By: Greg Mitchell Gannett is in the midst of perhaps the largest mass, chainwide layoffs (not just buyouts) in the history of the newspaper industry. Its paper in Nashville, The Tennessean, opened a story this afternoon: "Playing its part in one of the most dramatic mass layoffs in the history of the American news media, The Tennessean has eliminated some 70 jobs yesterday and today, including 20 to 25 positions in its newsroom. The cuts at the Nashville daily are among more than 900 that have come to light in the past 36 hours among Gannett Co. properties."
E&P has covered the cuts at several of the papers, but over at the Gannett Blog (which has no connection to the company), Jim Hopkins, the former Gannett staffer, has been chronicling the cuts and providing a forum for comments, usually from anonymous newspaper employees describing the carnage around them.
Here is a sampling just from today. We have now put the latest, from this mid-afternoon, updates at the top. The rest come from earlier this afternoon and this morning. The hundreds of reports and comments are all at: http://gannettblog.blogspot.com.
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Well, I got the lovely news that my job was eliminated at The Arizona Republic, along with about 100 other loyal employees. Time to move on to something bigger and better.
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The Gallatin News-Examiner in Gallatin, Tenn., had its press shut down. Will be published in Nashville at The Tennessean.
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From the Indy Star's website: Headline - "Star closing two community newspapers."
The Indianapolis Star Media Group is closing two weekly community newspapers, the East Side Herald and the Spotlight, as part of a wider cost-cutting effort across the company.
The newspapers, both published since the 1930s, will close Jan. 15, the company announced today. Ten positions will be eliminated as a result.
Why is GCI laying off a blanket of people, at all newspapers? Some of the papers are making money? Yet those papers, are firing people to. Somebody is hiding something at Gannett.
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In Lansing so far, a handful from advertising and circulation and four of five staffing the now-defunct NOISE publication. Graphic artist from NOISE was the only one saved.
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Got laid off this morning. In my mailbox? Netflix: "The Wire," season 5, disc one. What's the definition of irony again?
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Tom Callinan (Cincinnati Enquirer editor) announced today on Facebook: The Enquirer has made transition to "a writer's newspaper." Now, let's write.
(Guess that's what you call it when there are fewer editors. Who needs them.)
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Great Falls, Mont., has started. At least one sports copy editor/page designer.
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The last ones out should turn out the lights. I'm surprised at the cuts, it would've been more prudent to cut obvious dead weight, but there are people that'd rather play with Blackberrys than pay attention to what is going on in their Newsroom (I mean Information Center).
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From Phoenix:
1 retail ad layout
2 marketing artists moving to adv artist
1/3 of La Voz staff (can anyone confirm that?)
3 adv artists
1 project implementor
11 newsroom (sorry, Information Center)
1 ME
1 community republic editor
1 classified trainer
1 ad assistant
1 sales rep
1 in azcentral
1 sales mgr.
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It isn't fun here today...
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If we used to be "the daily miracle" what the heck are we now??? How will it be done?
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According to a blog in Salisbury, Md., the Daily Times has laid off 12 so far, but no details.
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Seven in the Indy north bureau, 2 copy editors, photog, cal desk, community news editor, receptionist laid off. 1 reporter bought out. Big wigs are heading to the other two bureaus and downtown now.
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Here's an early list of people from the Arizona Republic:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/12/editors_take_big_hits_in_arizo.php
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Can someone who still works in the Cherry Hill newsroom please post a roster?
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?Florida Today? lays off 30, accepts 6 buyouts
http://floridatoday.com/article/20081203/BREAKINGNEWS/81203031/1086
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I know of 7-8 layoffs at the Courier News, me being one of them.
Circ - 6
ADS - 1
IT - 1
I'm sure there are more
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A photographer in Des Moines found out when he checked the assignment sheet and found out that he had an appointment in HR.
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One more cut from The Tennessean: a superb librarian.
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I know we will survive somehow but how sad is the message in all this. CoWorkers be strong..we all know how hard we worked and how little it's appreciated. For those left it will be an impossible task, VPs haven't a clue, they manage by email, only worrying about making their weekly OC meeting. Seems it doesn't really matter but customer service will be nil, so more will cancel the paper. There is no one who has a clue how to steer this ship.
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Sifting through the Asbury [Park Press] wreckage. (Preliminary)
Sports reporters: 2
Metro reporters: 2 (1 left)
State reporters: 4
Editorial Dept. 1
Design/Special sections: 5 appx.
Ads/class: 14
Weekly EE: 1 (left)
Special sections: 3
Production: 11 appx. (not final)
Part time: 14
Empty suits: NONE
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Where I work, most of the layoffs were deadwood, surprisingly. Like my boss, so the newsroom would have been rejoicing.
Except that they also laid off a bunch of young people that they had just hired a few months ago, and all of those people were good. Not a single one of them deserved to get laid off, and there was still plenty of deadwood left to cut instead. Maybe they'll get some more of that when they do another round in February.
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Advantage Press was completely shut down in Carroll, Ohio this morning.....30-35 people gone. Also 1 Graphics Supervisor and 1 Advertising Supervisor. Not sure of any others at this point.
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Some high-level newsroom people at The [Arizona] Republic were axed last night, including two AMEs. Both had more than 25 years of experience. Several assistant city editors also got whacked.
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Anything about DETROIT?????
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@ Louisville C-J, we are losing 7 in the pressroom. Last day will be 12/14/08. On the 15th we will start running one press at nite instead of two. We will have an earlier start time,so lots of sports will be missing. Later off time means losing carriers and then customers, which leads to lost advertising, which leads to lost revenue which leads to.....
Email just sent out from John Zidich, publisher of the Arizona Republic:
"The past few days have been difficult. Throughout yesterday afternoon and this morning meetings were held to notify 68 of our colleagues at The Arizona Republic and La Voz Publishing that their jobs were being eliminated. In addition 29 accepted voluntary severance and 15 employees were offered alternative positions. The reductions are based solely on the very tough economic conditions facing the country and our company."
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At The Des Moines Register: Cartoonist Brian Duffy is getting fired. This allegedly opens a day when 10 people will be fired from the newsroom.
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Layoffs have started at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. So far, two advertising, one voluntary, one involuntary, and a news assistant at the community newspapers.
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No word on cuts from Hattiesburg, but the American's printing will be moved to Jackson.
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Cancelled my subscription to USA Today and the Asbury Park paper this morning. As did my parents. A few minutes ago, I shorted GCI at $8.49.
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Reno cut the online director. Rob Henson was the go-to guy for anything. His talents covered all departments. One saturday he came in on his day off designed 20 or so ads, paginated a special section and made the plates. He's going to be dearly missed. Bad move!!!
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Where did your newspaper play the story about the layoffs? Ours put it up on the web site late yesterday afternoon, the slowest readership time of day, and then buried it on an inside business page, with a minuscule headline, in today's paper. If this isn't indicative of a double standard about news -- your bad-news story goes on the front page with a huge headline (which we snicker about while flashing knowing smiles at the news meeting), while our bad news story is treated as if it never happened.
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Here in Indiana we are expecting it to all go down today. People are very nervous since there has been little to no information for Lafayette and Muncie. As Jim reported here, Indy has said 55 will go.
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What they've done to the Photo dept in Phoenix is reprehensible. Since the bloodletting started last summer, we've last 8.5 photographers. Four photographers took buyouts last summer, yesterday we lost three photo editors and 1.5 photographers. The cuts in photos went well beyond 10 percent.
Most of these people were good experienced photojournalists. Their value went far beyond the photos they made. Their value included their knowledge of the communities they covered, their news judement and their ability to help guide the increasingly young and inexperienced reporters we're saddled with.
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The ax has fallen with a mighty whack in the Phoenix newsroom. Two AME's, several city editors, several zones editors, four and half full timers from photo. Several designers, some online people. They didn't take many reporters this time around.
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Elmira - 15 total Tuesday (3 in news) and more to come today - rumor building being sold because so few people left; printing moved two years ago along with most ad, HR, etc.
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Not sure about the other Gannett properties, but at USAT, this round of cutbacks, like the last, is mostly about opening up positions for digital. There are several things wrong with that, but one of the most disturbing is that no one is suppose to be exempt from these cutbacks, yet I am willing to bet that not a single digital staffer is involuntarily let go. There is as much dead wood there as there is on the print side, but because they are attached to the web site, they aren't seen as unproductive loafers. The attitude seems to be that even a bad Web site is better than a staffer who still works almost exclusively on the newspaper. That attitude is arrogantly applauded by some of the more hostile Web-ites.
And just so no one mistakes what I am saying, there are many folks working primarily online who are hard workers with a lot of skills. Nice folks, too. I am just saying that there are some, a relatively small minority, who should have been let go a long time ago, but won't be touched during these layoffs.
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Just read at sportsjournalists.com that Rochester's Scott Pitoniak was let go. That can't be true. He's among the best sportswriters at this company. Amazing.
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Louisville, KY "The Courier-Journal" has lost 8 people in circulation so far.
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Poughkeepsie just lost its public editor and senior local editor through voluntaries.
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And Gannett stock is trading within pennies of where it opened on Monday.
I see why any newspaper company has to cut costs right now. But I'm finding myself in the camp of those who say, why didn't the company invest some of those decades' worth of 40% profits while the money was rolling in?
Wall Street investors gorged on Gannett for decades. Now they're belching, patting their bellies and picking their teeth, and looking for their next meal.
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Tom Callinan, Cincinnati Enquirer editor, fired the following yesterday and is going after more today. Not sure if any of these were voluntary.
- Copy desk chief
- Business editor
- Lead artist
- A photo desk coordinator
- A community news editor
- The video trainer
- A copy editor
- A features copy editor
- A news desk editor
- A bureau editor
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I agree there will be another slash (maybe 5%) once 4th quarter earnings are announced in January. It doesn't make sense, though, since all the salaries that were cut in the 4th quarter will still be showing up on the books.
But since they have no other plan than eliminating staff and cutting sections, now would be the perfect time for those still remaining to work on resumes, save cash, etc.
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In the Montgomery newsroom: Two data desk workers who had been there forever; a reporter who covered a "target area" as well as courts; and all the part-timers and interns, including in the library, sports and photo. I think the total is six.
The total at the newspaper is 16 apparently, including some advertising cuts I don't have details about.
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So the question is, how does this possibly help "return the troubled 102-year-old publisher to prosperity"? The kind of journalism my paper (my former paper, now) was doing five or 10 years ago, and what it's doing today - it's pathetic; doesn't even compare. Reporters just aren't given the time not only to do long investigative pieces; they don't even get the time to get out on their beats, what little semblance of beats there are, and learn the ropes, make relationships with sources, comb for stories, learn about the fabric of the towns, etc. It's sad. Now this? How is further reducing the quality of the newspaper going to save it?
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