DAVENPORT – Lee Enterprises, which owns the Globe Gazette, bragged about its outlook this week as it struggles to pay back hundreds of millions in debt.
In a series of press releases, the company said that it is on the rebound as the economy looks up and is ahead of pace in paying back about $775 million in debt. The company filed chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011. An investment by Warren Buffet has lead to a stock rebound for Lee, as it has recently hit yearly highs.
Lee said that part of its turnaround is due to an “aggressive sales culture” and a “meaningful headcount reduction”. Evidence of this headcount reduction has been seen in Mason City at the Globe Gazette, as a long-time employee in the newsroom was told in recent days to pack up and leave before being escorted out of the building.
The “meaningful headcount reduction” is also evidenced by regionalization in areas such as human resources and what the company calls “outsourcing” of ad production. Rumors that the Globe Gazette had outsourced most of its ad department to India have been rife for years. The Missoula News reported in 2013 that “Lee Enterprises cuts designers” and wrote that “Lee Enterprises … notified at least eight employees at three of its Montana newspapers that their jobs are being terminated because the company is shipping a portion of its graphic design work overseas.” They backed up that information with a quote from a spokesperson from the Montana Department of Labor, who said “those jobs have been outsourced, I believe it was to India.”
Last year, Lee proudly proclaimed its outsourcing a success as is continues to “transform” its “business model”, which apparently includes fewer and fewer American men and women.
“We have outsourced ad production in 13 locations so far, resulting in faster turn-around time for advertisers, improved quality, less redundancy and lower cost,” the company said in a news release. “We expect continued significant savings from these steps.”
Another 2013 report quoted a Lee designer, who said “I work for a small Lee paper in Wisconsin as a multimedia graphic designer. Lee is now laying off designers also. They will be working with a company in Elgin, Illinois who outsources their designing to the Phillipines. Our sales staff will now have to design their customers ads so that the designers in the Phillipines will know what point size to make text. I will be out of my long career in October. Thanks to a(nother) Lee wide initiative!”
Haha. So witty! I am hurt… please, no more. In reality, anyone with brains or ambition abandoned the Glob long ago. Mostly what is left there is dead weight or hogs like John Skipper. I left in 2006 to start a business – work for myself – and never looked back. My only regret is that I stayed too long. I would define a “real job” as making your own way in the world, not serving a corporate master, being successful using your own talents and skills. A job at the Glob scrapes the bottom of the barrel. My job there was not challenging in the slightest. I was lied to by my 8 different bosses, most of whom had no talent, no skills and should have been working at the Target snack bar.
Uh, that last line elicited a bona fide laugh out loud from me. I’ve never seen anyone eating at the Target snack bar. Hilarious.
@Matt-When are we going to try out that challenge you issued me during the Cupid’s Undie Run conversation? Because I do disagree with that outcome.
As a former Lee employee, I can tell you that not only are the ads being outsourced, but so is all the page design (or what some call pagination) and copy editing. Pages are being built in other states and other countries and local employees continue to be eliminated.
In addition, every position is now a “dark position,” which means that if employee leave, they are not replaced (that is why for example they have no longer have an official staff or sports photographer).
While all this helps pay down debt for the Lee stockholders in the short term – it will greatly hurt the company in the long run, as they will have zero talent and a bunch of near-retirement disgruntled employees left – which is pretty much the case now.
Same with all these companies whether in Iowa or Alabama.
The middle class is disappearing, and it’s happened for years whether under repub or dem administrations.
I think they have the rudest people working there. You go in to place an ad and they act they are doing you a favor.
Damn rag.
I have a story which I think typifies the Globe Gazette and how it treats people in general.
There once was a bakery in downtown Mason City. The owner told me that she told the Globe Gazette sales team not to come back to the bakery, as she was not interested in what she called their “over-priced” ads. Days later, the saleswoman (who is known to be aggressive and foul-mouthed, by the way) came back, this time bringing a trainee with her. The sales person brought a stack of papers and told the business owner to “choose” which ad she wanted. The business owner told me that she then said “OK” and picked up the stack of papers, turned around and place them all in the adjacent trash can. The Globe saleswoman and her trainee stood their stupefied for moment, turned around, and left.
@Matt-Actually what you have described is a old hard pressure sales trick when you have a tough customer and it is only to be tried when all else has failed. Most of the time it does not work and only pisses them off and that is why most pro’s won’t use it. They do not want to burn any bridges and just like what happened here word gets around. If I was the sales manager I would fire the salesperson who tried this. The GLOB has indeed gone down and except for the obits and legal notices there is very little in there to interest anyone. The way the treat their people is terrible. And, if they should ever be so stupid as to call me again to tell me my subscription is due when it isn’t they are going to lose another customer. I hate getting calls like that. The other thing they like to pull is we will cancel you. My come back to that is, you will only do it once and I will never be back. What a asshole thing to say to a long term customer.
Is this the same “bakery” that has moved several times to either receive free rent or city incentives? The bakery owner was probably mad because the Globe didn’t give her free advertising.
I had business dealings with this “bakery” not related to advertising. I can say with complete certainty that their was a sense of entitlement and wanting everything handed to them. Won’t shop at the place now, because I saw first hand how they conducted their business.
Mason City has a real bakery?
Who would know?