Layoffs and outsourcing at daily?
By Frank Schier
Editor & Publisher
Tuesday, March 8, various sources reported layoffs and outsourcing of the entire layout/graphics/design staff at the Rockford Register Star.
The design work will reportedly be transferred to an office in Chicago in eight weeks.
Neither Executive Editor Linda Grist Cunningham nor Publisher Peter Ricker replied to phone calls and voice messages by deadline.
However, when asked by e-mail if those reports were “accurate” and “Are any other departments being transferred? In either case, where will this work be transferred to, and is this permanent?”, Cunningham e-mailed, “Frank: I will not be making a comment on this. You can, however, contact Caroll Stacklin…with your questions.”
Stacklin’s voicemail stated she was out of the office and would return Friday, March 11.
According to www.gatehousemedia.com, “Caroll Stacklin has served as Director of Strategic Operations for GateHouse Media since August 2005 and is presently also serving as Acting Publisher of the Suburban Chicago Newspaper Group.”
From the March 9-15, 2011, issue
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11 Comments
Enough is enough!! That paper will continue to decline in readership and advertising.The paper practices CENSURESHIP and the political bent is down right wrong.
Outsourcing! That’s something Rockford IS good at. Geez! Let’s take away work from good local people…great idea!
The problem is Gatehouse is taking away all our freedom. How so, They are farming ads to India as well as Chicago. This newspaper has
let our city down,They will continue to farmout the other jobs. It’s all planed out. If you don’t get your paper then you will call in t o Chicago if your lucky.
They were suppose to serve our community. Instead they lied to us. They sold out our freedom.The paper has killed over 100 years of people working for them. They continue to procede with all. Your Circulation ads will be responded from a person somewhere else. Place an ad and it won’t be from Rockford anymore.They always promise to provide and serve the community. Instead, They give more unemployment.
Where is Linda Grist Cunningham now? Where is our freedom of speech? Maybe retire now? I hope Key West is good for you?
Why desert our dedicated people that buy your paper? Why create more unemployment for Rockford? …. You my friends will inherited an eyesorse.As well as lies from this newspaper.
Everyone that worked at the paper has gone over their call of duty to help produce a paper. Evidently, That doesn’t mean anyhing. You work and commit your life into sonething you believe in, You make sacrifices in your life, You work for a company for many years, And you find out it’s jobs in India.
Boycott the Rockford paper. Spread the world to all. We need to stand together and stop this. This was freedom of speech. Now it’s greedy money. We need to stand up and fight for our rights. I’m tired of it, We are sick and tired of it. WE need jobs now and we want work.
Hello, I’m not advocating a boycott of the RRSTAR. But I do ask the readers of the Rock River Times (RRTIMES) to continue to support the RRTIMES by letting advertisers know that you value the reporting done here. Share your copy of the RRTIMES with a friend, or pass along the links to articles to a friend via email, Twitter or Facebook. Remind others that the RRTIMES remains a vital resource for our community.
Orville, You don’t even know what’s going down. Wake up! When a local company throws jobs to India for profit? Yes overseas. The paper website only said Chicago, But I heard more from friends who work there at this time and in different dept. When each dept. Mgr. met with their folks, Downers Grove, India was brought up. Give me a break. Wait and see all the next cuts of citizen’s that live in our community loose their jobs at the paper. Also, we didn’t get chosen because of the older workers here. They only want lower paid workers and give them less benefits. In the long run they will realize this was a big mistake. But it won’t last that long anyways. As Gatehouse will be bankrupt and can’t pay it’s bill. But go ahead and support M. Reeds 750K bonus while we loose. This isn’t even counting his yearly wage that will come out in April. Plus it will show all his many perks. The worker’s are going on four years of wage freeze and nothing on company 401K help.
If you noticed Friday on the rrs website they posted a greased up story about this, and how it was going to benifit you. Then if you notice the post a comment was down till they pulled the story. WOW, Then it was fixed again. What was the odds of that. I can see the comments being down, but where did the story go on the website? It’s called manipulation. Let’s you and me Orville watch this year and see how many more jobs in Rockford are lost from the RRS paper. If under 5 people, I’ll eat crow, If not then you post on here how wrong you were and apoligize to the Rock River Times.
Why would I put an ad in a rag that treats their workers worse than a dog.
YES, AT THIS TIME I BOYCOTT THE RRS PAPER, WHY SUPPORT A PAPER THAT GIVES IT’S MONEY TO GATEHOUSE MEDIA WHILE IT TREATS EMPLOYEES LIKE DIRT.
Regarding the boycott, I was referring to the posts from “bad news.” And rather than focusing on doing something negative, I was trying to focus on doing something positive.
Based on the RRSTAR’s move to a subscription model for on-line access, it looks it has already recognized that some people are choosing not to read the print version. Whether this is the result of a boycott or simply following national trends I can’t say for sure. I’d tend to think it was just following the national trend.