[Updated at 6:53 a.m. ET with latest figures, East Group details.]
Gannett's newspaper layoffs and other job losses jumped yet higher late yesterday, to an estimated 280 across at least 45 sites, as The Journal News in Westchester officially confirmed it had imposed especially deep cuts.
The N.Y. daily said it eliminated 26 jobs -- fully 11% of its workforce. Of those, 17 came from the newsroom, dropping total employment to 206 vs. 232. "The reduction in our payroll is necessary as we adjust to the changing marketplace,” Publisher Janet Hasson told the paper.
This latest round of layoffs is the largest since June 2011, when the company eliminated 700 newspaper jobs. The company had about 18,000 employees in its U.S. Community Publishing division at the end of last year.
The Journal News was one of the larger newspapers that hadn't previously been counted in this spreadsheet showing site-by-site totals. Its weekday circulation is 66,000, and Sunday is 86,000, according to the March 31 AAM report. Indeed, of 82 newspaper sites nationwide, we've heard from just over half. Many of those missing are in the East Group, and have relatively small circulations.
It's important to note that layoffs won't necessarily hit all sites across the USCP. Some have been able to hit cost-cutting targets from Corporate by eliminating travel, page counts and other expenses.
MIA: the East Group
A sampling of other papers still not included at the moment includes many in the East: The News-Press at Fort Myers, Fla.; the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, and The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.
As well, I don't have any information about five of the six New Jersey dailies. And beyond Westchester, I haven't seen anything for the other five N.Y. papers. Conspicuously absent, for example, is the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. East President Michael Kane also is publisher of that paper, and his group is based in Rochester.
Officially, at any rate, USA Today isn't included in this round, nor are the 17 dailies in the U.K. Newsquest division. And for the most part, other company divisions have been spared, including the broadcasting division, Gannett Publishing Services and CareerBuilder.
However, Gannett Government Media, publisher of Army Times and other titles, laid off 17 in early July, after ordering third-quarter furloughs just two weeks before.
Gannett, the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher, employed just under 31,000 worldwide across all divisions at the end of last year, according to the latest published data.
Earlier: Gannett launches stealth round of layoffs; more than 100 expected in days ahead.
Related: Corporate's list of all national and international sites.
Is your site here?
Please check this read-only spreadsheet to see the latest figures for your site. Then post any new information in the comments section, below. Or write confidentially to jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Gannett's newspaper layoffs and other job losses jumped yet higher late yesterday, to an estimated 280 across at least 45 sites, as The Journal News in Westchester officially confirmed it had imposed especially deep cuts.
 |
| Hasson |
This latest round of layoffs is the largest since June 2011, when the company eliminated 700 newspaper jobs. The company had about 18,000 employees in its U.S. Community Publishing division at the end of last year.
MIA: the East Group
A sampling of other papers still not included at the moment includes many in the East: The News-Press at Fort Myers, Fla.; the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, and The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.
 |
| Today's paper, Newseum |
Officially, at any rate, USA Today isn't included in this round, nor are the 17 dailies in the U.K. Newsquest division. And for the most part, other company divisions have been spared, including the broadcasting division, Gannett Publishing Services and CareerBuilder.
However, Gannett Government Media, publisher of Army Times and other titles, laid off 17 in early July, after ordering third-quarter furloughs just two weeks before.
Gannett, the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher, employed just under 31,000 worldwide across all divisions at the end of last year, according to the latest published data.
Earlier: Gannett launches stealth round of layoffs; more than 100 expected in days ahead.
Related: Corporate's list of all national and international sites.
Is your site here?
Please check this read-only spreadsheet to see the latest figures for your site. Then post any new information in the comments section, below. Or write confidentially to jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Interesting that The News-Press isn't counted yet. Its EE, Terry Eberle, was airlifted into Westchester to oversee a "corporate project" that turned out to be TJN's hit list.
ReplyDeleteThey should have saved the airfare. Eberle is useless and needs to retire before he alienates the few readers left in Fort Myers.
DeleteYou've apparently not met the Westchester EE. She puts the less in useless. She's personally responsible for the implosion of the paper due to the gun database/google maps fiasco. Apparently they needed to bring someone up to take care of things for her.
DeleteIf Ft. Myers was smart Terry Eberle would be at the top of their list to be axed in the coming weeks. His 1 job would save several, he is merely dead weight at this point. The upper ranks need to open their eyes and realize that heavy lifters shouldn't be eliminated for show pieces.
DeleteFt. Myers news employees should be looking for new jobs, you are not safe as the axe is coming soon for more than a handful. 2013 was dubbed the year of execution by the publisher in Ft. Myers, guess it should have been taken literally. East Group cuts will be happening soon.
Jim, I think it would be interesting to add to the spreadsheet sites that have instituted travel restrictions and/or other cost-cutting measures. It would at least provide some insight into what other sites are doing that have not laid off staff. Of course, this information is only as good as what's shared on this blog, but it would be interesting to see. Just a suggestion. Ask and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. I've now added a column in the spreadsheet under the heading, furloughs and other cost-cutting measures.
DeletePlease post your site's information in this comment thread.
It would also be interesting to see what perks publishers and other executives still won't give up, like:
DeleteStaff being used to maintain their cars, getting, delivering groceries to their homes, fixing their kids' computers, preparing their lunches (finding perfect bananas, placing food just right one Cincy publisher’s plate…), matching grants to their favorite“ out-of-Gannett market charities”, country club memberships, etc., etc.
The soap in the dispensers at my site has been noticeably watered down.
ReplyDeleteSOAP?? You got SOAP!!?? Where do you dry your hands? On your pants??
DeleteAnyone caught by surprise last week is either stupid or in denial. I have re-aligned my finances and will survive, which is more than I can say about my old site, which continues to be top heavy with managers and "editors" and woefully short on meaningful content.
ReplyDeleteI suggested this under general comments, but wanted it here as well. DONATE TO JIM TO PROTEST THESE LAY-OFFS! Nothing will upset the executives in the Crystal Palace more than if everyone who comments gave Jim $5. Make it his best quarter yet. I've already donated. Do it at home and from your personal computer so corporate can't retaliate against you.
ReplyDeleteFor the record I am not Jim or a friend of his. I am a Gannett worker who is grateful for what he does and fed up with upper management.
Donate to the blog as a symbolic gesture that we are tired of watching people who do the actual work suffer the consequences of bad management decisions, only to be laid-off later on. This Bad management is very handsomely compensated for failure while we get 1% or no raises, but more work.
Are you frustrated now, little man? Good. Here's something you can do. Donate to Jim and imagine the angry red faces in the Crystal Palace because they can't stop you or punish you for it.
Donate to Jim to honor the friends and co-workers we lost and are continuing to lose today. A record breaking, corporate pissing off quarter for the blog is all in reach.
Thank you.
DeleteIt doesn't get much dumber than this. Did you post this, Jim? It's pathetic.
DeleteLook, if you want to waste your money by sending some to Jim, go right ahead. But don't tell the rest of us what to do, and don't spin it into some noble effort. That's just sad.
11:39, can you read or is there a permanent "for rent" sign between your ears? Jim did not post it. I did, a currently employed GCI employee who suggested this as a way to protest the ongoing lay-offs. Be a pal and donate the $5 that corporate paid you for that sterling post to keep the blog going.
DeleteWhat's sad are the people who run this excuse for a company. Like you.
I just sent $10. Keep up the good work Jim.
DeleteWhat job eliminated in Alexandria, La.?
ReplyDeleteMust be incompetent managers, or managers with a little heart. I assumed July 31 lay-offs were so the cut employees didn't get that extra month of health insurance.
ReplyDeleteToo bad that's based on enrollment date and not the end of the month. Swing and a miss!
DeleteAs always, people at Gannett Blog don't understand how benefits work. Why do you keep trying to sound like you do? You just make yourselves sound foolish.
Wilmington is "The News Journal" not Journal News
ReplyDeleteWho really cares? More like the newsless journal and it will be gone soon anyway.
DeleteThe people who are still employed here.
DeleteHow do people keep watching their friends and colleagues thrown overboard for no damn good reason other than greed? Why would anyone want to work for a company that has become so corrupt and heartless? This isn't about the economy. This is about greed. So if you keep witnessing people you care about treated ruthlessly, then you might as well be signing off on the layoff forms. If you think what is happening is wrong, yet you stay there year in and year out, you are no better than the people who are executing your friends.
ReplyDeleteThat makes no sense. Get a grip.
Delete11:20 makes perfect sense.Gannett employees are enablers of the so called corporate greed.
DeleteYou stay and help them rake in their millions of profit dollars.You must keep in mind that Gannett is not losing money, only the profit MARGINS are slipping and not what they used to be.So yes employees could leave ,the economy is getting better,leave and they will go down and stop raking in their million in bonuses.
11:20 that's the most convoluted logic I've heard in a long time.
DeleteHave you looked at the job market, especially in media? There are no jobs to "go to". Next time don't take your meds before posting a comment.
DeleteDon't you DARE classify us worker bees in the same category as those calling for these layoffs! If you haven't figured it out, jobs are scarce, so even if we're looking to change jobs, we still have mortgages to pay and kids to feed. And 11:37 is right; get a grip.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree. Changing jobs takes time, education, $$$. Going into PR isn't an option for most, re-education is, but, as I said before... And it really is amazing to see the level of glee at the misfortunes of Gannett. Obviously people who have never worked elsewhere, since they all think the job market and working conditions EVERYWHERE else is just hunky dork. I'll stay at Gannett til they say otherwise, then make a change (unless opportunity presents itself, just like ANY OTHER TIME.)
DeleteGet a grip, you may have had a bad experience, but unless you've worked other places that were much better, you got no room to bitch. I HAVE worked places much worse (publisher sent to prison for tax evasion, NOT a Gannett property)
No one's being "executed." They've lost their jobs, they haven't been beheaded.
ReplyDeletePretty heartless to lay people off on a Sunday -- like working weekends isn't thankless enough.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteSix so far in Nashville...mostly advertising. One from marketing, one graphic designer.
ReplyDeleteinitials?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhy anyone would stay in newspapers at this point... especially at Gannett, especially at The Journal News. Can't believe TJN has the audacity to lay people off just after Newsday folded its Westchester operation... isn't a competitor's withdrawal usually a good thing for a newspaper's bottom line?
ReplyDeleteOr the other possibility is, as long as Newsday Westchester was around, Gannett was less likely to decimate TJN for fear of losing the market altogether. Newsday was never actually committed to beefing up that product into something competitive but Gannett had no way of knowing that. As soon as Newsday turned tail and a relative monopoly was re-established, it became "safe" again to chuck bodies overboard ... at least in Gannett's short-sighted view.
DeleteI wonder how CSS (under the GPS umbrella) seems to not be hit by these RIFs. We are top heavy and most creative is dictated by corporate. We so not need as many directors and RSMs as all they do is travel and booze it up. We can get by with less upper management which would save on payroll,travel and eating. It is hard to sell a product we keep increasing the price on and cutting the local news.
ReplyDeleteAMEN to that. They should sit down with the employees on the front line and ask them a few questions about how to streamline and improve things.
DeleteI would attempt to be sarcastic and fill this space with ha ha's and LOL's. The sad truth is upper management hasn't listened to the people on the front lines in the past and they're not about to now. Not in Westchester or any other site.
DeleteTheir baby, Content evolution didn't get the desired numbers and they're throwing anything up that gets hits and numbers. What do you think they're doing in corporate this week? Aim at the wall, splat. Is it sticking? Desperation time!
What Janet Hassan said: "The reduction in our payroll is necessary as we adjust to the changing marketplace.”
ReplyDeleteWhat Janet Hassan meant to say: "The reduction in our payroll is necessary to preserve our parent company's high profit margins as revenues fall."
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteWhat is the percentage of the work force that has been shown the door?
ReplyDeletewhat other departments were affected in Westchester other than news is that over paid creative "NOT" Genius--TG still with a job??
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteTJN has been "adjusting" to the "changing marketplace" for more than a decade — largely by ignoring the sound advice of middle managers who had the guts to tell the glass dwellers when they were woefully off base. You see who survived such friendly guidance — and whom we can all credit for gutting circulation in one of the most promising media markets in the world. All it takes is a brain and business sense to make this thing work. Maybe another piece attempting to shame those who possess gun permits will do the trick ...
ReplyDeleteGannett started a series of layoffs in August 2008 that are continuing through today. Here's a measure of how much change there's been at TJN:
ReplyDelete* Circulation 2008: 140,937 morning, 163,991 Sunday
* Circulation today: 66,000 morning, 86,000 Sunday
TJN/LoHud three-county circulation area encompasses 1.3 million people.
DeleteHow's this for some added perspective...in 1972 daily circulation was 220,000! Back then, there were eight newspapers with their own nameplates in Westchester and one, The Journal-News, in Rockland. The general managers of the largest three -- The Journal-News in Nyack, The Herald Statesman in Yonkers and The Reporter Dispatch in White Plains (which had editions for northern Westchester and Putnam County) had a standing monthly bet. The one with the lowest average daily circulation each month bought lunch for the trio. They were all within a horse shoe toss of 50,000, so the competition was intense.
DeleteLater, another small Westchester paper was added to the group, which makes the 1972-2013 circulation comparison all the more glaring. In the fall of 1998 all the papers were combined under the nameplate of the Rockland newspaper. Initially, the plan had been to abandon all the names in favor of one new to the region. But Rockland readers had such an intense connection to their newspaper's name and reacted so negatively to losing it that The Journal News became the name of the new consolidated newspaper.
And in the mid-1980s, the Rockland Sunday edition alone was slightly more than 50,000.
Today, likely half that.
Wow, circulation is horrible. To be that low when you are combining 3 counties north of NYC is truly pathetic. What will come next, another round of layoffs or printing the newspaper three days a week ?
ReplyDeleteHere are three main reasons for the decline in circulation in Westchester from 2008 to 2013
ReplyDelete1. The "Eyebrow"
2. The "Unabomber'
3. The gun map
Eyebrow and unabomber are gone but they still have some of their people in place, so the free fall will continue.
ReplyDeleteI picked up the Journal News today. I really want to know how they are going to fill what is left of that paper with content that people will want to buy. The JN doesn't cover the local news, most of the paper is wire service news, they might have one reporter covering a story which they will run for the entire week. And the woman in charge was responsible for one of the most inept interactive that caused the paper to lose money with advertisers pulling out and cancelations, and yet she still has a job. Now I understand this company more.
ReplyDeleteMontgomery is 3. All Advertising managers.
ReplyDelete