Telegram & Gazette Employee Reviews for Anonymous Employee

"What happened to honesty and integrity in the workplace"

What do you like about working at Telegram & Gazette?

"I worked at the paper either full time or part time for 25 years as a weekly news correspondent (15 years); copy editor (3 years) and special sections editor (7 years).For the last 7, 2000-2007, I had the best job in the world as a department of one, running the new media/marketing special sections department, coordinating coverage and writing stories about business, healthcare, education, financial management, parenting and more -- from a strictly local perspective. I was very good at what I did, both editorially and budgetary. By keeping the reporting at the local level and going in-depth on larger issues that affected the community which could not be reported in the main section of the paper, I helped increase the department revenue during a time of falling subscriptions, classified ads and overall ad revenue.I worked with various departments -- online, news, photography, pre-press, ad graphics -- and streamlined production processes to get project out on time, every time.It was an extremely satisfying job .... until ...."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Stay away from traditional newspapers. They are not interested in your integrity and hard work. At the first opportunity, they will turn on you ... then laugh at your misfortune when the managers get together for drinks after work."

What don't you like about working at Telegram & Gazette?

"In late-2007, upper management decided to disassemble the marketing department, which had run of the behind-the-scenes public recognition programs and promotional campaigns for nonprofits that were highly visible to the community.Of five employees, 3, including myself, landed in Advertising and others joined Circulation.The managers in advertising told me to keep doing what you're doing with that strong local focus because it works.Three weeks later I found myself under fire for doing my job, the same job I had been doing for 7 years. Why Becasue I found out that the largest advertiser to the newspaper was scamming the auto-buying public by withholding documents and receipts of purchase. By the time the public found out in their first bill that their APR was adjusted by 2 or 3 percentage points or that their trade-in was actually $700 less that what was agreed upon in the showroom, it was too late to do anything about it, since the dealer had their signature on the contract ... but the contract had been altered.This had happened to me in a purchase of a car and the more I investigated, the more people I found who were in the same situation.When I approached the dealer on the record for comment, little did I know that I would lose my job for diligence.When the advertising execs discovered that I was snooping around, all of a sudden I had breached all rules of journalism. After 1 day of an internal investigation where I had no input whatsoever, I was given a choice of resigning and able to collect unemployment; or being fired and not collecting unemployment compensation.Also on the same day I spoke to the automotive general manager, I was asked to complete a survey from the corporate headquarters. Of course I gave the dealership very low marks. But I did not know that survey result went directly to the general manager, who then had to explain those low marks to his boss and other general managers at a monthly meeting. Now I ask any reasonable person, Do you think he had any motivation to discredit meIt doesn't take a great leap of faith to see that the head of the dealership and largest advertiser for the newspaper dropped a dime to the publisher and said, Make this guy go away or else we'll cut back on advertising.Those were the types of stories I was praised for investigating three and four years previously. So with the newspaper sinking like a stone, they couldn't afford to tell the truth"

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Get back into the business of reporting legitimate news and then -- maybe -- people will respect you. I know it's all about survival, but what do you become after you survive"