Thursday, March 08, 2012

March 5-11 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

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30 comments:

  1. We have a fire in C-J pressroom. Louisville FD has it now. Trying to clear press hall of smoke.

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  2. Fire out, power restored. Made ready 2nd press, up & running 06:15.

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  3. Good job! Keep 'em rollin'!

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  4. Is that like Hot off the press!

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  5. http://thevillevoice.com/2012/03/08/your-papaer-would-be-late-if-you-still-subscribed/

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  6. "Papaer?" Is that French?

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  7. Where I work the paper gets out earlier than before with fewer problems. Paper is smaller but almost as good as it was three years ago. Price has gone up but still far less than the competition. I hope they never re-hire much of the dead weight that has been cut. Many of them didn't do much of anything but try to get through the day to collect a pat check. Now they come on this blog hoping to see the paper falling apart with out them. To bad for them Gannett is still around and will be
    for along time to come.

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  8. 12:23 obviously fishing for trouble. Just ignore.

    Don't think anyone believes the papers are almost as good -- if they were, then Gannett would be making more money and losing fewer subscribers.

    Let's move on to real conversation, shall we?

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  9. We're #4:
    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/usa-today-sports-media-group-172300529.html

    And here I always thought GCI was #2.
    Scatologically, that is.

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  10. Press fire under control. C-J is only metaphorically going down in flames.

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  11. Now that's funny. Sad, but funny.

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  12. Garson picked the right week to retire.

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  13. 1:26 Just because you don't agree with the statement doesn't make it untrue The paper is losing circulation due to the internet and the push toward digital. Not because the quality of the paper is so bad.

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  14. But the quality of every gannett paper is declining, including the CJ, because the idiots in charge keep cutting the staffs. You can't keep cutting and maintain quality. Can't do it.

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  15. I agree with 1:26, though. The people who dismiss the now-unemployed as "dead weight" push an ideation that is both astoundingly immature and offensively arrogant.

    Is anyone actually unaware that among several thousand employees, none of this profound misfortune visited anyone on a job performance basis?

    Indeed, too bad for Gannett that it didn't -- because then the company would have RIF'd only deadweight, rather than talent as well -- including some with self-serving worldviews such as those who carelessly dismiss en masse and in true Gannett fashion so many other people as deadweight.

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  16. 3:40 How would they be let go based on their job performance and how do you know that was not taken into consideration in the layoffs? You can't believe that letting people go based on their performance review would have kept only the best people.
    The fact is that Gannett was carrying a lot of dead weight and that is not an arrogant self serving statement that is reality. Yes, they let go of some valuable dedicated people as well but some of the cuts were necessary. Still some dead weight left of people who only have jobs because they have been here along time or know someone.

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  17. 3:40, here. 4:53, that's a very reasonable question. Love it when this blog turns into discussion. Thank you! My point is, though, nobody knows anything. Shouldn't anyone know at least something? Nope. All I know is my entire department was wiped out like Lidice. That's what I know. Really great, talented people... and a few far less than great. But just poof. That's what I know. God knows, if there is one, there was not any more information deigned from Gannett.

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  18. 4:53 is probably correct.I know of several who are dead weight and still employed.They put in their time doing minimal work and collecting a paycheck.It is hard to believe that with all the layoffs and cost cutting that these people are still around just biding time and wasting precious Gannett funds.I find it interesting
    that this could still be happening.
    These people work,at the most 20 hours per week and are paid full time plus benefits.Unbelievable,
    really!

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  19. If so, my reviews, not one year, not two, but decades, would have been a wave-through. They were not. I have trouble stepping over that fact, this policy, no matter how unnerving it is to folks who sign up for dehumanization.

    Sure, they, as with everyone else's, were virtually required as a matter of HR policy, a special area of the form for salaried positions to vilify the wage worker, to contain some negativity no matter how specious, still.

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  20. Our Paper is a rag. 2 pages of sports, 1 business page and a whole lot of nothing. I would not buy the dam thing. Far as dead wood goes, yea they keep them here, why? When it comes time to get a paper out and they are down to the lead weights, Good luck
    Gannett is a joke full of high paid suits who kiss ass and rif hard working people. GCI SUCKS

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  21. 5:04 Where a whole department was let go performance was probably not taken into account on an individual basis. That was not the case where I work. Departments can also be dead weight.
    Your specific situation sounds like just a cost cutting move with no regard for the employees involved. Where I work I saw departments cut down but some of the less productive people let go.

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  22. Our site fielded 4 resignation notices this week. One each from Production, News, Finance and Advertising. Are any other units experiencing an uptick in resignations now that the overall economy is recovering at an ever increasing pace? I spoke to one of those leaving today and he said the pay freezes, furloughs, RIF's and general disconnect between the rank and file and the executive suite had become unbearable. The overall sentiment from this 20 year employee was Gannett has sadistically abused it's employees since 2008 and now that he had a chance to find a better job, he was jumping ship. He wasn't going to stay around any longer to watch this company continue to shrink, and target it'semployees. He said the latest HR gimmick of re-applying for your job only confirmed his decision to leave and start anew.

    Is anybody else starting to see this sort of trend?

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  23. Regarding 6:46 comments, you reap what you sow and Gannett has alot to answer for. I'm a 9 year employee and morale at my newspaper is at an all time low. I've never worked for a company with so much anger and disrespect towards upper management.

    I guess a 38 million CEO payout will do that.

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  24. What moral? Every person who works in my Department is looking for a new job. It is a total drag going to work, and not know what is the next letter from The Publisher is going to say. My hope is we all find jobs and bail, leave the suits to run the press, the clueless suits
    If your young and just starting in this biz, get out and find some thing else to do, any thing is better than working for gannett

    t u h p w is gone soon

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  25. I'm looking too. After production and circulation employees were excluded from the buyouts, that was my clue to take the initative and leave, on my own terms.

    Hell, at this point, working at a funeral home would be more fun.

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  26. I would love to see the suits and senior management have to spend a week on the front line doing the work alongside those directly dealing with readers and clients.

    A communication company that lacks the ability to effectively communicate through the ranks what needs to change. Too many people are blowing hot air, trying to make themselves look good, save their ass that this company is doomed unless a true leader emerges quickly.

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  27. 3:18...that's only partially true. We had a huge local story this week and our paper covered excellently..just like the old days. Single copy got bumped up 110 or so papers in that area and the carriers virtually sold out.

    Just goes to show that if a newspaper did what it's supposed to do, and do it like it used to, people will still buy the paper, even at the outrageous prices they are today. The carriers reported people actually waiting at stores for the paper. If everybody is reading stuff on tablets, phones and laptops, papers wouldn't sell regardless of the story.

    The biggest reason papers don't sell is high prices for minimal content, plain and simple. And that's the paper's own fault, not the people.

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    Replies
    1. All true but it's not everyday that a huge breaking story comes along that the whole community is up in arms about. It's the rest of the days when it's key to entice customers to pick up for the ordinary stories

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  28. I am considering retiring and qualified for but didn't receive a retirement buyout offer. Still trying to figure why it wasn't offered across the board, since we're all Gannett employees. Still ticked. So here are my 2 options: quit and receive nothing except for a little bitty pension lump sum, or intentionally screw up big-time and get fired and be eligible for unemployment funds for a while.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe you could file a lawsuit for not being offered. I think there are many across Gannetland who feel the same as you.

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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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