Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Same as I've thought all year. Kaput after the election and Black Friday.

 

Do you mean remotely as a permanent deal or just for the duration of COVID?

 

Permanent for us. McClatchy is abandoning seven buildings where their leases happen to be up in a few weeks, and all employees will be working remotely.

In 2021 --- or when a lot of this uncertainty ends --- some papers will begin looking for smaller office space. But the Publishing Center employees have been told that no space will be requested in these buildings for them --- other than perhaps one emergency desk for an employee whose power or internet or computer goes on the fritz.

We've taken all our company equipment home, and I'm currently using one of the monitors as an extended work space. But my computer desk is just too small to accommodate the other hardware. I would love to get a more spacious work desk . . . but it's hard to muster the enthusiasm to do so for a job that likely has only a few months left.

 

Got it. And it makes sense. I recently picked up camera equipment from another Gannett property and felt I was walking into a tomb. You seem convinced that print is going away real soon.

 

What do you mean remotely? Just one location and they closed the Charlotte location?

 

You mean you are doing newspaper layout for newspapers that hit the streets daily in your basement? Alone? Then who checks for errors? Etc.

 

Umm all of Gannett is doing that currently. One other person to proof 1A on each of the 3 or 4 papers designed per night.

 

Seven newspapers are leaving their building, including Charlotte. Charlotte just happens to have more "Publishing Center" employees because it was the original publishing center when they started this with just three papers in 2011.

All pages with any kind of non-wire copy are looked at and approved by a designated "page reviewer."

 

In bankruptcy a company can get out if lease obligations. That is why you will read about a retailer with 800 stores filing for bankruptcy and planning to close half. The retailer is dumping his bad leases.

I think McClatchy and Gannett, when they hit Chapter 11, will be early adapters of telecommuting. I realize that many feel that when a newsroom shuts down a paper loses the creativity that comes from having a group of people interacting and that it makes employee training a bitch. I agree but I think the newsroom will be sacrificed to the god of cash flow.

 

As others have already mentioned though, that kind of "atmosphere" was lost X layoffs ago. Like by the time I was laid off by Gatehouse in February 2019, during my shift (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or so), it would be rare if there was more than two reporters in the newsroom at a time. (I was the editorial assistant.)

 

I am surprised to discover how many reporters -- pretty much all in News and Features -- still hang out in the newsroom, especially if they live in the coverage area. I've worked from home for years, and I usually drop in if the office is convenient on deadline or to pick up supplies.

I've interacted with my colleagues far more often since they're at home too. We can trade ideas just fine without being in each other's presence. We don't even need to see each other's faces.

Even my neighbors have a group text now!

 

Is this because the other reporters were out chasing and writing stories or because Gatehouse had cut back to only two reporters?