Update: Gannett world — USA Today for sale?

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

From what I've heard, (all rumors and speculation) is that a lot of people are assuming that the majority of the layoffs are coming from community publishing.

That is not likely to be the case since the people in community publishing are usually low-cost and some of the smaller papers tend to be more profitable.

I have a friend who is very high up at one of the bigger Gannett papers and he said he fully expects to lose his job in the next round of layoffs and said that this will be far, far worse than it was in 2008.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Gannett is instituting hubs to design (and edit?) copy from several papers at select locations.

Obviously they plan to cut a wide swath through designers and copy editors and papers that aren't hubs.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

The original plan was to send design only to the hubs, but I wouldn't be surprised if editing goes there, too.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Just like Media General did with Winston-Salem recently.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

So they say.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Editing and design go hand-in-hand where the print edition is concerned. If you edit for a certain length and it happens to be short or long, someone somewhere has to make the adjustment.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

The wire editing will be handled at the design centers.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

As Gannett continues and continues and continues to screw its workers, why don't more of the shops just go union? At least then they'd have somebody to fight for them. Even if they don't do it well.

Right now, all I see is people closing their eyes and imaging Brad Pitt while they're taking it.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Well, if Gannett is inevitable, then why not lie back and enjoy it?

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Ah, but when copy is short, the design hubs just expand the leading to ridiculous measures and spread the text way out. Looks awful. At least that's what the hub in Durham is doing to small Paxton papers.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

Isn't Donna Shalala, the U of Miami prez, part of the Gannett board?
I wonder what kind of blows she's taking for the company?
The blow of the wind on a tropical island getaway she got in one of those bonuses, I bet.

 

Re: Giant and mostly bad news in Gannett world

The sad truth about boards of directors is that they are mostly concerned with the balance sheets and never get into the product much.
Though I have a feeling if a company was doing to foreign workers what Gannett does to US workers there would be more of a controversy.
I'd love to try and get away with what the Gannett suits do at board meetings and an annual review.
"Your production is down."
"Well, it's bad all over - have you seen the output of Joe in the feature section? I'm way better than him and in line with others in the newsroom."
"Your quality is down."
"I've been dealing with the new realities of working smarter, not harder - as I transition and reorganize my 10-plan to be more realistic in the current environment, I expect things to be better in the future."