The small Iowa City Press-Citizen has eliminated the traditional top position in the newsroom and replaced it with two newly defined positions held by current editors, General Manager Gabriel Aguirre told the paper in a story today.
Jim Lewers had been the executive editor since 2003. His job, and that of another staffer Aguirre didn't identify, were eliminated in what he called a restructructuring of the paper's newsroom. Some Gannett Bloggers say the second position was that of the local-news editor.
Aguirre, who has been GM since December, said "new reporting resources" would be added, but he did not detail what they would be, nor when they would appear.
The vagueness of his pledge left open the possibility that the paper could turn to outside community contributors, paid and unpaid. That appears to be the direction some of Gannett's papers are taking as they adopt so-called passion topics after the June round of layoffs.
“These staffing adjustments today," Aguirre was quoted saying, "were made to ensure we’ve got our valuable resources in the very best places so that we can deliver the high-quality journalism our readers deserve and demand."
The Press-Citizen's circulation: weekdays: 10,034; Saturday, 12,060. It has no Sunday edition, according to the ABC's lookup database.
Aguirre, who has been GM since December, said "new reporting resources" would be added, but he did not detail what they would be, nor when they would appear.
The vagueness of his pledge left open the possibility that the paper could turn to outside community contributors, paid and unpaid. That appears to be the direction some of Gannett's papers are taking as they adopt so-called passion topics after the June round of layoffs.
“These staffing adjustments today," Aguirre was quoted saying, "were made to ensure we’ve got our valuable resources in the very best places so that we can deliver the high-quality journalism our readers deserve and demand."
The Press-Citizen's circulation: weekdays: 10,034; Saturday, 12,060. It has no Sunday edition, according to the ABC's lookup database.
The city editor Greg Smith is gone. Good riddance. Just another step toward becoming a Register bureau
ReplyDeleteBefore long, the way the offices are structured will be unrecognizeable. I truly believe this is the beginning of the end. I feel for everyone who is still employed by Gannett.
ReplyDeleteSame job: No title, less pay and more work. Can we actually do more journalism with less? In some cases, a little less can make some parts work better. Those days are gone.
ReplyDeleteWhen we discuss reductions of 8-10% (or more), we do have to be honest about what our newsrooms can do. And we have to stop telling the community that the journalism is going to be as robust as ever.
This whole idea of community written journalism is going to be a lower form. Important and helpful, but certainly not what the community has come to expect.
We are in a situation where company oversight just wants to see how low we can go and still rake in the same amounts above the line.
What is a reporting resource? pr wire? Interns? Content One? Yikes!
ReplyDeleteIowa City is a.... NT-31! Remember, as reported on this handy blog, the company's strategy is to cut the shit out of its smaller properties so that they are little more than a storefront with a clerk and two reporters. Sad because this college town deserves -- and had -- better. Now, it's a race to the bottom with the losers (our loyal readers) already picked to finish last.
ReplyDeleteGET OUT if you can. If not, then start playing "Nearer My God to Thee" and put on your best, stoic face.
Sometimes moves like this can be deceptively positive. That is the case with this one. The content will improve if they take these payroll savings and invest in some reporting resources. A 10K circulation paper shouldn't be paying a EE's salary in these times.
ReplyDeleteIt won't work to invest in reporting resources if they hire bumblers who cannot write. Most newspaper reporters are in that second category. This is starting to come to light as more raw copy hits the Internet, and that's why we're seeing so much more bashing of copy editors here. The reporters know their incompetence is now on display, and they are trying to cover their asses.
ReplyDeleteOh, 7:45, but we should be paying 1.9 million dollar bonuses?
ReplyDelete8:08 must be one of those mediocre bumblers. He doesn't even know how to write out money amounts, even though it's probably been changed 1,000 times in his copy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I expect another wave of whining here about how the people who post here aren't on the newsroom side and can't be expected to write a complete sentence.
Is there anything that happens in Iowa City that can't be pulled from last year's edition and rerun? Corn good, corn bad: lather, rinse, repeat.
ReplyDeleteClearly 8:28 labors under typical "Iowa" misconceptions. Iowa City fights with Lawrence, KS for most Ph.D.s per capita in the nation. The circulation in Iowa City can directly correlated with sophisticated reader expections and level of community news coverage.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, 8:10, I'm a she and not a he. Second of all, I don't work for Gannett. Just a disgusted observer.
ReplyDeleteLet's get real here people. It has a 10k circ. Do you really need a city and/or an executive editor? I've seen BETTER independent, local newspapers with more circ put out by an office of SIX!
ReplyDeleteLet's be real, again. The executive editor ain't an executive who merely sips tea in the afternoon and is home by 5 p.m. This guy worked around the clock, in print and online, filling in gaps in writing and editing; tackling the editorial page; making sure the site was fresh; planning enterprise; dealing with the latest directives of the hour from corporate (Passion Topics!); tracking newshole and expenses; working with the OC on this or that; working nights and weekends, often from home, to make sure this or that in print and online was up to snuff. He was called an executive editor because that's what we used to call the top editors. No matter how you slice or dice it, someone (or some people) will still need to do what he did. It ain't just busy work. Someone, no matter what you call them, will need to be the lead grownup in News, if only to have his or her name at the top of the libel filings.
ReplyDeleteAll the low hanging fruit has been picked clean, now it's time for management cuts. If you're a Director or Manager you job can easily be done by a much cheaper Supervisor. You had to know that your job was going to be jeopardy or you had your head in the sand. EVERYBODY'S resume should be up to date.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest takeaway from all of this is that it may not be in your best, long-term interest to accept promotion or title, if that by doing so makes you a high-value salary that pops to the top of a layoff list.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was still in the game and the quarterly call for expense reductions came down, the first thing we would do is have HR pull a list of the top salaries in each area. Then, we would go through the list, one by one, and ask, "What would you do if we got rid of this person?"
Think about poor Dan Brown, perhaps one of the brightest people working in Gannett. He had the misfortunate of a) working for his hometown newspaper, which he loved; b) turning down chances to leave said newspaper; and c) accepting promotion at said newspaper to a point where his title and salary made him exposed to these quarterly expense drills.
Why in the world would you want to make Gannett a long-term career option if by doing so you gradually build yourself into a higher-dollar employee expense reduction?
There were probably a lot of gaps in the writing to fill. Has anyone looked at the raw copy on some of these sites? Quite a few writers don't really know what they are doing. This will become more apparent as newspapers decide they don't need editors.
ReplyDelete12:03: In the ideal newsroom your scenario would accurate. In this one it was not.
ReplyDeleteWhat readers may not know is the Press-Citizen is competing with the Daily Iowan, the student newspaper for the University of Iowa. This is consistently one of the best student papers in the country; it actually makes money sometimes and has had the same publisher since the mid-'70s. I always thought Gannett didn't do their homework when they bough the Press-Citizen.
ReplyDeleteoops, when they bought the Press-Citizen. My browser keeps crashing.
ReplyDeleteLewers worked his ass off. He not only did what was needed to fill the newsroom gaps to get the paper out--as was noted above--he was at every civic group and Chamber of Commerce and chicken dinner meeting he could get to. And his reward for all of his hard work in editing and representing a paper riddled by cuts imposed by corporate is to be laid off? What's wrong with this company.
ReplyDelete@3:22: Everything is wrong with this company. Everything. I don't work here, but from reading this blog I can tell you that your best bet is to get out. NOW!
ReplyDelete