In case you’ve been asleep or watching movies or tracking Luke Ridnour’s whereabouts or doing anything but caring about what’s going on with America’s media scene, Gannett has some exciting new stuff going on. Like this—a new logo …
And this—funny little Tweets …
And this—feel-good little endeavors to make everyone experience the same jolt of perkiness that comes with a free Starbucks beverage …
And more and more and more. Gannett, you see, is re-branding itself, and the excitement begins now! No longer can you refer to the company as a newspaper chain. Nope, it’s a “next-generation media company.” One with slogans like, “One community. One voice. One family.” and positive Twitter takes such as, “All across the nation, #NewGannett employees gave the highest of fives to ring in a whole new venture.”
I get it. Truly, I do. Companies reinvent themselves all the time. It’s pretty Americana. But—and this is a big but—here’s the thing: Gannett is evil. When I say “evil,” I’m thinking George Steinbrenner-hiring-a-private-investigator-to-follow-around-Dave Winfield evil. It’s a corporation that destroyed newspapers; that dumbed everything down; that laid off thousands upon thousands of people via a conference call. It’s truly the worst company I’ve ever worked for. A terrible cesspool of hell.
All the Gannett stuff of the past few days actually reminds me of something TV Guide did a decade ago. One Monday, the magazine laid off a solid 30 percent of its staff. It was bloody and ugly and heartbreaking. Then, on Tuesday, it held Milkshake Day to make all the remaining employees feel better.
Gannett is Gannett—and if you’re an employee who doesn’t believe me, well, sleep with one eye open. The milkshakes are inevitably coming.
