Digital First pursuing Gannett

Gannett Layoffs: Knoxville newspaper hit hard today

Includes a sports reporter.

 

The 30 year sports reporter was among the cuts. I know it's been this way the last many years, but it's becoming more obvious with each passing day (the story about those veterans asked to take paycuts, too) that newspapers don't care about the bylines or column sigs, they are balking at any real money being paid out to people that wield pens and type into computer keyboards for a living. The good news out there is I think most "veterans" are aware of this and just hanging onto their fat checks as long as they can. They are ready for the day they get let go. There are plenty of Websites to work for and The Athletic is doing a nice job of hiring veteran journalists. (Not trying to be rude, here; I feel for anybody laid off; I'm just staying by now, anybody still making top dollar knows the end is coming soon).
I'm telling the suits to be aware that once all the veteran reporters are gone and replaced by the $28,000 to $32,000 brigade, they'll be coming after you too. You are making good $$ suits and it won't last long. Be kind in the interim please.

 

If my last post was insensitive on a tough day, Fredrick apologizes. I do feel for this man. He is a GREAT person. Bless him.

 

Jesus, the Arizona Republic laid off Steve Benson.

Pulitzer-Winning Cartoonist Among Laid Off at Arizona Republic

Just absurd.

 

What IS the point of being good at your job at Gannett?

Web editor, columnist/editor and college beat writer out in Salem. Not saying Gannett didn't rip the guts out of the paper many years ago - but now they're not even trying to hide it. Maybe the strategy is to layoff most of what is left of the value of the company to avoid a DF takeover.

 

Per Poynter
Gannett lays off journalists across the country

Cuts of note in sports: Dan Fleser (Vols women's hoops) in Knoxville and Michael Murphy (preps) in Nashville.

 

Comments section in that Poynter article are depressing on top of the terrible news to begin with.

 

From my old stomping grounds in Fort Collins:

• Photographer Austin Humphreys was laid off. Coloradoan covers a community of 345,000 people and now has one photog for the wildfires, floods, national park, D1 college and everything else.
• Event planner was let go (Gannett is big on events)
• One editor was reclassified to a reporter.
• Open position (breaking news reporter who took a job with us in Denver) was eliminated.

 

The scary part with these layoffs is - even though it's maybe "only" three to five people, that's probably at least 10 percent of the staff.

 

Hey ... if you ever get laid off just remember the Arizona paper laid off a PULITZER-WINNING CARTOONIST. I konw you already realize this but the suits DO NOT care about quality one iota. They care about keeping their own jobs as long as possible and if it means getting rid of Pulitzer winners, it's an easy decision. Shame on you, Arizona suits!! Shame.

 

More bad news in Oregon.

Parent company of The Bulletin newspaper files for bankruptcy

 

Sadly, this is not the first Pulitzer winner to be laid off or leave the business because they couldn’t make a decent wage — which is pretty crazy.

All of this really sucks. I’ve found through a few years with Gannett that there’s no rhyme or reason to many of these cuts. Where they’re being made is often puzzling. (One photog to cover all of Fort Collins? Seriously?). The folks in leadership positions are coming off as clueless. And yes, @DanOregon, the incentive to be good at your job lessens with each round of layoffs because the cuts rarely have anything to do with performance, and you know you aren’t getting a raise this year even if you are among the best at what you do. Imagine what that does for company morale.