McClatchy to eliminate 1,600 jobs

Damn straight they gave up.
They're all giving up.

 

Best wishes, Blair, from an FWST alum a few years before your time, I suspect.

 

Great post. You got out on your own terms. Good for you. So many good people are out of the business now.
This business is a joke, but this country is in a crisis. I just heard from a respected attorney in Chicago that major companies have been laying off lawyers in great numbers. I know ... bring on the lawyer jokes.
I still think our business is the worst run on the planet, but I'm just saying, we are in a major major mess Mr. Obama.

 

Blair, I'm sorry that you're leaving the business but also excited for you. I know so many people share your frustrations.

I'm one of them.

In time, you'll fine another job with better pay, better hours and less stress. Hell, you might even get vacations and work normal shifts!

Part of me hurts because I think what you wrote is true. Sometimes it's worth it to fight, but only if the cause is just. There just isn't enough pull from the worker bees to turn the tide. The sooner we all accept that and move on, the better life will be for us. (Although I'm concerned where I'll get my news in the future and wonder what our new jobs will be.)

It's not that I don't believe in the idea of newspapers. Just not what they've dissolved into now. I don't believe in the leadership and decisions being made 10 years too late to become more web-savvy and efficient.

This industry continues to cut back and convinces readers to find their news elsewhere. I look forward to the day when those of us worker bees can find something that allows us to actually have a life.

 

One of the saddest things about the newsrooms in which I've worked is how the worker bees mentioned above have gotten muzzled and beaten down.

It used to be that a handful of them gave our workplaces enough zest for the rest of us, and those folks challenging management actually could bring about some change occasionally. But now, it's too dangerous for a small handful to pop off. Meanwhile, the issues at stake are so big, it would require a huge majority of us to band together in our challenges, and to take a significant risk (i.e., no mere byline strike, please!) to actually have an impact.

What I'm saying is, we're not completely powerless at this point, but we are when fewer of us than ever dare run the risk of disagreeing with or questioning the bosses (and when fewer of us exist, period). I lump myself in with the great squelched or timid masses, by the way. Now, instead of a hundred voices standing up and saying, ``I'm Spartacus!'' to the rat-bastards, fates be damned, we're more likely to get one guy standing up, pointing at the poor slob next to him and saying, ``HE'S Spartacus!'' if he thinks it will keep his job on life-support longer than the next guy.

What this says to me is, the momentum and the direction of the slide will not change. And newspapers belong less to the journalists than ever. That makes them less worth fighting for. Even the public knows it.

 

The part I'm really struggling with is that this chapter in my life is over. The thing I've spent the last ten years on, the thing I've given everything up for in hopes of a great future is gone.

And while I do have a check to show for it, I don't know if that counteracts the stunted social life I have, the missed holidays and life events of family and friends, or just the general quality of life I would have had if I had just said 'no' more often and pursued status quo instead of always saying 'yes' and going for a goal in the stars.

Oh well. C'est la vie.

 

Good luck Blair. Remember the good times you had with the job, and don't dwell too much on the things you missed out on.

 

I've been keeping a running tally of the McClatchy layoff numbers, and it looks like they're well short of the announced 1,600 goal. With heavy hitters like KC, Miami, Fort Worth, Sacramento and Fresno already accounted for in the 17 papers plus McClatchy Interactive, the running total I come up with is 885. The largest papers left are Charlotte and Raleigh. I can't see another 700 layoffs coming from the 10 or so properties left.

 

i disagree, baron. i think blair should keep those times burned in his brain so he never allows another company to do the same damn thing to him in the future.

just my opinion, though.

 

She, and I know all those times are burned into my mind. If I'm going to be miserable and in a dying profession again, I'm at least going to have my nights, weekends and holidays for myself.

 

Joe,
O can tell you from firsthand experience -- and would imagine some reading this very thread -- that being the "Leader of the Natives," as they say in the business, is a ticket to nowhere at corporate owned papers.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner so let's go ahead and engrave the trophy ...

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THREAD: MCCLATCHY TO ELIMINATE 1,600 JOBS​