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.)
Tuesday, July 09, 2013
31 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)
Michael Wolff reveals the awesome power he has. And mentions Rupert Murdoch.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2013-07/09/michael-wolff-good-feud
Wow. Don't cross Wolff, who writes:
Delete"There is a particular reviewer, now grey and bent, who dismissed my first book 35 years ago, who, I have stalked through decades of cocktail parties. I am soon to pounce."
A tad thin-skinned, no? He does love him some Rupert.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a Bloomberg article a few executives that own 10 percent of outstanding shares control 49 percent of the voting rights. The just of the article is that they may have left money on the table for Belo. Other major investors in Belo also own shares in Gannett. One of them Blackrock also offers plans to Gannett 401K participants. I never used them.
ReplyDeleteContrary to what GPS management would have people believe distribution, production, and circulation did run more efficiently at some of the Gannett papers before GPS took over.
ReplyDeleteIf that's so, then management needs to up the performance in those sites. But if you think you're arguing against consolidation, sorry, but that just ain't reality in this day and age.
DeleteI was not arguing against consolidation where it is feasible. Performance is where the problem lies. Return control back to the department managers that have been running it for years and know better than Evan Ray how to get the job done.
DeleteGPS would be doing much better if it could get rid of the dead weight that was shifted over from USA TODAY's Production department to GPS. Those Production folks are a bunch of screwups.
DeleteI agree. They are a bunch of incompetent crack heads. It would have been much better if Gannett just got rid of the dead wood than trying to absorb them into the new business structure. I swear that USAT Production group enjoys creating problems. I think that it's deliberate subversion to delay any business changes that they are not comfortable with.
DeleteThe rumor mill is starting again. Furloughs in Q4? Is there any truth to this at all, can anyone tell me. Doesn't management have to provide some sort of advance announcement so we can plan?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI hear Jim is going to shut this place down because of lack of funds. True?
Delete6:33 Not even remotely true.
DeleteThe part about lack of funds is true.
DeleteIt wouldn't surprise me to see the. Furlough people now. They're already trying to get people to leave early towards the end of the week, because they're running out of ads in the system and that was even after having less man hours during the week due to the 4th of July holiday
ReplyDeleteLet the speculation commence:
ReplyDeleteMark your calendars and join us at 12 p.m. (ET), Monday, July 22 for the next Employee Town Hall webcast held with President and CEO Gracia Martore following the release of Gannett's second-quarter earnings. Gracia will discuss earnings and other company news, announce Rewards & Recognition Program winners and answer employees’ questions. Employees also will be given a tour of the new National News Desk by Beryl Love.
Submit questions in advance of the webcast by clicking on the link. The webcast also will be archived. For employees in McLean, VA, please join the Town Hall meeting in the Frank E. Gannett auditorium.
When will Gannett drop AP? Will there be furloughs at individual sites? How many Gannett openings will result from Gannett moving people into Belo properties for culture changes and aligning finances and more. Are we about to see - fir the first time in a long time - opportunities open up for people to move up?
DeleteA few years ago, Gannett did an internal audit to determine the level of gender discrimination. The numbers were worse than expected. The company had to do something because it was a sitting duck for a class action lawsuit. I venture to say that is why we have useless, underworked, overpaid female VPs.
ReplyDeleteComplete and utter BS. No such audit was done.
DeleteGannett discriminates against older workers more than women or even minorities. This has been known for years but has gotten worse in the last five years, since the layoffs began. It's an economic issue, unlike the other categories of discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI am willing to bet that a disproportionately higher number of 50somethings got canned, bought out, forced to retire early, etc., than any other age group. Was and still is very unsettling to watch Gannett pit older and younger workers against each other. It's done covertly, but believe me, it's happening everywhere, from the smaller dailies and TV stations to USA Today.
Spot on, 3:52.
DeleteThey concocted a way to get rid of me about a week before the mass layoff of 700 two years ago. They were probably able to save a lower-paid (younger) FTE by throwing me under the bus. What a coincidence, eh? Fact is, there are dozens of ways to get around age discrimination laws to get rid of higher-paid older employees, and Gannett knows them all.
Jim you reported a reader as saying that there would be 3rd qt. furloughs? Aren't we into the 3rd qt. already and I assume that your reader has been reliable? I guess we can say with confidence that the 3rd qt. wasn't very good. People are thinking that their going to get a raise. What a great job that Evan Ray is doing. They should have voted that board out before. Close call this time, but it brings them closer to their retirement age.This company loves to pay their board members and justifies it too. Oh well what else is new, gotta be expected.
ReplyDeleteBeing in a quarter hasn't stopped Gannett from instituting furloughs. It's been done at least once, maybe twice but they've all kind of blurred together at this point.
DeleteAlso, in the past, Jim has usually described a reader as being reliable, someone known to him, etc. This time, he didn't. Read into that what you want.
7:26 I know the reader who passed this information to me, and I am confident the reader is in a position to know about these furloughs.
DeleteThese furloughs would be in response to second-quarter results, since we don't know yet how Q3 will shake out.
I will add here that in addition to furloughs, unfilled jobs may well be eliminated. And there's a possibility, too, that there could be layoffs.
As to the timing, Corporate hasn't always been consistent: On occasions, furloughs were announced before the start of a quarter. Other times, they were announced several weeks into the quarter.
All of that is easy to blather on about. Aren't we already eliminating unfilled jobs? Isn't that the meaning of unfilled? Layoffs - seriously - there could be layoffs? Imagine that!
DeleteIt is so easy to predict the "possibility" of furloughs, layoffs and anything else. Who remembers the predictions if they are wrong? And you get bragging right if they are correct, even if only some is correct.
What a waste of time.
And the worker austerity plan rolls on at GPS while the executives keep raking in the money for themselves.
ReplyDeletelet's not forget the Publisher perks ! in Phoenix, publisher still parks is reserved space #1, has people take his car in for service, gas etc. has cases of wine delivered to the office and has staff carry it out to his car at the end of the day. oh i forgot, he's busy figuring out which jobs he'll cut next and how not to spend any money on wages.
ReplyDeleteBut did he get to party on the French Riviera with Banikarim?
DeleteHere we go again! Fresh from being embarrassed over publishing a map of gun owners late last year, the Journal News in Westchester/Rockland/Putnam counties now wants more personal information on those who carry.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to metadata, nothing says "doing the dirty work of the NSA" like Gannett.
Wow / when did Myron Maslowsky leave the Evil Empire? Was I asleep at the wheel - or did Marie Bamford assume control? Good Lord, that's all you got?
ReplyDelete