gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

Full of fail.. perhaps.

But 100% accurate and on the money.

 

How many small Gannett "shit-kicker newspapers" have been killed this year or recently?

 

I heard 21 layoffs in Lafayette, La. Can anybody confirm?

 

I don't think 21 is right, but who knows? From what I heard, there wasn't an e-mail that went out or anything detailing the numbers of layoffs or anything.

This is what I've seen on other sites and heard from their people there:

One reporter (veteran reporter who knows more about the history of that area than every other staff member combined)
One copy desk person
One press foreman
Four classified reps
One classified supervisor
One circulation
One marketing person (that department is now empty)

They also closed a satellite office in Houma, which terminated the jobs of three people.

So, the total is closer to around 13, I'd guess. Of course, the 21 may be total positions eliminated, because I know they had a lot of openings in that newsroom that they may not be filling.

I know sports seemed to have made it out OK. Everyone's still present and accounted for, for now.

 

Lafayette had a satellite office in Houma? Never knew about that. Did they work from home or something? Is there word of other Gannett layoffs in Louisiana. They own the papers in Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria and Opelousas as well.

 

I had heard about layoffs in Alexandria, but not sure of the number. I've heard nothing on the other three.

 

Yup, yup. Get rid of the veteran talent. Makes too much money you know. Quality matters not. Gotta get rid of this man. Can't you picture the meetings plotting this veteran's demise? Sinister smiles and oh how much money we can save by firing him.
Another paper that is now scum in my mind.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103976.html

Gannett's DC station is turning all of their reporters into "mojos." Clearly the unions were told it was this or job cuts.

 

There is that moment in time that is awfully troubling to think about, the instant when they turn a money-saved goal into a person's career reality. Where they actually identify the people that are going to get dumped and, if only for an instant, they're not just red-penciling out a line item from the newsroom budget but they're shedding Jack or Claire and all the good work they've done and all the good work they're ever going to do there. They're dumping the institutional knowledge and the bonds with colleagues and the intangibles that Jack or Claire brought to the newsroom without compensation and without ever thinking twice about pitching in. They're severing any sense of role models or mentorship or career arcs within the newsroom, too, and any effin' studs who don't see that tomorrow or next month or next year it will be them getting whacked are too dense to be journalists in the first place.

There has to be that moment when a number becomes a person's face, work, family and life, and it is that moment I hope haunts the beancounters in the middle of the night, when they wake up in a cold sweat from horrible, recurring dreams.

I suppose they're not wired that way, though.

 

Hell of a post Joe.

Reminds me of an essay written by the great Roy Blount Jr. about when he realized he'd gone as far as he could go in life without becoming an asshole or some other thing he despised, and being okay with it. I wish I could find it on the 'net.

 

Well, you can all bet that the company that prided itself on newspaper innovation is just playing rope-a-dope right now. They're certain to find a way to bring the industry out of this hell hole.

And Santa Claus is real.

 

Nope... as long as they have jobs, they could care less. It's why places have so many layers of middle and upper management, yet want to cut those who work...