Mike Reed Sets Goals for New Gannett

"Someday, Dixiehack, you're going to be putting away your notebook and retiring the keyboard and you'll remember that it was Mike Reed who trained you for the C-Suite!"

 

they need to focus less on beat reporting and more on the Dickensian nature of things

 

Big dates coming up in Gannettworld:
VSO offers to be sent on Friday.
They are announcing Q3 results on Nov. 3. I would suspect the headwinds have not subsided.
Last day for those accepting the VSO is Nov. 4.

 

is there a last day of work date for those accepting the buyout? I wonder what New Gannett's target number is.

 

Nov. 4.
The HR person last week on a Zoom call said they received more requests than they anticipated.

 

Local newspaper just listed Top 7 things to do for Halloween. It used to be 10. Guess Gannett must have instituted another 30 percent cut.

 

I know that the company reserves the right to do so, but I wonder how often people have had their VSO/buyout applications rejected?

 

Bring in Maury for the announcements.

"You do NOT get the buyout."

 

I think the alacrity with which the company is downsizing the workforce is due in part to disappointing third quarter results. The company had a pretty good idea of what third quarter revenues would look like when they announced the VSO's and rushed to complete them in time the announce along with the third quarter results. The company can say that the workforce reductions will help right the ship.

 

And a few months later, to be followed by Oprah:

“And you get a layoff! And you get a layoff! And you get a firing!”

 

I didn't do an exact count but it looks like about 525 people applied for the early buyout and around 400 were approved.

 

I had a friend put in and was approved. His last day is Nov. 4. Whoever approved looked at a calendar and realized there is an election next week. They scrambled to try to keep him an extra week, but he already landed another job with a start day of Nov. 7.
His response? "Since when does this company care about local news?"