Mike Reed Sets Goals for New Gannett

a note about that PTO — depends on the employee. Some are designated as unlimited PTO now so you don’t accrue as year goes anymore, so that’s not as good a deal.

 

One of our news editors got the news first thing this morning. She was on vacation last week.

 

Our local Gannett pub has a grand total of 15 in the newsroom. I kind of naively thought there is no way any of them can get cut because there isn't anyone left. Then I saw papers that had similar numbers and still had newsroom cuts. That said, so far I can't tell anyone has been let go here. Most have tweeted or published something since Friday so I guess that means they are good for now.

 

Please put that number into perspective. How many were there in the newsroom five years ago, 10 years ago, etc?

 

15 actually sounds like a lot. The Gannett pub I retired from last year had 16 in the newsroom in 2006. Now there are only 2.

 

15 is a fucking full house compared to some places.
Most of the Tier 3 and 4 properties I'm familiar with do not have a news editor or a sports editor in-house. There are regional editors based in the Tier 1 and 2 properties that oversee the smaller newsrooms

 

That’s what I mean. I was the SE for two Gannett dailies when I retired. Football season starts on Friday and I feel sorry for the two remaining staffers in news when they get bombarded with complaints about zero coverage.

 

It's true - at this point you feel equally sorry for the people still in the building as those who were laid off.

 

I still talk to my former co-workers. One is already getting sports complaints and she asked me what to do. I told her to refer them to the regional SE. There’s really nothing else she can do.

 

That is crazy. I get it happens and is happening and will keep happening. Just seems like once you hit a certain number, it's almost like, what's the point? I don't really know what staffing was here five or 10 years ago, but to really date myself, I interned and worked part time there 20 years ago and we probably had nearly 15 just in sports between reporters, editors, desk and part-timers.

 

A friend of mine texted me, "So the good news is you survived. The bad news is you survived."

 

I got laid off from a Gatehouse paper in 2018, IIRC. (Christ, it's hard to remember the exact year now, ha...) Five days a week, circulation was advertised as 19,000 in 2007; 13,000 as of 2012; I'm positive it's under 10k now, but like most newspapers now, GFL trying to find the required circulation legal advertisement posted anywhere online.

I interned at this paper around 2007, and at that point they had 5 news reporters and 3 sports reporters alone; total editorial head count was probably 20+, since they also had a weekly magazine. I was the editorial assistant at that time of my layoff in 2018 - job wasn't filled. At the time, there was a news editor, part-time sports reporter (0.5), three news-side reporters and a part-timer (2.5), two digital side reporters (2), one managing editor, two copy editors and a part-timer (2.5). Charitably, that's 12 people. Since then, the news editor, a digital reporter and a news reporter have been fired or retired, but they felt the need to hire an executive editor, of all things. I believe the copy desk was also laid off. So, I'd estimate about 7.5 jobs left there on the editorial side.