gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

Kill your employer first, then come for mine.

 

What the hell will that accomplish? He could get caught before he gets to yours.

 

I had to chuckle in agreement with that one.

 

Got separate heads-up in the last few days from friends at two papers regarding the expected July 8 Gannett layoffs. One was shown an org chart of what the department (non-newsroom) will look like on The Day After. The other was given a roster of staffers he will be losing and whose duties will have to be absorbed either by his remaining crew or sweatshops in impoverished nations.

Short story: Absolutely brutal.

Retracting my recent optimism, I now have no reason to believe that the newsroom will be relatively unscathed. To the contrary, I now think the "Information Center" will take a drastic hit.

The only good news is that there are indications from high-level people there that perhaps there will be no more unpaid vacations in the third and fourth quarters.

 

Is it wrong to say I would be conflicted if in that situation?

Concerned about having to find another job in this economy, but happy about getting away from such a company and about having an opportunity to start over in a career I could excel in and be happier in.

 

I think a lot of people feel the same way you do. All I know is that in my shop we hear about how tough it is all over the country and in every sector, but EVERY single person who's left here (either by layoff or by their own) has found a better job with better hours and better pay.

We were talking about this just last night. Probably 95% of the people that have left look as though they've cut 10 years off their age. It's amazing what moving to a relatively stress-free job can do for your health and appearance.

 

I think this is true. Everyone I talk to who has gotten out of the biz and into a PR or other job like that is like, "why didn't I do this years ago?" This woman at our shop whose last day is tomorrow is taking a PR job and the ME was saying good-bye to her today right near my desk. He was like, "well, we'd love to keep you." And she's like, no this is what I need to do for my life and my family. She even had offered to be one of the people to be "laid off." But they I heard they turned her down because she was a reporter and they've said they won't lay off any reporters, just editors, copy editors, photo editors, artists and designers. All expendable, so they presume.

 

I've always hated that term: "Information Center."

Although, when people ask what I do I always want to tell them "I'm the information center."

What does an information center do, you ask?

Reporting + Web posting/editing + Troubleshooting for the website and somehow that = information center.

 

I always found it pathetically funny that one day, our EE announced, "You no longer work in a newsroom, you work in an information center."

A bunch of changes were promised as well. Our jobs were supposed to become fundamentally different.

And you know what happened? Absolutely nothing, except more work and a bunch of layoffs.

If only Gannett would have devoted their energies to figuring out how to make money off the Web, and a little less time coming up with new nicknames for the newsroom, we might all be a little better off.

 

What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at these "Name the Center" brainstorming sessions. Because you know they have them.

Gannett execs don't take a shit without meeting about it first, then mapping out a strategy, then having another meeting to discuss the strategy. Oddly enough, most of their meetings produce shit. So, the analogy actually works.

 

I've seen what Gannett has done and I'm not too impressed. I get the idea that the "information center" bs was a smoke and mirrors term to distract Wall Street. But I do think the term is apt. I see a lot of information in Gannett newspapers, but very little news. The daily product is resembling those semi-annual special sections spotlighting the community.

 

Thanks for sharing. Awesome. Fold, Gannett, please fold.