It's not unheard of to consolidate ad building.
Gannett Wisconsin has done this for a while, and even included edition planning into the mix of consolidation. The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group has done this for nearly two years. It can happen.
As I understand a few things:
1. Online, or digital ads, is not yet in this mix. Flash designers should note, however, that technology exists to automate through templates Online ad creation. Or, they could be outsourced. My knowledge of this is that Online would be in Phase 2, after the newspaper print consolidation.
2. Marketing designers can be included in this mix, but this will likely be a local decision. Nothing's been mandated.
3. The Creative Group is probably going to be a hand-picked group of designers to maintain local design for highly local products. Not that it's perfect, or will even work, but it's a thought. Heavy use of
www.gannettcreative.com will be pushed by your Publishers, I'm sure. Although the work there is ok, it's hard to customize and no provision is in place to prevent two advertisers having the same look and feel (if one ad is built in Des Moines and the other in Indy, this could easily happen).
4. The retention plan is being worked on by various people, including the Group HR Directors. Details are still being thought of, but reality is that some will be asked to stay with a trinket or two and others will not.
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It's not unheard of to consolidate ad building.
Gannett Wisconsin has done this for a while, and even included edition planning into the mix of consolidation. The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group has done this for nearly two years. It can happen.
As I understand a few things:
1. Online, or digital ads, is not yet in this mix. Flash designers should note, however, that technology exists to automate through templates Online ad creation. Or, they could be outsourced. My knowledge of this is that Online would be in Phase 2, after the newspaper print consolidation.
2. Marketing designers can be included in this mix, but this will likely be a local decision. Nothing's been mandated.
3. The Creative Group is probably going to be a hand-picked group of designers to maintain local design for highly local products. Not that it's perfect, or will even work, but it's a thought. Heavy use of http://www.gannettcreative.com will be pushed by your Publishers, I'm sure. Although the work there is ok, it's hard to customize and no provision is in place to prevent two advertisers having the same look and feel (if one ad is built in Des Moines and the other in Indy, this could easily happen).
4. The retention plan is being worked on by various people, including the Group HR Directors. Details are still being thought of, but reality is that some will be asked to stay with a trinket or two and others will not.
-30-