Opinion: Cutting jobs helps budget, hurts more important areas
By Hagit Limor
The phone started ringing just after noon on a busy Tuesday in June. The axe was falling again.
Friends at Gannett who had suffered through multiple rounds of cutbacks, furloughs and layoffs had just gotten word that 700 more of their friends were about to get the call no one supporting a family, trying to pay off a car or struggling with a student loan wants to hear. Heads were about to roll.
Each time their phones rang, they wondered: Is this the source I worked for months, nights and weekends, so I could write the story my community needs to know, which incidentally, may help my company sell more newspapers? Or is this the call that will help my company save more money by eliminating my livelihood?
No one questions the challenges facing media outlets today, most especially on the print end of the business. We’ve all read the numbers on circulation and advertising revenue. We’re also reading some other numbers with which you can’t argue.
Gannett CEO Craig Dubow actually got a 21 percent bump on his performance bonus alone in 2010, a $1.75 million payout as part of a total compensation package of $9.4 million. That goes a long way toward 700 jobs, the salaries for which rarely reach into six figures.
I’m not picking on Mr. Dubow here. He’s not the only media CEO earning millions while laying off thousands over the past few years. I’m not saying he or any of those leaders relish the thought of impacting people’s lives so significantly, though it must be nice to delegate that chore downhill.
What I’m saying is that it smells.
No journalist gets in this business to get rich. Most of us live on the low end of middle-class life. We do this because we believe our jobs are essential to our democracy. We serve as watchdogs over the thieves and cheats who would reign even more freely if they didn’t have to deal with a free press. We serve to protect our communities.
Hagit Limor is the 2010-11 president of SPJ. She is an investigative reporter at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati.
This article presents yet another example of cutting jobs to give an executive manager a large raise. In the 1950’s, managers made more than their employees, about 4 times as much. Now, the average is around 400 times what the rank-and-file employees make. Could this be part of the problem? I have seen it in the gaming business and elsewhere. This is why Wall Street continues to make millions while the country has over 10% unemployment. Greed.
Agree with Dumbfounded. Time to take a stand SLT residents. Get rid of most of the overpaid management, keep services. This TO never asked where SLT residents and workers could save money or try to raise revenues without passing the increases on to the citizens. There’s no true leadership with him or the council, just numbers.
From what I have seen of our city employees and services, this is the last group you would want to cut. The level of commitment and service from most city employees is truly impressive. Too bad we can’t say the same for those who are running the show. In fact, the very actions taken to axe our most valued city employees is absurd, given the $200 million in debt and unfunded liabilities we face. The first step is to admit we have a problems, something the current council, city attorney and city manager are unable or unwilling to do.