Sheesh, where to begin? If one were to ever write lists of “How Not to Run a News Organization” or “How to Make Your Employees Miserable and Resentful,” than Bridgetower Media would check off every single box. The salaries are well below market rate and will never increase. The company’s CEO works from home and is non-existent, but shows up from time to time for a closed-door, catered meeting in the conference room to discuss who should be laid off in order to save the company a buck.
Even before the pandemic, Bridgetower’s philosophy is to cut as many corners as possible and fire as many people as possible in order to fatten the bottom line. The editorial and sales staff at NJBIZ is now a skeleton crew. And the remaining people are asked to do the jobs of two to three people with no increase in pay and no year-end bonus. Since I joined in 2017, the ENTIRE editorial staff has turned over three times, either through layoffs or because people were so miserable they quit. By the way, the highest paid reporter here made $50k per year and was laid off because he was considered too expensive. They fired the staff photographer to save money and told us reporters to take photos with our smartphones. They routinely hire unqualified people for senior positions just so they can avoid paying the market rate to people who are properly qualified. Last year, they moved us from the third floor to a cramped, miserable space on the first floor in which we all have to stand and work on our computers on a community table (the CEO, who’s never there, of course keeps his own spacious office).
Staff morale is so low that I’m not sure if there is a machine that exists to even measure it. At year’s end, the company holiday party is a pot luck dinner in the office in which everyone brings their own food (out of their own pockets) and we all help push desks together to form a community table. If you’re lucky, you may get a $25 gift card as a year end bonus. Most people are either looking for new jobs or are contemplating quitting without a new job lined up.
