gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

good luck to all my colleagues who are out there looking for work now. should we form a google group to keep track of all those who were laid off on 12/1/2009?

 

Gannett Westchester -- aka The Journal News -- is shutting down its in-house printing plant, and moving those operations to Rockaway, N.J. 166 full- and part-time people will lose their jobs.

I'm not sure who owns the Rockaway facility. The Daily Record is the closest Gannett outpost, but they outsourced printing to a non-Gannett plant more than a year ago. The Bergen Record has some staff in the area, so maybe it's theirs?

Rockaway is probably 90 minutes from the closest point in Westchester, so in addition to yet another round of layoffs, prepare for super-early deadlines and likely delivery problems.

 

Did Gannett make more cuts today? Friend in Tennessee has condolances to co-workers on his facebook page....

 

Copy desk consolidation for Jackson, Clarksville and Murfreesboro. Along with some layoffs as well. Consolidated copy desk moving to Murfreesboro.

 

Oh happy fuck.

 

I put something about Tennessee's upcoming regional copydesk in the Media General consolidation thread because I didn't want to drag up this ongoing thread. Oh well.

Gannett can, well, do you know what to itself.

 

I really would love to read an indepth post from somebody who works on one of these consolidated desks and a person at a paper that is laid out and edited this way. Does it work? Are deadlines met? Do the presses run on time? Are the papers sports sections noticeably worse than they were before the consolidation?
My guess is this would be a nightmare for everybody involved except those who don't care about quality.

 

I've talked to my friends across the country involved with/working on regional copy desks. Their consensus responses:

Does it work? No.
Are deadlines met? Sometimes.
Do the presses run on time? Sometimes.
Are the sections noticeably worse? Absolutely.

It is a nightmare for everybody involved except those who don't care about quality - and the managers for the regional copy desk that leave inexperienced workers to fend for themselves at night. Little, if any, guidance or direction.

Other than all of that, it's the best thing ever!

Consolidation is here to stay because it saves money, and that's what matters to the suits.

 

I've worked with an regional desk. Didn't meet the guy who edited my copy until four months after I started. Then I spent a few shifts down there and it blew my mind. I'm sure the operation gave managers and bean counters boners, but it made me turn my stomach - kind of like seeing customer service jobs for U.S. companies handed off in India.

 

From what I've read and heard, the Centers of Excellence have been anything but and there was a major shakeup in the last two weeks.