From Gannett Blog:
Employees at North Carolina’s Asheville Citizen-Times were told yesterday that 12 of 47 newsroom jobs are being eliminated, according to a reader, who says certain staffers will be required to apply for some of the remaining positions. A Corporate representative is expected to help supervise these re-application interviews during meetings next Tuesday and Wednesday, my reader says.
The timetable for completing this reorganization is unclear. Any layoffs would come as Gannett continues trimming costs through unannounced job reductions and other austerity measures at least across the U.S. newspaper division, the company’s biggest and most financially challenged.
21 Comments
We already refer to the Monday AC-T as the "Monday pamphlet," due to its lack of heft, both in pages and content. "News" is supposed to be that information which Impacts the greatest number of people in an area. Stringers pulling day-old USA Today articles about crimes in Des Moine or Boise, ID, are of no use to local readers and appear to be culled for their sensational (depressing) qualities.
The "loss" of 12 out of 47 jobs is a huge hit and I'm sorry for the anxiety and impact it will have at the human level; however, the poor grammar and lack of depth that characterizes much of the AC-T reporting has become the author of its own misery.
Any updates, Jason?
I second Leslie's thoughts, though I do question why Randy Hammer decided to promote Polly McDaniel to one of the "safe" jobs. It will be interesting to see how many more people she drives away.
My heart goes out to those hard-working reporters and editors who are being forced to reapply for the jobs they've been doing for years.
Gannett is profitable enough to keep everyone, but for some reason wants to sabotage its own product and make it less informative and less readable.
The blame for this does NOT belong to Randy Hammer or anyone else at the local level. Asheville is getting screwed.
I'm a fan of the Citizen-Times, and I'm very sorry to hear about all of this.
Thinking of you, Ashvegas, and all the other cool people at AC-T.
Laura Hope-Gill
Ash, I hope everything works out well for you, but if things don't shake out the way you hope I know you'll land on your feet. I did.
There is life after newspapers.
Too bad for those being scuttled at the Citizen-Times. The paper has been a sinking ship for a long time.
I agree that there is just nothing in it, just lame articles, wire service crap, and elementary local writers like John Boyle who can't seem to make up his mind if he is a serious journalist or bad comic. Susan Reinhardt is a long running joke in Asheville, but I guess it tells us something about the mentality of readers that she has survived there.
I get a lot more info from the Mountain aexpress and Ashevegas that anything at our pathetic local newspaper.
Whether he realizes it or not, Ashevegas is my daily newspaper.
I never, ever read the Citizen Times.
Why not just play a game of musical chairs to determine who stays? When the music stops, if you've got a seat you've still got a job.
From one failing business model to another, I hope it shakes down ok at the C-T for you.
It's better than the daily paper. It's Ashvegas.com.
Ash: Well said….
Well put, Jason. Ed Holmes is completely full of shit.
Query, the answer should be clear, but I'll spell it out for you: because I'm essentially trying to figure out the future of my career in these next few days, and I don't want to say anything to jeopardize that.
If I start laying it all out there, will I ruin my chances at landing one of the open jobs? I'm trying to decide if I will, in fact, apply. Is it time to move on? If so, I need a new job quick that pays the same (or more), or I need to cobble together unemployment pay and other avenues to make ends meet. The decisions have to be made by Monday.
A deep-pocketed investor or one lucky lottery ticket sure would be nice right about now, but absent that, I'm facing some very difficult choices.
So give me an effing break.
And I'm not the "de facto daily newspaper." I'm flattered that some people see my site as delivering or highlighting info they're not seeing elsewhere, but I have no desire to be a daily newspaper. This is a blog, my web log. It reflects my passions, which are newspapers, journalism and all things Asheville.
Jason, why aren't you reporting on this news yourself rather than just linking to the Gannett Blog? Clearly, as a Citizen-Times employee facing a layoff, you know much more about the situation than the Gannett Blog does. Why not tell us what you know? It may be odd that the C-T isn't reporting its own news, but it's even odder that you're withholding information and ignoring your own connection to the story. If, as the comments above claim, you are Asheville's "de facto daily newspaper," then act like one.
Orbit, because I think the powers-that-be just don't want to draw any more attention to the difficult situation. It's odd, to say the least.
Here's a question… why isn't the Citizen-Times reporting on its own news?
I get a lot more information about what's going on in Asheville from the Ashvegas blog than I ever do from reading the Citizen-Times.
I agree that there are a lot of really poor writers at the paper, and would also put Polly McDaniel on the list along with Susan Reinhardt and Tony Kiss. As an "editor" McDaniel is weak and even used to employ her cook husband Rick McDaniel as a good writer. Nepotism indeed. I think everyone can agree that there is very little local and state reporting in the paper, and any other news is stale and irrelevant by the time it gets printed or even online.
It is very sad what's happening to newspapers everywhere today. The industry is changing and people just don't rely on them much any more.
Jason Sandford is already the best single news source in Asheville. I can only image how much worse off the paper would be today if he weren't there.
All my friends rely on the Ashvegas blog. It already is the de facto daily newspaper of Asheville. Great work Jason, thanks for all you do.
Lola: You don't have the first clue about who at the Citizen-Times has "value" and who doesn't. The fact that you called this blog "the defacto daily newspaper of asheville" exemplifies your obvious ignorance.
Thanks for your thoughts, Lola. I'll update more as I can.
wow, those are massive cuts at a newspaper that is already operating with such a small staff. we all know the newspaper business is barely surviving everywhere, especially the gannett co.
the a c-t is already so weak in news reporting, I'm sure this will make it even worse. the paper is a shadow of it's former self and will never recover with these types of cuts. I guess it's just a sign of the times.
one would hope the cuts will include some of the weaker writers there like susan reinhardt and tony kiss, whose value escapes me. jason, I hope you are one of the lucky ones who stay on there. if not, this blog ashvegas will become the defacto daily newspaper of asheville even more so than it already is.