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Thursday, July 25, 2013
37 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."
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Managers,let's get those RIF lists updated,Friday deadline.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to worry your job is safe.....
Yeah right!
Four years of being told that,four years of winning the 'still have a job lottery',
what a way to live.
Gannett and its revolving-door assembly of mediocre executives are miserable failures when it comes to growing the company organically. Even the acquisitions bomb out. That leaves the only way to increase profit and boost the stock price is by punishing the workers. Eliminate our jobs. Force us to take unpaid leaves. Freeze our raises. Freeze our pension contributions. All so management can stuff wads of cash into their pockets and stroke institutional shareholders into promoting the stock. What a terrible business model!
ReplyDeleteGreed is good. Especially for Gannett executives.
DeleteHere we go again. Same tired bitching. Same posts ripping on the people who still have jobs, unlike 9:58, who really seems bitter that others are working and he is not.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it get old after 4 years? I know Jim gave some of you a break when he left for the island. But what good does any of it do?
Sometimes one just needs a place where he/she can vent in complete anonymity.
ReplyDeleteBears do it in the woods (so I've always heard) and people normally do it in the appropriate restroom with a good book, newspaper or magazine.
DeleteWhat an interesting and timely article. Many good companies are plagued with these types of managers. Whats troubling is that most senior leaders at these companies (Gannett included) only hire people they like - not necessarily people who have the skill set for the position or the judgment, temperament, and overall leadership qualities that are the best match for the position or the team/department where they work. What's more, background and reference checks for many of these high level positions are flimsy at best and rubber stamps at worst.
ReplyDeleteLet's use Gannett as a case study. I would posit that each member of the senior leadership group (with the exception of David Payne perhaps), have many of the qualities described in this article - some waaay more than others. I'm sure everyone reading this blog who has worked (or is still unfortunately working) at Gannett can create a long list of managers that meet the criteria of the "psychopathic" boss.
This quote from the article is particularly interesting:
"The extremely bad bosses, such as the “aberrant self-promoters” Gustafson has identified, aren’t necessarily more prevalent in the upper ranks than any other type of personality, she said. However, these truly bad bosses are more memorable because they wreak so much havoc. 'They have more influence and they’re more likely to bully and intimidate and ruin other people.'
We ALL know who this describes.
GB, enjoy a this good read.
"Sometimes, the boss really is a psycho"
http://www.today.com/money/sometimes-boss-really-psycho-6C10732488
The bully, the narcissist, the know-it-all, even the psychopath.
We may not like them, or want our children to be like them. But chances are, almost everyone who has worked long enough has a horror story about a superior who generally behaved like Homer Simpson’s boss, Mr. Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns.
A growing number of researchers are looking into what makes a real-life Mr. Burns, and what they are finding isn’t always pretty.
what happened to the idea that broadcast read the headlines, and newspaper told the whole story??
ReplyDeleteAt my paper, I see the editors watching the tv newscasts to see what stories we didn't get and will need to do stories on.
DeleteNeither tell the whole story.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of broadcast, a coalition of trade unions, church and good-government groups are asking the FCC to reject Gannett's acquisition of Belo Corp. The "Petition to Deny" cites Gannett's newspapers in Phoenix and Louisville among other things.
Damn, even the two Louisianians who moved to Des Moines aren't looking out for Louisiana papers. Headline in Shreveport Times mentions appeal going to Federal Court. In Louisiana, 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals is a state court, not federal.
ReplyDeleteIt still falls to the local papers to write headlines, don't blame the design studios.
DeleteWay to miss the point, 6:33. The idea is someone from the state might have known that.
DeleteTry to read first, then think, and then post. When you just throw up nonsense, it destroys your claim.
And that's why they all have to reapply for their jobs in Shreveport
ReplyDeleteShreveport folks have to reapply for their jobs? Looks like The Times is going to be Fort Collins South.
ReplyDeleteYou mean turning around the place and making it one of the best performing small sites in the company for revenue and innovation? The folks in Shreveport would be lucky if they could get in on what she made in Fort Collins.
Delete4:22, I doubt it's true.
ReplyDeleteJim please update your contributions section. It ahs been stuck on $45 for days
ReplyDeleteYes, soon, and thank you.
DeleteAny news of rumors of layoffs in Phoenix today?
ReplyDeleteNews of rumors? Oxymoron alert!
DeleteNo layoffs but Indiana publishers retiring today...only after announcing their intention on Tuesday. It's only the tip of the iceberg.
DeleteSo ... Time Warner Cable has petitioned the FCC to block the Belo deal:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/219206/groups-petition-asks-fcc-to-block-gannett-belo-deal/
You're late. See my post in Part 3.
DeleteDon't know about Phoenix, but there was at least one layoff at the STL Post Dispatch this week.
ReplyDeleteThe Post-Dispatch is owned by Lee Enterprises. Gannett has NOTHING to do with that daily.
DeleteTo 11:07 AM, Go away and stay away.
ReplyDeleteRIFs are on their way Fri and Mon. Furloughs were enough to make up deficits at larger markets.
ReplyDeletesorry.... NOT enough to make up deficits.
DeleteAsbury Park Press suspends production of its glossy monthly magazine with the August issue
ReplyDeleteThe magazine never made money and it was always a mystery why they kept publishing it. I bet no one will even realize that it stopped being published.
DeleteRecently APP stopped printing 10 weeklies with a plus 200,000 circulation and no one complained.
I sometimes wonder if the Gannett management holds animosity towards us in production because they can't outsource the work to China and pay sub living wages?
ReplyDeleteSome design work is already outsourced to India. This is from a former Gannett manager's LinkedIn.com page: "My position was eliminated due to further restructuring, as much of the work is now being outsourced to India, with the remainder going to a corporate ad production center in Des Moines."
DeleteWhat does RIF stand for? And what do they mean?
ReplyDeleteReductions In Force. i.e. layoffs.
DeleteCallaway's new workaround the clock plan for all news departments coming closer to reality, even for senior editors. Now we get to see how piss poor staff really is, especially Money and Life. Cant wait to see editors writing and reporting on deadline.Same with the lazy ass reporters who think anything more than a story a week is way beneath them.
ReplyDeleteHow will that staffing be different than it is now? How many more editors and reporters on the third shift?
Delete