gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

I guess the gag order has already been violated.

http://blogs.courierpostonline.com/secondwind/2008/12/03/ive-reached-the-finish-line/

And it's not as though you can't figure it out -- a number of bios at the Westchester (N.Y.) Journal-News have been deleted.

 

I have to say, the guy in the link you cited did a great job of explaining exactly what happened at the paper I worked at as it was slowly eaten away after being purchased by gannett. Inch by inch, piece by piece, and now it's a shell of what it once was.

 

I found the "work on your big piece, but after you write a bunch of shorts and doo-dads" particularly spot on.
There was a link to the corporate newsletter farewell to four execs in the Gannett Blog. I read it and had flashbacks to Bush giving medals to Rumsfeld and Tenant. Really, how can you spend time exalting the work of those at the top (amazingly all white, so much for diversity) when so many below are sent packing? The tone-deafness of Gannett never ceases to amaze. They should have blown up their corporate structure and decentralize the decision making a long time ago.

 

That rogue columnist blog was awesome.
Read it and tell me Gannett isn't THE SOLE REASON for the demise of this industry. What a great item.
Gannett ... what a fucking joke.
The king of corporate gobblygook-speak. Go to hell, Gannett.

 

I wouldn't say "sole reason" for the demise of the industry, I think in some communities Gannett gave the public a better paper than they might of otherwise had for many years. But they should have used their size to its advantage. Produced a solid Internet presence, developed tools to get local and national advertisers to the customers they're looking to reach, realize there are times that require rules to be broken.
Instead, the chain has been a top-down, slow to react behemoth, more worried about pleasing Wall Street in the next quarter than realizing they were frittering away the company's future. I don't know if the company spent any time honestly analyzing and assessing its failures. Instead they conjured up new fake initiatives to distract the local papers from doing Job 1 and keeping people in positions when it was clear they didn't have the answers. Keeping the same folks in place and doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result is lunacy.

 

Jeff Wolfe is very, very good.

Another huge loss for Camden.

In Kevin Roberts, Mike Radano, Sean McCann and Jeff they lost four of their top people.

Repulsive.

 

I realize our concern is the pathetic state of our business. But, seriously, realize that we are merely a part of what is happening in all industries nationwide.

In November alone, this country lost 533,000 jobs. The total for the year is now 1.9 MILLION lost jobs. Look at the financial companies. Look at the Big 3 automakers. All begging for the government to save them from themselves.

Rage all you want against Gannett, no one in our business deserves more scorn (OK, maybe JRC). But also take a look at what is happening in every business in this country.

We are simply part of the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression.

And none of us is sure that it's not going to get worse before it gets better.

 

Agreed. Monthly job losses aren't expected to ease until 2010. That would make 24-straight months of cumulative job losses. Throw in the the fact that the economy needs to add 150,000 jobs to keep pace with the population increase, those people looking for second or third jobs hoping to get ahead, retirees hoping to reenter the workforce, and we're in a world of hurt.
Just this year alone we're down 300,000 jobs a month from where we need to be, and it's growing. Figure the gap isn't going to close anytime soon. It is what it is.
When it's raining take an umbrella. When it is cold, put on a sweater. A recession is kind of like the "adult swim" period at a public pool. A good time to go grab a snack and do something else before jumping back into the pool.

 

In many ways, getting laid off in 2005 was a good break for me. I was ahead of the curve, and was able to look for a new living in more favorable economic conditions.
I have to disagree with spnited. The recession is accelerating the decline of newspapers at a tremendous rate. But it would still be happening were the country prosperous-just more slowly. Suppose Gannett's profit margins weren't falling. They'd still be cutting their operations-not by as much-but still cutting, so that profits would increase.
Bad management is like bad karma. In the end, it always destroys whoever has it.

 

1. Agree with Michael_Gee here, because the boulder was headed newspapers' way, and particularly newspaper staffers' way, well before this swoon got serious. I think we're seeing a lot of the lousy newspaper managers using the overall economy for cover now. They blame the big picture rather than their own failings and lack of vision that festered for years. And when they sprocket company down the block dumps work force, they're emboldened to do it faster and more deeply than they might have otherwise. But they were going to do it otherwise, regardless.

2. Why have newspapers consistently had such lousy managers (owners, publishers, top editors)? Or is that just the rank-and-file's way of venting and, in truth, it has been pretty evenly split, good-bad? I happen to think it has been far worse than the norm for a couple of reasons: Getting fat and happy due to near-monopoly conditions in good and earlier times, and the subjective nature of all that we do. Newsrooms spend money, they don't "make" money in any strict business sense. Who's good and who sucks isn't verifiable by a sales total for any of us, and even less so for the non-bylined staff and middle managers (at least we can count clicks now for writers!). So it's been a hermetically sealed environment, where typical leadership skills -- motivation, team building, goal setting, personnel development -- could be neglected. Well, guess what, yeah, they were neglected and now they cannot be found when desperately needed. Or, if found, it's like suddenly getting a leader in your midst after the forest fire has completely engulfed you. Dead trees indeed.

 

Pitoniak's mug was gone and his blog deleted from the D&C site by 1:00 Wednesday afternoon. True class.

But spnited's right. Three friends of mine, none in the newspaper business, were also given pink slips this week, and I'm temporarily laid off. (Yes, I know I'm fortunate to be able to include the word "temporarily," and unemployment will see me through until January -- a luxury a lot of people don't have. No complaints here.)

 

I only read about one SE and ASE let go. Were their positions eliminated or is Gannett just looking for cheaper labor?
How does something like that work?