USA Today has published a story about the companywide newspaper layoffs and other job cuts that began about July 29, saying they totaled "a couple of hundred jobs."
Gannett's flagship newspaper didn't say where that figure came from, noting only that the company didn't announce numbers for individual sites. To date, Corporate has simply confirmed job cuts were underway. Other media, including the Associated Press, have pulled numbers from Gannett Blog.
I believe this is USAT's first account -- detailed one, anyway -- about this round. It was published late yesterday afternoon under a "staff report" byline and comes, of course, from Corporate's headquarters complex in McLean, Va.
The story's timing is interesting, making me wonder whether this marks the end of what's been a too-drawn-out campaign to reduce costs amid further declines in advertising revenue.
Based on Gannett Blog reader reports, the U.S. newspaper division has now eliminated 423 jobs across at least 62 worksites through layoffs and by dropping open positions.
The division publishes 81 dailies, not including USAT itself. It employed about 18,000 of GCI's total 30,700 workers at the start of the year, according to the company's latest published figures.
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Gannett's flagship newspaper didn't say where that figure came from, noting only that the company didn't announce numbers for individual sites. To date, Corporate has simply confirmed job cuts were underway. Other media, including the Associated Press, have pulled numbers from Gannett Blog.
I believe this is USAT's first account -- detailed one, anyway -- about this round. It was published late yesterday afternoon under a "staff report" byline and comes, of course, from Corporate's headquarters complex in McLean, Va.
The story's timing is interesting, making me wonder whether this marks the end of what's been a too-drawn-out campaign to reduce costs amid further declines in advertising revenue.
Based on Gannett Blog reader reports, the U.S. newspaper division has now eliminated 423 jobs across at least 62 worksites through layoffs and by dropping open positions.
The division publishes 81 dailies, not including USAT itself. It employed about 18,000 of GCI's total 30,700 workers at the start of the year, according to the company's latest published figures.
Is your site counted?
Please check this read-only spreadsheet, then post your site's latest information in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Nice that 'USAT staff' report what Phlly.com reported on one paper, as if that was representative. If anyone had any (blue) balls there, they would have included some mention of the 400+ numbered at Gannettblog.
ReplyDeleteAnd because there was no need to disclaimer Philly.com's report as being unverified in this story, the same should hold true for the 400+ number here.
Or, you know, we could hold ourselves to the standards we would hold anyone else. The ethics statement only applies to insider trading, I guess.
In Tuesday's Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., Tom McGurk was listed as sports editor. In Wednesday's paper, he's listed as regional sports editor. It appears to be a sign that Cherry Hill and Vineland, where he had worked, are consolidating some editorial jobs.
ReplyDeleteYou will also see more of this in Ohio and Wisconsin, at a minimum.
DeleteOshkosh and Fond du Lac share a sports content manager and assistant sports content manager.
DeleteGreen Bay and Appleton share sports content manager as well as lifestyles/entertainment.
DeleteWhat about Louisiana, Jim?
ReplyDeleteIt happened 2 weeks ago in Mississippi. The new Clarion-Ledger editor, who hadn't been in Mississippi for a month, was put in charge of the Hattiesburg American sports section. This happened the same day the lone remaining sports copy editor and the assistant sports editor were laid off and the lone remaining high school sports writer resigned to go to work for the Baton Rouge paper.
ReplyDeleteI should have mentioned Lousiana; it's another logical place for the regionalization of news coverage editing based on subject. There are savings in having a single editors for sports, features, business and other such topics. I don't see how it could be done with general "local" news, however.
DeleteJust catching up to 8/24 re: the Westchester number.
ReplyDeleteYou suggest that 206 is not hard to understand since thre's no production or circulation.
That's 700 people or 3/4 of the total workforce in 5 years! The numbers just don't seem add up for future success. How many are writing stories? How many are selling advertising? What parts of the market are totally ignored by both areas? Shameful what's happened there.
Shameful is the best word I can think of to describe what's happened everywhere in Gannett...And then they lie about it. A "couple hundred jobs" eliminated? Hey that's only a couple hundred off the true total.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a nonchalant attitude, isn't it? USAT damn well could provide an actual figure, but they just toss off a very casual "couple hundred," which isn't even accurate.
DeleteI've heard from someone at USAT that they had buyouts a few months ago, or something along those lines, and that the staff expects that come December, they'll see some layoffs. Not sure if that meant just for USAT or whether there might be more coming company wide.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, as a recent layoffee, I can tell you it's loads of fun having to deal with Gannett on getting all the loose ends tied up, like rolling over 401K, COBRA, etc. It's irritated me enough over the years of having to do all this stuff myself that we used to have HR specialists to help with. Now it's doing all this stuff yourself on a series of asinine websites, where the customer service, shall we say, like Gannett, leaves something to be desired.
Kind of looking forward to when the loose ends are done, and I never have to deal with Gannett again ... ever.
Shameful is right ... and short-sighted ... in describing them as a company.
Please consider performing a great service to this site's readers by offering some helpful tips on how to navigate the "new and improved" system the company has for dealing with end-of-job issues, whether they involvement retirement or RIFs. thank you in advance.
DeleteAgreed. Has anyone heard about COBRA? It was supposed to be an option by now, yet I have heard nothing. And of course, I am now ill.
Delete