Friday, July 10, 2009
Layoffs | Welcome to Westchester Confidential
A forum for employees at the The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y. Details of layoffs and other changes there have been delayed until early August, a full month past when most other workers will get notified, according to a memo from the publisher.
60 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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I'll be the first: I am imploring anyone with any knowledge of what the publisher is planning to post details here.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way they will know it was you!
The note hinted that there might be some layoffs next week. In what department?
What do they need a month to plan for? Who is involved in the planning?
I'm concerned about what kind of restructuring we can look forward to, and if it involves the PoJo.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Westchester get a separate topic?
ReplyDeleteBecause we in Westchester got this bizarre note from our publisher that says there will a mysterious "comprehensive restructuring" and layoffs will be deferred until August:
ReplyDeletePlease read the important announcement in the attached memo from Bob Dickey, the president of the Community Newspaper Division of Gannett regarding division-wide job reductions being implemented next week due to the continuing difficult economic conditions. Westchester is not immune from the impact of the difficult economy and the impact it has had on all media and advertising related businesses.
Unlike most of our sister papers we will not be moving forward with job eliminations next week, with a few exceptions. We are in the process of completing a comprehensive restructuring plan for Westchester, which is designed to build on the strength of our local content in print and online, and achieve sustainable advertising and circulation growth.
Our intention is to complete this planning process this month and implement our changes in mid-August. When this plan is implemented later this summer there will be some job reductions, but at this point we’re not certain how many nor where they will occur. I can assure you that we are working diligently to create a plan that puts us on a path to growth and prosperity.
Building news, assholes!
ReplyDeleteIt probably involves the consolidation of Pojo's graphic design and copy desks. Not much has been discussed to date so maybe they don't want to lay people off until they know how many they wil need to put out two papers.
ReplyDeleteAny word on whether the company might get rid of the several layers of management at the top of the newsroom?
ReplyDeleteAlso: Any thoughts of leaving the building? The newsroom is pretty empty.
I, for one, think it's actually more cruel to make people wait until August.
ReplyDelete4:50 PM wrote: "I, for one, think it's actually more cruel to make people wait until August."
ReplyDeleteI am no fan of this company.
But management seems to be caught in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation here.
Last year there was warning 6-8 weeks ahead of time that there would be layoffs. This time it's a 1-week notice.
While you think it's cruel to make people wait, others might appreciate more lead time to think about other options, etc.
Saw this on the link to the Journal News site:
ReplyDeletePublisher: Michael Fisch
Editor and Vice President/News: Henry Freeman
Founded: 1852
Joined Gannett: 1964
Circulation: 122,529 morning; 136,554 Sunday
In a post on this blog last year, I saw this and copied it for my personal info:
The Journal News at White Plains, N.Y., plunged 10.9% daily, to 108,863; Sunday: 7.3%, to 125,829.
My question: What is the current circulation? Why does the paper continue to give out old numbers?
Check out this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0004420.html
This chart from March 2006 has the Journal News circulation at 144,231.
This page from the newspaper's Web site:
http://www.lohud.com/about/prod-tjn-circ.shtml
Has circulation of 122,419 in April 2007.
These are ABC numbers. So between 2006 and 2007, the paper lost a lot of readers.
This is more than two years ago, and I can only imagine how many readers have been lost since.
What is the current circulation? Someone besides the publisher must know this, right?
Any word on severance, details on the restructuring or where the July cuts will be? Specifically, any word on the uDesk body count?
ReplyDeleteThe 2009 ABC numbers were posted a few months back, around 92,000. But that was before the horrible redesign and shrinkage of the newspaper. I'm sure it is much less now
ReplyDeleteIf you are wondering what should happen to the graphics department, just look at the website. The breaking news carousel has a google map instead of a map created by a graphic artist. What do they produce in Westchester?PoJo artist actually contribute work to the newspaper and website every day. Wake up GCI! When merging operations, why would you let the incompetent bozos in Westchester call the shots
ReplyDeleteDid Poughkeepsie get the same memo Westchester did?
ReplyDeletePJ hasnt had a sports editor since the December layoff. The best part about the paper is the building, which Gannett is selling as soon as it finds a buyer. Its clear that a TJN-PJ merger is happening this summer.
ReplyDeleteThe Westchester publisher ought to call a staff meeting to discuss what kind of comprehensive restructuring is being considered. Open communication would mean a lot to employees who have already endured furloughs and endless anxiety about their futures. Don't we deserve at least that?
ReplyDeleteI was struck that in the Dickey letter, he asked for help and ideas from workers:
ReplyDeleteWe continue to see good ideas coming from all of you, and we are becoming more innovative everyday. ... So, please keep those thoughts and ideas coming. As always, you can email me or call with your comments.
BUT IN WESTCHESTER, where they are still crafting the plan, there was NO REQUEST for ideas from workers:
Our intention is to complete this planning process this month and implement our changes in mid-August.
Notice the "our intention." I guess the "our" doesn't include workers.
This is the first I've heard of a planned restructuring. I've worked there 10 years. You would think they would ask people for ideas/help or at least some input. But no, this plan will come from on high when it's done by a select group.
Sad.
"The breaking news carousel has a google map instead of a map created by a graphic artist."
ReplyDelete6:01 shows why he is the moron of the morning.
So, you think someone should recreate a map even though there's one already created online?
What a dunce you are. Dumbir and Jim could outsmart you.
This seems to show a great deal of faith in Henry and Cyndee to get it sorted out on their own. Considering the losses in circulation over the last five years, the disaster that was NewsCenter Now and rebranding the website as the baffling LoHud (which trips up everyone who tries to read back my email address), it's amazing.
ReplyDeleteJim, can this thread be moved up daily?
ReplyDeleteNo, Pojo did not get a memo similar to Westchester. We are expecting immediate layoffs yet to be determined. There's been no talk about how the soon to be defunct graphics and copy desks are to be consolidated with Westchester.
Can anyone guess what a " comprehensive restructuring plan " means?
ReplyDeleteOf course we wouldn't have to play guessing games if our communications company would communicate with its employees once a decade, but that's clearly not going to happen.
7/02/2009 3:22AM you are right, why create a map if you can download one from google. So why have full time artist if the work can be done by a part timer?
ReplyDeleteRe: 3:22 and 5:47
ReplyDeleteWhy create a map when you can use a Google one? Why use a staff made photo when you can get a "citizen journalist" one for free? The next question is why have reporters when there are PR flacks (many of whom used to be reporters) and others out there who will send the paper "news" for free?
Call me naive, but we're supposed to be editorially independent. Once we start using hand out material we can all kiss our jobs and credibility goodbye.
Nope, the 7:17 moron trumped the other one.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't get it, won't ever get it. No wonder so many people are getting dumped from these places.
Re: 5:47 and 7:17
ReplyDeleteWhat the fuck good does a static map created by an in-house artist do for the online presentation, when a better option exists?
Build the presentation to properly suit the medium. Don't keep shoveling the same crap online just because it's in print.
The lead item on the lohud.com site most of the day has been a recipe for cherry pie.
ReplyDeleteDo you laugh?
Or do you cry?
The problem the eds at TJN face is the pressure to go all local like the rest of Gannett. Problem is TJN is too big to be THAT local now that the bureaus are so threadbare, and the audience in the area isn't provincially minded.
ReplyDeletePeople there care about NYC, but to make editorial decisions like the area is a small town upstate doesn't work for that region.
In this case, going hyperlocal makes the paper less relevant to the unique audience.
9:19 -- The problem is actually the opposite. They're too short-staffed to get as local as they need to be. By focusing on NYC they "compete" with NYT, Daily News, Post, etc., which is never going to work. But you are correct that there are too many provincially minded people in the 3-county area that don't care about what happens in the other towns/counties. So they could never provide that hyper-local coverage to make all of them happy. So you get Putnam people angry because there are Yonkers stories in the Putnam paper.
ReplyDeleteNot to fear, METROMIX will save Westchester.
ReplyDeleteKIDS TAKING PICTURES OF HALF NAKED KIDS SO OLD MEN CAN LOOK AT THEM ONLINE AND GET AROUSED.
What a great formula to lead this company into the future. Actually GCI has no future, I meant to say "next two years"
A LAWSUIT FROM METROMIX IS INEVITABLE
ReplyDeleteMetromix is no longer just in bars where it is assumed the patrons are over 21. Now their photographers go to public beaches that are populated by young teen agers. All it will take is one pissed off lawyer father to see his 15 year old daughter posing provocatively on a beach in a METROMIX gallery.
The higher ups in Westchester are too ignorant to see this problem, they are all HITnotized. They want web HITS at any cost. Good luck with your future lawsuit, I'm sure the company can afford it.
I am a Westchester reporter. Twice last week -- TWICE -- I was interviewing someone and they said to me:
ReplyDeleteWhat is The Journal News?
Can you imagine this for any other semi-major daily paper?
(For all you readers outside the area: The Journal News is the name the paper was given when a group of smaller local dailies was merged in late 1998. More than 10 years later, the new name hasn't really caught on.)
When I joined the company, circulation was 155,000 daily and 170,000 Sunday. That's pretty big. Big enough for the general population in your area to at least KNOW YOUR NAME. I can't imagine in Albany, N.Y., meeting someone who hadn't heard of the Times Union, for instance.
Now, I know that today circulation is under 100,000 daily, but STILL.
These were sources in Northern Westchester, but I find the single place with the fewest people who know about us is Scarsdale. I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've had to explain what The Journal News is to someone from Scarsdale.
Then we rebranded with this LoHud idea and I doubt that's catching on any better.
The area IS weird when it comes to local versus local, local.
People live in about 75 towns and don't seem to have a regional feeling at all. If you live in Yonkers, you just don't want to read about Armonk or Peekskill or Brewster or Nyack, especially if all you're reading is the local municipal stuff or a feature about a tiny community festival.
However, the people here are sophisticated and appreciate a good story that's newsy about anywhere in the area, whether it's a scam or corruption revealed or a compelling personality featured or a new innovation explained. I'm sure they would also love more in-depth and hard-hitting coverage of our area hospitals, businesses and county governments.
We have lost A LOT of reporting staff. There is no question that readers today are getting FEWER stories than they did six months ago -- and A TON less than they did three years ago. There is news that goes uncovered and features that go unwritten.
Is there any mystery why there are fewer readers? Why pay the same -- or more -- for a thinner paper?
Why remember the name The Journal News?
I know I, for one, am sad to see this come to pass.
11:07, well put. It is very sad to see that the newspaper has no place in the community
ReplyDeleteI should have jumped in earlier. Your publisher may only be guilty of taking longer to do what most, if not all the newspapers are doing: a restructuring.
ReplyDeleteFor example, The Cincinnati Enquirer has forecast that it will cut as many as 100 jobs. The Tennessean at Nashville is reportedly cutting 60, through layoffs and redlining open positions. I'm guessing those are equal to 10% or more of the staff at each paper.
Bottom line: I don't see how any paper can eliminate that many positions, and NOT going through a redesign of the way it does business -- in other words, a restructuring. So, you're not alone -- except you're going to have to wait longer to find out what it means. And that totally sucks.
But Jim, the guy has been there less than two years, who do you think is really calling the shots.
ReplyDeleteScams designed to hurt jobseekers appear in the ‘real world’, but in addition, reliance on modern day technology leaves us all the more vulnerable. Whether you are posting your resume on job sites or receiving e-mails as part of your networking efforts, there is an increasing need to protect yourself.
ReplyDeleteJoin Our Free TeleSeminar on July 14, 2009: How to Transform Your Career, Claim Your Power and Get Unstuck in Today's Turbulent Market Place
At first I was relieved that the day was pushed to August, now I'm not so sure.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyone here with an inkling of what this restructuring entails? And it's true people here don't know what The Journal News. You have to say its the local paper and then bring up the Herald Statesman or those other consolidated papers.
Fisch is an SCJ clone. Lots of words and no substance. It's just a fact.
ReplyDelete7/06/2009 11:07 AM
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News was the name of the paper based in Rockland County (ya know that place across the Hudson River) for several decades. The name was known so the Westchester papers were given that name as one paper. Funny, you don't know the history of The Journal-News.
The original name of the paper was "The Reporter Dispatch" I grew up in the White Plains area, moved away when I was 18 in 1981. I delivered the "Reporter Dispatch," Sundays were a "Bitch"! I still have my HS softball clippings - My favorite, I was featured in the headline!
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------
The Journal News was the name of the paper based in Rockland County (ya know that place across the Hudson River) for several decades. The name was known so the Westchester papers were given that name as one paper. Funny, you don't know the history of The Journal-News
I wrote the long post that described how some area residents don't know the name The Journal News. Believe me, I know the history. But the guy in Pound Ridge or the woman in Scarsdale DO NOT. And moreover, don't care. Maybe it helps sales in Nyack that people still have the legacy name. But maybe not, since in Nyack they are reading stories from all over the area, not just the Rockland focus they were used to once upon a time.
ReplyDeleteDo you honestly expect someone who moves to Yorktown from Queens to care whether the paper's name has a history in Rockland County? No. They only want to know if they are getting plenty of news out of their area and other interesting news from a wider geographical perspective.
Also: The fact is that most of the people I've talked to who don't know the name have lived in the area for many, many years. If you've lived in Scarsdale for 35 years, what reason would you have to know the name of the local paper across the river? What meaning would it have to you when the paper you see at the corner store all of a sudden has that name?
When a source asks me: What's The Journal News? Do you honestly think that if I spend time telling him that it was the name of the Rockland paper 11 years ago that he will care?
He won't. He just knows it's some random rinky-dink local paper he can't bother to remember.
And that's why I think it's sad. We are NOT a rinky-dink paper. We DO have good stories and some really terrific investigative work. But because of the schizo name change issue, we don't get the credit and are grouped with the lesser weeklies in the minds of many area residents.
Jim, would it be ok if you could please keep cycling this to the top with the daily open forum posts? Thank you so very much.
ReplyDeleteTJN is a black hole. We all just wait to see who will be sucked into hell next.
What do you all make of the news that fourth quarter vacation plan requests are on hold until the reorganization is complete?
ReplyDeleteAny managers who read this: What are the plans? What is the reorganization?
"TJN is a black hole."
ReplyDeleteAnother veiled insult of Jim.
What does LOHUD mean to anyone living along the Sound?
ReplyDeleteI used to work in Westchester - the death of the paper was when Gary Sherlock was appointed publisher by his butt buddy Garry Watson. Gary skrewed up Gannett National Advertising Sales and his reward was Westchester - One of Gannett's top ten all time blunders
ReplyDeleteThe POJO publisher used to work at Westchster - He's coming back as Executive Editor of both papers.
ReplyDeleteWho is SCJ?
ReplyDeleteMetromix is dead.
ReplyDeleteThe Westchester site is a dark ugly place of backstabbing at every level. Save your own ass for one more year, who cares if the operation sinks deeper and deeper.
ReplyDeleteIs that PoJo editor thing a guess? a wish? a threat? a fact?
ReplyDeleteNothing happened in Poughkeepsie yesterday (Wednesday). People are getting more anxious by the minute.
ReplyDeletePoughkeepsie cuts started this morning.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of positions are they cutting in Poughkeepsie?
ReplyDeleteAlso: Has anyone in Westchester heard anything from their managers? No one I know has been told anything.
No one is being enlisted to help craft this so-called reorganization or restructuring or whatever outside what must be a very small circle of people. One of the most respected metro editors told her reporter that she is completely in the dark.
I'm amazed at how few people from Westchester are commenting here. Are you all that apathetic?
ReplyDeleteApathetic? No.
ReplyDeleteCompletely in the dark, afraid of spreading rumor and speculation, and a little afraid of retribution? Yep.
what 5:21 said.
ReplyDeleteLower Hudson Valley is an ineffective way to characterize the coverage area, and a LoHud sounds like, well, something unpalatable.
ReplyDeletePeople hadn't even figured out what The Journal News was yet and then the whole enterprise gets rebranded. No wonder the area has no idea who we are.
Maybe the restructuring will include a merger with a high school yearbook photo company. High school graduations were about the only thing that Westchester covered in the last two months.
ReplyDeletePeople in Rockland know what the Journal News is, yet they can't figure out why most everything they read in it is about Westchester or that mythical, make-believe land of LoHud. I can only imagine what the former Reporter Dispatch, Standard Star, Daily Item, Herald Statesman- and so on- readers think about "The Journal News". What a joke. I'm guessing the execs patted themselves on the back and gave themselves a bonus on that boondoggle.
ReplyDelete