To have a job or not to have a job.

So my office is pretty much in a panic right now, wondering what the fate of the company—or more importantly OUR fate in the company—is going to be. You see, our newspaper group was recently sold by the Boston Herald to Gatehouse Media. That’s fine and dandy, but Gatehouse also owns our direct competition, MPG. Like us, they are a group of weekly newspapers and several of our towns overlap. So the question is, are they really going to keep two newspapers in each overlapping town? Common sense would suggest the answer is no. So the other question is, who stays and who goes? Is it CNC, my company, or MPG? We’ll find that answer out tomorrow as Gatehouse has scheduled a meeting with our CNC office in the afternoon. We’ve been told it’s going to last about two hours.

I’ve been saying since I first learned we were getting sold that we will be fine. CNC has a great circulation, better readership, has won more awards, and just produces better all-around newspapers. Over the past few months, Gatehouse has undoubtedly been drawing comparisons between the newspaper groups and it’s my opinion that they couldn’t possibly think MPG produces a better product. They’re a small, tabloid-style paper with no color options for photos, barely any staff photographers, and front pages covered in ads. In short, there’s no content. Our papers range in size from 28-48 pages and are packed with local content, beautiful photos, and glorious sports coverage…of course.

While I don’t think it’s CNC that’s going to get the ax, I do think there will be some changes made. This both frightens me and excites me. With Gatehouse owning daily papers like the Ledger and Enterprise, it seems the opportunity to advance would be much better than it is now. Furthermore, getting rid of one of the newspaper groups could free up some money and allow for more positions in our office…like, perhaps, a senior sports editor, which of course I would be all over.

I’m trying not to get freaked out, but I’m also trying to prepare myself for the worst. Our bigwigs seem as cool as can be and I’d like to think they wouldn’t be able to conceal a pending house-cleaning so easily if it were actually going to happen.

Keep your fingers crossed for me between the hours of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Probably won’t be able to blog immediately after, but I’ll try to give you an update Thursday night. Thanks in advance for your support.