Thursday, July 9, 2009
Media / Phillips The Tennessean Layoffs
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:29 PM
The results of today's layoffs at The Tennessean are just starting to trickle out. I've been told a little more than 30 people have lost their jobs: a handful from advertising and a number of press operators who were told just before their shift ended.
There's a meeting happening now and, if I get more information after it's over, I'll let y'all know.
Update: Via Post Politics, originally from Tom Wood at Nashville Post:
Like those separated from the company in earlier layoffs, these staffers will get one week of severance pay for each year of employment. However, they will no longer be covered by health insurance throughout their severance pay period. Instead, all will lose coverage at the end of this month. The process of informing those affected has reportedly taken longer today than it did when a larger workforce reduction took place last December. One source noted that rules require a representative from the human resource department to be present when each employee is notified - and that after previous job cuts, there are now fewer HR people to handle the task.
Comments (17)
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I have of course always despised Gannett, and I've observed the decline of the Tennessean with a detached sort of wry smugness. But I've also come to realize over the course of the last few years there are a lot of good, talented people working there. This is the same sort of realization I (and perhaps others) endured when I smugly observed the implosion of GM and then realized the vast swaths of people I know (here and abroad) that are directly affected by it. Giant, inefficient corporations tend to make some really crappy products. They also employ a lot of people. with health insurance. and stuff.
So, while this sucks, my hope/belief is that the people affected in the wake of this will find homes elsewhere in some of the many encouragingly spry new local media establishments around town.
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According to Tom Wood (who once worked at the Tennessean) in the Nashville Post, here are the newsroom people who have been let go:
Ricky Rogers,Bill Greer, Drew White, Aldrin Brown, Kevin Paulk, and
Janet Shouse.
Almost all of the people Henry listed were colleagues of mine when I was at the paper in the early '90s. Ricky and Janet had been there since the '70s.
I wholeheartedly second Chris's sentiments. I stay on top of what's happening at 1100 because it affects the community and is therefore news. I try hard to break stories about what's happening there. (Click the link on my name to see the ones I have broken.) But don't think for a moment that I as a competitor take any pleasure in conveying news like this.
Tom, those who read your work -- and have any sense at all of your integrity -- know you're a newsman of the highest order. I don't believe you could ever be perceived as celebrating the downfall of good media people and the resultant decline in the public's informational channels.
Observing and commenting on the downfall of good journalism, however, is certainly within your bailiwick. Have at it.
And, as an enlightened and informed community member, Betsy, you have at it, too.
Oh, grandfille, I've got nothing on Woods, don't even feel it necessary to put us in the same comment.
I just don't see how anyone in media or in Nashville can not be a little concerned about this. I'm not sure how you run a democracy without healthy media and I don't see how you look at our city and think we have healthy media.
And of course there's the very real human cost and in an economy this shitty, the very real worry of what these folks are supposed to do for a living now.
Adding insult to injury, it seems like a pretty crappy severance package, too. To think you could work there 30 years and then get barely half a year's severance when they lay you off.
While it's nice to hope they can land somewhere in the world of emerging media, there just aren't that many opportunities in Nashville for someone who's made a career in print journalism and now has to find something else.
The ones who are looking smart right now are the Tennessean employees who took the relatively generous buyouts they offered several years ago and retired early, while they could still make the jump.
The only "good news' is that Obama made sure that if you lost your job you could possibly be able to afford COBRA for 9 months, where it is underwritten 65%, meaning that a person with a monthly COBRA health insurance premium of $1000 pays just $350 the first nine months, and that's a huge help, especially if you're on medications, have pre-existing conditions. Come month ten, its gonna suck, but the first nine are a lot easier to manage. I know, I'm doing it now, and this underwriting is a blessing.
Like Tom Wood, I also worked at the Tennessean in the early '90s. The first day I started there, a group of reporters took me aside and asked, "Why did you come here, are you crazy?" and then proceeded to tell me exactly how bad it was, and they were right. Bizarrely, though, at least one of those unhappy reporters is still there. So to some extent, the layoffs are good, as a way to force people who are miserable in their jobs to find something more rewarding.
Kingfish wrote, "...Obama made sure that if you lost your job you could possibly be able to afford COBRA for 9 months..."
Does BO write you a personal check every month or does the guvmint (taxpayers) cover the subsidy?
I am not sure why this is surprising to anyone. Corporate news media is dying in this country which ultimately will be a positive thing in the long run. Let it die. Let us take off the blinders. Everyone working for a big corporation comparable to Gannett should really analyze their situation. Why are you there playing that game? You will lose. Why work for a company that has already set a precedent of treating their employees like shit? If you just walk around thinking, "I hope it doesn't happen to me"....well then aren't you just a lemming at that point?
Yeah, but uh, it's not surprising to anyone. It's still hard. And as for why people work for companies that treat their employees badly, well, people have to work.
It's not like folks at The Tennessean are sitting around all "Oh, I could take that job at 'Most wonderful paper in the world' but I think I'll turn them down."
What jobs are there?
That's the worst part. We're sitting at 10% unemployment and these folks work(ed) for a medium that is shedding jobs like crazy.
It's great to be all "big corporations suck" but a paycheck is better than no paycheck. Health insurance is better than no health insurance.
So I'm not going to dog on anyone who does what he or she has to to get a paycheck and some benefits.
