New York Times 2020 Report

A lot of it is because we've been constantly told we have to change and innovate and "be nimble" and a bunch of other gobbledygook for the past 30 years. And the only constant among all that change is people losing their jobs.

Especially at a place like Gannett, where a good portion of the changes are just things that did little other than allow some corporate jackasses to say they were doing things in order to justify their jobs.

Gannett would send down directives telling employees they must do X because of "change" and "innovation." So employees do X. Then a year later, they're told to do Y, which is the complete opposite of X, again, because "we must constantly innovate!" Then, after a bunch of innovative layoffs, the remaining employees are told they must do X again, only it's now being called Z.

Maybe newsroom employees wouldn't piss on change so much if the people above them stopped throwing shit at the wall.

 

Newsroom change in a nutshell ... for at least the 23 years I've been in the business:

"We're cutting jobs. We're not filling open jobs. Do more work with less people, and make sure the time card says 40."

 

How The New York Times Is Clawing Its Way into the Future

 

Long stream of text. Someone somewhere cringes.