2:40 a.m. ET: About those GE follow-ups . . .

[1954 Mobile Maid: built at GE factory near Louisville, Ky.]

I'm watching The Courier-Journal handle a big, late-breaker: General Electric's reported plan to sell its home appliances division. It's a major employer in the Louisville, Ky., area, with 5,000 good-paying jobs at 56-year-old Appliance Park. Updates as warranted.

There's nothing worse than doing a bang-up job on a huge story, then dragging yourself to the next day's budget meeting only to hear the boss say: "So, what's your follow-up for tomorrow and the weekend?''

Appliance Park's history is a story about the rise and fall of the Louisville area's post-war economy, told by those who worked and lived it. It could be written like a magazine essay. Something more personal. Maybe vignettes? Three generations of workers, who recall what Appliance Park meant to them? (I'm thinking out loud.) Vintage photos from folks you interview. Any old 8-mm film from the park that could be unspooled into online video?

I wrote a similar story when I was an investigative reporter at the C-J: It told the tale of an African-American family whose financial trajectory reflected that shift favoring marketing, technology and other service industry jobs. My featured example I think was UPS, which by then had become the city's dominant private employers.

But in its heyday, that was GE's Appliance Park, south of Louisville. It sits on 1,000 acres, Wikipedia says. It eventually grew to employ 25,000 people, including many African-Americans, who rose into the middle class on GE's better paychecks.

Park's place in tech history
In 1954, Remington Rand installed a 30-ton Univac computer at the GE factory complex. It was the first installation of an electronic computer at a U.S. business, ComputerWorld magazine said, and it launched the era of business data processing.

Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Image: A 1954 GE promotion for the Mobile Maid: "The first truly automatic portable dishwasher" was shipped from the recently completed Appliance Park; GE press room]

9:33 p.m. ET: NYT's Wall Street blog takes GE story

I'm watching The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., handle a big, late-breaking story; updates as warranted.

Calling it one of the longest-running businesses in GE's 120-year history, The New York Times' DealBook blog attributes its story to a "person" briefed on the matter today. "The announcement comes as GE’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, tries to fix the troubled conglomerate, which has been hit unexpectedly hard by the credit market’s decline and the slumping economy,'' the blog says.

9:06 p.m. ET, Louisville: Still awaiting confirmation

I'm watching The Courier-Journal handle late-breaking news: One of its biggest local employers, General Electric, is reportedly starting to auction its home appliance business, which employs nearly 5,000 well-paid workers south of Louisville.

The C-J story now online hasn't advanced crucial facts much since I last checked in: It continues to rely on the original Wall Street Journal story, which appears to have been first with the news.

But the C-J's story now carries a staff byline, and looks like a solid write-thru. "We just don't comment on this kind of speculation," Kim Freeman, spokeswoman for the Louisville-based Consumer & Industrial division, told the C-J, when asked about the WSJ report.

Finally, not to be a back-seat driver, but: This is definitely a case where one of your bloggers could be getting the essential news out faster, while also gathering quotes from readers and other sources.

Breaking: Louisville's got a big story to chase

Citing anonymous sources, The Wall Street Journal is now reporting (paid subscription required!) that General Electric plans to auction its home appliances business. Any sale is "bound to be emotional for many GE executives and for people in Louisville, Ky., where the business is located,'' the WSJ story notes. With more than 4,800 employees at its giant Appliance Park south of the city, this document shows, GE is one of Louisville's biggest private employers. Let's see how The Courier-Journal handles a story that every Gannett newspaper faces sooner or later.

Related: A Gannett newspaper's surprising decision to drop a blog devoted to a major local employer.

Hot Off the Press: Gas price surge editions

In a tale of two newspapers, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and The Cincinnati Enquirer both fronted rising gas prices today. Online, the papers promise databases, where readers can hunt for cheap gas. One database is cool. The other, unless I'm missing something, is totally lame.

The C-J story says: "When Deon White heard gas prices were approaching $4 yesterday, he spent his lunch hour looking for a bargain. 'I cannot fathom having to pay $4 a gallon for gas,' he said after settling for $3.78." The story includes an embedded link to a database, where readers post prices, and see stations on a map. Nice!

The Enquirer story says: "Gasoline prices lurched to $3.95 a gallon for regular Tuesday at stations all over [the] Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky area, shooting up almost 5% within hours." Following its embedded link, I arrived at the paper's Data Center, where all I could find was something labeled "Lowest Gas Prices in Cincinnati." It appears to be a paid advertisement from an outfit called GasBuddies.

Related content!

Employees are pissed about Gannett's cheapo mileage reimbursement rates, spurring lively debates on posts, here and here. Plus!! See how a top Indianapolis Star executive is cutting his transportation costs -- while giving the finger to GCI's ethics policy.

Plus, more exclamation marks!!! We're all about online databases. But have you seen a truly original one? Leave a note, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your reply; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Images: Newseum]

Reader: Corporate's 'useless' bigwigs unaffordable

Regarding a Journal News employee laid off yesterday as Gannett offshores more advertising work to India, a reader comments: "The papers in the Gannett chain simply can't afford to continue propping up useless and unnecessary bigwigs at corporate headquarters. They are pure overhead, in their own words a drag on earnings, adding no value whatsoever. At this stage of the game, they are in self-preservation mode, knowing full well that the chain model no longer works. They won't initiate a breakup, a la Knight Ridder and Tribune, because it would jeopardize their jobs. What needs to happen is for the outside directors to take charge and hire an investment banking firm to weigh their options. Time to sell the papers and stations to the highest bidders."

Join the debate, in the original post.

Department of etiquette: Hello, new readers!

My traffic has surged over the past seven days, Google Analytics says, on a wave of new readers I hope will keep coming back. Newcomers may enjoy reading my guide to Gannett Blog, from a post I published the day after I left the company, in January:

First, start with About Gannett Blog. One of my most popular features is Executive Suite. Gannett stock talk? Oy, vey! I've done casual surveys on reader demographics. Don't miss my snarky Holidaze and Commentz Korner features. I note cool and not-so-cool stuff in Hot Off the Press. And I showcase artwork in Cutlines Only.

But your contributions -- from comments to company memos -- are the most important ingredient. This blog is designed to be a place where employees and other folks interested in Gannett can organize and swap information about the company, without fear of retribution.

So, use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Cont'd: More signs Corporate won't walk the walk

Gannett leans more and more on newspapers and TV stations to adopt new technologies, from blogs to video to podcasts, that are key to the company's future. So, how come the company publishes one of its chief communications vehicles like it's still 1999? The Daily News Summary highlights news within the company: Today's edition, for example, carries an item about The Honolulu Advertiser seeking a regional accounts manager. The rest is devoted to industry news, including rumblings that billionaire investor Carl Icahn may seek control of struggling web portal Yahoo.

The summary is published in two now-ancient formats:

• A daily post on the company's intranet, available to any employee with network access.
• E-mail automatically sent to those within the company who subscribe; employees can subscribe on the intranet.

A Gannett Blog reader often forwards the summary to me because he knows I don't have access to the intranet. I asked him how the summary could be made more Web 2.0-friendly. "An RSS feed would be nice,'' he said. "Or a stand-alone webpage that also includes podcasts, video and streams. So, when award-winners are announced, the Daily News Summary would include a link to the story, website, podcast or video and employees could view it immediately to get an idea of why it was so powerful."

You can subscribe to Gannett Blog's feeds. Just click on the "subscribe in a reader" link, at the bottom of the green sidebar, upper right. Do it right now; you'll be glad you did!

Cuban: Why online video won't draw big revenue

As Gannett Blog readers debate the value of online video, technology entrepreneur, Dancing with the Stars alumnus(!) and all-around feisty blogger Mark Cuban (left) notes new research by analyst Craig Moffett of Sanford J. Bernstein, showing once more that consumers won't pay for news. "Five years into the video-over-the-Internet revolution,'' Cuban wrote earlier this month, "we have learned two things. First: Consumers won't pay for content on the web, so it will have to be ad supported. And second: It won't be ad supported." Here's why.

[Hat tip, to a reader, for this idea; photo, Fortune magazine]

Reader: 'I lost my job yesterday' to India offshoring

I receive heartbreaking e-mails like the following several times a week now, as Gannett eliminates more advertising production jobs -- shifting that work to India under a contract with 2AdPro of Los Angeles. This note came today from a Journal News employee who says three generations of his family have worked at the Westchester, N.Y., newspaper:

"Just wanted to say thank you for doing this blog! I lost my job yesterday due to outsourcing to India. I worked in the ad design department at The Journal News at Westchester County, N.Y. . . . I had almost nine years of service to the company. My father, who got me the job, had 38 years of service, also in advertising. My mother, stepmother, sister and grandmother all had worked for the Journal News in one way or another! It used to be a fun place to work. . . . All I felt was sadness for those left behind, waiting for their turn, and a bitterness to the powers that be that have destroyed a once vibrant and interesting newspaper!"

Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Cutlines Only: Florida Today

Dan Covey sifts through charred belongings at his rented home in Palm Bay on Tuesday, Florida Today says this morning. Covey's was one of 40 homes destroyed since Sunday in a series of fires that left another 120 homes damaged, and burned an estimated 6,400 acres within the Florida city. Police suspect arson.

Cutlines Only showcases Gannett website art. E-mail suggested links here; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Photo by Craig Bailey, Florida Today, via Newseum]

Lougee letter hints at broadcasting job cuts

Gannett Broadcasting President Dave Lougee (left) warned employees in a letter today about planned changes meant to protect a "majority'' of the company's TV station jobs -- but apparently not all. A Gannett Blog reader sent me a copy of the letter moments ago.

"In the coming months,'' Lougee writes, "Gannett Broadcasting will launch some market-specific initiatives designed to protect our core businesses, preserve the livelihood of the majority of our people and better position us for these uncertain economic times." The goal: "Focus a higher percentage of our efforts toward generating local content or making local sales.''

Any changes would come as Gannett's 23 TV stations adopt a version of the Information Center model that the company imposed last year on newsrooms at its 84 community daily papers. Lougee was named broadcasting chief last July, replacing Roger Ogden. (E.W. Scripps just announced that Ogden is joining its board of directors.)

In his letter, Lougee notes that many employees have expressed concerns about other station owners cutting jobs or curtailing operations. The initiatives planned for Gannett Broadcasting, he says, are meant to minimize the risk of "more significant" changes later on. But, he adds: "It is also clear that no matter how carefully we plan, common sense suggests there will inevitably be some operational impact as we implement these changes."

Broadcasting employees: More details, please! (Bonus points if you know what kind of car Lougee drives. Hah!) Leave a note in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail feedback; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.