Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Traci Bauer was laid off in January.

 

My bad. Thought she went elsewhere in Gannett since then. Never mind.

 

Posted on Poynter.org today:

"As for company-wide layoffs?

"Reed said that he did not know yet exactly how many there will ultimately be. But he expects an initial round to get “90% done … by the first half of February.” Company-wide, Reed has set a savings target of 8%, he continued, and “about 50% of our cost structure is people.”

"So roughly 4% of new Gannett’s 24,000 employees — about 960 — will probably be let go. Reed did not say whether newsrooms will have the same level of reductions as other departments or whether the first layoffs (as I have been told) could be coming this week.:

At Tennessean staff meeting, Gannett CEO Mike Reed discusses revenue, expenses and layoffs - Poynter

 

Columbus OH had a few layoffs on Monday. Unsure of the number or department but I don't believe any were in editorial. The publisher left on the day the merger was announced.

 

Oh, do I miss the days when Ben Marrison was running the shop.

 

Is there even a paper left?

 

Columbus was the canary in the coalmine. The first indication GateHouse was targeting Gannett and going head-to-head with the big dogs. Before that, GateHouse was content to snap up county dailies — even a few from old Gannett in places like Illinois — and cast off anything of size (for example, Vegas and the Stephens stake in NW Arkansas).

Boston was the declaration of war, as I posted before.

 

Checked Poynter to see if they had anything. I realize Romenesko left and has long retired, but damn now it's nothing but happy talk. I remember when it was a place where papers doing shady stuff were called out.

 

Layoffs continuing today; appear to be non-editorial so far - I.T. and circulation at my property

 

NJ getting hit.

 

Abilene whacked their entire sales staff? WTF?