Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)
Sunday, March 11, 2012
50 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In line with a recurring theme on previous comment sections, our site has received at least 3 resignations in the last month or so as well. Mine was one of them. More people are "looking" now than before as well. It is astounding that Gannett continues to throw out b.s. lines like "reinvesting in our employees" and such while simultaneously handing out furloughs, pink slips and embarrassingly low raises. Keep your 1% raise, Gannett...I'm out.
ReplyDeleteHeadline:
ReplyDeleteTeen admits she endangered motorist while feeling from police
And they want us to PAY for this??!!
Raises? No raises at the Courier Post in 4 years!
ReplyDelete(except for the chosen few)
There are so many journalists at sxsw that they kept the bar open an extra hour. Several seen carrying out. Amazing.
ReplyDelete11:22 PM,
ReplyDeleteNot evil? You are not aware of the many faces of ----. As soon as she feels threatened by a better qualified person, she'll make their life hell. She has even asked other team members not to work with people, that she has a "problem" with. And she always has "problems" with those that are more skilled than herself. God forbid someone else casts a shadow upon her ego.
Hey 9:48am – For only $15/month you can see a gallery of photos on a city worker ticketing garbage cans left along the street "illegally" on one of the legacy paywall sites!
ReplyDeleteAnother day, another silly move by a Gannett paper failing to keep bailed, experienced employees.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as the labor market heats up, expect a mass exodus. Gracia, of course, will look at this as a positive. So will other non journalists like Dickey.
10:48--
ReplyDeleteWas that supposed to be 'carrying' out or 'carried' out?? ;-))
WHO IS TRAVIS KOMIDAR?
ReplyDeleteI like 11:29's comment. After a while, it just gets too insulting, over and over and over.
ReplyDeleteI had one of those 1% raises. My supervisor was visibly ashamed, emasculated. "I submitted the top limit, 3.9%."
Silly me, I was always there, working.
I got 1%. Thanks for the good work? Not really. This speaks to how wrong it is to resent local management levels, a critical aspect of any successful company.
Gannett said, "Nope. We call the shots. And you guys had better be damned careful if they don't align exactly with ours."
I told my supervisor, "Look, no surprise, but thank you for your faith." That instance was more important, more human, than much coming via Gannett's bullshit about reinvesting in the staff.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJournalists? You call yourself journalists and you barely write. We in the ad department work like dogs to let you write and all you do is complain.
ReplyDeletePosters here continued to be baffled by reality. If you are an older employee wed to legacy media, we want you out. We don't care about your track record. It is meaningless in the digital future. And you can be replaced by younger, digital oriented employees at half the cost.
ReplyDeleteCan someone please explain to me why the Pension Plan is frozen? Why can't we roll our money into a 401k plan instead of it sitting there, only earning cost of living. I was told that it's because the pension plan is an asset on Gannetts Books.Can anyone confirm or deny this? Jim, can you look into this? Some employees who have been rehired already have invested their money in an interest bearing account while ours sits there in futility !
ReplyDelete3:51 name another company that lets an active employee take their pension before they retire or resign.
ReplyDelete6:51 I assume the reasons relates to IRS regulations. But that's just a guess.
ReplyDeleteBecause a pension benefit us something you receive when you are no longer employed.
ReplyDeleteYou might be sleeping like a dog, but you sure ain't working like one. Judging by the paucity of ads at my site, you're barking up the wrong tree.
ReplyDeleteYou're comparing apples to oranges when you compare the pension plan to a 401k. The pension plan is a Defined Benefit Plan covered under ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). A 401k plan is a Defined Contribution Plan. Both are covered under IRS laws as well. Defined Benefit plans mean you get a benefit without having to do anything on your part to earn it (other than working for the company). Defined Contribution Plans are just that - you contribute to get the benefit.
ReplyDeleteUnder ERISA, until you leave the company, you cannot take the benefit of the defined benefit plan. It is also covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Company, a government entity similar to the FDIC but for pension plans. 401k plans have no such coverage.
The Pension Plan was frozen in 2008 as a way to save Gannett from increasing costs of the program. If you're take a look at the current discussions on the American Airlines bankruptcy, one of the things they are trying to work out is whether to freeze the plan or do away with it altogether. Freezing it means they have a set obligation to meet and have no new participants. It helps the company manage the outflow of funds from the plan.
When Gannett froze the pension plan, they increased their match to the 401k plan to get more people to participate in it. In other words, it's putting the burden of retirement planning on the employee and not the company.
As you can tell by my moniker, I am NOT a financial adviser. These are things I have learned through both experience and certification in my field.
It's great you have your SPHR now get to Cherry Hill and clean up the poop left on the floor. They don't teach you that in the prep classes.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThank you 3/10 10:10 for your in depth explanation of pension versus 401 k plans. Greatly appreciated !
ReplyDeleteFurlough week again. I've lost count of the number of furlough weeks I've been forced to take. Wage freezes, frozen pensions, picking up all the extra workload left behind from all the layoffs, furloughs, a total lack of moral and motivation by anyone left. I am so fucking sick of this company I could puke on Gracia and Dicky's shoes!!! I'll be resume reviewing and applying this week. The talent flight from this company has got to be mounting. Good riddance!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am soooo sick of the smary newroon workers (journalists is to kind) writing about how horribly they get treated and how everyone in advertising is just a lazy sack of crap.
ReplyDeleteI've seen our newsroom in action. What a bunch inefficient, self-important, egotical, whiners. Considering I pay for at least ten of them, I should be able to fire them.
I'm also sick of them complaining about the "youngins". Just because your old, tired, and bitter doesn't mean that YOU have the right to crush someone elses soul. That's managements job.
The poor grammar and third grade writing skills definitely attribute this one to one of the bar hopping members of the courier post ad department.
DeleteAt the Arizona Republic, rumor has it that at least half of the 44 in the newsroom who were offered the early retirement buyout have decided to take it. Just a couple of people have said that they will turn it down. The others are still studying their options. The Republic said it would accept offers from all 44 if all 44 wanted to go. What are you hearing at other papers?
ReplyDelete1:52 44 buyouts would be about 14% of the paper's 325 newsroom employees, as represented in this spreadsheet of employment by department across the U.S. newspaper division.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete12:12, yes, journalists are mostly egotistical, self absorbed whiners. But so what? People don't go on the website or buy the paper to look at ads.you can't sell the, either. So stop your rants. Please spellcheck, too.
ReplyDeleteI thought this blog was to give a forum for information about Gannett and share information that is not widely known.
ReplyDeleteLately it seems its snipes at the ad departments about lack of performance and degrades the editorial staff too. It attacks the very employees it was set out to provide a forum for. Without each other there would be nothing, nada. I think the writers at our site do a great job with the meager staff they have. I also think unless you walk one day in the shoes of the ad reps and deal with selling a thinner product, less timely, and in an economy that sucks, with extensive competition you have no right to attack them. Some of us work hard, very hard with little recognition and having it never be enough. Ever. And it starts all over every day like the day before did not happen. All you say is the old ones don't work and the young ones spend their time partying and in bars. YOU try selling in this market. The ad reps bring in the revenue that gives editorial the space to write. And the general public says the C-P is filled (that's right) filled with ads. So much so there is hardly any editorial relevant to the local population.
No raises, furloughs, insurance increases, declining circulation, declining staff, escalating gas increases without any increase compensation or any sign of any coming in the near future, lack of support staff and you are expecting what from the ad reps?
A miracle?
I gotta raise. What is your problem? Should I turn it back? Obviously not. Others got them too. Are we all management's children. Not hardly. Work hard and earned the raise. Period.
ReplyDeletehopefully writing skills are found in most editors-- not everyone on this site is a writer, GANNETT has other employment with other skills-- try running the press, without an error--gotcha!
ReplyDeleteDear 5:34 and 12:22: You know where to put your out of touch comments, right? I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the times I've been belittled by an ad rep for being a "cost center."
ReplyDeleteWrong. Whether you like it or not, the content IS the product. Without it, you would be selling a shopper and we know how beloved they are, judging by the rotting shoppers in driveways and on stoops.
I'm a believer that a good ad rep is worth gold and that papers should do what it takes to keep the good ones happy and selling.
But so are good content producers(journalists, photographers, video, web). You need a product around the ads that people will look at so you have something to sell.
When content goes down hill, so does circulation and page views. And then you have nothing to sell because no one advertises in a product people don't buy or view.
So like it or not, you need us, and we need you. So let's treat each other with RESPECT and save our hatred for those who deserve it, the worthless corporate executives who undermine our good work.
I like 4:56's comment about not everyone being a writer, to be sure. The public, if one works at a newspaper they assume everyone is a writer.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's still a sad commentary on the education system that full-grown adults in the 21st century, regardless of their job, have such a hard time spelling and using punctuation that they brand that basic grade school ability as elitist.
Well if you got a raise and management tells the staff there is a wage freeze, then they would be liars wouldn't they. That's different than giving out raises to their favorites and at their discretion. Why lie?
ReplyDeleteI'm very pleased with my bonus and my raise was 4.5. Not to beat a dead horse but it does pay to suck up to Banikarim.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete@ 4:15, well said! To have a quality product, we all affect each other.
ReplyDeleteGANNETT has other employment with other skills--
ReplyDeleteTry cleaning up after the pigs in the ladies/mens rooms. We work for Gannett also!
Barf!
From the Courier Journal's web site, it's been up since the NCAA pairings were announced;
ReplyDelete• U of L: Cards No. 4 seen in West; open Thursday in Portland vs. Davidson
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteYep, we all gotta work together to improve things,make the content better,fill the pages with ads.
ReplyDeleteYes,that's the answer.Does Gannett care one bit? Has everyone done this for the last four years? Worked harder to increase revenue,improve editorial content and increase the quality in general.
Gannett does not care!There will still be layoffs and employee cost cutting measures.Get over the idea that everthing will just be just fine if the right work ethics are applied.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAs for the advertising vs. newsroom sniping... the exchange I once heard went like this:
ReplyDeleteAd department employee: "Without what we do, the newsroom doesn't exist."
Ad VP: "Without what the newsroom does, we're nothing but a shopper. If we even exist at all."
Both sides are correct.
9:32, get some new material.
ReplyDeleteHmm, and without 37 vice-presidents in the building, we turn a profit. But what the hell do we know, we're just a little ol newspaper & website in the bottom 25%.
ReplyDeleteI'm a blogger (don't all throw stuff til I'm done) & today our Editorial Board at the Courier-Journal continued on with a position that the majority of our city has no interest in. The board is advocating, like a mercenary really, the building of an additional downtown bridge when the great majority of residents of the city only want an East End bridge.
ReplyDeleteTo pay for the downtown Bridge, we must have tolls, and no one wants them.
I put out a solicitation in comments to that story asking for a whistle-blower to reveal what is guiding the Editorial Board. Of course I can't know if it's a post-Gannett perk, but I thought it was fair to ask. If anyone reading has information about Louisville's editorial board that the public would be served by knowing, hook me up. Curtster3@gmail.com, http://louisvillecourant.com
(Also, I am a subscriber of the CJ, and wish Gannett would let the few remaining employees purchase the company while they still have employees left.)
So has anyone filed for unemployment during a furlough week this quarter? Did it go through? What's the maximum benefit allowed by your state?
ReplyDeleteWhat's Leslie Giolambardo doing these days? Is she still with Gannett?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete