gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

Great post, Stagger. You are my new hero.

 

Wonder what would happen if all employees, company-wide, decided to take a massive "furlough" (a/k/a strike) say, the last week of January. Yeah, maybe management would get the message.

If I was still working at a Gannett shop (thank God I'm not), I wouldn't lift a finger to do anymore work the week the guy next to me was out. If something didn't get done, screw it. You get what you pay for.

As for freelancers, the market is actually growing,because more and more publications are turning to people whom they don't have to provide benefits for or pay anything beyond a per-story fee. They get the same copy for $50 as they would paying a staff writer $100 per day plus benefits.

I have decidely mixed feelings about this, as posted on another thread.

 

I'm not sure. My google reader told me the story was 16 hours old as of yesterday afternoon. Just thought it was ironic.

 

That's why full-timers still working at Gannett shops should be concerned. But that's not the biggest issue in my mind.

What if Gannett newspapers decided to get rid of its full-time writers and hire a bunch of part-time community journalists? Sure, the quality of writing would be crap. And there would be plenty of headaches for managers because the new "staff" would have little to no clue about how to do the job.

But Gannett would not have to pay benefits or overtime. The biggest losers - aside from the newspaper's readers - would be the managers. They would all be on salary and have to pick up the slack until the job is done without earning an extra dime.

At this point, I almost expect Gannett to do exactly that - even after there is no longer a print edition.

It's just sad that an industry developed to inform the public of important news has dissolved into a business that is solely concerned with the bottom line: Money. (And yes, I know the business is not alone.)

Just my two cents.

 

That's already being done, though not necessarily at Gannett. The Newark Star-Ledger lost a lot of writers in a recent buyout including the entire baseball staff. There are a few rumors floating around about how they will staff baseball, including one that Newark will barter for coverage from the Daily News.

What is for sure is that Newark is not hiring sportswriters to full time positions at a living wage to replace the lost employees, but are instead using interns, who are paid far less and not offered benefits.

I never thought I'd hear -- and maybe believe -- a rumor about the ultra competitive New York papers swapping coverage on baseball. But that's probably another thread.

 

The idea basically is that the "citizen journalists" are going to work for nothing.

 

Great idea, in theory. But the problem is that of the 30,000-plus employees forced into this unpaid leave, only about 5,000 of them would have the cojones to actually do something like that.

And secondly, to avoid that kind of mass exodus, the managers are to work with staff to "schedule" their furloughs. So, basically, not only is Gannett forcing you to take a week of unpaid leave, they're even telling you when you have to take it.

Don't know about other papers, but we have to have our "schedule" in by Monday. I'm fortunate to have a boss that is willing to minimize the financial impact it's going to have on us and he came up with a schedule to where we all alternate days off every other week so we are only being shorted one day per pay period. That's for hourly employees. Salaried employees get the royal screw, since they actually have to take their seven days consecutively.

Worst part? Their benefits cost won't change, so that pay period where they have to take their furlough, they'll be charged the full amount for their insurance. So their check will be even smaller than they originally had thought.

 

What happens when Connie Citizen or Jimmy 'Journalist' gets upset because his feel-good story was hacked to bits and isn't "positive?"

They leave. Then the product gets worse or they find another "citizen journalist" to fill the void until they become upset with editing - if editing still will exist.

 

Seven days? When I heard "a week" I figured five days, because that's the "typical" work week at most places. Sorry if I missed this, but is this seven days for hourly and for salaried employees?

And when do I get to be a Citizen CEO?

 

JD - It's five days plus the two "regular" days off for salaried employees. 40 hours for hourly employees.

 

Thanks, Smash.

Hang in there, Stagger, Quagmire and all my other Gannett friends.

 

With stock at some media companies just pennies, I guess it's whenever you decide to dig through the couch cushions.