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Is it starting at CNHI?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Kato, Jan 14, 2009.

  1. Kato

    Kato Well-Known Member

    We're a CNHI shop and have lost part-timers here and there over the last few cuts. Yesterday, however, three full-timers (that we know of) were let go from different parts the building, including a newbie copy editor and an ad guy who's been there for 23 years. Of course, people are stunned and scared, and morale couldn't be lower. No one could say if more layoffs are coming. Anything else happening at other CNHI papers this week?
     
  2. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Maybe.

    http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/65735/

    http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/2268424/

    Company's been leveraged up to its neck for a long, long time.
     
  3. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    We've had layoffs at our shop this week. It's suspected that others in the chain are getting it too. CNHI quietly had layoffs in the fall as well, though my shop missed that turn.

    The corporate conventional wisdom is that CNHI is better equipped that some other chains to ride out some of its problems because it's not publicly-traded. I don't buy that any further than I can throw it, but that's what's been thrown out there.
     
  4. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    We just had layoffs at my shop, an LCNI paper. Five people tied to advertising were let go and their positions 'restructured.'

    No layoffs in the newsroom. ME said hopefully this is the only round we have to go thru, but we'll see.
     
  5. We just laid of 10 people this week. Not much, but we cut 55 just a few months ago. This after our publisher promised to layoffs when he first took over. And the pres/ceo just wrote an article in Editor/Publisher Mag saying we need to stop cutting news space in papers and give the readers the news they crave. Well, how do you do that when you keep telling staffers goodbye?
     
  6. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

  7. Colton

    Colton Active Member

    I won't even begin... other than to say in October, my shop lost four -- including the best young hire we've had in sports in my 23 years here -- to an f-in "restructuring."

    Of course, editorial was the only department in the building to be bent over.
     
  8. Feb. 10 was our turn. They gutted our newsroom. Let go two paginators and a reporter. In the four-plus years I have been at my paper we have reduced the newsroom staff from 21 people to 11. I hope to reduce it by one more real soon, but I don't think I am going to be able find another job.
    We were told we have to stop thinking in terms of newsroom departments. News reporters might have to write sports stories and sports writers are going to be doing news stories.
    We are left scrambling. We are no longer thinking about how to do things well, but just how to do things.
    CNHI is a heartless corporation that is going to kill our newspaper. I am convinced we are working our way to the Detroit model. Maybe two or three days a week with a print product and the rest Web material. That might be the right way to go, but getting there sure feels like a cattle prod in the eye. Because right now our biggest concern is how to get a newspaper out. I understand roles and responsibilities change over time, but now instead of worrying about writing a good sports story or designing a decent section or getting better at what I like to do, and I am going to be forced to get adequate at covering and designing things I have no interest in.
     
  9. Pete Incaviglia

    Pete Incaviglia Active Member

    I'm not at CHNI but our paper laid off (ok, eliminated jobs entirely) three ad builders (consolidated at a sister paper) and the entire real estate section.

    Also, a reporter quit at Christmas and won't be replaced.

    And, me the SE were discussing last night, we figure one photographer, one reporter and one copy editor will all be axed in March.

    Morale is low, indeed.
     
  10. SportsGuyBCK

    SportsGuyBCK Active Member

    Gee, someone oughta tell the corporate types making all these decisions "you're going to have to stop thinking in terms of corporate departments. Accountants might have to learn how to take out the trash and run a vacumn cleaner, and presidents and vice presidents might have to learn to run the copy machine and answer their own phones."
    Of course, at a place like CNHI, they might go for something like that just to keep from paying secretaries and janitors ...
     
  11. And so our layoffs were Feb. 10. That afternoon our executive editor goes to the publisher and says how are we going to handle the story about the layoffs.
    She says she should e-mail corporate to see if they have some kind of statement for the story. The corporate response was "There will be no story about your newspaper's layoffs."
    So we chase after every company in town that is laying people off or putting people on furlough.
    It's hypocritical and more evidence that the shmoes in charge know nothing about the way to run newspapers.
    Oh, and, we are laying people off, but buying a stringer's coverage for a Major League baseball team that is on the verge of setting the pro sports record for consecutive losing seasons. Our location is between two baseball markets. One is one the American League's upcoming franchises and the other is, well, bad.
     
  12. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    fuck editor and pub. for publishing that piece. the dolts who run cnhi never have and never will be newspaper people. it's a business to those people who represent retired teachers. nothing more, nothing less.
     
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