Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

If I got laid off, the good news is I can go bag groceries and still make the same money.

 

Thank you, I'm ticked off too. Moreso at the industry as a whole than anything else. I knew I'd be laid off at some point, just not this soon after I'd worked my butt off to prove I was essential.

 

I offer this as evidence of my statement that the management of Gannett does not believe that newspapers are dying and their strategy is to pump the blood out of them.

According to Business Insider Gannett's debt agreement prohibits the company from spending more than 60 million dollars annually on capital expenditures. In FY 2018 Gannett spent 63 million dollars on capital expenditures and New Media Incorporated 11 million dollars. From the anecdotes I read on these threads I don't think either company was investing a lot of money in new systems to improve their websites in 2018. And the merger agreement specifically required them to cut expenditures.

If management had really thought the papers would survive would they have agreed to a deal that basically that severely limits their ability to invest in the product?

 

From the Poynter story - a very Gannet quote from a PR flack.

“We remain steadfast in our efforts to integrate our new company in order to realize the full potential of our combined resources and scale to sustain and preserve quality journalism for the long-term. The moves, while imperative, are tough. The elimination of any job and the loss of valued colleagues is deeply felt.”

 

I would LOVE to find out.

The difference is you'd be a wage slave, clocking in and out and needing to ask permission to use the bathroom. I bagged groceries growing up. It was an easy job, but the constraints were unbearable.

 

I'm closer to 50 than 40 and I'd probably be hired on as a team lead as a minimum, but yeah, some retail experiences are better than others.

 

Another thing I will point out is GannettHouse likes to wait until the end of the pay period to drop the ax to make everything nice and tidy. So apparently if you made it past last Friday, you're good to go for two more weeks.

 

Not that I don’t think your point is solid, but most of Gannett’s technology is externally hosted, so it would be an operating expense, not a capital expense. What they won’t be doing is buying any fancy buildings or new presses, like, ever.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/04/28/ganne...rs-complain-they-lack-coronavirus-protection/

 

On the other hand, when you clock out, you're done.

 

No one is essential in this business.

 

True. Though, there are many other non-minimum-age jobs that provide that work-life balance.