Thursday, July 18, 2013

July 15-21 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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42 comments:

  1. Is there any news about the upcoming layoffs ?
    How many? Across the board by percentage?
    When will they start?

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    1. Groups have delivered Last 6 expense reduction targets to each operating unit head (publishers and GMs). No specific edict on how to reach the number, but with GPS taking production and circ from units, there's only news and sales to trim (a little left in market development perhaps). No word yet on company-wide furloughs (corporate doesn't want to do them, but it ain't off the table).

      Expect news by the end of July.

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    2. It'll be site specific. Overheard in the palace: It'll be jobs, can't do it with hitting payroll tho' some may squeak by on open positions.

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    3. Rolling layoffs at Deal Chicken all year.

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    4. How can there be layoffs at Deal Chicken when they are recruiting?

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    5. What about finance? Rumor has there is going to be a big shake up

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    6. How can there be layoffs at [insert any Gannett property] when they are recruiting?

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    7. because they want to hire younger people and pay much less to do more, that don't "Know everything" and realize they are being screwed

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  2. I was reading the last posts (55 of them), Lots of personal attacks. Seriously? I am a new "former" Gannetteer, took a buyout. Wasn't really ready but saw the writing on the wall with GPS. USAT infiltrated all local units and is making sure no one thinks on their own or does anything original locally. Just reports, reports, reports, oh and why aren't you in the field, more reports. That is what my life had become after 34 years of doing an excellent job. No raise in 5 years. So hats off to those who can stick it out. life is too short

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  3. Dear Shreveport Times: Thanks for giving me 2 extra papers in the bag this morning. I just wish you could have at least included all 4 sections in at least just one of them. (yep, no Business or Living sections at all ... only A section and Sports).

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    1. I'm guessing this is one more customer that will be canceling The Times because there isn't anything in it anymore. Yep, this is Gannett's grand plan to make money.

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  4. That's because they no longer have a living or business section - Go get USA Today and Bossier Press and tape them together - same thing lol...

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  5. Montgomery FINALLY has a new president & Publisher:

    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20130717/NEWS/130717009/Robert-Granfeldt-Jr-named-President-Publisher-Montgomery-Advertiser?nclick_check=1

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    1. Typos in that story - still

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  6. Give it a rest, pressman. The rest of The Republic staffers have been just as oppressed at you believe you've been. At least you have a contract to protect you in some small way.

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  7. Give it a rest 3:00??? You mean roll over like the rest of the chicken shit Republic departments and let them F*** us without any fourplay first... I would rather see that building blow up before I vote Yes for that horsecrap proposal

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  8. Tallahassee paper leaves readers wondering (this time it's a conscious sin of omission):

    http://jimromenesko.com/2013/07/17/im-not-a-self-hating-jew-says-editor-who-published-commissioners-jewing-over-remark/

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  10. Interesting passage in this Slate piece on Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and her company's earnings call. As you read, think of Gannett's digital strategies.

    Mayer calls her plan a “chain reaction,” and it goes like this: First, Yahoo needs to hire better employees, and it needs to stop hemorrhaging its best employees to rival firms. Once it does that, it will be able to build better products. Better products will lead to more traffic to Yahoo’s sites, which, finally, will result in revenue growth. She’s got this strategy down to a mantra: “People, then products, then traffic, then revenue,” she said on the webcast.

    It’s a solid theory. In the Web business, unlike in many other industries, the quality of your product is essentially a straight-line function of your ability to hire and retain the best people.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/marissa_mayer_yahoo_earnings_her_plan_to_remake_the_company_won_t_work_overnight.html

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    1. At Gannett, they do it exactly backwards.

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  11. I'm a bit puzzled as to how things are running at the Gannett Image and Design Center. They are constantly asking people for overtime, despite th number of ads we're getting are only 1/2 of what it was a month ago. So, then they run out by the end of the week and they're scrambling to send people home early. Which sucks for the ones who are normally the weekend people.

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  12. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway buys Press of Atlantic City

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    1. Charles Everett7/18/2013 6:04 PM

      It's actually BH Media that's buying up the Jersey Shore daily.

      This latest acquisition comes while BH Media is laying off employees at the Greensboro News & Record.

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  13. That's his firm

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  14. Is it true that they will soon be eliminating all of the feature editor positions?

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    1. What an irresponsible post?

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  15. Ref. 9:09: The "wire desk" at the design center my site uses copy completely irrelevant to my market. In the interest of moving pages along, we're discouraged from finding our own state- or region-specific wire stories. Another nail in our coffin. I could see features going the same way, with a hub chosing/providing filler copy to go around the local content and inside the sections.

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  16. Yes, layoffs are in the works for GPS as well as USA Today. Sure was great to get a review and no increase in pay, what else is new. Circulation is falling like a rock and bad news is coming. It is time to leave the company, like others have in the past few weeks. Hearst Newspapers are going after top Gannett talent, offering huge pay increases and less bull shit to deal with. My resume is in the mail. So long Evan, your doing a great job taking the production and circulation divisions done. How did you ever get your job? Please respond Mr. Ray

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    1. this is evan ! dam i thought turkeys could fly !

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  17. A certain APP editor has already laid the ground work for layoffs by mandating AME's and bureau chiefs give their staff lack luster reviews- at least one brave editor refused to trash their staff. There is a nasty trend surfacing where info center/ newsroom employees hired under previous executive editors are being marginalized, many of whom were rated that they exceed expectations in the past. Funny how they're all over 40. Can anyone say "class action" by what HR told us is a protected class? I'm sure when the pink slips come, they will be delivered to veteran employees, who up to now, got great reviews. Take your years of experience and you high salaries and go away, we want compliant 20-somethings to work for next to nothing. It's all in reach.

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    1. You wouldn't be talking about H. "My Way or the Highway" T., would you? Also forever memorialized on Romenesko and this blog as H. "I Knew That Sometimes I Could Be an Ass" T.

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  18. 12:01 nails it. I suspected I was being set up in my later reviews. I wasn't working any differently, giving my job 100%, receiving appreciation from co-workers, other staff and clients alike. And other long-time employees noted the same in their reviews as well (what, we're not supposed to talk to each other?). Even the manager who gave me the later reviews apologized. "This is stupid shit I know," he said meekly, "but I have no choice." Notwithstanding that here was a manager swearing, something that I ended up in HR for on a very uncharacteristic and rare slip on my part, he actually quit soon after. Wow, someone with ethics!

    Before he quit he said, "I know the kind of work you do and it is appreciated." It was nice to know I was part of a core of select staff, imperfect but utterly dedicated, that could be relied upon under any conditions... but official documents were now building another story. Nonsensical as it was, I figured out what was going on: I was over 50.

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  20. You mean I can be gone because of my age ???? Yippee! Bring it on!

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    1. I don't think they mean thirtysomethings.

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  22. "I sit on acid." Rudd Davis

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  23. I hate the not knowing whose heads will roll. You feel it coming and it sucks.

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  24. There is hardly anyone at our site now working except young kids. There are a few older people who make much more than everyone else and have been threatened with buyouts in the past. I am wondering if the ax will fall on those who did not accept the buyouts this time around.

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    1. I am wondering if Jim is still trying to lure Asians to his training meetings.

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  25. We are losing employees thru attrition...not replacing those that left by choice. And every 3 months an employee is fired

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  26. I don't think anything will happen until October.

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