UPDATED 10/29/08: Employees at the Democrat and Chronicle are facing a new round of staff cutbacks.
With third-quarter earnings down 32 percent, Gannett newspaper officials have ordered a 10 percent cut in the community publications workforce.
Employees at the Gannett-owned Democrat and Chronicle were notified of the cuts yesterday via an e-mail from publisher Ali Zoibi, says Steve Orr, president of the Newspaper Guild of Rochester, the newsroom's union. Employees were told that the Gannett corporate office has ordered staff reductions of 10 percent by early December, Orr says.
"It's a sad, frustrating thing to watch a venerable institution like the newspaper be diminished like this with no certain end-point in sight," Orr says.
The Gannett Blog, an internet site run by a former Gannett reporter and editor, also reported a rumor that news space in Gannett's daily newspapers across the country could be cut by 10 percent and that classified pages and color news positions could be reduced. The blog's editor couldn't confirm those tips. Orr says he's heard rumors of other cutbacks, like the news space, but, he says, "I have no idea if those rumors are correct."
Company-wide, the cuts will be limited to the community publications; USA Today will not be affected.
Gannett hasn't indicated how many positions will be cut overall, only that they will be achieved by involuntary layoffs. The company cut 1,000 jobs in August.
Comments for "MEDIA: More cuts for Gannett" (2)
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Jim Campbell said on Oct. 28, 2008 at 6:04pm
We talk about job cuts and downsizing as if it ends there. After the layoff the real problems present themselves. Marriages often crumble, difficulty raising children financially and mentally occurs and the stress involved has taken many lives. If we feel the effects of this it's often because we don't allow ourselves to consider alternatives. I'd been downsized twice in a five year period for business reasons not associated with performance. I’m not available for that any longer. You don’t need to be either. www.LikeSoup.com
Frank J. Regan said on Oct. 31, 2008 at 8:52am
It is sad about the cuts jobs at the Democrat and Chronicle. Job cuts mean less reporting, Less reporting means less coverage on environmental issues in our area. News is when an environmental catastrophe -- like contamination from a brownfield into a community -- happens. Reporting is anticipating and helping the public to connect the dots so environmental issues don't become catastrophes.
One of the provisions of the COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934 I thought was for the media to act in accordance with the public interest. But how much have Gannet, and the rest of our mainstream media, acted in the public interest when the largest newspaper in our area barley mentions serious environmental issues in our area? Sure, there's "greeney" articles -- delusional or cherry-picked articles that allow us the illusion that we are seriously doing something confronting issues of sustainability.
As the effects of Global Warming, pollution and cuts in environmental managing, become greater, our media provides us with less coverage. We get more entertainment, which we crave, and less critical information about the actual state of our environment, which we need. Then the various media fail because they have become irrelevant, because you can get entertainment at the moves.
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