In an industry ravaged by the likes of Gatehouse/Gannett, what companies are still good to work for?

I don't want to out myself, but I work for a chain that's been mentioned, and I really don't have any complaints. Ridiculously flexible schedule that lets me work from home whenever I want, pretty decent salary, fine benefits, and most importantly, annual bonuses. I believe they're 7.5 percent for most of us and 10 percent for "managers." Between that and tax returns, we get a nice cash infusion every spring.

 

Are you a reporter?

 

I have in previous posts.

 

This sounds like fiction.

 

Found out years later that at one of my newsrooms, reporters who broke a good story would get called into the executive editor's office and get handed cash bonuses. Not pocket change, either. Some of those secret bonuses were in the thousands of dollars.

Somebody left a spreadsheet lying in the wrong place one night, and a friend got a long, hard look at it. The spreadsheet listed hefty bonuses paid to reporters and senior editors, etc., but not one copy editor or designer ever got one, even in situations involving huge challenges or situational duress, and in fact the bonuses remained an inside secret all along.

 

Don't know of anything this blatant happening anywhere I've worked, but it's no surprise. It is (or maybe "was," because so few of us remain employed) the nature of the copy-editing beast. I'm seeing it now at my current shop -- after going on a "What do those guys do all day?" rant, the top editor has ordered changes in the workflow that basically have doubled the workload for the word-editing staff -- along with the admonition to "rein in your overtime."

 

If an editor wanted to incentivize reporters, why do it in secret? I work in an ambitious newsroom with a staff full of hungry reporters who regularly break huge stories, but adding cash incentives would further intensify the work, like pouring gasoline on a fire.

 

Nothing good ever comes when attaching cash incentives to reporting.

 

I don't believe it, especially considering your chain has already been mentioned in this thread. What chain?

 

Probably shouldn't have gone on that "What do those guys do all day rant," huh?

 

I, too, would like to know which chain @ICanRowCanoe works for. I'd also like some clarification on "decent salary."

 

No love for copy editors. SMH.