Hammer to Citizen-Times employees: 'It is a very sad day'

Here's an email forwarded to me from a loyal Ashvegas reader. The email is from Asheville Citizen-Times Publisher Randy Hammer to his staff, regarding Tuesday's lay-offs:

From: Hammer, Randy Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 1:53 PM To: Asheville-Colleagues Subject: Staff reductions

Everyone who was affected by the reduction in staff has been notified.

We had 16 layoffs, including four people who volunteered.

It is a very sad day and we are losing good friends and co-workers who have contributed a great deal to this company.

Beginning tomorrow and continuing through the rest of this week, managers will hold a series of staff meetings to discuss the impact on their departments.

A Gannett Blog commenter says this is the breakdown:

total 16 in Asheville. 4 volunteers. i don't know the complete breakdown. this is what i know:

1 graphic designer

1 production designer

1 online news

1 online director

4 classified sales reps

1 classified manager

1 page layout

That leaves six jobs unaccounted. Anyone know the rest?

Comments

[Blub]

Two from Haywood County.

[tr]

my thoughts are with those still there, and those let go. the c-t, for all the crap it gets from locals, does have a talented bunch of journalists and an even better group of people. what's in print on the newstands isn't always indicative of the intelligence of the people who work there. they are a great group.

all the best to everyone at the c-t in these tough times, from a former employee.

[Bill]

hammer won't be going, it appears, huh? no volunteer, he

[AskAsheville]

Messed up about the jobs. Print altogether is going out soon too, unless they come up with another angle.

[Blub]

Accounting seems to have survived another round at the AC-T. Wonder what they're accounting for these days. The controller must have lots of pull. And can someone inside please tell me how the retail advertising dept. keeps escaping the scissors?

[Abigflea]

its getting crazy over there.
Still no plans on 'how' things are going to work.

[Former C-T'er]

My thoughts are with my former colleagues and friends in Asheville. I wish the best for those who were let go. Godspeed.

[been there]

It annoys the crap out of me all the negative stuff printed about colleagues in the publishing business. Unless you've been there, you have NO IDEA what it takes to publish a newspaper -- and a daily (even a weekly) is even harder. These people whose only experience with "journalism" is to rant online or send a letter to the editor ... you outta try writing something that has involved research, interviewing people (and just finding people and scheduling interviews is difficult enough), principles of grammar, AP style, the bad mood of an editor, and ridiculous deadlines....plus make the publisher happy because what's left of your story attracts readers and thus advertisers......well, it's a very difficult world and most everyone I know in the business works very hard at their craft with very little compensation. My heart goes out to these folks, all of them, including those who worked hard out at the printing facility.

[Bill]

amazing that in "the information age" traditional gatekeepers of information can't find a way to make a buck, ain't it?

[Citizen of the Times]

It sounds as if Gannett is centralizing operations that can be done in other corporate locations (or outsourced?) such as IT services and classified ads. My AC-T subscription notice received yesterday has a Nashville return address instead of a local one.

[From across the road]

Blub:

I often wonder how Retail escapes as well.

They must be in good with the publisher otherwise Retail's history over the last few years would be a wake up call. Classified always had to pick up where Retail failed.

[On the list]

The X Files List who were let go from Citizen-Times on Tuesday
Patricia Martin - classified manager
Doug Mayer
John Yenne - online director
Ashley Galloway - adv assistant
Jennifer Zaval - adv rep
Will Donochod - Class. Employment adtaker
Donna Oakes - production designer
Tami Parcell -graphic designer
Suzanne Wilson - Haywood
Karen Greene - Haywood
Janis Pierce - Accounting who volunteered
Joy Franklin - Op Ed
Richard Tomlin - Maintenance
Bob Beadnell - Classified page layout
Open day editor somewhere
Julie Sunday - Circulation