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.)
Monday, February 18, 2013
40 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)
Wouldn't it be interesting to know, since the beginning of buyouts/layoffs how many got new jobs of equal status or just left the industry.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a very interesting thread.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that you would not be believed. If you posted that you left,or were forced out, and are now happy,well employed and loving life.
You would have to give up all your personal information.What is your employer name, what is the name of your new business,where do you live etc,etc, etc etc.There are so many here who just cannot believe that there is actually a life other than with Gannett.
I left of my own accord, 3 years ago,started a business that is growing and prospering.I am not rich,but doing OK and I love my life.
I'll bet there are many others that can say the same.What and see how doubters will respond to this.
Over the weekend, the Arizona Republic ran an editorial defending public notices in print - the legal ads that state laws require to be published in local newspapers. The Republic opposes letting governments publish the notices online to save taxpayers money.
ReplyDeleteThe editorial goes on to say that the Republic "prints relatively few public notices." What the editorial fails to say, however, is that the Republic owns the Arizona Business Gazette, which prints hundreds of thousands of public notices each year for a handsome profit. I'd guess that the revenues top $1 million a year.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130216editorial-public-notices-best-print.html
http://www.azcentral.com/class/azbjnotices.html
Are other Gannett papers fighting moves in state legislatures to change public notices for an Internet age to save taxpayers money?
I believe the CJ and Ky. Enquirer, fought similar legislation a few years ago in Ky. along similar lines and won with the help of sympathetic state legislators.
DeleteThe idea of informing the public through printed notices made sense the last 150 years or so, but soon there will be a larger percentage of people with Internet access than subscribe to their local papers, if that point hasn't already been reached.Legal ads are a cash cow for newspapers, and if those are pulled it could mean the last nail in the coffin for the industry.
DeleteWisconsin editors fought it a few years back. The legislation never passed (I don't remember if it even got to the point of being a bill), but I don't think the editors' stances had much to do with that.
Delete"There are so many here who just cannot believe that there is actually a life other than with Gannett.""
ReplyDeleteOver thirty years ago I left my first Gannett owned newspaper... Before I left I was met by "Where can you find a job better than this?" Well, as it happened, that better job was only 105 miles up the road. Of course, in the intervening time, most newspapers have been bought up by corporations, including my current paper which was purchased, unfortunately, by Gannett, also. Gannett forces you to make choices at some point in time in your career. You weigh your options, is this worth it? Is this job worth the time it is taking up in my life? Is the commute, cost of fuel and traffic worth it? Is the increased stress level good for my health? When doing your job and doing it well is no longer good enough... A person weighs everything. Will Gannett change? No, it's not in their DNA. They are all about cost cutting. Have always been about cost cutting. For those fairly new to Gannett, it's normal for them. For those who have been around a while, you know the noose is tightening. Add "The worst economy in thrity years," declining readership and advertising revenue, and you have a rabid Gannett. UHC says that to stay healthy, one of the things I can do is reduce stress at work. Anyone here care to guess what response I'd get if I asked my boss just that?
Any hope? I think not. At some point in time your scales will tip and you will say "Enough!"
Please tell me the 1A headline in USA Today this morning regarding Danica Patrick is a purposful mis-spelling of the word, History. In the paper, it is spelled, Hisstory. I understand the potential gender angle....maybe. But if that is the case, it just does not make sense.
ReplyDeleteNope...just a dumb ass mistake. My paper has it spelled correctly, so the dumb ass woke up and realized it. Or maybe another ass equally as dumb can actually spell and made the change.
Delete"Equal status" or "better off" are subjective. Even tho I am making (a little) less than I did at Gannett, my fringe benefits are much better, as are my health, emotional outlook and future.
ReplyDeleteI may not be taking more home, but I am truly in a better place.
In Louisville, the fallout from the John David Dyche affair continues -
ReplyDeleteDyche spent three hours on the most-listened to news radio program in the city this morning castigating the Courier-
http://www.whas.com/pages/MandyConnell.html
Local media blogs continue to pick it apart:
http://insiderlouisville.com/news/2013/02/17/rick-redding-dyche-booting-another-step-in-courier-journals-path-to-irrelvancy/
And hey, we made BreitBart!:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/02/17/Louisville-courier-journal-fires-dyche
He is no Emile Zola.
DeleteThe motto in Louisville: Never fear, Tony Simmons is here.
Deleteno worries folks, Tony has it all under control.
Perhaps corporate uses the Teflon Man whenever they want to run a paper into the ground.
DeleteSad thing is Tony actually thinks he is doing well.
The Journal News is a shell of itself, thanks to Teflon Tony.
Senior eds continue to badmouth Callaway while he is in San Francisco. All that butt kissing when he's in the office going by the wayside.
ReplyDeleteCallaway's in San Fran? You interviewing interns for Gannettblog, James?
DeleteJim hires only interns who agree to butt kissing. The responsibilities "graduate" from there.
DeleteHello, 6:26 p.m. Really? Didn't you outgrow these mean, juvenile comments in middle school? I feel sorry for you.
DeleteTwo years later...better pay, much better benefits, better work environment, better colleagues, better, better, better across the board. The only downside is I still have to drive by the crystal palace every now and then and see the glass prison walls.
ReplyDeleteGannett only keeps managers who are idiots and make boneheaded decisions. You don't have to look too far down 65 to see another large Gannett paper with the same problem.
ReplyDeleteGannett has always done things on the cheap. Even when Company had record profits only the few at the top benefited. If anyone in Digital or other parts of the Company think they will be ever be rewarded by Gannett, they need to think again.
ReplyDeleteGas prices are heading higher everyday. How long are those contractors at the private distributors going to eat the cost? Wearing down their own vehicles. Getting up early almost working a graveyard shift seven days a week. Depreciating the value of their trucks and autos with every mile. Barely making a long term profit with no benefits. Knowing the Private distributors took the jobs away of long time local employees of the paper. I don't think I could live with myself if I was doing the work for less than someone else got before who had put in many years of hard work to get to a point that they actually could have something. Ending someone else career just to collect an extra small paycheck.
ReplyDeleteIt would make sense to bring back the Single Copy drivers since costs have hardly been reduced and the Newspapers are not getting out on time so customers can buy them. Until Gannett, I had never heard of a business plan where the objective is to sell less product.
DeleteI completely agree with 5:07, after 25+ years in the industry, I have never seen a company do everything it can to decrease sales. Lets use Teflon Tony mentioned above, he destroyed the circulation department of more than 1 paper in New Jersey, sales collapsed, people lost jobs, revenue is gone. Most companies would let go of someone who caused this chaos. What does Gannett do? Ship him to Louisville to do the same thing. Now reports from KY is the same thing is happening, with merged deliveries that make no sense, high caliber employees walking out the door unemployed, and circulation dropping like a rock. Wake up Gannett.
DeleteDid this guy scab in Detroit too?
DeleteWe are hoping he is sent north on I 65 to destroy the next bigger Gannett paper
DeleteBelieve in Florida, California, Arizona, Ohio, and Oregon, maybe not Detroit yet. Gannett is hiring Part time single Copy drivers for Sterling Heights.
DeleteSince the others are not Union papers he isn't really called a scab. But for all practical purposes he has stolen another persons job out from under them.
DeleteLife after Gannett, I'm a CD, better job, better pay. Now with a family owned newspaper. I was told when I was offered the job I had it as long as I wanted to stay. I have returned the favor by increasing circulation & revenues
ReplyDelete9:03, the real problem is that you post the same junk every day.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is that odds alone are against the business success that many people here are claiming. Most new businesses, even before the recession, fail within the first 5 years.
We also know that many of the people here claiming this business success were the perpetual grumps and malcontents of their offices. It would take a major leap of faith to assume these people could overcome the odds and succeed at running businesses when they could not handle their individual tasks that were handed to them in their previous jobs.
In summary, we're not buying it, and you need to stop trying to sell it.
Here's a great example of how a paywall makes you look just plain dumb.
ReplyDeleteYou can't even read about the newspaper's new editor without paying to see the article:
http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20120909/NEWS01/309090022/Hello-readers-m-here-help
Sure, he's here to help. For a price.
That link has nothing to do with the paywall, it's an archived story.
DeleteClear out your cookies. I do it every 30 days or so.
ReplyDeleteI haved worked for Gannett for 30 years, provided for my family and all that goes with that. How ever, at the young age of 50, I am done, make 55k a year, but you no what money does not buy or make me happy or piece of mind. Its time to go, Not sure what I will do but I will take a huge pay cut just to have piece of mind and not be a number for the computer enhanced managers who have no feelings for others except them selves, I used to love going to work and that smell of a production center was some thing I grew up up with as a kid as my Uncle took me to work with him often. It was the smell of a newspaper, I was told as a kid that this was the business to get in, because their will always be newspapers, yea I guess he was right for 30 years, because i don't see them lasting but a year or 2. Were I still work ( not for long) Our daily Circ drops by at least 150 paper per week, On Sundays it has dropped from 38k a month ago to 35k this past wekend..folks thats 3,000 paper in a month, do the math we are sinking and my advice is ti sell every penny of stock you have, the day is soon upon us when it crashes and this time it is not coming back. So get your resumes together, it is only a matter of time. I love the fact that all these 20 something kids entering the biz are so upbeat about things, well carrying a dam phone and checking it every 2 minutes and reading your iPod every waking minute of the day is not going to keep the news biz a float..sorry kids, your phones ipads and laptops did in the newspaper biz, and what comes after that is any body's guess. Sure is hell wont be legit reporting. My rant is over, sorry I got on a roll
DeleteGood luck to you. Believe it or not many of us stuck here are jealous you got out. We are hanging on for the unemployment compensation.
Deletei been out of gannett land for over a year now. not by choice but that's what it is. i now sleep well, feel better and people see me and compliment how much better i look, "we can see it in your face" the stress is gone, no more constant daily budget revision, no more lack of sleep because i have to tell someone they are out of a job. no more wasted time doing reports that mean nothing, no more listening to long winded marketing presentations that never work, no long wondering why project failures are never mentioned or anyone told that was a dumb idea. ahhh the freedom, the sit back and watch it continue to tumble. my over 3 decades of newspaper life is done, loved it, loved the people, but don't miss it now.
DeleteMy manager is not an idiot. He is simply an Indy kiss a _ _.
ReplyDeleteI hope that unemployment compensation or buyout comes to those who wait otherwise you're wasting your life away working in a miserable environment.
ReplyDeleteWhen I left, it felt as if the gates of Hell had opened.
ReplyDelete