layoffs in Greensboro

"increasingly competitive market" = everyone wants a slice of the advertising pie we've long kept mostly for ourselves all these years. It used to be just TV. Now, in addition to two free weeklies that we don't own, there are multiple housing books, car books and classified ad books. There's also Craiglist (we have it here in Gso) and job Web sites. If your company is thinking ahead, they'll have at one of each. (The N&R does.)

Online, we're competing with the three TV news sites in our market. (Our ABC affiliate has no news division.) People love them some video, and the TV stations have a lot more cameras than we do.

The usual advertisers are trying new things. Check your Sunday paper - if it has some ad fliers wrapped inside a brown heavy-stock sleeve, that thing is taking your lunch money, too. (Advertisers will pay the company to stuff their fliers, and then the newspaper buys the sleeve at a lower rate than if each advertiser dealt with the paper directly.) Some advertisers skip a Sunday ad supplement every few weeks and post specials online at their own Web sites.

That's what "increasingly competitive market" means. I bet everyone who reads this post is dealing with similar or even greater pressures.

(Man, I can't believe I dredged all of that up. Guess I wasn't sleeping all that soundly at those quarterly team leader meetings after all.)

And thanks everyone for the kind words about (what's left of) our staff. We'd love to bring back Bill Hass (Larry Keech, too), but he has carved out quite a nice niche writing online for the ACC and the local single-A baseball team. About all he can do for us without much conflict is cover the occassional Elon football game or UNCG hoops.

 

<a href="http://www.yesweekly.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=2508&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1">
According to this article in YES! weekly, a Greensboro-area publication, departing N&R employees had to sign confidentiality agreements in order to receive severance pay. So these guys aren't allowed to speak on the record.</a>

There have been a lot of heartless layoffs, but laying off cancer patients is pretty damn low. Sadly, the way that bean counters think, though, laying off a cancer patient is seen as a way to save a lot of insurance money.

 

If there's any doubt about HIPAA and how it can protect you and your loved ones, this is a prime example.

And having to sign confidentiality agreements is a lower mark for Landmark. Basically, don't say anything bad about us, even though we're scum.

Uh ... yeah.

 

I heard through the grapevine that some people learned they had been let go when they couldn't log into their computers.

Nice!

 

what a tragic situation for both sides.