gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

Found out that Gannett dropped the bomb in suburban Detroit on Monday... Laid off 44 at the Observer (Wayne County and Farmington) & Eccentric (Oakland County) Newspapers ... not sure how many in editorial but the cut off was right around 14 years... shuttered all but one of the Eccentric papers (left south Oakland alone)

 

I really hate it when I see this thread has a new post.

 

Frozen wages, furloughs, mandatory pay cuts, taking away of retirement benefits should turn everybody into really bad employees. Remember the way they treat you when they ask you to do something you really think is dumb.

 

Slappy,

From what I read at the Observer and Eccentric web site it was only Eccentric staffers. The Western Wayne Observer papers weren't hit (I don't think). But I'm sure they are next along with the Mirror papers. It isn't a good sign when they cut the papers in the wealthiest communities in Michigan : Troy, Rochester, West Bloomfield.

They also consolidated a couple newspapers.

Complete info here:
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20090414/NEWS02/304140007/1019/NEWS02

 

It's the same union shop. While the cuts came from the Eccentric, they also were able to bump people from the Observer. Ad staff, paginators, editorial.
Both ME's will be gone...

 

What a mess. One of our former reporters went over there to become a special sections editor. I think she got axed. So much for trying to move up the ladder.

 

The Gannettblog is predicting another round of layoffs on July 8.

I can only hope some of the newsrooms which already consolidated, like New Jersey and Wisconsin, are exempt from the new batch of cuts.

 

Escaped Gannett nearly a year ago (after only a few years in the biz) for a job in corporate communications, and I gotta say, I read Gannett Blog several times a day, just to see what's going on and I think about my former co-workers, who seem to be stuck in this mess. It's really sad. To those looking to get out the newspaper biz, there ARE jobs out there that allow you to apply the skills you learned being a reporter.

 

Look for upper management and back-office operations to take the brunt of the next hit.

I've heard rumblings of more IT/business office functions being consolidated into regional or corporate ops.

Also, MEs whose duties don't involve actual hands-on daily production work should be sweating bullets right about now. Prevailing opinion seems to be that not a whole lot was lost in the first purge of MEs, which look place late last summer IIRC.

 

Such as? (Not being a dick, just thought people would want to know)

 

My Gannett shop already got nailed once this year (after the fall layoffs) and we don't have any ME's left.

I'm worried about this next round of cuts big time. If we lose any more people, we will not be able to put a daily paper out anymore. With furloughs and vacations, we are already stretched to the bone.

Most days, our editorial department of 16 people has 3-4 people out on furlough and vacations. Plus days off... it's not good.

 

Thanks, Bubs. I await an answer to this one as well ...