Thursday, January 10, 2013

Asbury Park | Paper's building put up for sale

The Asbury Park Press has just become the latest Gannett subsidiary to offer its building for sale, according to a memo this morning about the property in Neptune, N.J. GCI has been selling or renting excess space as the company's overall operations shrink.

The paper's weekday circulation is 96,855, and Sunday is 146,323, according to the Sept. 30 ABC report.


To all employees:

Today I announced that the Asbury Park Press has put its Neptune headquarters up for sale and will begin the search for new space that inspires creativity, digital focus and collaboration with audiences.

We're excited about the opportunities this presents. We will seek new space where we can continue to pursue great journalism and work for the greater good of our communities -- while at the same time strongly positioning ourselves for the rapidly evolving digital and mobile world.

Some 400 employees work in our headquarters, including Gannett Publishing Services and Design Studio employees. While the Neptune building has served us well, it no longer suits the needs of our staff.

There is no timeline for the sale or relocation, but all of you will be partners in our search for new space that inspires our future and embraces our communities, advertisers and audiences.

CBRE has been retained to represent us in the sale.

As we go through this process, please direct any questions to me and I will be happy to help – or find answers, if need be.

TD

Thomas M. Donovan
President & Publisher
Vice President / Gannett East Newspaper Group
3601 Hwy. 66 | Neptune, NJ 07754

16 comments:

  1. Poop on the floor included?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Speaking of poop, read what was inside the "suspicious package."

      http://whiteplains.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/white-plains-police-package-sent-editor-was-safe

      Delete
  2. Anyone confirm that all employees except for legal and obits must re-apply for their position?

    ReplyDelete
  3. wrong building, hotshot. that was cherry hill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh crap. I guess he was wrong.

      Delete
  4. If they tell you that you have to resign and then re-apply, don't do it. They told one department to do that a few years ago, and then didn't let them back into the building. And since they resigned, they couldn't collect unemployment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know you don't want to hear this but no one is losing their job. Yes they are going to move folks around but there aren't going to be layoffs. Sorry to disappoint you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There will be layoffs! I thought the same thing then out on my ass after 20 years. Gannett is awful!

      Delete
  6. 10:34 such confidence I hope you are correct. But just curious where you get such confidence? Since this crap company bought the paper they have cut and cut and then cut some more. They started just beating down people and getting rid of anyone with an original thought. Then layoffs and then furloughs. Cutting travel, print, columns all along the way. Letting a once beautiful building go without any maintenance. Check out the tennis court or for fun count the garbage cans used to catch water from the leaking ceiling. Glad your so confident though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The idea that reporters will be mobile and not need a desk and phone shows how out of touch the glass office occupants are. Reporters who worked from home in the recent past and still got their work done were publicly criticized for doing so at a staff meeting (not by name). Most Editors at the APP want their underlings under their nose and get the crawls when they are not.
    The Sprint company phones and the mobile hotspots are the worst-little or no signal, which sends us running for libraries or restaurants with free wi-fi. Staff laptops are ancient but all the big shots have new laptops and iPads to play with. I constantly have to use my personal phone, laptop and mobile broadband because company supplied equipment is unreliable. If only they had asked staff for input on these decisions, but everything is a top down management decision and we, and the reader, suffer for it.
    Perhaps APP upper management should have looked what happened when the Bergen Record told reporters they had no physical newsroom to go to. They used local diners and in some cases, unused conference rooms in municipal buildings as their defacto newsroom. Tell me that's not a conflict of interest. I'm a big believer in it idea of being out on the street and have embraced our digital responsibilities. But the realities of the business (and the way Gannett works, dictates we need a desk and telephone. Turning us into a bunch of nomads will cut productivity and put morale, which is already low, in the dumper. I suspect my desk will be in my home and I will bear more uncompensated expense to do this job. Epic fail, APP!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Eighth graph from bottom should read "I'm a big believer in THE idea of being out on the street..."

    ReplyDelete
  9. the buildings for sale. get over it. its too bad, cause it's a more interesting facility than any other paper I've worked for. Will they take the opportunity to downsize? I doubt it. How complicated do you want to make a move? Layoffs will come as they will, but i doubt they will 'time' them to coincide with the move. To the extent that APP may no longer have to pay an incredible monthly utility bill for warehouse's worth of space they don't need, selling spares employees.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They've already told all sales to reapply for jobs, closing OC Toms River bldg too. If you don't believe people will leave cause jobs offered are less money too far to travel or in a non related positions your crazy Usually it's an opportunity to dump some staff without saying you cut staff. Bob was famous for those tactics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obviously the Bob you mention has to be the slithering, low-life, piece of sh*t Bob Collins.

      Delete
  11. The other shoe was dropped during a staff meeting last week when Hollis said most reporters will be mobile when the building is sold. He said this is starting with the folks in the Toms River bureau in about a month, when the lease for the space expires.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mobile meaning they won't have an office to work from?

      Delete

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.