RI Media: Projo’s Parent Co. Sends 485 Jobs to India, St. Pierre Replaced by Syndicated Show
GoLocalProv Business Team
RI Media: Projo’s Parent Co. Sends 485 Jobs to India, St. Pierre Replaced by Syndicated Show
Gannett, the parent company of the two Rhode Island papers, told its business side employees that 485 of their jobs will be outsourced to India early in the next couple of months, according to Poynter.
In Providence, the decimated Providence Journal, whose newsroom continues to shrink, has seen executive editor Alan Rosenberg, reporter Emily List, and long-time photographer Sandor Bodo leave the paper in the past few weeks.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFor the company-wide jobs, all of the outsourcing involves “business process,” the company said in a frequently asked questions document — things like paying bills, invoicing customers, preparing monthly summary reports and reconciling the books.
According to Poynter, those losing their jobs in the U.S. will be notified by January 15 but can stay on until April.
During that period they will be training their replacements overseas.
“Gannett is undertaking a massive company-wide transformation. To help the company transform quickly, we must remain nimble and focused on the needs of the business, while keeping our operating costs low, our control environment tight and our processes as efficient as possible,” said the company.
New Media Investment Group and its GateHouse chain acquired Gannett (retaining the Gannett name) a little more than a year ago. To do so, it took out a $1.2 billion loan from Apollo Global Capital and assumed another $600 million. Of that debt, $180 million has been repaid and another $500 million refinanced at a lower interest rate.
In addition, the company did 500 buyouts over the past couple of weeks — Rosenberg was one of the buyouts.
St. Pierre Out at WHJJ, Replaced By Trump-Style Radio
Long-time Rhode Island TV and radio presence Ron St. Pierre has lost his gig as the host of WHJJ’s morning drive slot. Instead, the station is piping in a host located in western Massachusetts -- Jim Polito.
Polito already broadcasts to a number of iHeart stations — the parent company of WHJJ.
St. Pierre declined to comment on the change at the station.
The buyouts, outsourcing and move away from locally hosted radio to syndicated are another blow to local media.
The Rhode Island market is now dominated by big-box media — WPRI-12 is owned by a Texas company, WJAR-10 owned by Maryland-based Sinclair and the Providence-Journal owned by Virginia-based Gannett. Nearly all of Rhode Island's radio is owned by publicly traded companies.
Newspapers Falling Revenue
Pew reports that corporate newspaper groups continue to see a decline in revenue. "Newspaper companies have been hit especially hard. Among the six publicly traded newspaper companies studied – major chains that own over 300 daily papers – advertising revenue fell by a median of 42% year over year (i.e., comparing the second quarter of 2020 with the second quarter of 2019).3 By contrast, total ad revenue across the three major cable news networks was steady overall, but there were sharp differences between the networks: While ad revenue for MSNBC and CNN declined by double digits, Fox News Channel’s revenue rose by 41%," according to Pew.
Ad revenue, even digital revenue fell for the largest newspaper groups.
"The median ad revenue among these publicly traded newspaper companies fell by 42% in the second quarter of 2020 when compared with the second quarter of 2019. This pattern was similar for all six newspaper companies analyzed here, with even the least-affected company, Gannett, showing a 35% decline in ad revenue year over year," reports Pew. "Digital ads represent a newer source of revenue for newspapers as their overall circulation declines. Such ads can reach not only subscribers, but visitors to the free offerings on newspapers’ websites. But digital ad revenue offered little relief in the early days of the pandemic. Digital ad revenue fell by a median of 32% year over year in the second quarter."