More CNHI

Thanks, Mark.

I'm not bitter as I love and appreciate the time I've had in the business. It's just so difficult to see my once-proud product be slowly bled like a stuck pig.

Every day, I feel I'm (when I say "I'm," it's in reference to my daily section) hanging off a ledge of the Empire State Building, with the corporate folks stepping on a finger at their leisure, all the while wearing a maniacal grin and saying, "you're lucky to have a job."

Unfortunately, they are correct.

Thanks again, Mark.

 

Colton,

It's neither you nor the business that is the problem. It's the suits who don't have 1/100th of the passion for producing a quality product that the working stiffs do. In sports lingo, they mailed it in a long time ago. All most of them give a rats tail about is their own paycheck and pensions.

OTOH, I've been fortunate to work for some really good editors and publishers, so I do realize they exist even if they might be getting harder and harder to find.

 

Boone Newspapers once owned a paper in New Mexico, The Raton Range. When it was owned by Boone, it was pretty well run. Only reason they sold it was because they wanted to stick to the Mississippi-Alabama region.

I don't know how things are like at Boone now, though, but perhaps somebody else has more insight as to Boone's current status.

 

Our shop was bought out by Boone a while back. Without going into too much detail, I think it really depends on who's in charge after the sale.
The way I understand Boone is, it's essentially an umbrella company. The Boone papers are more or less independent of each other, with each one or a few (some might be clustered together) owned by a smaller LLC or company that reports back to Boone. The people who own the LLCs are often publishers at other Boone papers who climb the ladder and get their shot at ownership.

So, what it boils down to is, if you've been bought by Boone, how well things go depend a lot on who they put in charge and how well the holdovers mesh with the Boone folks.
We had some rough patches, without a doubt. There were massive layoffs (although the staff was bloated to a degree), and others were run off, fired or quit later on. Some changes were hard medicine that needed to be taken, some just make you shake your head and wonder what the hell the higher-ups are thinking.
It's pretty much what you'd expect in any situation where there's a change in management or ownership. You'll have some good, some bad, some things that work and some that don't.

 

Is Boone connected to CNHI? I'm thinking I missed something, which is not all that unusual.

 

I think he is talking about Boone because they purchased a couple papers of CNHI's, I linked the story on this thread recently.

Also...they are seriously monitoring this? Doesn't surprise, but makes me just feel even more violated.

But, I did hear of some potential news that is actually good that should be coming down from the company soon. There is still a long way to go, but it is a very small step in the right direction for once. I think they need to get rid of their papers that are losing money horribly, thus causing the papers making money (they are out there...I work at one that makes a profit) to be able to (potentially) keep that money instead of having to fish it away. This practice isn't unique to CNHI, it is part of being in a corporation. But maybe we can start not treating employees like shit? Lol I sound hopeful because I am tired of being so down about my life at CNHI...gonna take the high road on this one. Haha

 

My shop is in the same boat -- we're not only making a profit, but beating corporate's blood-letting "plan."

 

Isn't this the Alabama company with the endless furloughs? Right. They'll be kinder to employees alright. That's not in their culture. Never has been. If they're making a profit, it'll go to a luxury suite for Alabama football games.

 

Yup, that's the company. Nor have we had a raise in more than six years.

 

In fairness, you're not alone in that boat. I had to change jobs a few times in order to get a raise, cause it wasn't coming from within.

 

I once thought that as well...but the new I was referring to was actually the strong possibility that furloughs will end in the middle of next year. The company has seen strong growth in digital profit apparently that is close to erasing the need for quarterly furloughs.

 

When you triple $10 million, it's not all that impressive.

Wish companies would stop trotting out some of these numbers sans context ... because the context means they're near worthless.