Saturday, August 03, 2013

July 29-Aug. 4 | Your News & Comments: Part 6

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21 comments:

  1. The GB sports editor eliminated Wednesday was rehired Friday as a sports reporter.

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  2. Richard Michem8/03/2013 8:06 AM

    7:10 How much of a salary lost?

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  3. In a previous round, they wanted to re-hire me as well but as essentially a mindless clerk, not a graphic artist. And I would have taken it, too (the tippy-top person said I was a shoe in given my longstanding attention to detail). But then I considered how many times I was screwed in the past by this ilk who covers their ass while treating their charges like cattle in a slaughterhouse. Me, I decided "screw that." Just too exhausted from the double-dealings which certainly weren't going to magically vanish. My health was suffering badly, but most importantly I had lost all the respect I had afforded and all the trust in anything anyone told me above immediate manager level. Just a bunch of snakes anymore. I retracted my application, was personally urged to reconsider, and just said, "No, I think I'm going to go get a life."

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  4. You did the right thing 1:32, the poor sports editor (7:10) is still at the same crappy company and is making less money. Plus he most likely lost the respect of his now co-workers. I can hear it now ”what are you complaining about you came back.”

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  5. Gannett has tried to keep layoffs from the General public for the past three years as the quality of the products and service has declined. They have done an excellent job of it too. Only a few employees came forward on this blog but the rest of the media and Wall Street have not reported them. Most of the time they just hide them as streamlining talk. GPS has been a big part of this. Many of the jobs were not part of consolidation but were just part of a cost cutting plan to reduce expenses and cut service to customers. Over all it has cost the company revenue and that was acceptable by Gannett and GPS upper management.

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  6. You're on the proverbial deserted island with, inexplicably, a laptop and WiFi. What's the one newspaper you'd choose?

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    1. HUFF POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    2. Wall Street Journal

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  7. Just imagine -- more than 200 souls now roaming the streets and unemployment lines with absolute and utter contempt for Gannett. That's the way it should be.

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    1. I feel sorry for you 2:59. what a heartless soul you must be.

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  8. The former Green Bay S.E. came back as a reporter because he loves covering the Packers. That's the reason he took that job and went to work for friggin' Gannett in the first place. Now that he is back covering the Packers, he makes himself a viable candidate for a much better job with ESPN.com or Fox Sports or any one of a dozen other situations. The job still pays well - before he took it, it had been advertised on journalismjobs.com as paying about $65K. Plus, now he's HOURLY and can no longer be forced to work 60 and 70 hours per week. In that situation, do you think he gives a flying spit what anyone else in the office thinks? So let's be clear: What Gannett did to him was heartless and spineless. What he did by taking the "lesser" job was smart for him in the long term. Congratulations, sir.

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    1. How is making one's self even more of a target smart? Once targeted, always. "No, no! I can do better at my lesser responsibilities!" We don't think so. We have to "let you go." Fired, guess what: no unemployment comp. No TPP or TTP whatever that shitty dump on taxpayers who never worked for this awful place. Six months in adjudication.

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    2. Unless you're fired for theft, sexual harassment, etc. you still get unemployment compensation. As far as TPP to TTP that's another story.

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  9. Any more news about the NJ layoffs? Any reporters?

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  10. 4:14, one might argue that strategically using Gannett for personal advancement is a fitting move after the company has used your talents and then spit you back out. You know to be prepared to move on at any time; meanwhile, you're continuing to receive pay and benefits and building your resume so you can move on to something better on your own terms.

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  11. This is what gags me. For a communication business, we were not told anything. One day the hatchet lady came to the door and laid off people. We had to read about the Gannett Wisconsin lay-offs in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Head of Gannett Wisconsin Genia Lovett did not have the decency to say anything to any of us and made some lame comment to the press when pressured. Strike out for any integrity. No high road here. No doing the right thing because it is decent. Hell no. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

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  12. http://jimromenesko.com/2013/08/01/the-best-story-to-come-out-of-todays-gannett-layoffs/

    “I was working on a scoop on [musician] Jack White’s divorce when The Tennessean laid me off,” courts reporter Bobby Allyn tells Romenesko readers. “As soon as I got the court filing, the paper’s secretary called. ‘You’re wanted in HR in 10 minutes.’

    “After they canned me, I walked the scoop across the street.”

    Here it is in Nashville City Paper, which is putting out its final issue next week.

    UPDATE: “As a student of irony it’s notable that I have the #1 story on the Tennessean right now!” adds Allyn. He joined the Tennessean in May of 2011, after working at The Oregonian and interning at the New York Times, Washington City Paper and other news outlets.

    Allyn, 25, says his editor “stressed” the layoff wasn’t performance-related, and “she even said she’d write me a recommendation. No severance package at all, by the way. Zilch. It’s the new Gannett norm.”

    He adds: “At first, the editor said I can keep my Gannett iPhone for the week and return it when I’m back from vacation” — he’s headed to San Francisco today — “but after the Jack White story broke, HR emailed me to say I have to drop off my phone today before my flight.”

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  13. Before I make my comment, let me make two things clear:
    1. I despise Gannett as much as anyone.
    2. I probably would have walked the scoop to the other paper, too.

    However, it seems like the editor was trying to do this guy a favor by letting him keep the phone for a week after having to let him go, and the reporter immediately screws the Tennessean. I would have demanded the phone back, too.

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  14. Asbury misidentified as "Ashbury" in the AP's lay off report. Yes 4:40, there were three veteran reporters laid off from the APP and a breaking news person out of 11 in the info center, which also included long time copy and desk editors and the guy who wrote the APP's style book and kept the intranet running all got laid off. The place is even more of a ghost town.

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  15. The person who said the rumors here are USUALLY true is delusional. If they were, we already would have seen the following:

    * The Lafayette, Ind., paper would have closed months ago.

    * KY Enquirer would be closed.

    * This round of layoffs also would have included furloughs.

    * Practically every month, there would have been layoffs at every paper across the country.

    * My personal favorite -- Craig Dubow would be imprisoned (never mind those pesky specifics about charges or a trial).

    * Nearly every new Gannett endeavor would have been canceled.

    * Most Gannett ad and editorial functions would have been outsourced.

    * Home delivery would have ceased in Phoenix. I assume a stack of papers would have been placed at a central location, with readers expected to swing by and pick them up. (As always, the monger was not very specific.)

    * No one ever would have been eligible for health benefits after being laid off. (Never mind those pesky federal regulations that require, at the very minimum, COBRA to be offered.)

    * Everyone's 401(k) would be trapped behind some multilevel encryption code, requiring multiple phone calls to some undisclosed Gannett office. (Again, you would need to disregard all federal laws pertaining to this area.)

    This could go on and on.

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  16. No severance for Allyn. Even with his short stint, nothing? Are others receiving any kind of severance?

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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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