Ad Production Consolidation to RTC

[formeremployee]

Question for all:

Is the photo quality that bad, or is the pressmanship that bad?

Some of the photos are appalling and it's obvious they were never seen by human eyes. RTC was always good about fixing them if you complained, but a majority of the time we just got frustrated with wasting our time and fixed them ourselves. The majority were ok, but I'd say about 15% were completely unusable.

I don't mean to alarm anyone, but massive change is on the horizon. Take stock of what bills you may be able to pay off. Reduce your expenses. Don't buy that next bottle of wine. Don't do whatever, but do be aware of the change and how it will affect you.

Think about it. Do you have a résumé that's current? Do you have local contacts? Have you started looking? These are things that are best prepared in advance, IMHO.

Wow, that's depressing but at least someone is shooting it straight to these people. I was shocked to see that this has been in the works since 2007. My experience with Gannett was that all the dishonesty and lying by omission was more damaging to morale and productivity than knowing the truth. I hated the waiting period between layoffs being announced and actual layoffs occurring, but it was better to walk in prepared each day and not be completely blindsided. I'm glad this forum is here and that enough people know about it to spread the information so my graphic designer friends I left behind might be able to prepare as well. (By the grace of God, I was lucky enough to leave voluntarily.)

When they announced RTC back in late 2007 I was shocked but I always felt secure being a graphic designer. I couldn't fathom graphic design being consolidated in this way and smiled an inward sh*t-eating grin when 2AdPro turned out to be a disaster. I still can't fathom an advertising department without local graphic designers. This is going to be a nightmare for sales people. I really feel like Gannett has gone way too far in cost-cutting and won't have the resources necessary to regain ground when the economy recovers. I understand that a company has to make a profit, but I've seen such poorly thought out measures, the worst being getting rid of some of their best employees, probably due to lack of proper research into these employees' skills and performance.

Anyway, I know I appreciate your candor exgannettoid, and I'm sure a lot of frightened people with questions also appreciate your information.

[Guest]

ExGannettoid:

You speak like a person with a lot of experience. You appear to of been in the upper ranks because
I can still see in your words the dedication you had or have to Gannett. I still have that dedication and drive in my job but I also don't take it for granted. I have many avenues I am exploring and already have numerous jobs in the works. But I have to say newspapers are in my blood. I do love the excitement of a tight deadline, taking my creativity to the limit and pulling together as a team to make a deadline or bring in revenue. I have been disheartened many many times with this company. Each and every layoff took a piece out of my soul and ambition for this company. I apply for jobs every week and have landed a descent part-time job while still working for Gannett. Yes, as you said, we must prepare. That is why I am taking any work I can while I still work for this company. But that said, I will also take advantage of learning any new technology that Gannett wants me to learn. Not for them, but for myself. Anything you can learn you can take with you. We must take advantage of the time we currently have with Gannett. Work the OT or extra hours – money in your pocket. Learn new technology. Pick up a part-time job where you can learn something new that could lead to another career path. So I ask ExGannettoid, what do you have in the works? Where do you see yourself headed in the next few months? And my final question is – what is Craig's plan for this company?

[Gannettoid]

Question for all:

Is the photo quality that bad, or is the pressmanship that bad?

Some of the photos are appalling and it's obvious they were never seen by human eyes. RTC was always good about fixing them if you complained, but a majority of the time we just got frustrated with wasting our time and fixed them ourselves. The majority were ok, but I'd say about 15% were completely unusable.

I totally agree. None of the graphic designers at my site, a large metro, do not use RTC. We tone all our own photos. All the photos from RTC are either blown out or flat. It is much quicker to put in the numbers yourself in Photoshop and then increase saturation and use levels or other adjustments. If you are lucky the artists to come at the regional design centers will do the same. WE NEVER use RTC to tone cover photos for non-daily publications! Our pickup rate would plummet and it currenty is at 90%!

[exgannettoid]

As someone said earlier today, it's OUR paper. OUR town. Or something like that ...

Newspapers get in its staff's blood. I used to say I bled CMYK. Hell, I still bleed those four colors. The smell of a pressroom. The excitement of the starter going on the cylinder. The compressed air kicking in and the first off copies. Man, that's good living right there.

Most everyone I know who's worked in newspapers for more than a few years has it in their blood. That's what makes the layoffs and RIFs more difficult. It's not a easy job, but it's great. 9-5? Yeah, right. How many birthday parties, dinners and anniversaries have been missed because of deadlines and the need to get the paper out. It's really that simple. Newspapers and their staffs are bonded.

As for me, I'll leave the open-ended question of where I was and what I did alone. Suffice it to say I did, and still do, love newspapers.

And the future? Who knows? Perhaps a media company somewhere still wants someone who knows what -30- means or knows how to slog out in the snow to deliver a downed route in subzero weather. Who knows.

[Guest]

i agree with exgannettoid, be prepared, NOBODY IS SAFE, technology is stepping in, good or bad quality, gannett does not care, high end design and customer service is something of the past.
Just ask yourself about the ad that comes back from 2adpro "IS IT ACCEPTABLE"?

AND older people with 20 years or more with gannett and 4/5 weeks vacation, BEWARE, you are a burden to gannett, they will cut you first... just look around, this will be the way gannett will operate in the future, it makes sense. (yea right)

if you want to stay i this industry, keep portfolio updated.

[Glad2BeGone]

I agree, get out now. I was in Information Technology with over 14 years of experience and was let go in July. Gannett has no clue on what they want to be. They will be hiring people in the future with what I could have done for them now. If it is not coming from corporate i.t., it is not even considered.

Luckily, I landed a great job and will be able to work from home in the near future.

Get those resumes polished and cover letters ready. Good luck to all of you still with the evil empire.

[Guest]

As someone said earlier today, it's OUR paper. OUR town. Or something like that ...

Newspapers get in its staff's blood. I used to say I bled CMYK. Hell, I still bleed those four colors. The smell of a pressroom. The excitement of the starter going on the cylinder. The compressed air kicking in and the first off copies. Man, that's good living right there.

Most everyone I know who's worked in newspapers for more than a few years has it in their blood. That's what makes the layoffs and RIFs more difficult. It's not a easy job, but it's great. 9-5? Yeah, right. How many birthday parties, dinners and anniversaries have been missed because of deadlines and the need to get the paper out. It's really that simple. Newspapers and their staffs are bonded.

As for me, I'll leave the open-ended question of where I was and what I did alone. Suffice it to say I did, and still do, love newspapers.

And the future? Who knows? Perhaps a media company somewhere still wants someone who knows what -30- means or knows how to slog out in the snow to deliver a downed route in subzero weather. Who knows.

Ahhh -30 - or ### . . . the Fourth Estate. I haven't seen that in years and miss it, and while I wasn't in the press room I remember the excitement of meeting a deadline, knowing my editor was up till the wee hours, too, to be sure we gave readers the MOST recent follow-up to a story.

[Guest]

Love the “bleeding CMYK” statement, exgannettoid!

[guest]

Wisconsin is actually a pretty good example of the best way a consolidation could happen. We build ads in Wausau and Green Bay for the ten dailies, a bunch of weeklies, some magazines, and real estate guides. Say around 14,000 ads a month.

Has it been flawless? No. Sites where the sales force relied on the prepress staff to carry the weight of the client communication have had issues. The reps and assistants have to provide layouts, gather materials, clear up questions - where before the prepress people could just call the account. Customers that always pushed the envelope on deadline are finding out that line isn't as elastic as it once was. Reps think every customer should be assigned their own artist. Credits were up at the beginning but are returning to pre-conolidation levels.

But - we have the benefit of artists driving in from the outlying sites, with their market knowledge. In our two Wisconsin groups, the papers are at most about 40 miles from each other, so many of the advertisers have locations in multiple markets. Our customer service people recognize top customers by voice. We still send out multiple proofs to our biggest clients, and we still shop at our advertisers and tell them we saw their ad in the paper. Our biggest advantage? Our starting rate for ad builders is $10/hr. Seriously, Des Moines or Indianapolis is going to be hiring scads of ad builders for better than that rate? The staff at 2adpro sends ads to Wisconsin because we're cheaper!

Tell ya what. Go ahead and consolidate the sites that are losing money, losing a few more customers won't make much difference there. But as long as Gannett Wisconsin Media is sending buckets of money to Virginia, let's not mess with something that works.

[guest4theday]

$10 an hour? People can live, raise a family, pay for housing in Wisconsin for $10 an hour? My daughter living in a small southern town, working her way through college at a locally owned sandwich shop makes $10 an hour. It's a shame. Designers get no more respect. It's all been reduced to piece work.
And are you part of this big advantage? Do you make $10 an hour?

[Inky]

As someone said earlier today, it's OUR paper. OUR town. Or something like that ...

Newspapers get in its staff's blood. I used to say I bled CMYK. Hell, I still bleed those four colors. The smell of a pressroom. The excitement of the starter going on the cylinder. The compressed air kicking in and the first off copies. Man, that's good living right there.

Most everyone I know who's worked in newspapers for more than a few years has it in their blood. That's what makes the layoffs and RIFs more difficult. It's not a easy job, but it's great. 9-5? Yeah, right. How many birthday parties, dinners and anniversaries have been missed because of deadlines and the need to get the paper out. It's really that simple. Newspapers and their staffs are bonded.

As for me, I'll leave the open-ended question of where I was and what I did alone. Suffice it to say I did, and still do, love newspapers.

And the future? Who knows? Perhaps a media company somewhere still wants someone who knows what -30- means or knows how to slog out in the snow to deliver a downed route in subzero weather. Who knows.

Exgannettoid, I truly appreciate your candor in this new venue; I feel in the loop, as I did at gannettblog.

I still work at OUR newspaper in OUR town, although sometimes I wonder why. Then again, I can't fathom doing anything else. I'm an oldtimer who has adapted to the changes in technology and I have no problem with that.
The problem I do have is with some previous and upcoming changes. I hear from the community all the time, "What's up at the paper? There's nothing there anymore." I used to be able to say, well, it's better now because. ... but I can't even say that anymore. How much more profit and savings can we swallow before we're totally gutted?
And thanks for mentioning the smell of a pressroom! I close my eyes and I'm there. I'm not living in the past, but man oh man I still remember the excitement of hearing the presses rumble when a run started, and racing down to see the fruit of our labor.

[crashrider]

I get what you're saying on some of this, especially the systems part. But what I still don't understand is the labor part of it - as I mentioned, it still takes X amount of time to build an ad, no matter where you are. Where I am, we're not very highly paid - it's gotten to the point where there's more money to be made in far less skilled fields, and many people have noticed and left. So there's not a huge cost advantage there. Automation of straight pickup ads and camera-ready ads has the potential to save a lot more money than consolidation, but artists are still going to be needed for a good bit of stuff. Especially for our high-maintenance accounts, the ones who submit changes 30 minutes before deadline and will write it off if they don't get a proof.

I do, however, want to say thanks for the info you've provided. It's an eye-opener, and a reminder that we need to be ready, because you never know when they're going to yank the rug out from under you. I'm in this until they kick me out, not out of loyalty to the company, but just that I've loved being in the newspaper business since I got in. The sad part, though, is that the end of a career is coming for many. Most of them have no idea. A good chunk of them are also sitting on their hands instead of keeping skills current, and they're going to find they have to change fields to get work when this is done.

crashrider, et. al.,

Think of it like this.

The problem with traditional outsourcing is integration. Foreign systems trying to "talk" to each other. Ever try getting XML mapped correctly? It's a major PITA. Sure, there are thousands of people who can do this each and every day without thinking, but not in the GCI (or McClatchy or Lee, or most chains) realm. Newspaper companies didn't invest in programmers with the foresight to see the future coming. We relied upon ancient systems for as long as we could.

Who, out there, is working on a truly modern Editorial system? The average age of the systems in place is about a decade. Sure, there have been upgrades and patches, but overhauling a news operation is expensive and time-consuming.

The same exists with Ad Systems. Although most major vendors update software (both server and client) often, when was the last time you upgraded the Adobe Suite? Anyone still running CS2? Sure there are. We expect miracles without paying the price.

So, sorry for the tangent, but if every one is working off a common platform, think of the expense savings in server maintenance, software support and maintaing licenses at each property. It's pretty huge. And, when you factor in payroll savings, it gets a little bigger. Sure, it's a transfer of work, and there will be local knowledge lost, but fundamentally, a florist ad is a florist ad. It can be built and processed just about anywhere.

Now, as for costs, 2Adpro charged a per ad fee, depending upon how fast you wanted it back. The details were worked out with Corporate and were posted an intracompany charge, with each site paying its own way. The costs would vary depending on how many ads were sent, how fast you wanted them back and if they were print or digital.

Really, overall, this does make financial sense. The devil, they say, is in the details and those are not yet public (or even semi-public).

[keypadder]

The sad part, though, is that the end of a career is coming for many. Most of them have no idea. A good chunk of them are also sitting on their hands instead of keeping skills current, and they're going to find they have to change fields to get work when this is done.

crashrider, et. al.,

Think of it like this.

The problem with traditional outsourcing is integration. Foreign systems trying to "talk" to each other. Ever try getting XML mapped correctly? It's a major PITA. Sure, there are thousands of people who can do this each and every day without thinking, but not in the GCI (or McClatchy or Lee, or most chains) realm. Newspaper companies didn't invest in programmers with the foresight to see the future coming. We relied upon ancient systems for as long as we could.

Who, out there, is working on a truly modern Editorial system? The average age of the systems in place is about a decade. Sure, there have been upgrades and patches, but overhauling a news operation is expensive and time-consuming.


Really, overall, this does make financial sense. The devil, they say, is in the details and those are not yet public (or even semi-public).

LOCAL newspapers should service the LOCAL communities, and those businessfolks will then advertise. Once our paper stopped being as geographically-specific as it was, advertising dropped, which resulted in less pages, thus Gannett made a smaller paper and tried to fit less on the page by eliminating the reporters' information at the bottom (i.e., contact JoeBlow at 123-456-7890 or JoeBlow@somepaper.com), and then it eliminated the byline and only put in our email addresses.

Yes this is the end of a career for some however for someone like me who loves to write and report on PAPER, not on CAMERA, there is a newspaper waiting for me.

[Guest]

I don't see how they can get rid of all the artists. We often time work directly with the customers, getting last minute ads or changes. We also help bring in new customers with spec ads. How will all of this work? Will the reps have to send it the the outside center? They can't even fill out an art form correctly! They depend on us so much. I will see lots of customers pulling ads and tons of credits if they get rid of the artist.

[exgannettoid]

Guest,

Those details are absolutely critical. I don't know of a single paper in the country (Gannett or non-Gannett) where the sales staff doesn't lean on the ad production staff. Heavily.

The items you mention are but a few of the hidden "gotchas" that are lurking. Now, granted, no one has seen the entire plan, save a few at The Tower, but the devil being in the details, I'm sure the devil will get its due.

Or something like that. In any event, you're spot on. The local markets will suffer and I'm sure credits and makegoods will increase. But, perhaps this was calculated in the final CPR (that's Capital Purchase Request, which is slightly different than a CBR or Capital Budget Request).

Stay tuned, gannettoids!

[exgannettoid]

keypadder:

For us old dogs, who can drink like fish, smoke like a chimney and still understand AP Style and appreciate one that's spiral bound, there will always be newspapers for us.

The question is, will there still be readers? And what will those readers look like?

As much as I love the digital age, there is nothing like ink on paper, the rub of that ink off (before soy-based inks) and the wrinkling of newsprint.

Ah, the fourth estate. Long live the fourth estate.

[Guest]

As I stated earlier, this is a perfect environment for all graphic artists to start to lure in Gannett's advertisers with their own business. Charge less than the agencies and provide customer service and no charge for last minute changes. You could be rolling in dough before the layoffs begin. It has been said that during a time of recession small businesses have skyrocketed. Now is the time and place. Use your contacts and use them well. Gannett's ad revenue could soon be yours.

[Guest]

Provide what they want and they will follow. It is not rocket science. We can screw Gannett at their own game. If you have a relationship with a client continue to build it. We don't need Gannett to get our own revenue. Advertiser's pay a pretty penny to get their ads in print. Provide them with better ad design, branding and a reason they should let you create their ads and good-bye Gannett design services. I would think your niche would be: local content, knowing the advertiser's brand, local market research: what pubs to place their ads in; 24 hour customer service, small fee for changes and guaranteed ads that are correct. Let a hub at Gannett compete with those services! They can't ! Now get off your feel sorry for yourself asses and get those advertisers before Gannett moves them to their central hub!

[Perfect Storm]

As stated: Now is the time for the “Perfect Storm“. There are incredible designers among us — I believe in my heart and soul we can steal away Gannett's advertisers and we can create their ads better, cheaper and produce better results! How do you like them apples Craig! Maybe you need something else replaced – cause guess what, we are stealing your ad design hubs!

[Guest]

What are all of you talking about???!!! We don't charge for ad production! Stupid, I know. They even make us design logos for clients! FOR FREE! So trying to lure advertisers away to design their ads wouldn't work, because MY PAPER IS RETARDED AND CHARGES NOTHING FOR DOING THE AD!