Florida (Brevard) Today?

[Gannettoid]

A person on the Blog said layoffs have begun with a person in advertising.

[Guest]

3 from the Brevard newsroom. 1 librarian, 1 assistant metro editor, and the Orlando Magic writer...

[Gannettoid]

Any word if they are cutting their Magic coverage?

[Guest]

I seriously doubt it, as the Magic is one of the few bright spots in these parts. Most likely they will be using wire reports...

[nightstalker]

Ad one from Accounting/Finance.

Total tally is now 5

[Guest]

All,

I know there has been great concern and angst about layoffs. We completed our staff reductions this afternoon with 11 employee layoffs, and another 12 positions that have been open or recently unfilled, for a total of 23 positions eliminated. These were all valued co-workers who have made significant contributions to our company.

As I mentioned last week, we worked to minimize the number of layoffs. This has been possible due to the many various expense savings that have been implemented. Most recently, we consolidated Monday’s paper into 3 sections, eliminated the daily TV Grids, as well as a number of other changes to our products. And even though any product changes we make are not easy for our readers or us, they need to be done to compensate for impacts of the economy on our business.

Going forward we will need to continue to look for other expense savings and operational efficiencies. If you have any ideas or suggestions to improve our overall business, please don’t hesitate to drop me a note.

I again want to reiterate my appreciation for your flexibility and cooperation as we adjust the size of our organization.

Regards,


Mark Mikolajczyk
President and Publisher

[nightstalker]

Add one from Media Technology...

Tally is now 6

[Guest]

TJ H. from Advertising. He looked pretty happy, I must say.


GANNETTOID EDIT: Unless it's a very well-known name or a top editor, let's keep names to initials unless that person wants their name on here. Thanks

[Guest]

Advertising 2, editorial 3, finance 1, online 1. Don't know where the old 4 are from.

[Guest]

TJ H. from Advertising. He looked pretty happy, I must say.

Oh, he is very, very, very happy! He was doing the work of 4 and had to deal with you know who.

[guest]

Any idea who the three from newsroom are? I used to know a bunch of folks over there...

[Guest]

Of course not the one or two who NEED to go. And to keep blaming lagging sales on the economy is getting old. People aren't buying the paper more and more BECAUSE there isn't the stuff in it they want anymore, especially at inflated prices.

[Guest]

TJ H. from Advertising. He looked pretty happy, I must say.

Oh, he is very, very, very happy! He was doing the work of 4 and had to deal with you know who.

Didn't you-know-who have some people volunteer to go last time? Maybe management should take the hint on how difficult is to work for a power-hungry, narcissistic, *****, that doesn't need to work anyways because she's very well off. (oh, snap!) I wonder who's jobsthey could have saved if they had gotten rid of her useless position.

Of course not the one or two who NEED to go. And to keep blaming lagging sales on the economy is getting old. People aren't buying the paper more and more BECAUSE there isn't the stuff in it they want anymore, especially at inflated prices.

They need to loose some of the management and sales staff. There are too many sales people on the payroll to not be making any money. Sales used to be a pretty aggressive position and the people that can bring in the business left the company a very long time ago because they knew that it was tapped. Make the sales people commission only- I guarantee a turn around, via resignation/termination or new business.

I was told K.L. was laid off from Moms Like Me sales position... is this true? Why would Gannett bring in a corporate sales person after C.S. (from the Melb. South team) was terminated, when they had KL right there?


Way to go Chris! Yet another nugget of proof of your excellent skills as a director!

You and Dumbo need to resign.

[Bullshifter]

Who's Dumbo?

and who's the powoer-hungry wealthy "she"? Someone in advertising?

Chris I know since I was employed by FLAT until 2007. Left by my own choice.

Is Rob the controller there and Landra the asst controller?

[KH]

Hey, 6:48 am. Chris is a class act and only expects the best out of people. He's helped a hell of a lot of people and business in his career. He always operates with this employees in mind. You should be lucky to have someone like him in the building or it would be worse.

[me]

You should be lucky to have someone like him in the building or it would be worse.

What's the worse that could happen? You mean hard working, company-loving employees getting laid off? Oh, wait! That already happened.

Chris is a nice person but that excuse the fact that he has poor management skills. We all know it's the good 'ole boys club, which is part of the reason Gannett is in the shitter.

You must be on the back wall... or in his back pocket.

[guest]

You should be lucky to have someone like him in the building or it would be worse.

What's the worse that could happen? You mean hard working, company-loving employees getting laid off? Oh, wait! That already happened.

Chris is a nice person but that excuse the fact that he has poor management skills. We all know it's the good 'ole boys club, which is part of the reason Gannett is in the shitter.

You must be on the back wall... or in his back pocket.

Chris, seriously you have lost a lot of respect from so many. You have team leaders telling their bosses what to do. A young group (team) walking around like they are superior and talk down to those around them. Managers telling you one thing but then hearing something very different from someone else. It is just all very frustrating. You need to knock some down off their high horses, and others you need to put more confidence in. We have faith in you and know that you still care, just PLEASE make things better, you can start now

[another guest]

From the Pay Cuts thread here ....

by kitdowd on Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:02 pm

Targeted pay cuts and hour cuts for some reporters and editors came down today at Florida Today.kitdowd
=============================

I have heard the same. Also heard other depts hit as well. Don't know if true.

[Guest]

From the Pay Cuts thread here ....

by kitdowd on Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:02 pm

Targeted pay cuts and hour cuts for some reporters and editors came down today at Florida Today.kitdowd
=============================

I have heard the same. Also heard other depts hit as well. Don't know if true.

I can not confirm editorial pay cuts but I know of one in operations.

[Guest]

Chris, seriously you have lost a lot of respect from so many. You have team leaders telling their bosses what to do. A young group (team) walking around like they are superior and talk down to those around them. Managers telling you one thing but then hearing something very different from someone else. It is just all very frustrating. You need to knock some down off their high horses, and others you need to put more confidence in. We have faith in you and know that you still care, just PLEASE make things better, you can start now

Put more confidence in which others? Others like you? Others who apparently lack the confidence in themselves to speak their mind to those mentioned above face to face but will do it while hiding behind the face of a blog? It sounds like there is a reason Chris doesn't put more confidence in you. If this is the way you feel you might want to try saying it where Chris can actually here you. You might get a little further.

For the others in this thread: as a sales rep at the newspaper I find it disturbing that those specifically referred to here as being "power- hungry" or "lacking management skills" or "having superior attitudes" are the people at our newspaper that I have the most faith in and the people that have the confidence (in themselves and don't need it from others like our guest above) to move us forward through one of the hardest points in many of our careers.

Maybe if you spent a little less time complaining about the issues on here and a little more time doing something to help yourselves and your coworkers we all wouldn't be in the situation we are in. Remember that no ONE person created this. It's the attitudes of the people like you and the from what I am seeing on here the internal turmoil that have put us where we are today.

Don't waste any more of your time bothering to respond to this because unlike most of you I have better things to do with my day than bitch on a blog but had to take time to defend a company and managers that I still believe in.