Love affair gone wrong

So as many of you know already, Gannett has announced layoffs set to begin in December. Prior to going into work, I received a text message giving me warning of the announcement that would lead to a weird day at work. Here it is for your enjoyment:

To: USCP Publishers & General Managers

 

As all of you are painfully aware, the fiscal crisis is deepening and the economy is getting worse. Gannett’s revenues continue to be severely impacted by this downturn, and our local operations are suffering. While we are doing our best to reduce all non staff-related expenses, I am sorry to report that we must do another round of layoffs across our division. To that end, we will institute an involuntary staff reduction of approximately 10% by the first week of December. The terms of the severance will be one week for each year of service with a cap of 26 weeks. Each Publisher is responsible for developing their local plan to achieve the expected goal. Decisions will be made locally because each of our markets is unique, with differing market conditions and individual needs in light of our previous reductions. I have asked that all plans be completed by November 14^th at which time they will go through the standard review process. I fully understand this announcement will cause you concern but I felt that once a decision was made it should be communicated as quickly as possible. While this is more bad news, it is a sign of Gannett’s determination to remain healthy and viable as a company during these turbulent economic times. We continue to be a leader in our industry, not only because of our fiscal strength but also because we have a plan to aggressively grow the company when the economy returns.  … I appreciate your understanding and commitment during these challenging times.

Now, while I have a feeling I and many of my colleagues may be safe during this turbulent time (however, you never know), it causes me to question the very profession I became passionate about my senior year of high school and continued to grow throughout college.

The main reason I got into journalism, believe it or not, was the storytelling aspect. I enjoyed telling stories from the time I was a kid. I loved picking up the newspaper in the morning and looking at the different stories, and reading about my favorite athletes or a human interest piece that read well and seemed to touch the soul.

With the state of the industry now, however, I find my self second guessing my decision to embrace my passion rather than going into something a little more stable. But this day, no industry could really be considered that stable. I guess that’s what happens when the economy sucks. But enough about that.

Back to my passion of journalism, and how the old love affair may be fading and possibly ending.

In college almost exactly 3 years ago from today, I remember sitting down and talking to the advertising director, trying to get more space for a special section regarding the Texas Tech vs. Texas football game. While it took convincing, somehow our student advertising sales reps were able to garner enough ads to provide sufficient space for a special section. While it was modest in size, we did it. And we did it well. College kids picked it up. None were left on the racks. Maybe it was because they were going to class and it was something to help the time pass by, or that it was free. But we were able to grab the attention of the readers and keep their attention.

Now that I’ve been in the industry for two years, I’ve seen the space cut back, from having those special sections, to wrapping those into daily sections, to a smaller web size to cutting back pages on busy Sundays. It’s just a matter of time that the print product (look at that, it’s now a product rather than newspaper even to me) takes a huge cut, and we lose more staff, even after this massive set of layoffs. With the age of “Go Green” nowadays, it’s just a matter of time when we realize how much paper is used on a daily basis, and how much would be saved if we went to a web product only. Check out what the Christian Science Monitor is doing. Quite scary for those working on the print side.

Do I still love journalism? Yes, for the most part. While it’s heartbreaking to see these kinds of things happening across the country, there are stories like Lane DeGregory’s “Girl in the Window” from the St. Petersburg Times, to bring back that love. A lot of places, like St. Pete, do it right. People can get their national and world news from Google and CNN. Most do now. But what those cannot give the readers are human interest stories about those in your own surroundings.

I’m not saying the old style of journalism is the best way to conduct business, because it definitely isn’t anymore. However, in order to change, we must all be ready for change. And I think there are ways to change through innovation and new ideas. However, we must keep in mind that we are storytellers, and that can be done in many forms. We just have to select the best method, and do it well. Because if it’s done half-ass, we’re doing no favor to our readers.

I guess I can say thanks to journalism for at least opening me up to graphic design. It’s amazing how many doors are open in that profession. Haha.

Now, I know this is just a bunch of rambling, but I wanted to express my feelings on the matter.

And if you are a reader: please buy the newspaper. Even if you just recycle it, go pay the 50 cents for a newspaper to help pay my rent. Thanks