In a statement, Corporate just announced that it has finalized a deal to switch The Cincinnati Enquirer's printing to the The Columbus Dispatch by late next year, a move that will include a dramatic reduction in the size of the paper.
Corporate first disclosed a tentative agreement in August. Since then, we've heard it could cost about 200 jobs and result in severance and other expenses totaling less than $60 million.
Here's Corporate's full statement:
MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2011-- Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) reached an agreement with The Columbus Dispatch to print The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Kentucky Enquirer in a new, easy-to-use format beginning the fourth quarter of 2012.
“Our readers will find format and graphic changes, including fuller use of color and photographs, a more compact and easy-to-handle size, bolder section fronts and inside pages that are easier to navigate. Content will provide more in-depth coverage of topics that our readers are passionate about and provide information that can’t be found anywhere else,” said Margaret Buchanan, president and publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. “We are able to enhance efficiency while at the same time provide consumers with the bold new product they prefer. For local businesses who advertise in the Enquirer, it’s a reinvented print medium designed for more impact.”
The Columbus Dispatch will be the first newspaper in the world to print in this new format. The format provides such advantages as the ability to print multiple sections, allowing readers to gravitate to their areas of interest easily and quickly; added color flexibility for advertisers; and an enhanced reader experience. Dimensions of the newly formatted Enquirer will be 10 ½ inches by 14 2/3 inches – and current content in the Enquirer will remain in the redesigned newspaper. As part of this initiative, the Enquirer’s production facility will close fourth quarter, 2012, as printing transitions to Columbus.
Related: In a statement, the Enquirer acknowledges that the production plant shutdown will cost about 200 jobs.
Corporate first disclosed a tentative agreement in August. Since then, we've heard it could cost about 200 jobs and result in severance and other expenses totaling less than $60 million.
Here's Corporate's full statement:
MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2011-- Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) reached an agreement with The Columbus Dispatch to print The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Kentucky Enquirer in a new, easy-to-use format beginning the fourth quarter of 2012.
“Our readers will find format and graphic changes, including fuller use of color and photographs, a more compact and easy-to-handle size, bolder section fronts and inside pages that are easier to navigate. Content will provide more in-depth coverage of topics that our readers are passionate about and provide information that can’t be found anywhere else,” said Margaret Buchanan, president and publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. “We are able to enhance efficiency while at the same time provide consumers with the bold new product they prefer. For local businesses who advertise in the Enquirer, it’s a reinvented print medium designed for more impact.”
The Columbus Dispatch will be the first newspaper in the world to print in this new format. The format provides such advantages as the ability to print multiple sections, allowing readers to gravitate to their areas of interest easily and quickly; added color flexibility for advertisers; and an enhanced reader experience. Dimensions of the newly formatted Enquirer will be 10 ½ inches by 14 2/3 inches – and current content in the Enquirer will remain in the redesigned newspaper. As part of this initiative, the Enquirer’s production facility will close fourth quarter, 2012, as printing transitions to Columbus.
Related: In a statement, the Enquirer acknowledges that the production plant shutdown will cost about 200 jobs.
It's just a matter of time before all our papers go to a 8 1/2 x 11 size that is emailed to you and you have to print out at home.
ReplyDeleteI am not trying to be smart ass either. I'm serious. It's going to happen, Gannett is running out of people to lay off - they will then be able to shut down the presses.
"Content will provide more in-depth coverage of topics that our readers are passionate about and provide information that can’t be found anywhere else,” said Margaret Buchanan, president and publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. “We are able to enhance efficiency while at the same time provide consumers with the bold new product they prefer. For local businesses who advertise in The Enquirer, it’s a reinvented print medium designed for more impact.”
ReplyDeleteYou gotta love Buchanan. She touched on all the corporate talking points about topics readers are "passionate" about. More impact for advertisers. A reinvented print medium. Geez. Got tired just reading that. Glad this announcement comes on the heels of Carolyn Washburn's big passion topic meeting last week where no one had any input except old Carolyn. Going to be hard to print the better for the next year Margaret with all the problems the press folks will come up to shut down those presses. Good luck
Good luck to all the employees, you guys are in a tough business as you well know! I lost my Gannett job in July of 2009 with 12 years of service. I really do hope it works out for all the present employees!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's TINY!
ReplyDeleteOne 8x10 photo and caption per page, LOL!
I love the spin on this dreck, classic.
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ReplyDeleteThey've gone (Chiquita) bananas now!
ReplyDeleteWhat the article fails to mention is that this will be put together by Pressline Services. That means it will be way behind schedule have a punch list a mile long and in the end will simply not work. They cant pour piss out of a boot.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated 6:00 PM's meeting comment, "where no one had any input." I didn't work at 6 PM's paper, but at the one I did slave for, input at meetings was strongly discouraged. No ideas. And certainly no questions.
ReplyDeleteI was once admonished with the mockish sentence, "This isn't a debate," when I asked the one question, curious, in a particularly memorable (and waste-of-time) meeting.
The rest of the participants looked at me and mirrored the glare of their idol, yet I knew they had the same question on their mind as well.
I soon learned to keep my mouth shut, frankly just waiting for the DOA ego-tripping presentation of a barely researched idea or policy... to be over so I could get back to work!
Soon I was no longer on the "Send To" list, and that was fine by me, seeing the writing on the wall as to "local" paper remaining integral to its actual community when in the face of one-way communication job "security" was defined by silently nodding heads.
Great strategy, that. Now what's left is a poisoned company on its last legs with crappy stock. I wish all those still there, good luck and sanity, because you guys didn't deserve this, and I hope everyone gets out O.K.
5:29...I believe you are not joking...that's what it will come to.
ReplyDeleteWill the last person employed by Gannett please hit the send button on the final electronic version of the one-size-fits-all nationwide leaflet chocked full of "topics that our readers are passionate about" before turning out the lone working light?
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a lie. The union would never let this happen.
ReplyDeleteThe first newspaper in the world to use the format? Interesting point. I'm not on the advertising side of things in the industry, but I'm sure there's plenty who visit here who are. How would being the only newspaper in the world to use a format affect the ability to attract national advertising? Genuine question.
ReplyDeleteSmaller format + less space for content = more people that can be fired.
ReplyDeleteSo this isn't the Berliner format, then? Confused - I thought that was where we were all heading. Does anybody know the dimensions of this Groundbreaking Innovation?
ReplyDeleteWe're doing more with less. We're working smarter. No wait .. that was 2005.
ReplyDeleteThe new dimensions will be very close to the size of what used to be known as "young reader publications."
ReplyDeleteBet the ad prices will stay the same or even go up!
ReplyDeleteTo 10:44: Size is approximately 14.75 inches tall by 10.5 inches wide (per page). Berliner is about 18.5 inches tall. Current Enquirer is 22 inches tall and 11 inches wide.
ReplyDeletePrint as we all knew it is dead. This kind of move is how you keep it on life support for a few more years. It's not just Gannett, he'ck even Media News is moving to digital first formats and cutting out early week print cycles. You can add 100 reporters and advertisers won't buy as much print.
ReplyDelete