gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

What really kills me is that so many people are acting like Gannett is the first company to try this when in reality, it's been one of the last. Does this whole situation suck? Hell yes. But it's happening across the board. It's not like you can say "Fuck Gannett" and then find another major company that treats its employees well. And it's not just in journalism. It seems a lot of industries are telling their workforce to fuck off. Anyway. Rant over.

 

Two summers ago, our paper took it on the chin in buyouts. We lost 15 percent of our newsroom -- each of whom had roughly 20-25 years of experience, on average.

I was 28 at the time, and I was suddenly one of the veteran voices. It's a hell of an awkward situation.

Thoughts and prayers to all those who lost their jobs this week, and in the months prior.

Yes, even the assholes.

There but for the grace of God...

 

Now we lose our jobs over a decision to be a journalist.

 

That hit it so home, Rumple, it made me cry.

 

Yeah, hell of a post. A sad one, but a hell of a post.

 

Can someone explain Gannett's newspaper classification to me?

I read this excerpt from the Gannett Blog: Gannett now expects to eliminate about 2,000 jobs in the community newspaper division alone, says a new Editor & Publisher story that suggests the final tally may be higher, once two of the biggest sites outside the division -- USA Today and Detroit -- reveal their plans.


So which paper's are excluded from the "COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER" DIVISION?
It mentions the Free Press, and USA Today, but are those the only two? Are the other 84? 0r 83 papers considered community?

Frankly, other than the USA TODAY, what paper isn't community. It's not like a paper publishes in a different community - okay now I'm just ranting. Someone please explain this to me though.

Thanks in advance.

 

Inside the numbers on the reported Nashville layoffs, I hear that it actually involved perhaps 65 from the Nashville office plus positions not to be re-filled.

Two troubling stories I heard tonight:

1, One of the layoffs hit a guy who'd been a part-timer in the library for maybe a dozen years who finally got full-time status a year ago. He'd been ill and was delighted to finally get health insurance. Now he's on a transplant waiting list – and out of a job.

Even Obama ain't giving that guy health insurance.

2, A desker was laid off who had returned fairly recently from a lengthy sick leave for a chronic but non-fatal disease.

These two need to find a good attorney.

3, The assistant copy desk chief, a lifer in the biz who'd been in town maybe a decade, got the axe.

4, Alan Whitt, a former sports editor who was eventually kicked into the meaningless "senior editor" position, has now been kicked out the door. As far as I can tell, this was a good thing. "Nobody knew what he did there," my source said.

If it were only that kind of guy who got fired -- and goodness knows there are thousands of them in Mother Gannett -- then this wouldn't have been such a awful thing. It might have actually been inspiring.

 

Upon further review, buck, I may have more cause to agree with you now ... and an even better reason to detest Gannett management.

 

I just wanted to bump this story from the Lansing alt-weekly, which was awesome, in its way.

http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-2402-31-laid-off-at-lansing-state-journal.html

But, yeah, this may be the most depressing episode yet. 2,000 jobs in a week. And it's not like these papers were fat.

I've never wanted to be anything but a newspaperman. Still don't. But I'm taking the LSAT on Saturday.

 

I've been involved in this business long enough to have seen more friends and co-workers shown the door than I care to remember.

Gannett is not alone in making cuts. But right now, the company is cutting back more than any other.

 

Gannett is the worst company in the history of mankind. I'll save everybody my repeating my list of complaints against that wretched company. You wait. Gannett will be the first company that pretty much trims all reporters and goes with part-time reporting help and/or Web/only papers. Gannett is disgraceful.

 

Perspective, please.

At a minimum, they have to line up behind the company that operated the Nazi death camps.
And, say, the drug maker resonsible for thalidomide.
And, again just for instance, the company that marketed lawn darts as a fun toy.

So, right there, no worse than the fourth-worst.

Have some sense of history, good grief.