gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

LOL. You should've suggested a shooting range.

 

Somewhere, somebody failed to teach these geniuses in business school that if you offer an inferior product, people aren't going to buy it.

It's not enough to just buy a paper in a single-paper town, slash it to the bone and watch the profits roll in. You have to give people value, or they'll simply watch TV or get their news from the Drudge Report (or the Daily Kos, depending on their point of view), or in the case of sports fans, just go to the team websites and read the homerish coverage there.

 

Who the hell has time for pingpong? We're so thin on the desk, I barely have time to wolf down a sandwich without leaving my chair.

One of our people called in sick one night, and the ASE said he'd authorize overtime. What he didn't realize was there was nobody available to work overtime. Everybody was already working or on vacation or furlough. We seriously wonder if we can get the paper out some days.

 

Work
Family
Personal grooming
Commute


If you can't shave a few hours from one or all of those areas to find time for ping pong, then you and I just have very different priorities in life.

 

WFW. We barely have time to go to the bathroom most nights. And we've had the same situation with people calling in sick. The manager is like, well, we'll just call someone in on OT. Only there isn't anyone. The last time that happened the boss (my fourth in 18 months, because of buyouts and layoffs) was shocked. I think they managers are just starting to realize we're not at the bone, we're at the marrow.

 

Man, I envy you guys in a weird way. My job is awful and boring during the summer. There's not enough sports for two people, so I get shoved over to news where I do features for our special sections, which involves a ton of phone tag and down time. I'm counting the days until fall sports start (first practices in 31 days).

 

According to Gannetoid, they cut 30 positions from The News Journal in Wilmington, Del since Wednesday. They are trying to spare the newsroom, but a designer, three night copy editors and a deputy city-state editor were let go. No news in sports — and I hope not. They have some good people there.

 

I heard that there would be cuts in Louisiana, where Gannett owns papers in Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lafayette and Opelousas. I've seen cuts in Monroe (only one, according to a post on Gannett blog's message board) and nine in Shreveport, according to the same source.

I have not heard anything from Alexandria, Lafayette or Opelousas. Somebody in the know may fill us in.

As it has done everywhere, Gannett is killing newspapers in Louisiana. Their latest move, before this week's layoffs, was a regional copy desk it's trying to put in Monroe. So far, I hear they only have a quarter of the volunteers they were looking for to move to Monroe. Recently, I've heard of the possibility of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger getting into that mix. My God, that used to be one of the south's great papers and Gannett has done its best to destroy it.

I'm also dismayed to see a lot of talented people leave the business on their own accord in the last couple of years rather than stay at their Louisiana Gannett paper. Their losses leave huge voids not only in their markets, but in our profession in general.

Here's wishing the best for all our Louisiana Gannett colleagues going through this. May you land better jobs away from that company.

 

That's damn funny but sad.

Pingpong is bullshit. You know how corporates started pushing workplace health a few years ago with shit like "eat more bananas" Well, the empty space remark reminded me how convenient it would be to put a treadmill or weight set or something for exercise. Dumb me, I remembered that there would liability issues for King Corporate, and goodness knows, Corporate won't do anything for its workers except tell them to buy bananas. On their own tab, of course.

And just wait until a pingpong paddle gets flung into a wall.

 

This round of cuts were kept eerily quiet. Last we've heard, Lafayette and Opelousas lost a combined seven people, none of which were in the newsroom. To be quite honest, with all the defections and the regional copy desk, there's nothing left to cut in either newsroom. We weren't told who got cut (how's that for communication), but through rumor and grapevine tugging, we've gathered that four of the cuts were from the weekly classified ads publication, two were in graphics and one was in prepress.

The last time we went through these cuts, everyone kind of breathed a sigh of relief on that December day when they made the big cuts. This time, everyone is kinda like 'OK, we survived today, but let's see what happens tomorrow.' Fear of losing your job is not a way to keep your staff motivated.

 

It's not just Gannett.

Out here in Podunk, we're losing some of our best people to jobs outside journalism and grad school.

It's also happening at Podunk's rival daily.

Can't say I blame a soul.

 

Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because the employees don't feel like packing up their lives and moving several hours away for a company that won't even guarantee a job for them the next week?