Gannett to Outsource Severance

Multiple sources confirm that the Republic layoff will be this evening.  Meanwhile, the Blog "Gannettoid" has an interesting report. 

Confirming rumors, a Gannett employee who was laid off Tuesday said the company has outsourced the severance payments. The person, posting as "parson" from The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., said the company said Total Management Solutions is handling severance pay.

The post said: "Transitional pay is only paid if you are eligible to receive state unemployment benefits. You must verify your eligibility for this on a weekly basis." The poster was told early they were being laid off after informing the paper they would need to be out of town Thursday to be with an ailing parent.

Making the recently laid off jump through third party hoops...nice.

Readers often ask why I spend so much time covering the business aspect of the Republic.  My response is that "they don't cover themselves."  Readers often follow up by reminding me that Gannett is a "business" and doesn't have the same transparency requirements as government. 

Really? 

Newspapers hold businesses to a high standard.  They "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" or some sort of J School BS like that.  Whatever.

That's why it's supremely ironic that the Republic will report every Basha's store closing, and cover every other industry's travails, but simply not disclose their own problems. 

Not only do they refuse to cover their own demise, they often mislead readers about it--like failing to disclose a their plummeting weekday circulation but running ads touting one small uptick in Sunday circulation. 

Furthermore, with no one covering Gannett, the company can--and does--mistreat its employees with impunity.  The above story about Gannett outsourcing severance and making employees jump through eligibility hoops with a third party is only the latest example.  I've also posted stories about Gannett hiring third party marketers who take kids (occasionally disabled kids) door-to-door and asking people to subscribe so they can send the kid to camp.

Then there's the layoff themselves--oldest and most expensive employees first.  Don't expect any of the Cronkite slave labor interns to be shown the door.  No, it's the guys who are in their mid 50s, earn a decent wage and have worked at the Republic for 20 years who will be shown the door.  Actually, they won't be shown the door.  They are going to be called at home tonight and informed that their key card doesn't work, their email has been disconnected and they shouldn't come in tomorrow.  They won't be "shown the door;" they will never see the inside of the door again.  A third party vendor is going to mail their personal items to them and security is going to be on the lookout for their car. 

Of course, this is simply modern corporate behavior in a competitive environment--a dying industry has to compensate somewhere.  But newspapers are the ones who take credit for holding OTHER industries accountable for boorish behavior. 

So if they continue to hold others accountable while refusing to disclose their own shortcomings then I'm going to print it. 

Comments

[Stewie]

You nailed it. Double standard. Hypocrisy. Whatever you want to call it.

[Brian]

Citizen journalism at its finest! Well done, Greg.

Gannett would rather bash Bashas' then cover their own hypocrisy.

[cowboy bob]

Nice job...do you really think you can get them to print a story about themselves and be truthful? They exist on half truths and incomplete details so this is nothing new and the very reason they are going the same way of the buggy whip.

[EdFoster]

Back in the day, the Republic considered it important to report its failings. Otherwise, how could it report on others?

For instance, we ran stories about Tom Fitzpatrick's large parking ticket collection. (Fitz was a popular columnist, if you don't remember him. Won a Pulitzer for his reporting of the 1968 Democratic convention riots.)

Bill Fisher, a copy editor, flipped out and robbed a bank. He was caught trying to escape on a bicycle. Every step of that was reported.

I once reported the fact that the paper wasn't paying sales tax or something in Mesa. I don't recall the details. I do remember that some puke in the business office was upset. Too bad. It ran anyway.

Honestly, newsrooms took this very seriously. Maybe that's changed.

[North Valley Republican]

I like your blog because you call it as you see it, not like you think people would like you to call it. Frankly, while I think you are fairly conservative, you don't pander to special interests - that's refreshing. Keeping the Republic on its toes, that takes effort. Nice job.

[Marie]

"Then there's the layoff themselves--oldest and most expensive employees first. Don't expect any of the Cronkite slave labor interns to be shown the door. No, it's the guys who are in their mid 50s, earn a decent wage and have worked at the Republic for 20 years who will be shown the door."

Nope. Actually, from the newsroom (so far), 2 under 25 and one under 35 were let go. So what do you think about that?

[Richard Moreno]

Greg thinks you should tell him more about the layoff, Marie, like who they are and where they worked so he can be the ultimate arbiter of trends.

[Robert Wultsch]

As someone that was laid off a year ago from a newspaper I feel happy for those laid off. Working for a newspaper ain't awesome.

[HeadlessThompsonGunner]

Well, 20 people was the number. One reporter in there, two line editors. Online took a pretty big hit. Photo lost a part-timer. Graphic news lost a couple. The feature rim got hit, the news rim did, too. Support staff -- calendar-type stuff, library -- took a hit.

Where was Espresso Pundit reporting the details of this?

What Greg does is offer opinion, and he does a nice job of it. He doesn't do "citizen journalism." Or he didn't in this case.

Citizen journalism would have been Greg working the phones and the ether tonight to get the list of 20 (and being responsible enough not to publish the list, just the sections; incidentally, a bunch of staffers and ex-staffers did put together a list Wednesday night).

"Citizen journalism" would have been not making blatantly false statements such as "A third party vendor is going to mail their personal items to them and security is going to be on the lookout for their car."

(Note: The third-party vendor will administer the benefits. And yeah, it's a bunch of hoops to jump through, and the real point of weekly recertification is to rescind severance if someone gets another job, which is a lousy, mean-spirited way to save money).

Citizen journalism was last week when a Republic reporter wrote a story about a fire at a Biltmore Estates house and blew it off and the paper's readers took it upon themselves to do some really interesting research and bring up some intriguing questions.

So "citizen journalism" takes effort. It's not just "holding the paper's feet to the fire by writing about it." That's being an opinion writer, and no matter how valid the opinions are, it's not journalism as it should be practiced.

There's a place for what Greg does, yes. But if you people are going to depend on bloggers for "citizen journalism," encourage them to get off their ass and do some reporting.

(note: Greg does sometimes do this)

Phoenix is 20 journalists lighter tonight, and regardless of what you think of the Republic, this city's newspaper is less dynamic then it was yesterday, and Arizona is even further away from the kind of newspaper it deserves.

[Brian]

HeadlessThomsponGunner:

Now that you have descended from your ivory soap box, perhaps you can also defend the myriad of press releases that turn into stories on the pages of the Republic. Can you defend the 5-10 minutes it takes for a paid journalist to do the story from the press release?

You want people to get up off their asses? Great! Let's see some real enterprise journalism out of the Republic reporters and not the quid-pro-quo journalism from press releases that passes as news.

The Republic and other newspapers are dying on the vine because of the lack of enterprise journalism and balanced op-ed pages/news stories. I'd rather read the Democratic talking points that come out from the DNC than read the op/ed pages and "news" stories from the Republic. At least when I read it from the DNC, I am getting it directly from the source.

Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the 20 people that lost their jobs. That's a tragedy, it really is. But what is more tragic is the fact that people like you who live and work in an ivory tower, disconnected from real people and reality.

[Dennis Apache Junction]

Glad to see the RAG go.

I have lived in the valley since conception. 46 year now and have watched how the Republic has with contempt made a mockery of reporting.

Not since Don Bolles has a half decent story come out of the PUKE RAG. They even did a injustice to their own.

The Republic deserves it's demise for feeding on it's own and should burn like the trash that it is.

I would like to see a story of what the MUCKY MUCKs are taking home when they get relieved of their jobs.

Great Story.

[EdFoster]

Golly, so much mean-spiritedness! Back in my day, everybody loved the Republic and its reporters. At least, that was my impression. What about that, Greg?

Anyway, there are some important trends here. They've apparently recognized that there's no journalism without reporters. So, support people are getting the ax. However, that's problematic, too.

Copy editors, for instance, perform important functions. They watch over readability (think spelling and grammar). They also occasionally catch inaccuracies and libel problems. It's the rare reporter who hasn't been saved by a copy editor. Rim people are important.

At some point, Gannett will have to stop cutting. The product is already suffering.

I agree that Greg's work is more along the lines of a columnist. It's still important, though. I imagine reporters are more careful, knowing he is watching. I'm glad I didn't have to put up with that!

[EdFoster]

I should have added that Gannett is not focusing on older employees. It can't, legally. I'll bet Gannett's lawyers are sweating the age mix.

Of course, they're looking to reduce salary costs. That's why they do layoffs.

Also, it's true that they call people at home. But some people prefer that. It's humiliating to get the bad news in the newsroom. I speak from experience. But you're also surrounded by friends, who offer support. I doubt there's a good way to get laid off.

Whatever, some people prefer the call at home.

[Matt]

The cuts are not about Republic financial losses. The Republic continues to make lots of money. These cuts were to pay for the debt created by Gannett when they bought back stock at $65 a share and is now worth pocket change.

One way or another, the Republic is likely to go away. Not for a long time.

[onehorsetown]

I could almost see the smoke coming off your keyboard. Good job, Greg. This town needs some investigative journalists. They'd be busy 24/7.

[Tom]

I had an interesting experience with the "rag" today. I received no paper. Now consider that the customer service does not open until 10am; yet I wanted to read the morning paper at 6am. When I did get through, the music was so loud I had to place the phone 4feet away to keep my ear drum intact. Then I was told I had stopped my paper - which I had not. Then when I inquired about getting today's paper I was told "we cannot guaranteed you'll get one." So much for customer service. No wonder circulation is down! ARGhhhhhhhhh! I told the telephone person I was one ticked off customer.

[onehorsetown]

This really did appear as a headline in a newspaper (not AZRep):
"Man Kills Self Then Turns Gun on Wife and Daughter"
The paper ran a "sorry about that" the next day. And these are the people who are supposedly reporting the news?

[Dave72]

Maybe they will dump some of the EEO trainees Gannett has foisted off on the Republic in recent years..... Naahhhhhhhhh.

[muckraker]

The most despicable thing about these layoffs is how these former employees are getting no health insurance past the end of the month. The cost of COBRA will kill them. Greg, if you want to really report on this situation give people the details of this so-called "severance package" and compare it with the previous packages. Gannett is putting the screws to those people, and the people who "survived" these latest cuts are scared to hell now that severance deal totally sucks.

[ron]

I see we no longer call it a 'severance package' - it is 'transitional pay'. Euphesisms continue afoot.

A Prop to raise taxes is a 'revenue enhancement tool.' We can all play this game...

[col.smeag]

So does this mean I will need to switch to grocery store adds to line the bird cage? Or will the Gannet employees work for food adds?

[Cappuccino in Chief]

Accountability seems to be a big complaint here. Who holds who accountable?

Who holds internet bloggers accountable? For instance, who holds Mr. Espresso accountable for "Obama is unelectable no matter how many times he disowns his white grandmother?" Who holds him accountable for confabulating a political conspiracy theory in which the "victim" was arrested for driving 109 mph?

Who held Sarah Palin accountable for her incoherent resignation speech? Who held her accountable for her remarks about the "little pockets of what I call the real America?"

Who's going to hold Dick Cheney accountable for creating a secret intelligence force and concealing it from the Congress and the American people? Who's going to hold him accountable for torture, secret prisons, spying on Americans in their own country, outing Valerie Plame?

I have lots of questions about accountability. A newspaper that fibbed a little about its circulation numbers? Wow, that's big. Really big. Someone better hold them accountable for that.

[Michel Marizco]

@HeadlessThomsponGunner
It's a nice fantasy, this notion that reporters are out hitting the streets, working the phones, running deep sources to expose scandals and scoundrels. But the sad truth is that many, if not most, daily newspapers don't have the time or the inclination to run critical investigations. They depend on government and private enterprise press releases, write single source stories from interviews with public relations flacks and reporters do much of their work by telephone. There's little benefit to parroting "he said-she said" stories, that's not terribly different from the hobby of the bloggers.
Occasionally, very occasionally, a reporter will knock one out with deep research and good writing; that's wonderful. But that should be the norm, not the rare exception.

[an0n]

I see we no longer call it a 'severance package' - it is 'transitional pay'. Euphesisms continue afoot.

Posted by: ron | July 11, 2009 at 10:43 AM
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Ron, this is not a euphimism. The laid off employees are not getting a severence package. They were told to apply for unemployment benefits and that a contracted third party will oversee the distribution of supplemental benefit pay. It's not the same thing as severance.

[Appleblossom]

Does this mean that Mr. Patterson will be supporting unions for workers to ensure their rights are respected?

[TJ]

On a related note, I see that the Republic now has a fan page on Facebook: "Rescue the Republic."

Strangely, the ads for it says: "love it or hate it"... which seems like a odd way to find supporters for the paper.

464 fans, but plenty of critical commenters. Its a interesting group, but a little sad.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rescue-the-Republic/210559750143#/pages/Rescue-the-Republic/210559750143

[Editor]

Roland's (the Headless Thompson Gunner) analysis of "Citizen journalism" nails it.

What Greg posted is not "citizen journalism" since he didn't do any reporting. He cruised the 'net found some stuff and opined on it. But he did not generate any original sources or any original reporting.

If he had done some reporting he would have connected the transitional pay dots and reported that former employees are being forced to go on unemployment and that the company is using taxpayers (since we all pay into unemployment) to subsidize their firings.

He would have mentioned that if employees elect to go back to school full time, start their own business or leave the state (for example to move back home with parents or look for a job in another state) they lose their unemployment and get no severance.

That employees have no medical coverage and have to use COBRA to maintain their health insurance. Since COBRA is temporarily being underwritten by the stimulus, taxpayers are again being asked to subsidize Gannett's firings.

He would have mentioned that employees laid off in previous rounds got one week of pay per year of employment, up to 26 weeks and health insurance continued through the severance period but that other similar sized media companies (Washington Post, Dow Jones and New York Times) typically give two weeks of pay per year for up to one year, with health insurance. Or roughly double what Gannett paid in previous rounds.

That the company, although undeniably in a difficult position, is still profitable. That the Republic in particular probably has a profit margin of 15-18%. Other Gannett papers are in the upper 20% to lower 30% range but they too fired people. Others, especially in Michigan and Ohio, are in single digits. In fact, yesterday the company posted profits of $70.5 million, beating the street estimates.

He also would have reported that corporation's top executives have maintained their "golden parachutes" that are worth millions. (CEO Craig Dubow's alone is $36 million and includes health insurance for life.)

These are all things that could easily have been found and reported and put the behavior of the company in perspective. It would have been real "citizen journalism" and it would have really been "holding their feet to the fire."

[Krusty]

Editor, if you had written like this when you worked on the ninth floor you would still be employed by the big bad company. Cheers