gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

If you believe Mizzou, it's high salary = expendable.

I'd believe Mizzou. Dude knows his shit.

 

I heard the art department was decimated. Mark Voger, one of the nicest and most talented guys you'll ever meet (I can say for sure that some of the best, most creative packages ever done in that paper were done by Mark) was also cut.

He really didn't care much about sports, I don't think, but that didn't matter, whenever he was around the newsroom seemed like a better, more fun place.
He was a lifer there. Really, really sad.

 

I haven't posted here in quite a while myself (fortunately I left the biz about two years ago), but I got my start in Rochester as a part-timer, and once I saw the news (http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=17a41409-fa2e-4ebf-8c81-d7968f5cfb68), I had to chime in.

Scott Pitoniak was the first writer of any influence I associated with, and that was while I was still in college. He taught a sports journalism class as an adjunct.

A truly stand-up guy and tremendous writer. He's waaaaay too good not to land on his feet somewhere soon.

 

I'll reiterate that the three preps writers in Westchester were hired 11 months ago and probably pretty cheaply. It's a fair point that they were cheap to fire, also because they didn't get a lot of severance. Or perhaps to skew the general trend of firing the older, higher paid workers from sports.

 

I'm sure, to some point, each shop has some autonomy on how to do their cuts. In my experience, it usually depends on the publisher and what his/her philosophy is.

Some are bean-counters who want to slash payroll at any price and don't care about quality of product and that usually equals straight salary cuts of the kind Mizzou is talking about.

Others prefer a more surgical approach, which takes into account individual beats and what they perceive their value is to the paper, or, if there's repeat coverage in the chain.

It appears that was at partially the case in Wilmington, Del., they cut who they cut because they knew Philly could cover those beats. Without layoffs (yet), that's what they did in Indy when they eliminated the Purdue beat (Lafayette could do it) and in Louisville when they eliminated their IU beat (Indy could do it).

The one paper mentioned on here that I'm familiar with didn't do straight salary cuts, for what it's worth.

No matter the approach, it's all bad.

 

Looks like each site is doing its own forumula.

 

Not to sound like a dick, but being good has nothing to do with being able to "land on your feet"

There are no jobs. If you want to move across the country and start over, have fun. If not, your career is over.

 

And even moving across country to start over would be a pretty big risk. Few months from now, that job could be cut and then you'd be really stuck or have to uproot again.

 

I agree with Mizzou here. There are going to be a lot of talented writers who don't get comparable jobs within a reasonable time frame, and have to switch careers to pay the rent. These positions are gone. Gannett is cutting, the Tribune is cutting and soon the AP and the NYT and every other publically traded business will keep cutting. If you want to freelance for rivals.com, great, but the number of jobs which constitute a profession are disappearing.
The good ones cut this time won't go to writer heaven.

 

A year from now I would love to find out what percentage of the people who were let go, bought out or whatever still have jobs in the business.

I'm guessing it will be between 5-10 percent. That may be optimistic.

 

Great.

The troll of all trolls (helmets!) has found the gannett blog.

 

Just got layed off from a Gannett rag.
Only 4 months after they hired me.
My birthday, coincidentally enough, was Monday.
This is the second time this year I've lost my job
The newspaper industry can go fuck itself with a rusty nail at this point.