gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

Yeah! Go back and read all 61 pages of this thread before making any post at all!

:

 

I posted it on Page 60 and his post was at the top of page 61. I don't think that's asking anyone to go back and read all 60 pages. That's asking someone to read barely ONE PAGE.

 

Gannett announced today more furloughs coming for the first quarter of 2010. YAY!

You know, I'm getting pretty sick of this shit. I'd like to see all of these companies mandating pay cuts and furloughs open their books and show us how much money they're making/losing. I'm tired of hearing how horrible things are out of one mouth, then hearing how things are picking up out another mouth.

I have an idea, how about the absentee CEO, who's making $7M to sit at home, take a 50% paycut to start. That's a nice chunk of change you can throw back into the company. Then how about they quit flying every damn publisher across the country for 260 days a year. I think our publisher averages like 10 days a month in the office, the rest are on the damn road.

Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all.

 

How about some of these regional or national chains doubling up? They're all getting into regional copy desks, shared content, cross newsroom publishing. How about one publisher handling more than one newspaper, and eliminate the duplication. Saving some of those 6- and 7-figure salaries might put some reporters back on their beats and editors back on the desks.

What's the line in "Blazing Saddles"? "We've got to protect our phony baloney jobs!"

 

How many publishers actually work a five-hour day? That's not a mistake, since I don't think many work eight hours.

 

Well, I'm not saying anything about Gannett publishers, just noting that a lot of publishers work a TON of hours, and there are a lot of community obligations there, too, for many of them.

I'm not trying to explain away Gannett assholery or anything else, just nothing.

And I just got a Richard Prince e-mail that USA Today had laid off 30 in the newsroom. Any word on that?

 

Are these furloughs for everyone? Did people start getting the email already?

Those fucks. I just carried two days of vacation over to 2010 because I couldn't fit them in. Now they are giving me MORE time off next year. Ridiculous.

 

I don't get how this is going to work with vacation carrying over and everyone already doing quadruple the work.

 

You think Gannett thought for so much as a moment about how this was actually going to work?

 

Me too.
I really really believe this is a copycat thing in many cases. Companies see other companies with furloughs and pay cuts and with supply and demand the way it is (meaning they could give a fuck whether you resign in anger over a furlough/pay cut) companies are simply cutting in order to cut. Just think if a newspaper in a region resisted all staff cuts and pay cuts and furloughs and resisted the temptation to cut space and all that. This fantasy newspaper would be dominant.
Aside from the fact newspapers have made the idiotic move of giving the product away for free on the internet and think any sane person will pay for the hard copy ... I truly believe management is slashing jobs/salaries just because others are and they see it a way to make huge profits.
This is a scam, folks.

 

margins are the same, but profits and income are down. Don't expect any change in the operating plans until at least a quarter or two of profit and income increases.

 

We're in a cookie cutter profession. If one company does something successful, the others follow suit. Sell we're losing money to someone else. It's sold out here.