She brags about how GateHouse combined the operations of four newspapers into one and how nearly no one noticed, which she took as a compliment:
Our once-competitors are now our sister papers: the Herkimer Evening Telegram, the Little Falls Evening Times and the Mohawk Valley Pennysaver in Fort Plain. And as we’ve settled into GateHouse, we’ve been seeking ways to work together.
We started with printing. Rather than continue to maintain separate press sites, in January we consolidated printing at the O-D’s pennysaver press facility in Yorkville. The Herkimer, Little Falls and Fort Plain publications are printed in Yorkville, then transported to Herkimer, where advertising supplements are inserted.
Then, they’re packaged for delivery throughout Herkimer County and the Fort Plain area.
A few months ago, we worked together to create a new monthly publication, mvFamily. Distribution has since grown by nearly 25 percent.
And two weeks ago, we consolidated all the ad composition and layout functions, the accounting offices and the classified call center.
Nowhere in Ms. Donovan's column did she mention the jobs that were cut when these moves were made or the news that does not get covered while her newspapers are pushing niche magazines. After watching what was done to The Carthage Press and other newspapers by Gatehouse Media and its predecessor, Liberty Group Publishing, by these journalism "experts," it is sad for me to see them actually bragging about the tactics, which have done so much to disconnect newspapers from their communities.
GateHouse Media owns The Carthage Press, Neosho Daily News, Pittsburg Morning Sun, and more than 300 newspapers across the United States.
3 comments:
When Donna Donovan looks in the mirror does she see Gloria Fletcher looking back at her? Birds of a feather flock together!
She's just trying to shine a positive light on the darkness that is Gatehouse, the purveyors of inverse management - profitability through the destruction of morale. I've been in this business for a very long time and never in my life have I seen a group so lost. The regional and divisional management is dismal, the regional being especially ineffectual. NO encouragement, NO positive support, NO rational, common sense observation and discussion. Unbelievable.
As a former Gatehouse employee who has abandoned the field of journalism in large part because disenchantment with the current management, it is sad to watch the death of community institutions. Gatehouse mangers have no idea what the function of a newspaper should be or how to run them. Raise the price and cut costs with staff cuts and fewer resources. The cheapening of the product gives the dwindling readership little incentive to remain as subscribers. I hope Gatehouse management's 401Ks were heavily invested in their own stock.
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