Six papers descend into CNHI heck

[dixiehack]

From my experience, cnhi was less about evil mandates from on high and more into benign neglect of already-crumbling properties. Our shop was a former Thomson property, which meant we already had the secret formula for suckiness encoded in the DNA. It might have been different for the muckity mucks up top, but from the peon level it seemed like they would leave you alone so long as you hit your advertising numbers and didn't ask for money to fix piddling problems, like having one copy of Quark pirated to an average of three computers or ancient Apple laptops that lacked such modern "advances" as internet access, color screens, spellcheck, etc.

 

[Bubbler]

From my experience, cnhi was less about evil mandates from on high and more into benign neglect of already-crumbling properties. Our shop was a former Thomson property, which meant we already had the secret formula for suckiness encoded in the DNA. It might have been different for the muckity mucks up top, but from the peon level it seemed like they would leave you alone so long as you hit your advertising numbers and didn't ask for money to fix piddling problems, like having one copy of Quark pirated to an average of three computers or ancient Apple laptops that lacked such modern "advances" as internet access, color screens, spellcheck, etc.

THAT'S a much more accurate reflection of CNHI than a lot of the other posts on here. At least in my experience.

 

[DyePack]

The company may not issue evil mandates, but it has numerous subtle ways of making life miserable for its workers.

And I see Copley is selling its Ohio and Illinois papers, so the CNHI shirtheads may end up expanding the empire.

 

[Bubbler]

The company may not issue evil mandates, but it has numerous subtle ways of making life miserable for its workers.

Name me a handful of media companies that DON'T fit that description, DyePack? Nearly all of them suck your soul in one way or another. Nearly all companies in any profession do.

 

[DyePack]

I seem to be falling back on this theme a lot lately, but since when is it OK to be shirtty just because everyone else is?

But back to CNHI. The company's taken the Thomson playbook and stripped out the successful formations. All that's left is intimidation, which is a forte of the current morons who run things. The financing scheme is basically a pyramid that should be collapsing in the near future.

 

[slappy4428]

The six papers to be sold are: News-Times of Danbury, Conn.; The Daily Star of Oneonta, N.Y.; the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh, N.Y.; the Santa Cruz Sentinel in California; The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa.; and the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B4102715F%2D2C71%2D4081%2DBC77%2D68BB697E6B16%7D&siteid=myyahoo&dist=myyahoo

In a few weeks, I'll bet that scores of people from these towns will be flocking to the Robert Trent Jones golf courses.

Yeah, just what will go over big in Traverse City -- ads for golf courses in Alabama.

 

[Bubbler]

I seem to be falling back on this theme a lot lately, but since when is it OK to be shirtty just because everyone else is?

No one thinks its OK, no one likes it, but IT IS reality, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

Incidentally, I don't hear a whole of ideas to make this dynamic better, I hear a lot of pissing and moaning about it. Understandable, but it's still spitting into the wind.

Within a 200-mile radius of where I am now, I have heard similar CNHI-style embodiment-of-evil complaining about Gannett, Lee, Scripps, Freedom, and other smaller chains that aren't nationally known. I also worked for a privately-owned paper which was the most forked up operation imaginable, combined with the fact they were dickish, interfering assholes.

Not saying the complaints aren't valid, but to my point, no company has the market cornered on being assholes or running an uncomfortably lean financial operation.

Maybe that's a sad commentary on our industry, but it doesn't make it any less false. It also doesn't make our industry unique. Try bitching to anyone outside our industry who works for a major corporation about our problems. They'll just laugh and match every story of ours with one of their own.

As for CNHI being intimidating. Really? They are about the least intimidating company I've ever worked for. Like dixiehack noted, they are more about benign neglect than intimidation, not that benign neglect is acceptable, but I've never had a travel budget questioned or had any coverage plans shelved because of external pressures (I've had some things shelved because of internal staffing issues, but that's different).

I've never heard anything like the crap that allegedly goes on in JRC, where you have shirtheads like Jelenic dictating prep roundups and such. There's no one-size fits-all ethos that runs through Gannett. So pick your poison, I guess.

 

[Katbeat]

The six papers to be sold are: News-Times of Danbury, Conn.; The Daily Star of Oneonta, N.Y.; the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh, N.Y.; the Santa Cruz Sentinel in California; The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa.; and the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B4102715F%2D2C71%2D4081%2DBC77%2D68BB697E6B16%7D&siteid=myyahoo&dist=myyahoo

In a few weeks, I'll bet that scores of people from these towns will be flocking to the Robert Trent Jones golf courses.

Those always made for good half page fillers when you would get chunked five pages on a Monday when you are solo in the office. Nobody seemed to care the nearest RTJ golf trail was four states and two days away.

 

[hotrobber]

As for CNHI being intimidating. Really? They are about the least intimidating company I've ever worked for. Like dixiehack noted, they are more about benign neglect than intimidation, not that benign neglect is acceptable, but I've never had a travel budget questioned or had any coverage plans shelved because of external pressures (I've had some things shelved because of internal staffing issues, but that's different).

I've never heard anything like the crap that allegedly goes on in JRC, where you have shirtheads like Jelenic dictating prep roundups and such. There's no one-size fits-all ethos that runs through Gannett. So pick your poison, I guess.
[/quote]

With CNHI, you are always one bad quarter away from facing the wrath of their "cash management" plan.
Their VPs and almost-VP wannabes are the intimidators who push the site managers for impossible budget magic, and then force them to lay off when they can't meet their demands.
Just because you haven't had a trip canceled, don't think there isn't intimidation going on.

 

[wickedwritah]

DyePack, how exactly is CNHI's pyramid scheme set up? I keep hearing the goose is gonna come and collect the eggs any day now, and I've been hearing that for the past couple years.

 

[DyePack]

It's all conjecture since the wave of transparency hasn't hit the accounting department yet, and Poynter and E&P haven't quite finished their exposes on the issue, but basically with any large purchase like a chain of newspapers, there's a pot of $ provided at the beginning. A timeline is constructed for revenue expected over the course of the long term, say 25-30 years.

This allows for gradual repayment, etc. When some of the locations underperform grossly, the pressure is on. That's the reason for the intimidation of some of the locations, as well as backsliding on promised raises, etc.

The chain actually can continue to expand during this time by spinning the new acquisitions into a chance for positive cash flow, especially if the company sees ways to cheat and assfork the community it moves into.

If the chain can't "grow revenues" in some of the areas, it either has to cut costs or fall behind on the repayment plan. It's anyone's guess as to where the forktards stand on that path. But again, I'm sure the geniuses at Poynter and E&P are going to clear the situation up for all of us any day now.

 

[Bubbler]

With CNHI, you are always one bad quarter away from facing the wrath of their "cash management" plan.
Their VPs and almost-VP wannabes are the intimidators who push the site managers for impossible budget magic, and then force them to lay off when they can't meet their demands.
Just because you haven't had a trip canceled, don't think there isn't intimidation going on.

Not defending it from a moral standpoint, but that sounds like the way damn near every corporation runs its business.

My father worked for one of the most consistently profitable companies in the land, and I know of at least three times where his ass was on the line because profits weren't were the company wanted them. This was a guy who started at the bottom as a trucker and worked his way to the point where he was running plants in Ohio and Minnesota.

No one is safe from that "intimidating" shirt. It sucks, but it's life.