News -> INDReporter FRI, NOV 5 11:43AM by Leslie Turk

More pink slips at Daily Advertiser

Just when The Daily Advertiser’s employees thought it was safe to poke their heads out of the trenches after surviving several rounds of layoffs in the past four years — heck, it’s been what six months since the last round? — they got hit again Thursday.

This time the cuts really took them by surprise, insiders say. The Daily Advertiser is owned by Virginia-based Gannett Company Inc.

Gannett Blog, which is not associated with the media group and is run by a former USA Today editor, Jim Hopkins, is now estimating this week's job cuts across the company at 154 (excluding USA Today’s 130) — with 48 of 81 newspapers reporting. Hopkins notes that Gannett has about 25,000 U.S. newspaper workers, out of a total 35,000 employees worldwide.

In Lafayette, according to an anonymous post on the blog, six employees were given their pink slips this week. A source at The Daily Advertiser confirms there were cuts but did not give the number of positions. The blog reports one job cut in production, three in circulation, one in advertising and one in the newsroom (assistant features editor). The paper’s website lists Krista Richmond as assistant features editor and L Magazine editor.

Daily Advertiser Publisher Leslie Hurst did not immediately return a call for comment this morning.

Another anonymous blogger posted the following comment to Gannett Blog:

Gannett is paranoid about keeping this round of layoffs on the downlow. We were told (verbally) today not to speak to any reporters/news outlets calling, not to confirm or deny anything if we answered a call and to refer all questions to Robin Pence.
Nothing in writing about anything so far, no lifting-the-troop-morale meeings [sic], nothing. This blog has been indispensible, from the My Boss warning post to the running count.
Employees at my site checked the blog on their phones periodically today, texted and emailed to check the fat [sic] of colleagues at other papers. We fear it isn’t over.


Comments (20)add
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written by Limited Liability , November 05, 2010 - 12:32 pm
Is one of them Bill Decker?
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written by ADS , November 05, 2010 - 01:06 pm
It's a bad day in Acadiana when people lose jobs even if they are considered to be a direct competitor. I hope all of them find work soon.
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written by PLUMPY , November 05, 2010 - 01:10 pm
I just received my health insurance premium . It has doubled. I blame Obamacare . Since the news media supports Obama. I've called The Advertiser and canceled my subscription . As the saying goes " what comes around , go around ".
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written by The Bard , November 05, 2010 - 02:16 pm
PLUMPY, you are an unfortunate to be so ill informed and not very well read. Lashing out makes you feel good and that is sad.
"Ay, there's the rub."
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written by cajy1 , November 05, 2010 - 02:25 pm
Please tell me that District Sales Manager Derrick Phillips was 1st on the list.
I haven't received a paper in 6 days and counting now with no response.
I call corporate every day for an update, daily credit and link to virtual paper to keep me up to date.
When we left town for vacation this summer I called, emailed and faxed a stop delivery notice and you guessed it - all the papers were in the driveway for the world to know we weren't home!!
Still have never heard from this individual.
Try calling The Advertiser phone number listed in the Yellow Book phone directory and see what you get. 337-233-1375.
Corporate has been very helpful - Phillips has not.
If this guy ever crawls out from under his rock I hope it is to get his long overdue pink slip.
Let someone who wants to perform fill that position.
BBB is my next stop on this train to nowhere...
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written by LSMFT , November 05, 2010 - 02:40 pm
written by ADS "I hope all of them find work soon."
-------------------------

The market place is speaking and the future is not paper unless they can get a government hand out.
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written by bluto , November 05, 2010 - 05:10 pm
They should all look for honest work while they are getting a paycheck.
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written by Confused , November 05, 2010 - 08:54 pm
Ordered paper four weeks ago. Still no paper. I do not know why. The Ind. has more local news than TDA.
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written by SOLUTIONOR , November 05, 2010 - 10:47 pm
Ga Negative, Negative, We would'nt want anyone to lose their job, but when the sunday edition was not delivered and my parrain called the Advertiser delivery woman. She said " So sorry, I will bring it tomorrow, when i bring the monday edition. A sign of things to come.
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written by Bass_Fisherman , November 07, 2010 - 07:48 am
I hope that this does not surprise anyone. The "Daily Aggravator" has been out of touch for decades. Liberal print is dying all over the country. Why should this paper be any different? from time to time, I check their website to see if there is any noteworthy news on it and for the most part, the website has the same articles it did the previous two weeks. I wonder if the Acadiana edition of the Advocate has a larger circulation in Lafayette. I suspect it does since it tends to stick to the news and not liberal biased editorials.

In my 40 years in the greater Lafayette area, the only thing the the Aggrivator was good for was lighting the fireplace.
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written by bmiller2100 , November 07, 2010 - 10:26 am
Bard, are you a psychologist? If not, stay on subject, please. I am not interested in your analysis'.
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , November 07, 2010 - 10:23 pm
lAFAYETTE, HAS GROWN RAPIDLY IN THE PREVIOUS THIRTY YEARS, and the locally daily became stagnated in the last seven to ten years, it became more a classified daily about five years past, the news it prints is available one or two days prior to readers through other media in the state, and through national news carriers, and as more time passes the increase of censorship and coverups of unpopular goings-on in the area in the rank and file of political malfeasance in office by local appointed lackeys and the placement of crooks in administration of government programs, and looking the other way while taxpayer money is pilfered by the dishonest,
" GO FETCH BOYS, who have been appointed for past favors accepted, and a local weekly periodical, and or/an outside the city news agency comes in and opens up a hornets nest while the local daily pretends to be unaware of any mis-doings in the area, this has long been a losing proposition for the daily newspaper and while this end has been long overdue in arriving, it is very much welcomed by the voters who depend on local news agencys in aiding their decisions of who to select for office and as leaders of the city and parish
This daily here in Lafayette has been under the reins of the local administration for sometime now, and while ad space is all important, the lack of subscribers reading the ads is very
costly in the end.
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written by kenneth , November 08, 2010 - 06:14 am
The advocate is just like the the Daily Mullet Rapper
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , November 08, 2010 - 05:15 pm
The Fat Lady is wailing, you can close da curtains !
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written by Eat Prey Kill , November 08, 2010 - 10:02 pm
Pink slips! Were they emailed?
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written by Phil , November 09, 2010 - 09:45 am
Pretty sad, but the slow train wreck of Gannett is obvious. No meaningful news, as Northsidian points out no investigative reporting on criminal goings-on of our government officials. Outright support of criminal candidates for office. I doubt there is a car in the Daily Advertiser parking lot still left with an Obama bumper sticker.
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written by Woody , November 09, 2010 - 01:34 pm
Its about time they are sinking. What a poor excuse of a paper. I wish someone would step up to the plate and compete....
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written by LiberalWingnut , November 09, 2010 - 01:37 pm
It's too bad there isn't a paper like The Ind in Lake Charles to report on all of the layoffs Tom Shearman has made at the Lake Charles American Press. They are a worse joke than TDA.
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written by Unempirical Observer , November 09, 2010 - 06:00 pm
Shotgun,
You're talking about the problem of corporate run media throughout the US, at all levels (print, radio and tv) since the arrival of the internet, and the greying of the Baby Boomers.
The youngsters aren't buying your papers as they settle down into parenthood. GenXers grew up in the era of cynicism post-Watergate/Vietnam/Nixonian meltdown. They tend to be more unaffiliated but right-wing in general, and this bias against "liberal media" leads them to absolute confusion and a lack of all comprehension on the various types of media positioning.
They were born after the FCC and then Supreme Court blew up our 1930's era rules meant to ensure an objective reporter of fact press over the public airwaves, and can't tell the difference between this and a Subjective Advocate in the print media.
Hell, some of the tv media are borderline propagandist whether on their "news" hours or on their "commentary" hours. The line is completely fuzzy, b/c a changing of the clock on cable is not similar to the physical representation of knowing you are on the editorial page.

There are biases in media, even when there is an Objective reporter of fact.
The bias is not to a political party line or philosophical viewpoint by the reporters, so much as it is from editors coming down from management and sometimes ownership, to cut down resources, to sell soft story and human interest and social drama. They bring on ex-generals with no transparency or accountability who then advocate warmaking positions. They bring on former lobbyists trained by foundations, funded by billionaires who just want to tear down civil society systems.
They take government and corporate press releases as gospel, and then want to be "fair and balanced" by letting incredulous people and groups on the air, like with science issues, as if there was some debate.
This is how we get intelligent design nonsense, pretending to be a science, which it is not, when really, spirituality and the divine is a wholly worthwhile subject to have discourse over, but not in the same discussion as a scientific discussion.
It cheapens the divine to somehow think it can ever be measured or studied or known from objective data, what God had in mind when he did what he did.

In this whole rant... I think Lafayette is outta luck.
Unless y'all want to do the perjoratively "Liberal" thing, and start a boycott of the Daily Advertiser....
maybe then Gannett will sell it off and you can have a real Conservative Subjective Reporter in town.
And all the world will be right with them to go against The Ind.
(I'm sure they're shaking their heads at me now. I'm just playing. We still love you The Ind.)
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written by realitychecks , November 10, 2010 - 06:35 pm
Your skeleton crew is beginning to look anorexic!
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