am keeping my head down, all the while looking for a new job because Griffin is just running the News Journal into the ground. He's got Journal Register history so maybe that's why Gannett brought him in ... to squeeze every last DIME out of the place, along with the LIFE. God help us all.
9:11 described Gannett's "culture" perfectly. I have a letter in hand -- rather, framed in my office -- stating that after my position was axed, that I was still welcome to please take any other one available (unlike the anonymous troll crap of "good riddance" which I've garnered).
ReplyDeleteThis is what the letter essentially states. Don't leave. Bend over more. Part-time. No benefits.
I declined with a "You've got to be kidding. I have nothin' left to drain out of my life for this."
I received no reply, weirdly enough. And I'm still waiting for the finalized pension documentation for 25 years of busting my ass, boring or not. A year.
Somehow, I'm hardly yawning.