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Working with a regional design center

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by BillySixty, Apr 13, 2017.

  1. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I'd be honest and straight with my employees when it comes to cutbacks and not waste my breath or their valuable time telling them how "exciting" the change is or how "we have to nimble so we can innovate through this transformation," or how "we will continue to be our region's leading newsgatherer," and other useless corporate bullshit.
     
    Old Time Hockey and jr/shotglass like this.
  2. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Yes. At the very least, they can stop attempting to put lipstick on a pig.
     
  3. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Excellent point. I wonder if the suits who utter such bullshit realize that every trained journalist hearing those words has lost all respect for that individual for all time. Just tell the staff, 'You've been through the drill before. This sucks. We all know it sucks. You survived the cuts. We value your work. Let's continue to do the best we can."
    I mean when the staff gets cut there's no way to sugarcoat it as anything but bad news. When sections get cut and pages cut you don't try to sugarcoat it and say readers will enjoy the concise, condensed product. Look 10 pages a day got cut and that's bad news for gosh sakes!
     
  4. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    Spoke to a buddy who works in a design studio at Gannett. They were told this week that the Asbury Park design studio is shutting down entirely, and all of that work will be spread across the remaining 4 design studios. And everyone at this particular studio has had their hours cut to 35 per week.

    So not only a "do more with less" approach, but also with a 5-hour weekly furlough attached to it.

    This may be the most blatant "fuck you" in the history of Gannett ... which is really saying something.
     
  5. SportsGuyBCK

    SportsGuyBCK Active Member

    You were pretty spot on until "We value your work." No corporate goon could say that with a straight face (or could they?)
     
  6. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Great point. I blew it there. They aren't going to say they value your work, true. But I do think it's possible a sports editor, in a staff meeting after cuts with no suits around, might be able to word it the way I did. It is so damn insulting when I read those articles full of corporate speak after a newspaper makes major cuts to the section and the staff. They actually pretend the product will be better and that's so fucking insulting on so many levels.
     
  7. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    OK, they cut the hours to 35. That is making me think Gannett has made these people technically part timers. If that means loss of benefits, shame shame.
     
  8. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Every time the newsrooms I've been in have had another round of layoffs, the top editors took an incredibly misguided approach with the staffers who were left. Instead of saying something like, "I know it's tough. But we're glad to still have this bunch with us. Thank you again for working so hard," they instead adopted the attitude of, "You're lucky you still have a job. So buckle down and show us the happy, or you'll be out the door next."

    That "What have you done for me lately?" management crap doesn't work anymore. But you still hear it a lot.
     
    Bronco77 likes this.
  9. What corporate papers have done for employees lately might be the better subject:

    1. Treat them like s---... no raises for what would soon approach 10 years.

    2. Subject them to working for under-qualified clueless people from pubby office to newsroom to HR, where they create little fife-dumbs and "Bat" phones like in Batman -- you ask a question, you walk away from HR, the phone is grabbed and the HR reports everything to the pubby (straight out of CYOA manual).

    3. Blow smoke up a-- of anyone they have to report to... including, when the big dogs visit and ask for input, hovering over them like a dog trying to gnaw a bone to its core so no one could even think about having a conversation to tell the big Papas that they have bozos in charge

    4.Lie, lie and lie again.

    5. Send clowns into newsrooms in suits who strike up conversations about the stupidest things in the world as a style of trying to convey they are interested in the people who work for them. They are not interested in anybody but those they can suck the blood out of. Too bad wooden stakes aren't allowed in those situations or silver bullets. They've sucked the blood out of the business.

    6. Dumbed the world down. Could I please get another story on how the local school system bought 17 jars of pickles from the mom of a third-grade student who used to work in a pickle factory in Mississippi in the 1970s and once gave a pickle to Elvis when he came by for a visit with Mr. Pickle factory owner (only to find out, upon further research, that it was not Elvis... it was Elvis' third cousin, but who cares about accuracy).

    Carry on.
     
  10. SportsGuyBCK

    SportsGuyBCK Active Member

    Yeah, I can see a department editor, maybe even the ME or editor, saying this ... but it would only be believable in my mind if they said "I value your work." I hear "WE value your work," and its proof the person is just another wanna-be corporate goon ...
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    One positive thing about the recovering economy: quite a few former journalists are getting out and finding more stable/better paying gigs. In the past couple years at my shop I've seen everything from PR jobs to physical therapy assistants to starting their own barbecue stand.

    It's gotten to the point where our company has a tough time filling some of the lowest (and lowest-paid) newsroom positions at small dailies or weeklies in BFE. And you can forget about delivery drivers ... dozens of routes aren't filled. Who would want that absolutely awful job when there are other service industry gigs available, with better hours and pay?

    There are other jobs out there, folks ... says someone who needs to get off his lazy ass and find one.:(
     
  12. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    There are. And any decent one typically will want a candidate with experience. Ay, there's the rub.
     
    Bronco77 likes this.
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