Tuesday, May 08, 2012

May 7-13 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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.)

58 comments:

  1. Huzzah: Here's a photo of retired CEO Al Neuharth's tree house in Cocoa Beach., Fla., where he supposedly does his writing -- including his weekly USA Today column.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Newsgate vs. the old system
    Jumps: Much easier
    Spell check: different
    Captions: Harder
    Special characters, like bullets: Harder
    Avoiding bad hyphenation in urls: Harder
    Fixing designers' mistakes: Harder
    Fitting copy to the line: Harder
    Widows and orphans: Much harder

    ReplyDelete
  3. CCI Newsgate also eats stories and charts without warning. More fun!!! I never lost a story or a chart on the old system. When stuff is lost, it either has to be done over or not done, resulting in more wasted manhours and potential overtime. Are you getting this, board of directors and shareholders!!!!????? I have worked on four systems. CCI Newsgate is by far the worst!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How can Pointroll be laying off? They're making money. Despite poor management, looks like they are ok?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Big Al fell out of that tree a long time ago. But he sure made sure that he would keep raking in big bucks until he falls off the face of the earth.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 5:32 - Gannett had been handling all of their retirement processing in-house. It sounds like they have out-sourced it to a third-party administrator. The pension fund was managed through Northern Trust. It's always taken at least 3-4 months for them to work out the bugs with a new TPA. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. Too many cuts in their HR plus too many retirements = disaster.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Under the radar RIF's are happening!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @11:24 p.m. - kinda ironic as soon as someone posts about RIF's you appear to spew your garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  10. But not very "ironic" that someone is posting bullshit without a source or proof.

    No source or proof means bullshit. There are no RIFs under the radar.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Come on, let's call 11:33's bluff. Six people were laid off at USAT in the past two weeks. Any other low-key layoffs in Gannettland?

    ReplyDelete
  12. @11:33 yes there are...
    @11:48 3 in the midwest group, probably more that people aren't posting about.

    ReplyDelete
  13. When do the pub RIFs start?

    ReplyDelete
  14. 11:56 I think I know which RIFs you're referring to; did you send me that same information in an e-mail?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Still no source. And the ploy of: "They happened, but no one knows about them or is talking about them" is about as dumb as they come.

    No source means no RIFs.

    ReplyDelete
  16. HR RIFs are on the way again. Proof still in the working but will pass along.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Folks freaked at USA Today as another top talent leaves. She is one of the Personal Finance writers featured in house ads and a Times Square billboard.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I am a GPS RIF along with many other GPS RIF, our last day was last week. I am proof!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Good for her, getting out. Another one over the wall. And after they'd spent all that money promoting her. Congrats.

    ReplyDelete
  20. What do you think it would take for Martore to realize the company would benefit greatly if she treated employees honorably?

    ReplyDelete
  21. An anonymous poster at 1 a.m. is "proof."

    This keeps getting better.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The similarity and pattern of the responses -- mainly the constant accusations of some corporate plot -- back a theory I've had for a while.

    Most of the anonymous tips, etc., likely come from one person -- Jim Hopkins. Hard telling how often he logs out, posts, and then comes back. My favorite fake persona is the one where the person writes poorly and vaguely about why no one should keep working for Gannett.

    Of course, this also means the donations are bullshit, too.

    ReplyDelete
  23. GPS had layoffs all over the company last week. Some sites had none. I am from one of the Florida properties. Check with them-proof!!!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jim, yes I emailed you about them, and you know that I am telling the truth about them.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Long-time production director Kirk Martin was laid off last week at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson

    ReplyDelete
  26. No company names = no jobs.
    No proof = no RIFs.
    Does it sound familiar?
    Lots of angry postings, same style and cadence. Same guy. For months.
    Just an irritating poster or a corporate mole? Who knows.

    - Reading this blog at my new job NOT at Gannett (I interviewed two Gannetters wanting out today for one job opening. They would gladly take pay cuts.)

    ReplyDelete
  27. He's a corporate lickspittle.

    ReplyDelete
  28. In Ft Myers: Another in maintenance gone as of last week. Another given a choice of being busted to PT on call or be gone. 2 Rifed in Ft Myers GPS.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Ft. Myers is barely staying afloat. Far mor work to do than people to do it in. The publications are suffering, readers are struggling to stay engaged, news is burnt out and advertising feels defeated.

    ReplyDelete
  30. They'll replace Ms. Block with a perfi expert a year out of college. Her vast experience will be spending her parents' money. But this is who they want to hire: young, cheap and unquestioning of management.

    Why does anyone stay with the overhang of pay cuts, furloughs, RIFs or being forced to reapply for your job? Maybe Ms. Banikarim can devise a join Gannett marketing plan.

    ReplyDelete
  31. In a declining industry, we needed innovators, not financial types.

    The NYT is doing some very innovative things, continuing to focus on quality content, and charging readers.

    Gannett has focused only on cost cutting.

    ReplyDelete
  32. The message employees want management to get is this:

    Stop spending while the rest of us sacrifice.

    Where are your sacrifices?

    ReplyDelete
  33. There's a ton of interesting documentation emerging from a "rainy day" file secretly kept by an early retiree but that's now been passed along. Powerful stuff on discrimination and labor violations. How's this for a blind item, Jim - Enquiring minds want to know what managers have encouraged timesheet violations and made others help hide the evidence. Did the editor at that site even arrogantly work during her own furloughs, stupidly trying to hide it by sending messages through an assistant and her husband's email account? That would leave an trail, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Time sheets violations have been a way of life at the two Gannett newsrooms I have worked in. With increasing demands on limited staff, it is only going to get worse. I know some veteran reporters are putting in upwards of 55 hours because it is the only way they can get the work done that is expected of them. The annual meeting of HR folks with managers is perfunctory.

    ReplyDelete
  35. The poster who says....No Proof,No RIF's, sounds the same as the poster who says.....
    No one has ever done well after they left Gannett.Such as the ones who start businesses.
    No name,no company name,no proof equals no new success!
    Which is bullshit,because I left,
    started a business,and it is SUCCESSFUL!
    Come on nay sayers,have at it.
    But it can be done,and I am not a rocket scientist.

    ReplyDelete
  36. So let me get this straight: Jim is now hiding news of layoffs? Is that how you are making your financial goals now? Accepting dollars from mamma Gannett?

    ReplyDelete
  37. 8:05 AM, I've seen it too and it continues. I work for the editor alluded to in 7:46 AM. When a manager brazenly defies the furlough rules in front of those who work for her, the message is pretty clear. "We don't take these rules seriously here, and you better not if you know what's good for you."

    ReplyDelete
  38. Jim is not hiding them.
    Gannett is just not making them public.
    We all know they avoid bad publicy.
    Not every site posts here and not every site has someone that will report layoffs.Now the lid is off,we will probably have more postings.

    ReplyDelete
  39. There is no way I would work one second during a furlough.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Gannett is awaiting a payday on violations of pay laws. Those signed time sheets will make no difference when it comes out that managers are ordering employees to falsify them. Particularly when they're following the lead of their cocky editor. How can she openly break labor law and maintain the moral authority to run a Gannett newsroom? Hey, I'm just trying to get a laugh here.

    ReplyDelete
  41. No, 8:19, the vast majority of readers here believe you. It's one odd, obsessive poster here -- and it may very well be the same person as 1:20 AM -- who thinks he/she can stir skepticism with the 'no name/no business' nonsense. Congrats to you! And, yes, as one who did the same, it doesn't amount to rocket science. Just aggressive self-marketing and the inability to say 'no' to any gig or client, no matter what.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Folks revenue keeps falling and RIFs are inevitable. Many USAT lay-offs just last week. Not too hard to see.

    ReplyDelete
  43. One let go in the mail room in Greenville.

    ReplyDelete
  44. One let go in the mail room in Greenville.

    ReplyDelete
  45. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  46. 1:20 is 100% full of shit. And, of course, they offer no proof, since they're taking advantage of my willingness to let them post anonymously.

    I've said it before, I'll say it again:

    I have not posted anonymously to this blog.

    I am not posting anonymously to this blog.

    I will not post anonymously to this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  47. @1:20 if you think all of that...why do you bother coming on the blog, if it upsets you that much.. find somewhere else to spew your crap.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Yesterday someone posted about Florida Today suspending the paywall. It seems to be up and working fine. Is this something that will happen soon or just random BS? Any word on other sites' paywall skeds?

    ReplyDelete
  49. 1:20 may be full of shit. I just wish you'd call out a bunch of the other folks here, too. But then, those rantings come from paying customers, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  50. 11:09 You want to defend Gannett? Gannett is conducting RIF's and is trying to keep the news from coming out. I also was one and posted about it over the past three weeks but was drowned out as there were so many posts about the media dinner, and the buy outs. I think it is some lonely HR rep posting about where is the proof.

    ReplyDelete
  51. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  52. There is no logic in anyone coming on here to try to discredit Jim or any poster UNLESS they have a vested interest in what anyone thinks about Gannett.

    Vested, as in: being assigned and/or paid to try to influence readers of this blog.

    Anyone wanting to correct bad information or rumors would simply make their case, without the emotion and vitriol that the corporate hacks use.

    It's so transparent. Probably the only thing in this company that is.

    ReplyDelete
  53. There are reorganizations at individual sites that do not have to do with downsizing. Those result in RIFs that are not part of a corporate plan. GPS has ongoing consolidations. RIFs are a state of being for a company on the decline and trying to change. The recent buyouts relieve some pressure, but they do not replace the trend. We will be reorganizing and downsizing incrementally for years to come. Some of these will be orchestrated and some will not. Buyouts really are a sign that you might want to make a change. Those who decided to ride it out took a risk.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Hearing there was a reorganization meeting in Louisville today? Anyone heard any details?

    ReplyDelete
  55. Jim if people can call folks "corporate trolls" is it okay to call them Lemming Trolls? Just want to understand your standards

    ReplyDelete
  56. 6:43 No one can call out anyone specifically by any such name.

    On the other hand, saying all Gannett Blog readers are lemming trolls -- that's OK.

    A small distinction, but one I make in the interest of keeping as many posts up as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Stop lying, Jim.

    The 1:38 post refers to "corporate trolls" and it has been up for hours.

    Start reading and stop lying.

    ReplyDelete
  58. 7:09 Thank you for drawing my attention to that comment, which I had previously failed to catch.

    I've now removed it.

    ReplyDelete

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.