Tag: Gannett

Tennessee Democrats Silent on Nashville Mayor’s Biden White House Trip During Snowstorm, but Upset Glenn Jacobs Campaigned with Trump

Tom Pappert

Democrats in Knox County issued a series of statements on social media last Tuesday which claimed Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs was “absent” during the recent winter weather because he traveled to Iowa to campaign for former President Donald Trump ahead of the state’s caucuses.

The Knox County Democrats posted to social media on Tuesday, “Why is Glenn spending more time this week with Trump, MTG, Matt Gaetz, Kari Lake, and Jim Jordan than with county employees clearing roads or at local churches hosting warming centers?”

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Media Giant Sued for Allegedly Discriminating Against White Employees

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The largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., Gannett, was hit with a class action lawsuit Friday that alleges its diversity efforts discriminated against non-minority employees.

Current, former and prospective Gannett employees filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging the company’s “Reverse Race Discrimination Policy” discriminated against “non-minorities” on the basis of race. The policy, announced in 2020, sought to ensure its newsrooms’ demographics reflected the communities they covered by 2025.

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Commentary: USA Today’s Future

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Hotel guests used to enjoy the morning courtesy of a complimentary newspaper before staying in or heading out on their way. Many of them opted not for the local paper of record but for the most generic one, USA Today, published by the conglomerate Gannett. Unlike the verbose and cerebral New York Times or Washington Post, it was written with the casual reader in mind. But the era of the newsroom has largely disappeared, and with it, perhaps also the daily newspaper.

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Arizona Republic Employees Say They Lament the Gradual Decline of the Newspaper

Rachel Alexander

Employment in journalism has taken a hit in recent years, and The Arizona Republic, known as AZCentral online, is no exception. The Republic was bought by the left-leaning publisher Gannett in 2000, which bought up several large newspapers in the 2000s. The paper took a sharp lurch to the left politically, and since then, there have been numerous high-profile layoffs and furloughs as the paper shrank faster than most other large newspapers.

Rebekah Sanders, a consumer protection reporter and the president of the paper’s union, Arizona Republic Guild, tweeted about the latest cutback on Dec. 2. “The company is planning to discontinue work cell phones,” she complained. “A [bat sh*t crazy] idea for a company whose entire workforce depends on phone calls! But we will push back and make sure our members are taken care of.”

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Gannett Newspaper to Furlough Journalists

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Newspaper giant Gannett announced Monday it will begin furloughing employees across the country over the next three months to cut costs during the economic slowdown caused by the novel coronavirus.

The Hill reports, “the publisher of more than 100 newspapers, including USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, The Columbus Dispatch and The Arizona Republic, is reportedly furloughing workers who make more than $38,000 a year and they will be required to take one week of unpaid leave per month in April, May, and June, according to a tweet from investigative reporter Gregory Holman of the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri, a Gannett-owned paper.”

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Judson Phillips Commentary: Crisis Management for Dummy Conservatives

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by Judson Phillips   In the age of Trump, something has become obvious. The news media is the enemy of conservatives. Across Tennessee and the nation, we see the liberal media attack conservatives with the single objective of destroying the conservative. Why shouldn’t the left wing media attack conservatives? After all, conservatives are the worst in managing media created crises. Any conservative who is involved in politics is subject to a media witch hunt. Any conservative out there must understand the rules. Rule 1. They are the enemy. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit likes to say, “if you just think of them as Democrat activists with a byline, you won’t go wrong.” The quotable Jim Treacher famously said in 2014, “Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn’t know because they might reflect badly on Democrats.” The corollary is modern journalism is all about finding facts or at least allegations that they want to tell the public about because they will reflect badly on conservatives. Understand, when the media calls, they want to make a conservative look bad. Rule 2. You have the right to remain silent. The question is, do you have the ability? When the media…

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Liberal Media Outlet Casts Wide Net to Unearth College Yearbook Photo From 1980 Showing Gov. Bill Lee Dressed in Confederate Uniform at Party

Jason M. Reynolds

Liberal media chain Gannett has dug up a 39-year-old university fraternity yearbook photo showing a young Bill Lee dressed in a Confederate uniform, multiple media outlets have reported. WREG reported that Gov. Bill Lee’s office told the station he has regrets and never intended to hurt anyone. The photo from 1980 is on the Kappa Alpha Order yearbook page and shows Lee in the uniform, posing with other people in period clothing at a party. A copy of the yearbook page is here. The fraternity hosted parties celebrating the Confederacy and Southern heritage during the time Lee attended Auburn, 1977-1981, WREG said. Lee’s press secretary, Laine Arnold, did not reply to an emailed request for comment by The Tennessee Star. A representative for Lee told the Associated Press on his behalf that he never wore blackface or attended parties where that happened, WRCB reported. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill chastised Gannett, the owner of The Tennessean, for searching wide and far for a 39-year-old photo. “The amount of time that The Tennessean and other Gannett publications have devoted to scouring college yearbooks playing 30 and 40-year-old games of gotcha over costume parties explains better than anything else why their…

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Job Slashing Hedge Fund Bids to Buy Gannett and The Tennessean: Management ‘Has Not Demonstrated That It’s Capable of Effectively Running This Enterprise’

Tennessee Star Staff

Hedge fund backed Digital First Media, which owns more than 200 newspapers and is known for its draconian cost cutting and job slashing, submitted a bid to buy Gannett for $1.3 billion on Monday. “Critics have described Alden as a “destroyer of newspapers” that is prone to “savage” layoffs and as “one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism,” the New York Times reported after news of the bid broke. Gannett, a publicly traded company, owns USA Today and 100 other newspapers, including The Tennessean in Nashville, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, and the Knoxville News Sentinel. In its bid, Digital First Media delivered a withering assessment of the competence of Gannett’s current management team in this letter accompanying the bid: Gannett has lost 41% of its value since its debut as a public company two and a half years ago, significantly underperforming its peer group and indices.  During this period, Gannett suffered from a series of value-destroying decisions made by an unfocused leadership team – overpaying for a string of non-core aspirational digital deals and pursuing an ill-fated hostile for Tribune Publishing, all while Gannett’s core revenue, EBITDA, margins and Free Cash Flow continue…

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Report: Job Slashing Hedge Fund Looking to Buy The Tennessean as Part of Gannett Purchase

Tennessee Star Staff

The Wall Street Journal and Market Watch are reporting that Digital First Media, a hedge fund backed media company renowned for purchasing newspapers and gutting the operations through firings and drastic cost cutting, is preparing a bid to purchase Gannett, which owns The Tennessean, along with about 100 other newspapers around the country. Market Watch reported on Sunday: A hedge-fund-backed media group known for buying up struggling local papers and cutting costs is planning to make an offer for USA Today publisher Gannett Co., according to people familiar with the matter. MNG Enterprises Inc., one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, has quietly built a 7.5% position in Gannett’s stock and plans to publicly urge the McLean, Va., publisher to put itself up for sale, the people said. MNG, better known as Digital First Media, will also offer to buy Gannett GCI, +0.52% for $12 a share, they said, which would represent a 23% premium over Friday’s closing price of $9.75. The shares, which fell steeply last year, have been rising lately. Closely held Digital First is known for its contentious history with the newspaper industry in part because of its penchant for slashing costs. It has over…

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Gannett Offers Buyouts to Staff, Including Tennessean, Other Tennessee Papers

Jason M. Reynolds

Gannett is examining the possibility of making cuts across its company — and that includes possible layoffs at The Tennessean and several other papers around Tennessee. The Nashville Scene reported on the pending cuts. Maribel Wadsworth, president of USA TODAY Network and publisher of USA TODAY, told employees during a company-wide conference call Tuesday that digital revenue is not replacing decreasing print revenues, and some budget tightening will be coming in the new year. “Going forward, we will be a smaller company,” she said, noting that monetization has not been strong on mobile devices and that Gannett properties need to “deepen engagement” with mobile readers. The Memphis Flyer said it is hard to determine whether The Commercial Appeal in Memphis can stand more reductions in force. In November, a company-wide buyout offer targeted employees over 55 with more than 15-years experience. The deadline to take Gannett’s offer of 30-35-weeks pay, and a possible bonus of up to $5,520 is Dec. 10, the Flyer said. Wadsworth told employees that the company cannot continue many of the products it produces, putting focus on non-daily print publications, according to the Scene. In Middle Tennessee, Gannett publishes weekly or twice-weekly content in Dickson, Robertson,…

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Memphis, Knoxville Among Worst Cities, USA TODAY Says of Towns It Calls Home

Jason M. Reynolds
Memphis

Media giant Gannett has compiled a list of what it says are the 50 worst cities to live in, and some of the top locations are towns where it operates newspapers, including two in Tennessee. USA TODAY compiled the list using data from 24/7 Wall Street, a website that publishes financial news and opinion. 24/7 Wall Street created an index of eight categories: crime, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure and leisure, to identify the 50 cities. Memphis comes in as the 4th worst city in which to live, just ahead of Cleveland, Ohio, at 5th worst. The 36th worst is Knoxville. Gannett owns The Knoxville News-Sentinel and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Nashville, home of The Tennessean, did not make the list. USA TODAY admits that quality of life is a subjective measure. “Quality of life is subjective, and difficult to measure,” Gannett’s story says. “Still, there is a wide range of quantifiable factors that can impact quality of life in a given area. Affordability, safety, job market strength, quality of education, infrastructure, average commute times, air quality, and the presence of cultural attractions are just a few examples of factors that can influence overall quality of life. “Cities…

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Gannett Announces More Layoffs With Closure of Nashville Design Studio At The Tennessean

Wendy Wilson

Gannett on Tuesday announced plans to shut down its Nashville Design Studio housed at The Tennessean, a closure that will affect up to 88 jobs. The design work will now be done in Des Moines, Iowa; Louisville, Kentucky; and Phoenix, Arizona. The transition is set to be complete Oct. 1. There will be some opportunities for Nashville employees to work remotely, but Gannett did not say how many employees would have that chance. The Tennessean has been planning to relocate its offices and recently selected a buyer for its property in downtown Nashville. Laura Hollingsworth, the publication’s president, told Nashville Business Journal  it is too early to say how the closure of the design studio will affect moving plans, which are still in the early stages. Last year, Hollingsworth said The Tennesseean would need room for 291 employees wherever it finds a new home. The Nashville Design Studio has handled design and page editing for various Gannett publications in Tennessee and around the country. Gannett owns a number of newspapers in Tennessee in addition to The Tennesseean. They include the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Jackson Sun, the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro and the Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville,…

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Gannett Shuts Down Memphis Commercial Appeal Press, Continues to Cut Back in Tennessee

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Gannett has shut down the press in Memphis for the Commercial Appeal and is now printing the paper up the road in Jackson at the Gannett-owned Jackson Sun. The move is the latest in a series of steps the corporate media giant has made to trim and consolidate operations in Tennessee. Gannett also owns The Tennessean in Nashville, the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro and the Knoxville News-Sentinel in East Tennessee. Gannett acquired the papers in Memphis and Knoxville just last year. Last month, 17 staff members lost their newsroom jobs in Memphis, according to an article in the Nashville Scene. Three lost newsroom jobs in Middle Tennessee and 11 positions were eliminated in Knoxville. According to the blog Smart City Memphis, 19 additional people are losing jobs in Memphis because of the press machine shutting down. A story in the Commercial Appeal on the shuttering of its press said that the press in Jackson is newer, cleaner and more digitally advanced. Monday’s edition was the last paper printed in Memphis. The Commercial Appeal piece chronicled the storied history of its historic press: Over the past 176 years, Memphis printers have gotten the paper out come hell, high water or any other calamity, natural or man-made.…

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Gannett’s ‘Tennessean’ Shrinks As The Tennessee Star Grows

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  Gannett News, the far left mainstream media giant based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, announced drastic cuts in its staff in all its major Tennessee publications on Tuesday, including The Tennessean and The Daily News Journal here in Middle Tennessee. “Today we underwent and completed a reduction in personnel in our news division in several of our Tennessee markets, as part of a transformative strategy for the USA TODAY NETWORK–Tennessee,” Tennessean publisher Laura Hollingworth wrote in an email to employees of Gannett’s Tennessee operations, the Nashville Scene reported. “We recognize that this has been a tough day, and we respect and appreciate the work of all our colleagues, especially those who have been impacted by these actions — through no fault of their own,” Hollingsworth said in her email. “A year after acquiring the Commercial Appeal and Knoxville News-Sentinel, Gannett made sizable cuts today in both of those newsrooms, in addition to laying off three reporters locally,” the Scene reported: In Memphis, sources tell the Scene that 17 staff members were eliminated in the newsroom, including seven digital producers, two photographers, two reporters, one clerk and five editors. In Knoxville, 11 were eliminated from the newsroom, including four managers. The…

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