Scratch that, I checked the link to the Gannett blog. Holy COW: the carnage! Say what you will about the N-L, the bigger story — 1,000 newspaper jobs eliminted today — is very very very sad.
If that list is accurate, then this is a huge blow for the News-Leader. That list of exceptional journalists will leave a gaping hole in the newsroom.
Sarah, especially, will be missed. She was one of the bright spots that gave the paper some flavor. Now a bland and sterile newspaper is going to become even more insipid.
I am intimately familiar with the newsroom dynamics. A single cut, very highly placed in the newsroom leadership, could have avoided the majority of this carnage. This top newsroom executive's narcissism prevents him from seeing this, of course.
Disastrous cuts like this are not going to save this newspaper. It's sad to see this happening.
The NL is trading priceless institutional/community knowledge to pay replacements a lower salary. The readers will suffer, but not as much as these folks who have given much of their lives to the paper. It's only a short term financial win for Gannett.
Just as many people are coming in the door as are being shown to it. Read cheaper/younger. Institutional knowledge be damned, local corporate handlers don't care, just keep the bonus' coming. Springfield is among the 6 most profitable properties in the empire. Last year's profit margin in just the first 3 quarters approached 40% and $28m. (not counting the big 4th quarter) (gannettblog.blogspot.com) Corporate leadership has put the company hopelessly in debt. TV background CEO thinks future is only a TV/computer screen. It is a disservice to the community and democracy.
Gannett is frantically rearranging the deck chairs as the ship sinks.
They burden the News-Leader with incompetent newsroom leadership, and they suck the very life from the paper with directive after directive.
Good journalism is extinguished in favor of the corporate plan/fad du jour. A parade of executive editors, which has now met its low mark, have driven out good people.
It's a travesty that good people are shown the door so that the guy in the corner office can impress his corporate handlers.
The News-Leader is already a bad newspaper. It's about to become very bad before it fades into oblivion.
At 5:39 p.m. on December 4, another Anonymous said it all. As yet one more person familiar with newsroom antics, I can only utter a sad "Amen."
It's almost as if someone said, "Hey, why don't we save a few bucks by laying off some of our most devoted, experienced, intelligent and talented newsroom people?"
Glad I downsized my subscription to weekends only.
I'm sorry, my friends, but I know you'll all succeed beyond Boonville.
They take trees, grind it to pulp, make paper to print a daily newspaper...um....no one saw this coming...it is not anymore sad then when we used to relay on the internal combustion engine to get around......okay, let me rethink that.
Of the 19 that were cut, most of them took an early retirement...and they took it by choice. Some of the people cut had been there for 20 or 30 years...and they received a week's severance for every year they had been there.
The majority of the people involved didn't just get the axe. They volunteered to leave. At least of the people in Springfield.
Sarah Overstreet was overrated. Whether she took an early reitrement or was forced to leave, the News-Leader is better for it. Just because someone has been with the company for God-knows-how-long doesn't mean that they were a good journalist.
The only way I would feel bad is if she was axed rather than leaving of her own volition. No one needs to lose a job like that.
Gannett is a heavy-handed giant that makes all of its newspapers bend to its dark will. They all look the same, have the same type of stories, have the same bland Web sites, and they all are diverting resources into magazines in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable. The death of a real newspaper is something to be mourned, but the death of the Gannett corporation will be something to be celebrated. If newspapers are to survive, they need to be the opposite of Gannett. They need life and creativity and information that is so compelling that readers can't wait to get it. They need to innovate with their Web sites and find ways to make money off of the free delivery of information. Gannett is not going to survive, but anti-Gannett newspapers might at least have a fighting chance.
17 comments:
Sarah Overstreet
Ed Peaco - national news editor
Jan Peterson - features editor
John Dengler - graphic design
Plus one unfilled reporter position
The silence here is deafening. Where's the real chatter going on?
Scratch that, I checked the link to the Gannett blog. Holy COW: the carnage! Say what you will about the N-L, the bigger story — 1,000 newspaper jobs eliminted today — is very very very sad.
Wow.
Wow.
How sad.
If that list is accurate, then this is a huge blow for the News-Leader. That list of exceptional journalists will leave a gaping hole in the newsroom.
Sarah, especially, will be missed. She was one of the bright spots that gave the paper some flavor. Now a bland and sterile newspaper is going to become even more insipid.
I am intimately familiar with the newsroom dynamics. A single cut, very highly placed in the newsroom leadership, could have avoided the majority of this carnage. This top newsroom executive's narcissism prevents him from seeing this, of course.
Disastrous cuts like this are not going to save this newspaper. It's sad to see this happening.
The NL is trading priceless institutional/community knowledge to pay replacements a lower salary. The readers will suffer, but not as much as these folks who have given much of their lives to the paper. It's only a short term financial win for Gannett.
What replacements?
Just as many people are coming in the door as are being shown to it. Read cheaper/younger.
Institutional knowledge be damned, local corporate handlers don't care, just keep the bonus' coming.
Springfield is among the 6 most profitable properties in the empire. Last year's profit margin in just the first 3 quarters approached 40% and $28m. (not counting the big 4th quarter) (gannettblog.blogspot.com)
Corporate leadership has put the company hopelessly in debt. TV background CEO thinks future is only a TV/computer screen.
It is a disservice to the community and democracy.
Gannett is frantically rearranging the deck chairs as the ship sinks.
They burden the News-Leader with incompetent newsroom leadership, and they suck the very life from the paper with directive after directive.
Good journalism is extinguished in favor of the corporate plan/fad du jour. A parade of executive editors, which has now met its low mark, have driven out good people.
It's a travesty that good people are shown the door so that the guy in the corner office can impress his corporate handlers.
The News-Leader is already a bad newspaper. It's about to become very bad before it fades into oblivion.
Did anyone notice that Monday's N-L had Sunday's Page 3A. Think the layoffs had anything to do with this?
At 5:39 p.m. on December 4, another Anonymous said it all. As yet one more person familiar with newsroom antics, I can only utter a sad "Amen."
It's almost as if someone said, "Hey, why don't we save a few bucks by laying off some of our most devoted, experienced, intelligent and talented newsroom people?"
Glad I downsized my subscription to weekends only.
I'm sorry, my friends, but I know you'll all succeed beyond Boonville.
Sombody with a little cash ought to take it off Gannett's hands and put together a real paper...owned and operated right here in Spring Patch.
They take trees, grind it to pulp, make paper to print a daily newspaper...um....no one saw this coming...it is not anymore sad then when we used to relay on the internal combustion engine to get around......okay, let me rethink that.
Who gives a crap. Newspapers are done. Finished. The left-wing's web has destroyed their own voice.
Of the 19 that were cut, most of them took an early retirement...and they took it by choice. Some of the people cut had been there for 20 or 30 years...and they received a week's severance for every year they had been there.
The majority of the people involved didn't just get the axe. They volunteered to leave. At least of the people in Springfield.
Sarah Overstreet was overrated. Whether she took an early reitrement or was forced to leave, the News-Leader is better for it. Just because someone has been with the company for God-knows-how-long doesn't mean that they were a good journalist.
The only way I would feel bad is if she was axed rather than leaving of her own volition. No one needs to lose a job like that.
Gannett is a heavy-handed giant that makes all of its newspapers bend to its dark will. They all look the same, have the same type of stories, have the same bland Web sites, and they all are diverting resources into magazines in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable. The death of a real newspaper is something to be mourned, but the death of the Gannett corporation will be something to be celebrated. If newspapers are to survive, they need to be the opposite of Gannett. They need life and creativity and information that is so compelling that readers can't wait to get it. They need to innovate with their Web sites and find ways to make money off of the free delivery of information. Gannett is not going to survive, but anti-Gannett newspapers might at least have a fighting chance.
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