Layoffs, buyouts and clearouts

The Enquirer claims to be transforming into more of a community newspaper, while employing fewer and fewer of us. Now it is clearing out circulation customer service, sending the work to Tulsa instead.

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXXXXX
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 9:34 AM
To: Cincinnati-All
Subject: Circulation Customer Service change
Importance: High

To: Cincinnati All

Last year, Gannett announced the creation of its Centers of Excellence (COEs). Under this plan, only a few centralized service centers across the country will handle the circulation customer service operations for all of Gannett's local newspapers.

Effective Tuesday, July 17, The Enquirer's customer service functions -- and those of 26 other Gannett newspapers -- will be operated out of COE in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From that point on, all of our Enquirer customer calls and e-mails will be routed to Tulsa.

We expect this transition to be seamless, as local customers will not know that their calls are being routed to Tulsa. The reps there will have all the information they need to serve our customers. However, all of us may occasionally receive calls or emails from local customers who, for some reason or another, choose to contact us for help regarding service-related issues, temporary stops, billing, etc.

If you receive such a call or email, here's how we recommend you handle it:

Phone: Transfer the call to Circulation, extension 4500. Before doing so, please provide the caller with the full phone numbers to reach us directly (513-651-4500 or 1-800-876-4500). Any calls received on these numbers will automatically be routed to the COE in Tulsa starting July 17.

Email: Forward the email to the Tulsa COE at circhelp@cincinnati.com Over the last several months, we've been working closely with a number of employees here, in Circulation and in other departments, as well as folks at Gannett and in Tulsa, to make this a smooth transition for our customers. And we will continue to work with the staff in Tulsa to ensure our customer service remains top notch.

If you have any questions, please give me a call.

Gary J DiSanto
VP/ Circulation
The Enquirer

There've been some shots taken at DiSanto in the comments on this blog, but he was well regarded before coming to Cincinnati, and the fact that circulation is up a bit recently probably has more to do with him than Callinan's sorry news judgment.

Also, The Nashville Tennessean has asked for 15 newsroom volunteers to take buyouts, and management hints there could be layoffs after that. Can this move be far behind for the Enquirer?