By December, the Democrat and Chronicle’s newsroom should be completely reorganized. News staff will have new titles and job descriptions, as well as reconfigured beats.
But it’s not entirely clear what this new newsroom will look like and how the D&C’s web and print products may change. And it is unclear how many staff members, some with decades of experience, may be out of jobs. They aren’t guaranteed new positions; if they want to stay on, they have to apply and interview for the jobs.
“Virtually every position in the newsroom is new in terms of how we’re defining it and the job descriptions that go with that,” says Dennis Floss, the D&C’s marketing director.
Floss wouldn’t elaborate on the new positions and beats. The newsroom staff received the new job descriptions last week and he says he wants to be respectful of them.
“It’s fair to say that most newsroom employees are upset with a process that requires us to re-apply for work at a place where many of us have worked for years,” says a statement from the Newspaper Guild of Rochester. “Nonetheless, most in the newsroom are forging ahead and doing what needs to be done.”
Karen Magnuson, a D&C editor and vice president of news, laid out the coming changes in a column to readers. She billed the reorganization as a way to improve the D&C’s digital content while staying faithful to the print product and its readers. Similar newsroom restructurings are happening at Gannett papers across the country.
Magnuson offered a few details in her column. The D&C will increase its investigative reporting staff from four to seven, she said, and add a problem-solving reporter to focus on consumer and bureaucratic issues.
She also wrote that the newsroom “will be leaner with fewer layers of managers but the number of reporters and photographers will remain the same.” Gannett’s consolidating some editing and production jobs into a regional hub, she said, and some people may lose jobs as a result.
Floss says it’s premature to quantify any possible newsroom cuts. The guild’s statement says that employees only know that the final newsroom work force will be smaller.
Tom Proietti, who founded St. John Fisher College’s communications/journalism program, says that the D&C’s restructuring makes sense. He points to his own media consumption habits as an example of the digital shift confronting news organizations. He says that when he’s looking for news, he starts with Twitter. The D&C is probably seeing similar patterns among its readers, he says. (Proietti is a Gannett stockholder, and a D&C subscriber.)
“People are programming for themselves simply because it’s easier to do, it’s more fun,” he says.
Floss says that the D&C tries to deliver news with audience behavior in mind. The company is looking at when and where people access its content, he says, as well as how. That’s top of mind for the news industry in general, he says.
“People want news when they want it on the device they want it,” he says.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2014.
The independent weekly, Seven Days, in Burlington, VT ran an article that gave insight into what’s going on at Gannett papers. It’s not pretty. Plus, I’d like to know what a non-Gannett stockholder has to say about this. http://m.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2014/10/30/media-note-free-press-lays-off-higher-ed-reporter
I, for one, can guarantee you with certainty, that if you locate and print the presidents college transcripts, or Lois Lerners emails, your circulation would skyrocket, and therefore your jobs would remain intact.
Have a go at it, would you please?
OK, lets think people!
To constituonal originalist: Thanks to god that our constituional originalists (those that actually wrote the constitution) were actually smart and forward thinking vs. those that claim to defend the constituon now. If yo don’t like the current administation, you are free to focus on thier stances, accomplishements, or lack of accomplishments. I woudl like your boss to go back ane review your high school trnascripts and/or SAT scores and decide if you should remian employed.
Muzenews: Yes, it is sad what happens when old, comfortable insititutions wither and fall by the wayside. However, what is Gannet to do? Paper news is failing and hemmoraghing money. They have been passed by like pony express and rotary phones. everyone reading this (including you) are partially to blame. Would you prefer to give up your tablet or smart phone used to read this story and share this opinion? Should we ban the internet to save printed news? Dinosaur businesses waiting to long to react to technology disruption will fail (i.e. see Kodak as another example). Yes, it is a shame that good, talented people pay the price for this but anyone who has not seen this coming for at least the last decade has either in denial or not paying attention.
I wish I could type…i do look forward to any comments about my lack of typing and proof reading skills… 🙂
“I woudl like your boss to go back ane review your high school trnascripts and/or SAT scores and decide if you should remian employed.”
False equivalency.
My transcripts, grades and work as Editor of the Harvard Review are not in quesiton here, and they are not being supressed from public view.
Does it not trouble you at all that the press and the state are working collectively to further their own ends? Do you not believe that the press should be interested in reporting things that are relevant and working towards disseminating truth and facts regardless of where those facts lead? Or are you a shameless idealogue interested only on promoting stories and facts that benefit your side? The ends justify the means as it is so often observed.
On the one hand we are describing a journalist, on the other, nothing but a partisan shill.
A constitutional originalist: It is so frustrating that we have lost the most basic and reasonable ability to focus/debate on the important issues at hand. Do you want the presidents birth certificate as well? How about his marriage license and kindergarden attendance records? Persoanlly, I find it a travesty that we do not know who he sat with during lunch in high school! I have heard they are socialists, communists, and the founders of ISIS. Its a great medial coverup!
Instead of worring about the great media conspiracy and irrelevant “facts”, why don’t we debate issues with real facts and analysis.