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Gannett Blog 
August 4, 2008 at 3:18 PM |
It is a bloodbath here. WE are firing people left and right!!! Employees are dropping like flys.
August 4, 2008 at 3:33 PM |
Seriously, y’all. What’s going on in Nashville? My relative works there.
August 4, 2008 at 3:41 PM |
Ask Cincy.
August 4, 2008 at 4:44 PM |
the ax is flying around here. watch it or y’all will hit as well.
Scarey scarey day here.
August 4, 2008 at 4:47 PM |
where’s here?
August 4, 2008 at 5:34 PM |
Yes, ask Cincinnati.
http://tinyurl.com/5k32sx
The Cincinnati Enquirer announced today that it’s offering a voluntary severance program to its employees. If enough workers don’t accept the buyout proposal, layoffs could occur later, its publisher said.
And as one looks over the roster of newsroom employees, there are a lot who had been there a long time already (when mr. whig was run out of town on a rail).
August 4, 2008 at 6:20 PM |
Cincinnati is seeking 50 volunteers (out of about 900 non-union employees) from all departments for voluntary buyouts, at two weeks’ pay for every year of service, plus health benefits continued for the buyout period.
Best guess (based on nothing but personal head-counting), news will give up about a dozen. Could be more, though, because other departments have already had multiple job cuts.
If there are too many volunteers, supposedly seniority will be a major factor in who gets the buyouts.
August 4, 2008 at 7:17 PM |
I heard Leslie G is coming back to town…anybody know why she was pushed out the first time??
August 4, 2008 at 8:15 PM |
There are about 1,500 community newspaper employees getting the axe this week. This is the work of Dickey, Krans and Evan. All corporate shit-boxes hiding in the Virginia ivory tower
Hey Dickey, what’s your next move after you fire everyone and hire all your “loyalists”?
August 4, 2008 at 8:19 PM |
Leslie G-string-Lombardo is the biggest corporate waste. We are all funding her fat salary.
I can’t imagine how many people we could have saved by firing her ass.
Wasn’t she fired once before?
August 5, 2008 at 10:19 AM |
She is on the verge of getting the axe. She is more than likely going to N’ville to get waxed or something. there is no way they would let her back into that building to run it after what she single handedly did to the operation when she was publisher. She should not have been fired last time but sent to jail for the horrible way she runs things. she needs to go!
August 5, 2008 at 10:27 AM |
You think Leslie G was bad in Nashville? Circulation has fallen even faster since LIE-feld took over. The staff has never been more demoralized. LIE-feld is a horrible publisher won’t even fix the air conditioner. It has been broken for months, and the Tennessean building is a furnace.
August 5, 2008 at 1:53 PM |
It is hot here at the Tennessean. That’s because they let the A/C tech who kept the old machinery running go. He took the buy-out offered last year.
August 5, 2008 at 2:28 PM |
No AC in Nashville? Revolt people!! Don’t show up for work! Call anyone at corporate that will listen to you and complain! That is just plain old crazy!
Tara- Do something about this! And GCI wonders why unions are starting to prey on all the Gannett papers? Becuase they are doing stupid shit to their people!
Also what are trying to say prior posters? that Ellen in a liar? Explain.
August 5, 2008 at 5:40 PM |
More on the Nashville front (but not about Ellen directly.) I just heard that the Credit Department is being outsourced.
August 5, 2008 at 7:59 PM |
I’ve heard nothing about Leslie G., but a little bird told me that Mark Silverman is on the way out.
And, yes, it’s been hotter than H-E-double hockey sticks in the Midsouth, but they finally brought out some big-ass fans, so there’s been some relief. I think the estimate was that the A/C would be repaired, oh, by say…October. (When we won’t need it anymore!!)
And then you have staff working on Web-based promotions like the Capture Music City photo contest to sell a pretty coffee table book, promoted this week in the young reader’s pub with a poorly executed marketing ad hailing: The Best of Middle Tennessee…by YOU! The ad features a photograph of a “chop-top” car (courtesy of a collision with a bus). Said accident caused the deaths of two people…but, hey, I guess that’s the “best” Middle Tennessee has to offer. I’m sure the victim’s families don’t think so. Wouldn’t a photo of Tootsie’s or the Parthenon be a better choice? Are the lunatics running the asylym?
August 5, 2008 at 9:23 PM |
We’re also doing that stupid coffee table book… What cool ideas will they come up with next????
August 5, 2008 at 10:09 PM |
what is this coffee table book?
August 5, 2008 at 11:40 PM |
Here’s one:
http://www.capturekentuckiana.com/about/book
They’re getting employees and the general public to submit the photos for them to create the book and then charge from $24.95 – $39.95 for it…
I guess if people aren’t reading newspapers any more we’ve got to get money from somewhere…
August 6, 2008 at 8:21 AM |
“Flys”? “Scarey”? What’s scary is this awful spelling by journalists!
August 6, 2008 at 8:43 AM |
They’re waiting until October to fix the air conditioner because they can save a buck by doing it in the off-season. There’s no reason why the a/c system can’t be fixed in a week or two at the most. Cheap-ass, greedy publisher. Why don’t you tell the truth to the employees?
August 6, 2008 at 9:20 AM |
Isn’t AC an OSHA issue?
August 6, 2008 at 10:43 AM |
Everybody is too scared here to tell OSHA. When you go to work and the publisher is running around with a hatchet in her hand, who can blame the employees for not wanting to speak up?
August 6, 2008 at 10:59 AM |
It’s highly doubtful that your A/C issue is worthy of an OSHA complaint. But, regardless, anyone can file a complaint anonymously. And, given other comments, that goes for Wage and Hour bureaus within your respective states too.
August 6, 2008 at 4:10 PM |
We “ain’t” all journalist…
August 6, 2008 at 7:14 PM |
The last word on the air conditioning at 1100 Broadway was that only one “chiller” of three was operational. “They” are currently trying to piece together one more operational “chiller” from the two that are non-functioning.
August 6, 2008 at 8:00 PM |
“They” are succeeding at piecing together a functional chiller about as well as “they” are succeeding at putting out a respectable newspaper.
August 6, 2008 at 8:16 PM |
News is out now about the credit dept. being outsourced. I hear that cuts are coming to the Marketing dept., and the Make & Model weekly pub is ceasing publication.
Oh…and Info Center staffers will soon be required to "punch in" to an electronic time clock…even reporters working out in the field. They will be required to send their manager an e-mail to state that they are starting work. Same goes for those given the option to work from home.
And the Advertising dept. is having a "spur of the moment" meeting tomorrow morning. We'll see how much more blood is let…
August 7, 2008 at 4:52 AM |
Anonymous said…
We “ain’t” all journalist…
Apparently, otherwise you would have made it “journalists”.
August 7, 2008 at 9:36 AM |
Any one interested in Unionizing the Tennessean can call 1-800-411-9292, leave a message and I promise the call will be returned in strictest confidence.
August 15, 2008 at 12:30 AM |
My feelings about Gannett (and The Tennessean, in particular) plummeted today just because of the fact that our publisher and top managers failed to even acknowledge the leaked memo and the impending job cuts. Instead, employees spent the day wondering whether they’d have jobs this time next week and wondering if our publisher would address the matter in the near future. Their handling of this has been shocking, to say the least.
August 19, 2008 at 8:29 PM |
Does anyone know what day this week they are doing the layoffs? Which departments are being targeted?
August 19, 2008 at 9:19 PM |
They are outsourcing the finance department AND the credit department (that was announced last week) and plan to layoff 10 people tomorrow (8/20).
40 positions currently open will not be filled which has helped ease the pain a little, but they said 10 still have to go…waiting on approval from corporate as to who gets the heave-ho.
August 20, 2008 at 11:35 PM |
As far as punching in the clock goes … I’m sure this stemmed from labor complaints at the Courier-Journal and Cherry Hill about employees not getting paid for working overtime. What difference is a timeclock going to make? Silverman, Downey and Fisher talk a good game about not wanting staff to be working overtime, but you catch absolute hell around here if you don’t complete an impossible workload within 40 hours. The result? Everybody gets cheated out of OT and they know it. I can’t wait for the day when the Labor Department finally catches up with Gannett.
–An Anonymous and overworked employee
August 23, 2008 at 1:38 PM |
Why is there never any news on this site, like who got laid off? Leavett and Marni, for two.