Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Surprise layoff!... News & Observer pink slips 10 employees

One week after its parent company announced 2nd quarter profits, The News & Observer said Monday it will lay off 10 employees.

The News & Observer Publishing Co. will eliminate another 10 positions as the media company continues to struggle with slumping ad sales.

Publisher Orage Quarles III, who oversees The N&O, newsobserver.com and community publications including The Cary News and The Chapel Hill News, told employees in an e-mail Monday that executives hoped July would be a turning point after months of revenue declines.

"But that was not the case," he wrote. "We continue to make our way through an extremely challenging time."

Of the 10 positions cut, one was in the newsroom.

[........]

"Despite the encouraging news our parent company delivered to Wall Street last week and a few faint signs that the economy might be on the mend, our revenues are falling short of expectations," Quarles wrote. "It is essential that we meet our budget for the remaining months of 2009."


Irony: business reporter Jonathan Cox, who authored this piece on the N&O's business blog, said last week he is leaving the N&O.

Hat tip: email


.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

A.K.A. permanent furloughs...or to put it in nicer terms...a transition package.

...and they didn't that one coming...

Roll the dice and lets see who's next...(Rattle Rattle)ADN? (Rattle Rattle)KC? (Rattle Rattle)Sacto...Yeah! Sacto, The guild has been griping about the forced furloughs so lets make it permanent...(Rattle Rattle)uh Fresno has been flying under the radar (Rattle Rattle)and so has Merced Sun Star...that looks good too...(Rattle Rattle)Last count we had 94 in Idaho, 2 or 3 there would help our bottom line...(Rattle Rattle)Hot Damn, we gots 217 in Georgia at last count, we'll cut 10 or 15 there...(Rattle Rattle)WHAT! we still have over 1,000 people in Miami?!? Let's take it down to an even 900...(Rattle Rattle)...C'mon Baby!!! Gary needs new shoes...the other ones keep dropping!

Anonymous said...

Howwwww can this be!? Why just the other day the pumpers were saying that our pay cuts were scrapped! We're profitable...back in the black....on a roll....how, how, how?


Guess the guys that said we had to keep firing people to make it look like we were profitable were right.

Anonymous said...

Aw damn. I wonder if that is what the big wigs were in KC discussing the other day?

Time to flush another hundred. I wonder if they'll try and keep it secret flushing just a few at a time like last quarter?

Anonymous said...

Yeah but on the bright side Felicia Grissette former Director of Marketing was given a new lofty title last week and gets to add to her six figure salary while the working stiffs get stiffed. Lets get rid of these execs who don't do anything but waste space.

Anonymous said...

She looks more like a bag lady than an executive.

Oh well, they only had to fire two or three people to cover her. That leaves seven or eight to prop up earnings!


Thanks N&O for doing your share.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm I wonder if this will be McClatchys next move.


As it cuts jobs, Gannett also cuts severance pay

Last December, when the Gannett newspaper chain laid off thousands of workers, Jenny Poon was not one of them. Now she wishes she had been. Ms. Poon, an art director at The Arizona Republic, lost her job this month in the latest wave of layoffs, as the Gannett Company, like other corporations, shed jobs to keep up with falling revenue. But rather than pay severance, as it did in previous rounds, Gannett is paying what is called supplemental unemployment benefits, which allows the company to shift part of the cost onto the states.

Anonymous said...

Overall McClatchy had a number they wanted to cut to. Since naturally bigger papers have more bodies to sacrifice, they cut deeper last time than smaller papers, yet the overall expense cut was applied to the company as a whole.

Thus, now that July numbers are coming in you see the smaller papers (who didn't necessarily have to cut deep) that are having to layoff more people, institute furloughs, etc., to make their internal numbers (margin).

Don't be surprised if you see "smaller" papers continue to trim of appendages. Also, we are past the threshold for a WARN notice, so there is no worry of that.

Anonymous said...

What's Felicia Gressette's new gig? She made trouble for the staffers when she was features editor and never did much to impress once she was marketing VP. Curious as to what they see in her.

Anonymous said...

Publisher Orage Quarles III needs to resign today.

Anonymous said...

What McClatchy sees in many of its incompetent/hated managers is difficult to see because the managers are out and out dumbasses who don't have a clue. They were promoted because they sucked up and didn't rock their superior's sinking boats. Bypassing people with vision and legit talent is what is sinking the company. Protecting your ass never has been a recipe for successfully managing any company into the future.

Anonymous said...

To 8:49: Sac Bee newsroom is a prime example of your "dumbasses" calling the shots. The print side is rife with decay at the top, yet nothing is ever done to blow these idiots away. Some have been there for 20 years and continue to call the shots! When they got a new executive editor a few years ago (Sill) there was hope she'd clean house. Hasn't happened and probably won't. That type of shortsightedness is killing us.

Anonymous said...

Rattle Rattle...who's next?

Anonymous said...

Look at Modesto and get rid of Vasche. He started there when he was crapping his diapers and will retire crapping his diapers! It is the only thing he knows (how to screw up). Publisher Eric Johnston isn't much better. He was involved in starting the online media blitz and now it's turned around and is biting at his butt.
Then head south to Merced and get rid of publishe Hank Vander Veen. He is a back stabbing, worthless piece of work. How did he get to that position after starting out working the docks at Modesto? He went behind everyone's back and figured out how to cut the whole production department at Modesto! How many layoffs have you seen at Merced. Hey Mark, Eric and Hank...What goes around...

Anonymous said...

Corp. is full of managers promoted from Fresno and Modesto. This is not a good thing. They bring their small town backwards ways of thinking to an already moribund company. No wonder they can't move forward.

Anonymous said...

Sill is one of the worst managers when it comes to promoting suck ups past their level of competence. It is why the likes of Grissette and (Linda) Williams live on today. That is old Mel's legacy. If you crossed her, you paid for it. Hence, the serious ass licking started during her reign of error. It's good to see she hasn't changed a bit. Old Hatchet face lives on as will her ilk.

Anonymous said...

Sill didn't bring any new and talented blood to the management ranks in Sacramento. She must view talent as a threat which is why she surrounds herself with small-minded, vindictive, no-talent managers. The newspaper is paying the price daily for her inability to clean house and bring in smart, young guns.

Anonymous said...

What's amazing is how corporate continues to look the other way in Sac when its the flagship paper. Once you're managing editor, you're there for life unless you quit or die. The newsroom is rotting from within.

Anonymous said...

Vasche was born and raised at the Modesto Bee...getting stale...time to leave!
Van Verneen...I don't know where he came from, but I think it was a dark slimy place under some Igneous strata. Last time I saw him, it looked like someone grabbed him by his tiny little manhood and pulled him through a key hole. I think it may be catching up to him. Hey Hank, better see a cardio. doc and lay off the Big Macs.
Johnson was in the right place at the right time saying the right things the Grand Poobah and the wrecking crew wanted to hear.

Anonymous said...

MW should put together a "10 Worst McClatchy Managers" list and post it. Good for big laughs!

Anonymous said...

Hey 12:27, I'm no fan of McClatchy or some of its management either, but personal attacks on someone's weight and other non-business-related attributes is crossing the line as juvenile and unbecoming.

There's enough relevant dirt to discuss to not have to stoop to those levels. It only fogs the message and gives MNI lovers the chance to categorize this whole blog as laughable and full of uninformed people with worth reading.

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Correction to previous message:

...uninformed people with comments not worth reading.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anybody cares what McClatchy lovers think of this blog - do they? There aren't that many McClatchy lovers anyway.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough 1:20, but as a journalist who was laid off by McClatchy, I still care about credibility whether my posts are read by McClatchy lovers or haters.

You obviously don't care. That's just sad whether you're a journalist or not.

Sigh.

Anonymous said...

"Once you're managing editor, you're there for life unless you quit or die."

Expand that...it's really "once you're a manager..."

They've got managers who've worked no where else for their entire careers. Fresh thinking? Not gonna happen.

Anonymous said...

Hey 12:27, I'm no fan of McClatchy or some of its management either, but personal attacks on someone's weight and other non-business-related attributes is crossing the line as juvenile and unbecoming.



You're a laid off "journalist" not a judge. You may have thought you were and are, but you're not. Don't like it, do like the rest of us do with McClatchy. Don't read it.

You don't control the message anymore. Besides, you're probably fat.

Anonymous said...

Our Nanny writes: “personal attacks on someone's weight and other non-business-related attributes is crossing the line as juvenile and unbecoming.”

What do you call the personal attacks on Gov. Palin by the so-called professional media? These one-way streets are getting so boring. Next you’ll be saying calling Obama a monkey is racist, but calling Bush a monkey was A-OKAY. Geeeze, I can think for myself if you don‘t mind.

Anonymous said...

1:31 PM says, “I still care about credibility”- Excuse me, if you ever worked for McClatchy you are lying about caring about credibility.
Earth to phony: Biased reporting is not credible.

Anonymous said...

The tragedy is that McClatchy clones actually believe their work is credible. Which is incredible.

Anonymous said...

I can think for myself if you don‘t mind.

No you can't moron, all you can do is spout off the same crap as the other nut-jobs on this site. Is it you "Goebells guy"????

Anonymous said...

Next you’ll be saying calling Obama a monkey is racist, but calling Bush a monkey was A-OKAY. Geeeze, I can think for myself if you don‘t mind.

Apparently you can't. This should not have to be spelled out, but: black people were historically compared to and treated like animals. Calling a black person a monkey and doing the same for Bush are not remotely equivalent. If WASPs had a long history of maltreatment at the hands of black people, then you'd have a point.

Anonymous said...

Well, thankfully the N&O is going down in flames. Bye!

Anonymous said...

To who's left at the N&O: Keep up the great work! We all know it's a labor of love! Go Heels!