Gannett Reviews in McLean, VA

Pros

Nice people, nice place and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Cons

Not alot of growth and training opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership needs to react faster to change.

Pros

A little bit of room for advancement - depends on situation and worksite.

Cons

furloughs; pay freezes; layoffs; lack of communication from the top down; not much accountability; people who didn't do their work right or on time typically weren't confronted; too much work dumped on thinned-out staff, while the bigwigs got big bonuses; "big" ideas being dreamed up without specifics on how they'll work, resulting in confusion and in-fighting

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate openly with employees on a regular basis; don't play favorites; acknowledge the hard work being done by the ragged few who are left

Pros

Clean and attractive work environment, prestige

Cons

Good O' boy attitude, really not interested in innovative ideas, top down management style, compensation inadequate, training and development inadequate, not really committed to diversity

Advice to Senior Management

invest in your shining stars or someone else will

Pros

Very interesting work that is ever changing, lots of opportunities to learn, pretty decent amenities onsite, good benefits and employee discounts.

Cons

No longer matters what you know or how good your work is; quality no longer counts. Promotions and salary increases are based on biased favoritism, depending on who you know and kiss up to. Used to be a very friendly place - no more. Very cut throat, cold, sterile environment. Country club atmosphere due to managers not giving a hoot where their employees are during normal business hours. Morale is poor due to layoffs, furloughs, facility services cuts. People who were let go should not have been, whereas people who deserved to go are still there.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop catering and pandering to yourselves and the Board of Directors.

Pros

Great cafeteria and gym
Pretty headquarters
Awesome parking garage
Starbucks coffee shop (which also sells beer and wine)
Phenomenally low expectations

Cons

Digital executives (now that Saridakis has left) set new standards of incompetence almost daily
Cronyism isn't just encouraged, it's mandated
Terrible compensation combined with exorbitantly priced benefits
Furloughs

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of all of the ceremoniously appointed inexperienced buffons running Digital and start fresh with some genuine online leadership. Stop running Digital as defined by the low bar of print publishing guidance to keep the mothership whole. Secure a whole team of talent from GOOG, APPL, AMZN, et al, paid appropriately and with proper operating budgets, to right the Titanic.

Pros

Has tremendous value and potential in the USA TODAY brand.

Cons

Too top heavy. Too many layers of middle managers. Too entrenched in legacy business model.

Advice to Senior Management

Start communicating with employees. Implement change faster. Invest in the future and let go of the past.

Pros

People are generally polite and sympathetic to others' needs. On important matters such as family needs, management usually responds in a good way.

The company also is more stable than most. Layoffs are a part of life throughout the industry, but Gannett's cuts haven't been as deep as they have been elsewhere.

Cons

Not much in terms of innovation. There's no vision for moving forward other than the occasional leap onto a new media bandwagon. Journalists don't have the tools they need to move forward. It's not just the expensive things -- no one can expect a complete IT makeover overnight. It's the simple things. Gannett has a lot of bureaucrats who magically survive each round of job cuts. Not many visionaries.

Advice to Senior Management

Less bureaucracy, more vision.

Pros

I enjoy working in a continuously changing environment as produced in the world of news. There is always something happening and it, sometimes, can be exciting to be a part of it. In my 13+ years with the company I have been able to learn many areas involved in publishing a newspaper. Ihave been fortunate to be able to see some of my ideas go from thoughts in my head to full blown major published projects in the office I work in - something like this is rare in many large companies. Additionally, working for a large media company has offered my access to many events and people that I most likely would not have had the opportunity to take advantage of while working at orther companies.

Cons

Where do I begin!? The office I work in has somewhat inept management. The showering of favoritism is unbelievable. A couple of years ago, when several employees decided to approach management regarding the blatant favoritism, they were told by the individual most guilty of it that he goes out of his way NOT to show favoritism and was somewhat hurt by the accusation. It was later discovered by those he reports to that he deemed the people who approached him as "trouble makers" and "complainers." This was far from the truth - they were concerned by his behavior. Other downsides of working in a smaller office include many co-workers who have no idea what they are doing, and no desire to take part in the new technology changes that are continuously materializing. Many of my co-workers previous work experience includes taking orders at McDonald's and cashier at a wholesale shoe store chain. They do not have the ability to understand some of the management concepts we have in our office, therefore, they often are unsuccessful at their jobs but continue to lanquish, requiring others to take on their work load. The number one downside of working at Gannett, at least in our office, is having some management located in a different state/office and their lack of familiarity with our area/region. Those once or twice a year visits of an hour do not allow them to become familiar with our area, people, etc. However, we are continously told "management knows best."

Advice to Senior Management

Realize there are many talented people within your organization that can bring profitable ideas to the table. Find a way of getting these ideas and people brought to your attention. Additionally, there are people who should NOT be employeed by Gannett who continue to survive the recent cuts made due to economics. There are those in management who are not doing a good job and they are the ones making recommendations on cuts/eliminations/etc. The removal of some of these individuals would allow for better/enhanced growth due to their micro-management style and lack of tolerance of new ideas.

Also, stop the condescending emails about how "you understand" the impact the layoffs and furloughs will have on the employees. Stop the insulting emails about the salary cuts you plan on taking to help the company and how it's impacting everyone. YOU DO NOT KNOW the impact the decisions Gannett Sr. Management is making. In my office alone, I am aware employees qualifying for public assistance due to their low wages; employees who have called in sick because they cannot afford to buy gas for their cars to get to work; employees who are skipping lunch, not using heat, unable to defer mortgage payments and those who have had their utilities turned off due to deliquent payments. When was the last time any of these situations have happened to Senior Management? These situations are not the result of bad spending on the employees part - but due to a less than competitive wage, furloughs, etc.

Also - get rid of the out of state call centers to handle circulation problems and other issues. This has done nothing but create MORE problems and loss of readership/subscribers. And stop buying online dating/social/shopping websites. Pay attention to the news/media publications you have.

Pros

You gain opportunities to shine and perform. The opportunity to do good work is entirely on your own shoulders. There is time to pursue projects and initiatives you feel are important and could lead to something big, but you have to fight fiercely for them all the time. The expectation is that you will produce work, and they will take as much work as you will give. However, you have to understand that at the end of the year, the real focus is on quality, not quantity.

Cons

There is little direction, feedback, encouragement or reward. You have to do what you can and then gain satisfaction from that.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that there will be no way to save the newspaper industry. This slow bleed is just going to result in a death in the end. Why not cut to the chase, change the business model and beat the rest of the industry to it?

Pros

Opportunities for personal and technical training were good.
Ability to get involved in cross-division projects and expand your exposure.

Cons

Benefits were good although costs were high for health and continued to rise and management always offset costs to employees.
Very political environment.
Very financially structured. The almighty buck is the only motivator in the company.
Be good or be gone, Gannett is and has been downsizing for some time and no job is secure.
Promotions are based more on how you are needed than what you deserve. I have seen them over and over promote people into positions they were not ready for and fire them once they failed.

Advice to Senior Management

Have more respect for your employees and the hard work they do for you. Recognize good employees at all levels, not just senior management.