Friday, December 13, 2013

Dec. 9-15 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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43 comments:

  1. I'm monitoring Corporate's presentation at 11 a.m. ET today before the UBS media conference. It's being webcast from Corporate's website; details here.

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  2. I find it strange how little interest there is/was in the Detroit Media Partnership Creative Department closing of their Sterling Heights Creative Office and the eleven 'work reduction' casualties. And now another layoff of one employee yesterday in Detroit's local HR Dept. For the Creative Dept, several 'new' positions were applied for by some of the employees who have been laid off (effective 1/17/14). I wonder what will happen to their vacation time & other benefits if they are rehired?

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    1. Who in HR?

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    2. Janette Emerson was laid off. I’m so sad that nobody cares about the layoffs, Detroit Typographical Union - Detroit’s first union - is being decimated. They’re folding the remaining union members into the pre-press department or they can take accept a severence. I think within the Detroit workforce there has been so much fear. Because they know they’re next.

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    3. Excuse bad typing. I’m multi-tasking.

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    4. They go in to this new job fresh, unless they changed their minds on that. They are cherry picking the new folks (not that I blame them for reapplying). It’s non bargaining so they lose the very good union healthcare that was negotiated the last contract and will go on the abysmal new health care. I’m not sure if any of the union folks applied - it would be a bad idea to work for this company without a union backing them up.

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  3. All is in readiness. Courage!

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  4. Stock up today. The Senior Leadership must have been handing out primo weed at the UBS presentation.

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  5. We know what the BS stands for.

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  6. Managing Editor "retires" in Greenville.
    http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013312080020

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    1. When did Pittman leave? It's the publisher that needs to be forced to "retire." Clueless, micro-managing old-school boss w/little people skills. Somehow managed to keep his job when it was discovered back in 2003 that his newspaper was counting its sampling program as paid circulation. After the scandal and internal audit, the newspaper's circulation was re-adjusted and dropped by some 15,000 daily. Claims he (an his controller) had no idea it was going on (going on under their noses for months, perhaps a year or more. In fact, the "program" was apparently passed along from one CD to another. Yet SB was allowed to continue on. Must have had compromising photos of the folks at corporate.

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    2. Pittman "retired" in August, right about the same time as three folks were laid off in the newsroom.

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  7. Glad to see Gannett is leading the way, again....Circulation call center system down.

    Skills like this should put Gannett in the running to bid on fixing Healthcare.gov.

    Pretty pathetic.

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  8. End of an era at The Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, AR.
    All of the employees who worked at one time or another in the Composing (Pre-press) are now gone.. The last one was let go today. Hasn't been a Pre-press department in a few years since GAIDC was formed, but it is sad to see what The Bulletin has become. Now there is one part-time ad trafficker.. which proves that nothing is been sold. 2 years ago there were 4 people handling ad trafficking and any other pre-press needs.

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    1. I started in the business back in the day as an apprentice Printer in the Composing Room. There were 60 employees then, today there are 3 and they will be gone byJanuary 1, 2014. Sad to say that is one department gone in almost every newspaper. Gone forever.

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  9. With dismal third quarter earnings, has there been any scuttlebutt about more layoffs?

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    1. Already several layoffs at USAT Sports Media Group.

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    2. Some executives in New York. Colleagues of departed boss Tom Beusse.

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    3. LA too.

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  10. New Oshkosh GM was announced Monday: http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20131209/OSH03/312090291/Befus-named-Oshkosh-Northwestern-Media-s-general-manager

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  11. Three gone in Shreveport.

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    1. Three? I heard one, the controller, was fired/laid off on Thursday? What other positions?

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    2. Two in the newsroom.

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    3. Two more today in Shreveport newsroom or was that the two laid off a few weeks ago?

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    4. The newsroom layoffs weren't this week.

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    5. The total this quarter is 5-6 in Shreveport. News changes include hiring for new positons so it is fuzzy.

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    6. Why would they let go of journalists only to turn around and hire 2 to 3 more? Cheaper rates?

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  12. Rob Kligman, VP East Coast and Evan Kamer, VP Sports Mktg are tow names I've heard from Sports. Both Beusse guys...

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    1. Neither was really a 'Beusse guy', except they do date back to the start of the group. I think a couple of the real 'Beusse guys' are still around, but probably not for long. Just goes to show how this much-ballyhooed group ain't doing much to bring in new revenue. Nice legacy, Beusse.

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    2. Kligman is ad sales, and Kamer is league relationships. What, they didn't produce enough? Which means precious few of the original Group's high-titled executives are there still. Concerned, Squires?

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    3. Many of these Sports Media Group executives have been pulling down $300,000 or more a year.

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  13. Beusse spent huge bucks leasing primo space in New York City. A major bone of contention among The Beancounters.

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    1. As much as things have been reined in in recent years, it's amazing how much tolerance remains for petty fiefdoms.

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    2. With the size of staff, new office space was needed, but of course that begs the question of needing that size staff. Beusse sure liked to crow about being so separate from Gannett, and he really succeeded in selling the vision of a great, new profitable large division as a player in sports. Well...guess what, Gannett was never far from counting the beans. If Beusse was ever really close to realizing that promised $30million, they would have put up with his arrogance longer.

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    3. Beusse promised $300 million, not 30.

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    4. Actually (although consistently misstated here), the number was $200 million on top of an existing base of $100 million.

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    5. You still checkin' in here Tom?

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    6. 11:44 Here's how Corporate phrased USAT Sports Media's goal when it was first announced in 2012: "over $300 million in annual revenue by 2015."

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    7. Yeah, and if you increase revenues from 100 million in 2011 to 300 million in 2015 (per the investor day presentation), then that's a bump of 200 million, as stated above.

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  14. $30mil or $300mil or $200mil...doesn't matter. Whichever it is, it isn't happening. And corporate surely has reset the bar now that Beusse is gone and layoffs have hit.

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  15. Here's the bottom line on USAT Sports Media Group: huge new overhead, same old revenue. Not exactly a winning formula.

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  16. I have no sympathy for these Sports guys. They came in with tall tales of expertise and know-how, treated any and all old guard without any regard for any past success or potential, and have taken Gannett on a massively expensive ride to create a new group that has only grown bigger and bloatier and costlier...but not better. Beusse and co. brought in a lot of smart people esp on digital side that have got to be shaking their heads as to what in the world did they get into. Cheers!

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