Memphis Commercial Appeal layoffs

I wasn't. Should have said metros and anything Gannett. Fuck that horseshit.

 

I hope we're only 3/5ths there. Need six more years.

 

7 p.m. deadline, no roundups in print, no gamers in print, B-section is only sports 3-days a week ...at Gannett yes. We still have a bunch of baby-boomers that enjoy the print product. Universal rules for papers with completely different audiences....smart.

 

I wish my Gannett paper had a 7 p.m. deadline. Corporate has forbidden me from telling anyone what it actually is. But it's worse than a PM.

 

They told us the same thing about not telling people the 7pm deadline, they also told us we weren't to "blame it on corporate about the deadlines" ... no one listened

 

May as well. Worst they can do is fire you, which they're going to do in 12-18 months anyway after you've been forced into putting out some of the shittiest product of your professional life.

The industry is dead.

 

Just tell corporate their customers asked what the deadline was and that Gannett's Principles of
Ethics forbids you from lying to them. Watch their heads explode.

 

This made me laugh. I know more than a few Gannett properties are part of this. A good 10 year after the Information Center deal.
Poynter picks 21 news organizations to participate in local news innovation program

Gannett “Information Centers” — Good for Daily Journalism?

 

Nobody has asked me what time deadline is. I'd have to answer honestly if I was asked directly.

It wouldn't be the first time in my career I've run up against the Gannett ethics guidelines. In fact, I was threatened with termination from my first job because I refused to sign them as presented. One of the major points I raised back then is not in the current version.

 

I thought my deadlines were bad; I feel sorry for yo Gannett fols. I talked to a Gannett reporter at a state basketball game a month ago. He had two teams in state title games, the first at 5 and the second at 8. My jaw hit the floor when he said he was told to send the 5 p.m. game story right at the final buzzer, and forget about anything for the 8 p.m. game.

 

I should leave this board again like I did for 8 months or so. Fredrick's blood pressure is rising. Gawd I get so mad. Why now? This reminded me of my disdain for HR people. Anybody at the shop who gets hired has to watch some 2 hour movie full of HR buzzwords and crap. And the higher ups are breaking HR rules all the time. Yelling at employees (the movie says you can't raise your voice), intimidating people, making people work 60-80 and get paid for 40, and your example here, lying to protect corporate. The movie says you should never lie or cheat your employer or your audience. HR departments!!!!! Waste.Of.Cash!!!

 

Memphis may be an extreme case of early deadlines. But the printing for Memphis is being moved 80 miles away to Jackson. So it takes an hour and a half to truck the papers back. I also don't know what the capacity of Jackson's presses are but they can not be that big. I would guess circulation in Memphis must be close to 100,000. Print runs are going to have to start earlier just to get the papers out. The Grizzlies could be playing in the seventh game of the finals and Gannett would have to go ahead and go to press just to get the paper delivered in Memphis the next morning.

Outside of Gannet's failed bid for Tronc (which I think was driven by a desire to consolidate the national staffs of the the Tronc papers and USA Today) Gannett is now only buying into areas where they have existing properties (Wisconsin, Tennessee and New Jersey). When I see that, the move to earlier deadlines and now the move to three times a week in Mississippi/Tennesse I believe that Gannett is an inch away to going to three times a week just as Advanced has.