Update: Gannett world — USA Today for sale?

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Others on Hopkins' blog have questioned the 5,000 number as well.

AP says Gannett currently has about 35,000 employees, down 46,000 at the end of 2007.

Of the current 35k, about 17,000 work in the community publishing division.

It seems like the majority of jobs would come from someplace other than CP but I don't know.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

I know I'm bringing up politics here, but whenever I talk to anyone about being unemployed (except for job interviews of course), I bring up Craig Dubow.

I point out to them about how Dubow has collected millions in bonuses while laying off thousands of workers, and making all his employees take pay cuts and unpaid furloughs while crying poverty about the company.

I then ask the other people why Dubow deserved a tax cut while it's a huge fight to extend my unemployment benefits. Strangely enough, when I use this example, I get a lot of sympathy. And truthfully, I don't really want their sympathy. I want people to wake up and realize what the hell is going on this world instead of worrying about who Snooki is fucking.

That's why I'm bitter towards Gannett. Not the paper I worked for, or the great people who I worked with, a bunch of whom are still dealing with this bullshit. But towards the corporate schmucks who, in my mind, I'm rooting for very bad things to happen to them someday.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

The absolute funniest thing about the furloughs is the statement from Bob Dickey where he mentions scheduling of furloughs should be done so that your "backup" is available to work during your furlough. WTF Bob! There are no more backups, you pigs laid them all off.

I am SERIOUSLY considering taking my furlough the week of our state high school basketball tournament.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Go for it, Stagger Lee. Have a Gannett paper less than 2 hours from here that distributes on the racks in town. Their section has really fallen off since they've gone to that standardized NFL/NBA/MLB page. Wonder how this will affect their coverage of stuff that we compete on.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Dickey's Q&A is hilarious (well, for an outside observer not affected). If you are bent on maintaining some pie in the sky profit margin that is out of touch with reality, just sell and be done with it!!

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

At my old shop, I've heard that along with 1st quarter furloughs, there is a demand for every reporter to do four major "watchdog" projects a year. So, do a lot more work in a lot less time.

So glad I left.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

The primary watchdog task should be to piss on the leg (or face) of any top-rank Gannett exec you can access.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Yeah, we used to have those 'demands' too every time there were layoffs and cutbacks, from upper management. The old 'Do more with less' crap. We'd all just shake our heads and wonder what planet they were on.

Then a month or two would go by, and upper management would get upset because everything they wanted to get done wasn't getting done. Well duh. You don't authorize overtime, and they're less people to get things done. And we're not volunteering our time for a company that's going to dump us anyway. Cut out the rah-rah crap and join the rest of us in reality.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

You need to make the best of your furlough. So do it during busy season. Relax. Drink some beers.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

I know I've told this story a few times on this board, but I thought I would tell it again.

There is a copy editor at one of the bigger Gannett papers (not in sports) who found out from the ME (his best friend) that he was on the layoff list. The next day, the copy editor fell down the stairs and went on workman's comp for eight weeks. He was not let go and has since survived five rounds of Gannett layoffs.

Just putting that idea in people's heads if they want some job security. Although, most of us don't get much of a warning before we're let go.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Not sure if anybody has read this or not, but most of the Gannett properties (maybe even all) are beginning a long series on unemployment. As our EE put it, who better to help people looking for jobs connect with potential employers than newspapers?. Basically, what it boils down to is it's just a big pimp job for careerbuilder.com.

How's that for hypocrisy?

Our business reporter was seeking names to kind of get the ball rolling, because as I'm hearing it's going to be a pretty long series (over several weeks). I told her that maybe she should just start with the 20 or so they've laid off in our newsroom since 2008.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

How sad ... and true.