I’ve received more information about today’s lay-offs at the Asheville Citizen-Times. The total stands at either 15 or 16, depending on the intel.
I have the names of all of were pink-slipped, but for the blog post purposes, I’ll just report the number of positions per department. Some folks I knew, some I did not.
In the maintenance department, two people got axed, including a long-time maintenance man who knew the building like the back of his hand. In advertising, the toll stands at 4 pinked, including one of the sweetest people I ever knew in that department.
I hear that two other people in the advertising department are leaving their jobs of their own accord, and those positions will not be filled.
In the newsroom, a total of five people got cut, including the two reporters for the Mountain News whom I’ve already named. Julie Ball was one of the damn finest reporters I ever had the pleasure of working with. Andre Rodriguez was a hard-working journalist who worked his way up from a part-time obit clerk to full-time reporter.
One person in the online department, one person in the IT department and one person in the pre-press department lost their jobs.
Finally, a woman who has been working the front counter of the newspaper for several years – one of the many public faces of the newspaper – lost her job. I knew her as a helpful person who cared about Citizen-Times customers.
I feel for everyone who lost their job today at the Asheville Citizen-Times, as well as the hundreds of Gannett employees across the country who have been cut this week. It hurts my heart to see the death of the newspaper industry, and the damage being done to the pursuit of journalism in general.
The best to all.
24 Comments
[…] returning to the Citizen-Times in 2010. He has overseen a tumultuous time at the newspaper, from a series of lay-offs and the shutting down of the newspaper’s local printing plant to being the target of a […]
You have hit the nail on the head: it’s possible the AC-T is being positioned for a sale. Someone not seeking mega-profits might then recreate it into an attentive community newspaper. The media is changing, but not the need for excellent, analytical, compassionate journalists.
It is possible the AC-T could be put on the sales block after the staff’s been decimated. That’s just business, especially with major newspaper companies like Gannett who are answering to shareholders.
I have faith that the need for information will create a rebirth of journalism online and in customizable multimedia (including paper) formats. I’m just ready for it to happen in Asheville.
What does shrink by four inches mean?
Does this mean along with the smaller staff, there is going to be a smaller paper?
I figured it could not get much smaller than it is now, though I suppose if no one advertises in the paper then it will get smaller to the point of not printing every day… The paper in my driveway was very thin this morning.
I wish we had a local paper that had the resources that the Citizen-Times does without the need to maintain a so-called 30 percent profit margin and so-called advertising staff that does not meet the needs of the community.
If the paper were allowed to re-invest some of that profit back into the local community, maybe by paying a decent wage and hiring back some of the best sales staff and journalists in WNC, then what an awesome thing it would be to really have a "Voice of the Mountains" instead of a whisper.
If others are right, and all it takes is our economy to pickup, with real estate as the leading indicator, then we have a chance to get a better economy by the end of the year. Summer renovations and building permits are still coming in and if the weather holds, then we should start to see some real work coming back into WNC before the fall leaves hit the ground.
Fil, be sure to measure Tuesday’s newspaper. I’m sure you’ll be surprised at how much it resembles Monday’s newspaper.
Expect the Citizen-Times to shrink by 4 inches starting in the July 14 edition.
Anybody who would actually pay for a single copy or a subscription to this rag ought to have his or her head examined!
We cancelled our subscription a long time ago. I can’t think of anybody I know we reads it, or even talks about seeing something in the newspaper. It used to be different, but that is just the way it is today.
i would pick-up the C-T every day of the week IF there was anything in the paper worth reading. i don’t find just a few pages of already stale news very interesting. the writers and columnists are very weak, especially susan reinhardt, john boyle and tony kiss. the opinion and editorials are very predictable and have little sway in our community and local governments. the web site is just more of the same weak product you get if you buy the print edition. most definitely NOT a great newspaper….not even a decent one!
it’s is a real pity to see this newspaper fall so far, so very fast. i’m just not sure daily local newspapers have much of a future in asheville, or anywhere these days for that matter. times have changed and people get their news elsewhere.
The Citizen=Times is most definitely NOT a great newspaper. It as never been great in any sense of the word. It used to be much better than it is today, but it was never, ever great.
There is very little hard news in the paper. No investigative reporting; a miniscule business news section and the life and features are a joke. Most days, the paper is now so thin that it is hardly worth picking up.
Even the editorials are weak and hardly worth a glance. Remember when it used to call itself "The Voice of the Mountains"? The paper has very little influence in our communities any longer.
I personally can find out a lot more about what’s happening in our city by reading Ashvegas or reading the Mountain Express.
I can see that we have former AC-T leaders, who now benefit as competitors, posting vitriol today. How very sportsmanlike. Bravo!
Yeah, that CC should have been let go. Helping the ad team making money for the newspaper is SO uncool…
The quickest way to put a paper into the ground is to have an ad team that doesn’t perform well. For some unknown reason, advertising workers at newspapers are usually immune to cuts like these — probably because they’re viewed as the money-makers.
But therein is the rub in Asheville — the ad dept. for years and years has been allowed to maintain a level of incompetence that is baffling. Sales reps and sales managers in the AC-T ad dept. are not scrutinized as hard as others at the paper.
In years past, they have been treated with kid gloves and praised for half-ass efforts. If the AC-T had a killer ad team that was willing to truly be innovative, the paper wouldn’t be in such bad shape. Ad management is to blame, too, for not taking care of problem people and for not getting sales reps to aggressively pursue new business segments — not just the same old historic standbys (like car dealerships, which are now struggling).
Yes, Gannett is a monster in terms of demanding dizzying profits. Yes, the news stories could be more relevant and even more community-oriented.
But the buck stops — literally — with the ad dept. Get some folks who are truly hungry to sell and they will. AND get some managers who are willing to take care of underperformers BEFORE the place implodes and there may — MAY — be an AC-T left standing. Personally, I think it’s too late and I think the future of the AC-T consists of an online presence and perhaps a Western North Carolina "edition" (i.e., a page or two) of the Greenville News. I sure wish another news organization like Mountain X would consider going daily, if online only, to start with. WNC needs local news coverage and not just via WLOS.
Memo
To: A proud tiny timer
From: used to be in News
Can’t be proud of a paper that runs sunblock stories, National Enquirer photos and Dallas Cowboy cheerleader photos. The CT lost my subscription a long time ago. What you haven’t figured out in your ivory tower is that it is not the internet that is killing newspapers, it is people like Hatchet Hammer that believe you can cost cut and consolidate your way to 30% margins.
How can you gloat the day after 15+ of your fellow employees lost their jobs about a great paper? Hah! You are like Hatchet Hammer. As long as you still get paid it doesn’t matter that the lowly people lose their jobs. Who was it in the Wizard of Oz that didn’t have a heart? The tin man??
tiny timer:
I agree with much of what you say, but I worked at the C-T, too and it is NOT a great paper.
It’s barely GOOD on most days. I do read several newspapers (mostly online) and I do buy local as often as I can. The CT is a bunch of cops briefs and hasn’t had a real watchdog article in years — at least 2 executive editors ago.
I’m not trying to be hateful, but it’s damn near lousy most days and not worth the 75 cents — which, in terms of what a newspaper OUGHT to be, is a theoretical bargain.
Instead it feels like a waste of money. I canceled my subscription and doubt I will ever renew it.
Delivery was poor — can’t blame the drivers much, though, because they don’t earn squat on a "paper route — and the product was weak.
As your own John Boyle said (sorry if I’m wrongly assuming you work there — and reeallly sorry if you actually do) the drivers must feel like they’re tossing tissue on people’s lawns when they bring the Monday paper.
Except it’s not just Monday. Which is a shame. Really.
If you think the paper is turning a 15%+ profit margin, you are out of your mind hoopty.
Maybe if Susan wins her suit she could buy the paper 🙂 (and buy Julie, Andre, Coby and everyone else who didn’t deserve to get laid off back!!!)
Then again,
having worked there….
The AC-T is still very very profitable. Just not ENOUGH profit to give the Gannetteers their 30% anymore. Still profitable, yet so many layoffs… *sigh*
Gannett is not so much a business model as it is a mafia shakedown model.
Wouldn’t it be nice if a local business person could "White Knight" the AC-T, buy it from Gannett, and restore it to its former prominence? I’m sure a local owner would be quite happy with "only" a 15-20% profit margin and keep it all for themselves…
They really should have dumped that …. marketing "tool" C C and do what they always do– combine marketing with Greeneville. With her salary, they could have saved a few positions.
I’m hearing the actual number is higher than 16, but management knows how to fudge numbers … word is that CT copy editors should find other work as soon as possible because of consolidation coming up with Greenville, also a Gannett paper.
Though I left the C-T a while ago, I always thought the majority of the reporters there always had the best interests of the WNC community at heart and worked so hard to get the truth of the news "to the people, for the people."
It is a shame to learn about all of those former colleagues who are no longer there, shafted by a greedy media company.
I hope that things will turn around for those who still hang on at the C-T but I know I saw the writing on the wall when I decided to get out of the game even before I really had a chance to play – Gannett jand other corporations just don’t care about real journalism or the people who make their papers possible. Like so much in this world, it’s all about the dollar signs.
Folks – it’s not the Internet that’s hurting newspapers. It’s the economy. When consumers can’t buy and sell homes, finance cars, or find jobs because there aren’t any jobs, newspaper revenue goes down. And, newspapers find that they have to cut costs by eliminating products and positions. The fact is that the newspaper reaches more consumers than EVER before BECA– — USE of the Internet. If we could do a better job of making money off of our powerful reach, we could employ more people. I say – pick up the Asheville Citizen-Times this Sunday. Be proud to have a great newspaper in Asheville. Spend money with local businesses – instead of buying things online from a warehouse in Nebraska. Contribute to the local economy so we can get people working and spending and smiling again!
Asheville:
So I am still to think that Asheville needs two high Marketing Salaries?
Did everyone in Ad Services survive?
Is there any good news left in the world?
This sucks!
Julie is a class act.
And Andre is such a good dude and hard worker.
I cannot believe the impact the Internet has had on news and most other media —- or rather media as we used to know it.
So sorry for everyone at the AC-T and disillusioned at the state of Gannett in general.
It is scary to see this happening at one of America’s greatest media companies.
Would you like fries with that?
It’s there own fault for turning papers into the same thing radio did. All radio stations and newspapers are like Pizza Huts now. The same thing in everyone you walk into, no matter where you are. They didn’t try to please the local people or investigate local stories for the last 10 years. It was all fluff all the time. Sorry for the people that lost their jobs. That is the saddest part, especially when the big wigs that ruined it are still out on their yachts enjoy the summer, before they fly home in their corporate jet. This county makes nothing anymore. We use to be the greastest nation in the world, now all we do is buy sh** from China at Wal-mart.
It’s a sad sad time in this country.