Yesterday Craig Dubow, the C.E.O. of McLean, VA based Gannett announced that most of its 35,000 employees would be given one week off unpaid furlough during the next quarter. I would speculate this will not affect senior management who will continue with their expense accounts and bonuses but the 'worker bees' will bear the brunt of the suffering.Most SBYnews readers know Gannett Corporation operates not only the USA Today but the Salisb
ury Daily (Tilghman) Times and their Eastern Shore group has purchased and run over a dozen local newspapers into the ground. Their bad management, poor news coverage combined with a really bad attitude from the sales department has pushed away literally millions in advertising revenues. By publishing a very shoddy product to extremely low standards, has driven readers away in droves, because who wants to pay for a crappy paper.My personal experience in dealing with the arrogance of the publisher and staff of the Salisbury Daily Times is both horrific and astounding, where they made no less than 5 mistakes per ad for a 4-month period and refused to make good. They were considered just little things like putting in the wrong dates & times for auctions or auction previews that might be a minor typo for a newspaper but critical error to any auctioneer or auction bidder. That is another story but in reading the horror stories from other business owners on this blog, I know for a fact that I was not alone.
Below is the statement or 'Official Party Line' that Dubow gave to the Gannett employees:
Today Gannett is implementing a furlough program across all U.S. divisions and at Corporate headquarters. This means that most of our U.S. employees -- including myself and all other top executives -- will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter. This furlough will be unpaid. Unions also will be asked to participate.We are doing this to preserve our operations and continue to deliver for our customers while confronting the issues raised by some of the most difficult economic conditions we have ever experienced.
After much consideration, we decided a furlough program would be the fairest and least intrusive way to meet these fiscal challenges in the first quarter, which is traditionally the lightest time of the year. We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward.
As the day goes on, you will be receiving information from your division presidents explaining the program, including some FAQs to help answer any of your questions and address your concerns about pay and benefits.We have made some very difficult decisions this past year, all with the goal of keeping Gannett strong and preparing for the future. I understand I have asked a great deal of you, and I regret adding to your burden with this program.
But my sincere hope is that this step removes the need to do anything more drastic, and that business conditions improve.
As always, I thank you for your patience and loyalty to Gannett.
***********************
My heart goes out to the worker bees, their families and especially their children who will be the ones to suffer the most. If I were to offer a piece of advice it would be to start looking for a new job now because anyone who is employed by Gannett simply has no job security at this point in time.
Bad management combined with a bad economy is ringing the death knell of newspapers as we have known them in America since the 1600's.
Blogs and online media are the way that people want to communicate in a more viral organic environment, this simple Blog now has a larger readership base than the Salisbury Daily Times.
The King is Dead, Long Live the King.
12 comments:
Billy: You're not exactly beloved around here, either, so cool it with the newspaper hating.
I don't think that any customer who asked for decent service from Gannett is "beloved" around your paper.
All we wanted you to put in our ads were the CORRECT times and dates...
But that is simply too much to ask for.
Enjoy your unpaid week off.
Yeah, and Joe is going to take full responsibility for their downfall. HAHAHAHA Good one!
I Feel really bad for the employees of Gannett. They do not deserve to suffer because of the arrogance of the senior management of Gannett newspapers.
The Bassettman and the Saylor smuck,are such arrogant individuals they truly believe they have no responsibility for the failure of the Daily Disappointment.
What a "rag" some of us older types can remember when it truly was a good newspaper. Staffed by good people who were a part of the community of Wicomico County.
Bassett and Saylor have suffered from delusions of grandeur for way to long. Time for a dose of real, how to not to run a newspaper, business.
Does this mean the Bassettman can spend more time with his unemployed wife?
I have been involved in so many situations in this county and city. In my opinion these situations were rarely reported correctly in The Daily Times articles. I found the review and lack of responsibility for the information in the articles very appauling as a citizen who wanted correct information about this area. I have not purchased a paper for 10 years due to that fact. I am glad that we are now evolving to the interent age where people and respond to what is in "black and white" instead of having no recourse offered by the papers. I do miss the The Advertiser that was very responsible and only reported and wrote things that were confirmed. Of course it could not compete with the big money behind the other papers. I also found the free papers in worcester county report things much more accurately the the local paper. Thanks to you Joe for helping keep the local paper in check.
Gannet got way too big for it's britches here on the shore. They bought all of the little papers and now all of the papers say the same thing.
It is ridiculous and adds the boring homogenization of America.
I feel bad for some of the employees at DT's but there are some there including Greg Bassett that caused the problems here with this local branch.
I just wish they would have gotten rid of Bassett a long time ago.
My 82 year old mother doesn't even know what the internet is really so a hardcopy newspaper is her real only way of knowing what's going on. Not that the DT's really kept her abreast lately but it gives here "something" to read.
Everything the Bassett's have touched have had bad outcomes from their involvement.
Those two have been so high up on their pedestals for so long, it's nice to see their pedestals falling down!
Salisbury and the Eastern Shore would be a much better place without them.
No single person can take responsibility for the natural evolution of society. Print journalism is undoubtedly going the way of the dinosaur due to the advances in technology. The only way they can survive would be to diversify. Go online and allow people to interact AND reserve it's pages for stories and articles resulting from investigative reporting. By the time people get a newspaper, the information it contains is old due to the instant access people have via the internet. Unless Gannett adopts a new strategy that sends their newspapers in a different direction, we can all look for them to disappear through attrition as the older generations pass away and the generations that adapt to the computer age take their rightful place at the helm of society. This is a naturally occurring process without which we would still be using Eli Whitney's cotton gin.
i used to work for the daily times and none of this is the employees fault, it is entirely the corporate offices doing. the reason there are so many mistakes to the ads is due to the fact that the proofreader and more than half of the graphics department was laid off (they have always been the department that apparently doesnt matter because according to corporate they dont bring in any money yet if they werent there the ads that were sold would not be done). There are not enough people working in that department to get the work done correctly which is why companies stop placing ads. some days they work from 8am til 8pm without leaving just to get the work done with their skeleton crew. corporate should be the ones being replaced since they are the ones that have run that company to the ground with their poor dicisions!
Anon 8:59
While I agree corporate is the main culprit here, I must disagree with your other reasoning.
As a company who has advertised in DT's for many years, the recent layoffs have nothing to do with the accuracy of ads. The ads accuracy has been a problem there for a looooooong time!
bye Bye Bassett Bye Bye
FINALLY?!
As a company who has advertised in DT's for many years, the recent layoffs have nothing to do with the accuracy of ads. The ads accuracy has been a problem there for a looooooong time!
Thats what I was trying to say, its nothing new.
The first response from Gannett is typical of how they treat customers.
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