Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The Asheville Citizen-Times apparently wants to plod ahead, blithely ignoring nationwide lay-offs of which it has been a part. As far as I can see, the newspaper has yet to acknowledge (i.e. print a story in its pages) either corporate owner Gannett’s lay-offs of 2,000 people or its own part in that. Last week, the Citizen-Times handed 16 people their walking papers.
I suppose 16 doesn’t rate a mention. The threshold has to be more like 60, the magic number of Citizen-Times printing facility workers who got a local news front write-up for being the victims of the closure of the newspaper’s press in just a few weeks.
There’s a new world order in the daily newspaper workplace. From the reports I receive about 14 O.Henry Ave., I hear that there’s significant relief that this round of cuts is over. I also hear that morale is lower than low, and that most everybody has resumes circulating. What’s next? Likely more cuts, and some other changes I’ll write about soon.
Loyal reader on the list provides the names of those laid off at the Citizen-Times last week as the newspaper tries move forward. While the Citizen-Times ignores the fact that you ever existed, I’d like to wish everyone on this list the best of luck.
The X Files List who were let go from Citizen-Times on Tuesday
Patricia Martin – classified manager
Doug Mayer (online, video)
John Yenne – online director
Ashley Galloway – adv assistant
Jennifer Zaval – adv rep
Will Donochod – Class. Employment adtaker
Donna Oakes – production designer
Tami Parcell -graphic designer
Suzanne Wilson – Haywood
Karen Greene – Haywood
Janis Pierce – Accounting who volunteered
Joy Franklin – Op Ed
Richard Tomlin – Maintenance
Bob Beadnell – Classified page layout
Open day editor somewhere
Julie Sunday – Circulation
And here’s a personal story, left as a comment at Gannett Blog:
Most of us let go in Asheville were over 45. Some near retirement who have dedicated their lives to the paper. My co-workers were literally in tears while I was packing my box. My manager approached one of my co-workers, I thought to console her, when actually she was whispering in her ear to ask me questions about a particular task before I left. Unbelievably cold-hearted! I know that my manager was simply cleaning her closet of those that questioned her authority once or twice over the years. She was actually overly happy on Monday and gave me a 2009 calendar book that I use to keep track of my projects…knowing full well that she was letting me go the next morning. I hope she sleeps well. For those left in Ad Services, I’m praying for you and the terrible work environment and horrible managers you have to endure.
God Bless!
Just to throw in on the slowness complaint; I surf with Safari 3.2 on (uggh) Charter high speed.
Thanks for the great reporting!
Using both Safari and Firefox (on a Mac) it continues to be VERY VERY SLOW! HELP, please.
Site works fine for me on IE and Safari…
Yes, Lena, as far as I knew, Joy was going to leave anyway. Now it’s just Jim and Dave…That’s a lot of work…What happens if one gets sick or wants a vacation?
Binky is a great guy. Quiet, with a dry sense of humor. All he ever did was work, work, work. I think he served 3 tours in Vietnam. He would often drink more than a gallon of water during his night shift and once told me he wondered if he was addicted to H20….Every time he saw me, after I left the back shop for the newsroom, he’d greet me with, "You’re back!" As if I had been gone and he had somehow missed me.
If he saw me twice in one day, I heard it twice in one day. What a clown. (In a good way!)
Donna is a sweetheart. Savvy, a hardworker. Always liked to get out and take a walk at lunchtime. Good laugh, too. I’m glad she’s out of there at last. She was about ready to retire as well, I’m pretty sure. I think she will enjoy having more time to be outdoors…and away from the stress of it all.
p.s. I haven’t had any issues with the site’s speed, whether at work or at home … I’m using Firefox …
Seeing that list makes makes me understand just how out of touch the publisher is.
Take Ad Services. They are short handed as is. They lost one person in August, and three in December, which leaves about a handful to do everything else. Do they really think that a company based in India can really make up for their loss. There is no way. They are still perfecting that transition to the India based company 2ADpro and the next transition with the printing happening in Greenville.
The Publisher and Ad Director are detached from what it really takes to do their job. They allegedly just listen to a manager that says yes to every question and tells them what they want to hear. Can you blame them, when their job is on the line. Such a vicious cycle.
A very sad state to be in as an employee when you have no one to go to.
Ash-
Your site’s also been slow for me over the past week or so, both at home and at work (different ISPs). I’m primarily on FF 3.0.4, but I checked it on IE7 and it’s slow there, too.
Thanks Ash for the reporting. The letter from the reader in Ad Services and the response by her manager is way too typical. Most, if not all managers, at O’Henry really do seem to be clueless, and in this case, heartless. They spend most of their time in CYA mode and the other chasing their tails.
I know Jeff Green has got to be plotting a strategy to go up against the AC-T in some way, especially with so much talent looking for work, and a little revenge.
Looks like my old job got eliminated! No one was good enough to fill that hole that me then Mai left behind anyway, right?? LOL!!!
Didn’t Joy voluntarily retire?
Marcus, thank you for your comment. What browser are you using?
loyal reader, thanks for stopping by.
Oh gosh. Thank you for publishing this list. I know several of these folks and somehow it never seems real until you actually see names.
I worked in ad production in 1988-1990 and knew Tami, Donna and Bob "Binky" Beadnell. They’ve all been there forever. Please tell me that they got a good severance package. They don’t deserve the shaft.
In recent years I’ve worked closely with Joy and Doug and feel just sick about this for them as well. I always loved working with Joy and her columns always speak to me. Her name lived up to how I always felt when working with her – a delightful person and great writer.
As for Doug, we’d only worked together a couple of times but I always thought newspapers had such an opportunity with multimedia and this seems so short-sighted.
I’m one of those who will never let myself believe that the newspaper business is going under. My very first job was with a weekly paper where my mom worked in advertising — I was in 8th grade and a group of us pulled the sections off the press and collated them and wrapped for mail. I loved the sound of the press and the black ink that covered my hands. When I started at the C-T in 1988, they had just built the new press at Sardis. Very impressive but I was disappointed that I wouldn’t feel the building shake as the press ran and smell the ink in the air. Closing that facility is very sad, too.
Hats off to my newspaper friends and colleagues, even those of you whom I’ll never meet. I know how hard you all work and we owe you a debt of gratitude.
Ash,
Not surprised to learn more of the Citizen-Times. Phil Fernandez, the Editor, should be fired for not covering this sort of important local news!
We will all be looking to you for more and more local news coverage. BUT, you need to do something about the speed of your web site. It is SLOW, SLOW, SLOW and seems to get worse each time I check-in. This has been going on for some time it seems with no improvement. It is not my ISP as other web sites work just fine. PLEASE, try and do something about the intolerably slow speed of this site.
Thanks
Marcus