Thursday, February 23, 2012
Breaking News Tennessean To Accept 25 Employee Buyouts
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 4:03 PM
With news of Gannett's decision to implement a paywall for its 80 regional newspapers by year's end still fresh, Pith has learned details of the media conglomerate's decision to offer buyouts to hundreds of employees.
Bob Faricy, vice president of marketing development for Tennessean Media Group, responded via email that of the 40 buyouts Gannett is rumored to have offered The Tennessean, 32 employees are eligible for the "early retirement" option.
Faricy says The Tennessean, which experienced a brutal round of layoffs less than a year ago, will accept 25 buyouts in the latest round of blood-letting at 1100 Broadway.
"Other information about the makeup by department and specific package details is not being released on a local level," writes Faricy.
Faricy also shed some light on the proposed paywall.
"As for the new subscription model, it's important to note that it is a metered model rather than a hard wall. Additionally a number of areas, including classifieds like Cars.com and CareerBuilder, will remain accessible to all consumers," Faricy wrote. "It is my understanding it will be rolled out across the entire US Community Publishing Division. Pricing is yet to be determined, along with other details of how it will be implemented locally."
Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
The total demise of American newspapers is not, in fact, the inevitable result of internet technology. Other fine newspapers in America seem to be able not only to survive, but even to prosper by adapting while still providing a good product for the cities they serve. None of them are owned or operated by Gannett.
Gannett's disgraceful record of producing a mediocre product, of "McNews," of endless rotating of employees, of giving the back of the hand to the communities where one of its properties sits and to the reporters who know how to serve them and to the readers -- these are the factors that have brought the once-great Nashville Tennessean to its current dismal state. Along with every other newspaper this crummy, crappy, disgusting, disgraceful company owns.
There is no hope for the Tennessean with Gannett. Maybe, just maybe, when Gannett has sucked this newspaper dry, when it has driven into the ground so far that even they don't want it anymore, some other company will buy what is left and build it back into a relevant and credible news organization. Maybe. But what we should all hope for now is for Gannett to do Nashville a favor and leave. For good. And don't let the door hit your sorry asses in the butt.
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The Chamber of Commerce, the 10 members of the Gail Kerr fan club, and the
Nashville Board of Realtors, along with Chip Forrester will hate to see you go!
Hopefully the guy that throws that rag on my front yard (I don't subscribe) is retiring. My guinea pig cage will miss it, though.
It is time for Gannett to leave town. Sell the paper to someone who actually knows how to run a newspaper. Furthermore, to someone who knows how to treat their employees worth a crap. And, to a company that would never promote workers just because they like them or they are right gender. Gannett...just another word for disgrace.
I started to comment here, but I ended up having too much to say. For a rant my fellow aging journos and maybe a few others will find of interest, click here:
http://oldnewstom.wordpress.com/2012/02/26…
I won't repeat what I have written here on earlier occasions about my personal effort to save jobs at THE TENNESSEAN, except insofar as to reveal that yesterday I attempted to renew my home-delivered, seven-day subscription (present expiration date 6/20/13). Unfortunately, "Teresa in South Carolina" advised me that the newspaper she obviously does not subscribe to is "not accepting annual subscriptions at this time."
My motive was not entirely altruistic. When the paywall experiment fails and Internet-only readers decide they would rather go without than pay for content, THE TENNESSEAN will have no choice but to do what it always does: penalize its best customers with rate increases.
Stacy Harris
Publisher/Executive Editor/Media Critic
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://stacyharris.com
