Doomsday on the horizon

Gannett will carry out the majority of its 3,000 lay offs tomorrow. With the exception of a few, it appears (reading the accounts at the independent Gannett Blog) most of the affected employees still have no idea at this hour whether they'll survive the latest round of cuts.

This was my company. I worked with the Sports Dept. at the Gannett's Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. from Oct. 2006 to April 2008. I loved it there. I loved serving the people of Rochester. I loved the newsroom environment. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to everyone at the D&C on this night. Everyone at Gannett for that matter.

Former Gannett employee Paul Oberjuerge nails the situation in his blog tonight:
"At some point, Gannett should have remembered it was a media company, a newspaper company, with all the First Amendment privileges and responsibilities that brings. It could have and should have spent more on its newspaper products and tried to scrape by on, oh, 20-25 percent profit."

God be with everyone at this time. Gannett is making a big mistake here. Laying off employees is not the answer, especially after how many it's laid off already. Morale is as low as ever at its newspapers, I know people at several of them. The greedy leaders of this company will pay for this in the long run. Justice will be served.

And journalism won't die. Gannett's place as a leader in American journalism is quickly fading. Quicker than I can even type.