Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday | Nov. 24 | Got news, or a question?
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105 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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Hi. Remember to say something nice to a co-worker today.
ReplyDeleteHey Jim: Have you received a call back yet about your insurance? It's like an episode of 24 - we can't stand the suspense!
ReplyDeleteTis the season;
ReplyDeleteYou better kiss ass
You better not whine
You better not post here
I'm telling you why
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to your town newspaper
Craig's making a list,
Craig's checking it twice;
Gonna find out who's drinks coolaid or not.
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to your town newspaper
Craig sees you when you're working
Craig knows when you're out sick
Craig knows if you've been on Jim’s Blog
So log off for goodness sake
With a little stock price and little yes men
Rooty kiss ups and crummy ideas
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to your town newspaper
Craig sees you when you're working
Craig knows when you're out sick
Craig knows if you've been on Jim’s Blog
So log off for goodness sake
Goodness sake
You better kiss ass
You better not whine
You better not post here
I'm telling you why
(Larry St. Cyr only!!!)
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming to town
GCI is coming
GCI is coming
GCI is coming your town newspaper
i'm thinking about cancelling my subscription to the paper i work at, even though I get the employee discount (half-price. Is anyone else consdierign cancelling the paper, just to try and conserve some cash in case we get the pink paper next week?
ReplyDeleteI'm getting a pink slip in the next week, and I won't be subscribing. Hell, they give it away on the web for free! And I can more updated national/world news at a click.
ReplyDeletetest comment
ReplyDelete1244
ReplyDeleteif I get canned I will cancel the paper before I leave. I only keep it now in a slim hope that might make a difference to keep me.
Re: Cancelling papers
ReplyDeleteI cancelled mine years ago. Since the company says it's part of my job to read the paper, I figure (1) the company should pay for it, and (2) I shouldn't read it off the clock. So I just read it at work. But actually, since I'm a copy editor, I read most of it before it's even published.
I like the Christmas jingle. Jim should sing it on his video blog.
ReplyDeleteSounds like circulation will drop even more when all these employees cancel their subscriptions.
ReplyDeleteIf you cancel by phone, they'll ask you why, or they did me. It took about three months to get the delivery stopped. They had the never to send a bill!
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or does gannett.com have the ugliest, most amateurish web site in corporate America? Talk about bad first impressions. Couldn't we at least hire a college intern to spruce it up so it doesn't look like it was created in circa 1997 in a basement? It's no wonder Gannett has a reputation of being behind the times and oblivious to new technology.
ReplyDeleteNo offense, Jim, but I didn't turn on my computer yesterday and I had a lovely day with my family.
ReplyDeleteAs it turns out, the world does keep revolving, and it doesn't revolve around work.
Peace, everyone.
When are we going to start hearing from Kate Marymont? It has seemed odd for several months now that she hasn't been a vocal leader for community newsrooms; now that she seems about to take over Currie's title, it would seem mandatory that she emerge from the bunker at least occasionally. Kate, we are waiting to hear from you how we are supposed to develop content with no staff.
ReplyDeleteHey Gannett managers..check out www.leadingwithkindness.com. You might learn something here, as I watched this show on PBS thinking about all the "what if's"!
ReplyDeleteHi, has anyone heard that USAtoday will be printed at each gannett newspaper, replacing the local paper. the only part of the local newspaper that will remaine printing will become the local section of the usa today in each city.
ReplyDeleteI heard that and discarded the concept. The local, local, local initiative discouraged me from believing that they would make a whiplash turn from L,L,L to national, national, national.
ReplyDeleteBut what do I know. They paid me to go away.
I heard that gannett will stop printing local papers and use the still national usa paper as a replacement, with the local section of each citty as a wrapper for usa national, then sat. and sunday they will print a local paper for coopons ans adds starting in late 09.
ReplyDeleteI love the jingle. That's great stuff.
ReplyDeleteAs for cancelling subscriptions, I cancelled ours when they announced that crappy plan to fire all the drivers at the Asbury Park Press and make them become independent contractors. And yes, when I called and canceled and they asked me why, I told them in very plain language that I couldn't support the company any longer with things like that going on. I wasn't nasty, but I was very direct with the woman.
I doubt USA TODAY will replace the local papers in any form. USA TODAY is dismantling its staff. Laying people off or absorbing them into the web site. There is no real passion for the paper anymore from the people in the big offices, despite the fact that it is still relatively successful. USA TODAY is being bled to death, department by department, staffer by staffer. The web site and internal decisions in essence are killing the paper more than the economy. It's ashame since a lot of people believe both could have coexisted and been successful if not for the panic moves made by the decision makers.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting commentary on newspapers:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/6luaxo
Actually, USA as the mother ship for local papers makes complete strategic sense -- if you project newsroom staffing cuts will continue and reporting/editing/photo and video capacity will fall 50 percent or more from late 2003 levels, when he stock peaked. It also presents an opportunity to penetrate local markets for national advertisers and relieves pressure to some degree from local sales staffs.
ReplyDeleteAnd the local website becomes the primary delivery vehicle.
However, if your staff is down 50 percent you don't need to occupy anywhere near as much real estate. That's one impediment. A second is the wide range of quality obtainable from presses at existing plants around the country. That variation would create a problem for quality conscious USAT and could signal outsourcing in some locations.
Jim.....I could not follw you "Daily Advice" at the begining of this thread. I told my co-worker this morning not to get me ANY F*CKING GRIEF this morning. We are of equal rank but he thinks he's two
ReplyDeleteMy co-worker -of 3.5 years- is a self-centered, condescending, inept, person, who works 7 hrs & 31minutes most days....while I have (to finish what needs to be done) worked 9, 10, even 12 hours days. My bosses and I have "enabled" this behavior because it was just easier and he is older. We have covered for him. Now we're short handed and he doesn't lift a finger to chip in.....I'm sick of it.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Respectfully
Soon to be ex-PaperBoy
10:07 I agree, but we are still thinking print. This recession is going to accelerate longer term plans to shift to the Web. I wonder if they looked at the idea of just putting USAT on the Web. I know the Internet revenue is not there yet, but a lot of companies that advertise in USAT are going under in this recession, and it might be smart for USAT to position itself as the lead Web company when the revival comes in 2010 or, as some economists now predict, 2011. Moving to the Internet does away with all the printing and distribution costs, and relieves a hell of a lot of pressure on the community papers. It would be one hell of a gamble, and it strikes me Dubow and Co. are not gamblers.
ReplyDeleteI will keep my subscription as long as I'm employed, but will cancel immediately if laid off.
ReplyDeleteIf I weren't an employee, I would have dropped the subscription already. Since our paper went Web heavy, we dedicate most of our resources to breaking news and therefore offer what can be found on local TV statons for free. What's more, the TV stations actually come across as more professional in many cases. Never thought I'd see the day.
10:19 TV has always ripped off the newspapers as long as I have been alive. In fact, TV news operations are studying what the hell they are going to do when newspapers collapse in this recession, which many will.
ReplyDeleteOne of the Green Bay tv stations has NO sports reporters, and instead relies on their sister station in Milwaukee for any coverage. They also run the Milwaukee morning news, which includes Milwaukee county traffic reports.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you're asking, that's not a Gannett station that has no home sports reporters covering the GREEN BAY PACKERS. Owned by the (Milw.) Journal Communications.
The weak and negative will always fail. The strong and the positive will always prevail. History has proven this time and time again. Yes I have been laid off twice in my life and used it as a positive to advance my career. I don't cry over spilt milk. Be strong and move on.
ReplyDeleteDon't like your job at Gannett, there are over a million laid off workers who would switch places with you , no questions asked. Be careful what you complain about, it could come back to haunt you.
Wow, if so many people in the NEWSPAPER industry are canceling their newspaper subscriptions, no wonder this industry is in the tank. If we, who love newspapers, aren't willing to pay for home delivery, how can we expect others to pay for the value in the newspaper we work so hard on? I know the future is online, but the ad rates aren't high enough to support that model yet... right? Does anyone else think the change from print-dominant to Web-dominant is coming too quickly? I want to be one of those people who will buy the paper edition as long as it's offered, but it's a decision that gets tougher every year, when I know I can get the same information online for free.
ReplyDeleteQue sera, sera,
ReplyDeleteWhatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
10:18 since the USAT online makes $1 dollar for each of the $10 dollars USA Today paper makes, your idea would mean 90 percent of USA Today staffers would be fired. Great thinking!
ReplyDeleteBottom line: USA Today print edition is the horse that carries the company.
Jim, how about a little reporting for a change?
ReplyDeletewhat percent of total Gannett revenue does USAT account for?
How much total revenue does USAT make?
Aren't you a business reporter?
RE canceling. Yes I did and I'm not ashamed of it. I quit under difficult conditions -- I stood up for those who supervised and myself. I disagreed, politely, when told to do this or that. I was not a difficult employee, just one with ethics, values -- someone who cared about the work. Something no longer tolerated. So I left. I am bitter .. at Gannett but more so at the people locally who handled it so poorly.
ReplyDeleteI would have canceled the sub much earlier if I didn't work there because it had become worthless. The wire seemed 2 days old, the local was so weak you could see through it. But I was proud of my group's section and still think it was 10 times better than the section is now. I've been gone for awhile, but I'm still bitter.
I read the local tV stations' sites, other area papers online and my old paper somethings online.
I do find myself reading more national pubs -- NYTimes, Wash Post, and nat magazines which I think are better today than they used to be.
11:23 am: Very interesting questions. However, Gannett doesn't break out revenue/earnings figures for individual papers. The only detail it offers about USA Today is the following, from the third-quarter earnings report, filed Nov. 6:
ReplyDeletePaid ad pages at USA TODAY were 713 for the third quarter compared to 803 for the same period last year and were 2,370 year-to-date compared to 2,741 last year. Growth in the advocacy, financial, and home and building categories was more than offset by losses in the entertainment, travel, automotive and technology categories.
10:18 Everyone looks at USAT revenue, and not looking at the costs as if that didn't matter. Cutting USAT's print costs would result in huge savings, which currently are largely buried in the costs of running the community papers. Think about it: if you didn't have to print and deliver USAT, how much you could save both in labor, paper and gasoline. You could then apply that to running USAT. You also expect this print/Internet revenue ratio to continue as a constant, which it won't as the industry shifts online.
ReplyDeleteFinally, there are already huge subsidies given USAT by costs that GCI hides in the balance sheets. It would be a huge relief to the community papers to get rid of the expenses of printing and distributing USAT, which those papers could then apply to their own resources, or siphon off some to subsidize USAT as it makes the transition.
USAT is the flagship of the company, but it is by no means the horse that is dragging the cart.
...if you cancel your subscription, what would you read on the can in the morning? my laptop battery burns too hot!
ReplyDeleteAwhile back, someone posted a list of questions to ask HR if/when you are laid off. Could anyone direct me to that, or, Jim, could you resurrect that? Thanks for the great job you're doing.
ReplyDelete10:23 You won't find this in the fiancial reports, but the community papers are the financial drivers of this operation, not USAT. Corporate is siphoning off 40 percent and 50 percent of the profits of community papers to pay their salaries and finance USAT. operations.
ReplyDeleteYou can make some wild back of the envelope ideas. The average of the 400 USAT employees (execs included) is probably about $80,000 a year, including health and pension benefits. That's a USAT payroll of $32 million.
11:54 a.m.: That post is headlined, "Questions to bring with you when you get laid off,'' and it appeared last Thursday. Here's a short URL: http://tinyurl.com/5g4fa9
ReplyDeleteDo you really think that USAT vs. community newspapers is a constructive debate?
ReplyDelete11:15 AM
ReplyDeleteBy Horse you mean Donkey, right?
Jim
ReplyDeleteany news on the COBRA call or information?
12:12 Yes, absolutely, because the community newspapers are the foundation of this company, and when you wash away the foundation, the company collapses. The community papers are bearing the brunt of these layoffs and while they are facing hits of 10 percent or more, I see USAT putting together a list that amounts to 5 percent. Yes, I see the circulation figures, and I see the possibilities, but the community papers are being raped to produce these results, and there has to be another way. USAT cannot survive as a printed product without the community papers.
ReplyDeleteregarding the afore mentioned idea of USAT becoming the main content for each community newspaper with a little local section slipped in.....I dont see any way that would work....we need our entire paper to fit in all of our ads....no way would they all fit in one section....the idea just doesnt gel.....arguments?
ReplyDelete12:57 That is a great point that I didn't consider. Salesmen sell ads with promises to business that their ads will brush up against story copy. Business wants A-section and sports, because that's where their readers are. But you couldn't guarantee this if USA was the wraparound.
ReplyDeleteIf local sold ads for USAT, they would have to rearrange the ad space to accomodate them. This is almost impossible. You would end up with wasted white space in some editions in some cities, and ad copy in others. It also would require setting unbreakable size standards for ads across the company. There are some community papers with different presses than others.
Final thought is what is the gain if this is done? You lose some circulation for USAT since there are people who buy the local paper and also USAT. But you could end up with duplicate in the same edition, and lose the paper's "voice."
11:14 there are other papers I can buy to get news. I didn't cancel mine because I'm cheap; I canceled it because I could not support a company that is raping my fellow co-workers. My spouse will likely get axed this go-round, and then I will have even less concern about supporting a company that drains the lifeblood from its workers.
ReplyDelete11:14 -- Under most circumstances, I would keep my subscription. I've been a subscriber for years and years and years. I just beleive that the Gannett paper in my market is so stripped of personality and worthwhile content that 80 percent of it doesn't interest me. It's not that the staff is horrible. It's that the staff is overworked and asked to do silly stories that will supposedly appeal to a "target audience" as opposed to quality stories.
ReplyDelete10:49 -- TV does rip off newspapers. But it's happening less and less in my market. Rather, we're doing piss poor online coverage of breaking news events, while the TV stations do a better job with it. In some cases they're even doing better features. It's a sad comment on how far we've regressed.
hey, 1:10. Are you in Louisville? Because that sure describes the situation here. The Courier-Journal is increasingly two days BEHIND local TV on local stories, if it has them at all.
ReplyDelete12:06 another posting by someone who is clueless about accounting at the newspapers. The complete opposite of what you say is the truth. USAT does not ask the communities to report the printing and delivery as their expenses...those costs are shown on the USAT balance sheet.
ReplyDeleteUSAT makes almost a billion a year in ad revenue. There is no way the community papers come close, given they have lost 50 percent of their revenue in the complete fall-off of classifieds. So get your facts straight.
(To the music of Jingle Bells)
ReplyDeleteJim-will-tell
Jim-will-tell
When Corporate’s on its way!
Oh what fun it is to know, you job had gone a-way.
…Oooh!...
Jim-will-tell
Jim-will-tell
That Corporate’s on its way,
Gannet has dropped, another buck
But we’re the ones to pay.
Crashing in the NYSE
On a trick pony show
Putting all our hope
In web apps that won’t go.
Waiting for the day
That we can not go on.
And claiming that they didn’t see
It coming all along.
…OOooooh!....
Jim-will-tell
Jim-will-tell
That Corporate’s came and went,
Where did all our workers go
Those left are getting bent!
Ooohhhh!
Jim-will-tell
Jim-will-tell
Our days are dwindling fast.
If you’re still here
You better fear
Cause only Craig will last!
,Gannet has dropped, another buck
But we’re the ones to pay.
Those of you who want to believe the community papers carry USAT have clearly never been out of your little enclave of local local. USAT is the big horse in the race and they stand totally on their own and make a lot of revenue and have extremely strong distribution of over 2.4 million.
ReplyDeleteIf someone offered to buy them, they would be gone tomorrow and be around for a very very very long time....after most other newspapers were completely obsolete.
I am from the community papers side but I believe this to be true.
The three national newspapers : NY Times, WSJ, and USA Today will be the only healthy papers in a few years.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe the very small community papers that focus on extreme local news. Sad but most likely true.
However USAT is printed at cost at the Community Newspaper sites. If they were forced to purchase their own presses or pay a commercial printing rate it would be a different ballgame on the balance sheet.
ReplyDeletedoes anybody besides hotel chains buy USAT anymore?
ReplyDeleteIn the early years of USAT, the community papers were required to loan people to USAT who remained on the locals' payroll, right?
ReplyDeleteBut I imagine that stopped some time ago?
Before all the layoffs Gannett sites could not perform well on the ever so wishful task of content for "Multiple Platforms" What makes you think they can even attempt this after the next round of layoffs. They should of mastered one platform at a time and build up to multiple platforms. Too late now, all the platforms are weak.
ReplyDeleteRE: cancelled subscription
ReplyDeleteI only subscribe to Sunday paper since leaving. [want the TV Guide]. I miss going out to get it in the morning to read with my coffee. Not everything "inside" appears online. But I don't miss it that badly.
1;35 Really? Give me a link to any financial documents showing USAT's balance sheet. It does not exist. I know for a fact that many of the community newspapers are printing and distributing USA Today. It would be great if it could stand on its own, and carry its own weight. But it can't.
ReplyDeleteHere money, for you Jim and the rest of you lay up former pretend Gannett's journalisthttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/technology/internet/24apart.html?_r=2&oref=slogin .
ReplyDelete2:38 there is no press in the basement of the USAT offices at the Crystal Palace. So where are the Virginia, Maryland and D.C. copies of USAT published? Army Times, which bears the costs of printing and distribution of both USA TOday and its own publications.
ReplyDelete2:56 The Army Times does not print USAT, Gannett Offset Springfield does.
ReplyDelete2:56 Oh, yes. Look it up for yourself:
ReplyDeleteArmy Time's printing address is 6883 Commercial Drive, Springfield, Va., 22151
Gannett Offset Printing Plant is 6883 Commercial Drive, Springfield, Va. 22151
Getting that printing plant was the reason GCI bought Army Times. Has anyone seen that weekly tab? I have, and GCI certainly wasn't interested the journalism of Army Times.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to be able to pay for the cobra - any other suggestions - It's just the two of us?
ReplyDeleteusat is printed lots of places subcontracted out of gannett in rochester ny the usat is printed in batavia ny but there contract expires in 09 that is when i have heard rochester gannett will drop the local d&c paper and print usat with a d&c local section and print d&c paper on sat. sun.
ReplyDeleteOn the insurance question, I'm no expert but in my state (Tennessee), I understand that the state Farm Bureau offers reasonable group rates - you pay a $20 sign-up fee to join, don't have to be a farmer and then can buy into their group plan. Likewise, MediaBistro.com offers a group rate for medical and dental insurance for joining (somewhere in the range of $60 to join as a member); various insurance broker exist who will also shop around for you.
ReplyDelete3:44 Depends on your age. If you are older, look at the AARP web site, which offers some health insurance plans for people over 50. If you are younger, you might consider going without and taking a gamble. Some people go without insurance until they have a need, then find a minimum wage job that offers health plan coverage to deal with their health issues. Remember that health plans won't cover existing conditions.
ReplyDeleteJust saw this on a bumper sticker -
ReplyDeleteThought it was most apropos!
"Chaos, panic and disorder...
My work here is done."
There is no truth AT ALL to this recurring idea that USAT will replace local papers in their markets.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the majority of print sites are not owned by Gannett at all.
Beware of any sentence that begins with "I heard."
I heard the best way to get information was to ask and then listen to the answer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I heard that wrong.
I heard the best way to get information was to ask and then listen to the answer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I heard that wrong.
Initially, I logged on today and expected to see some people accept Jim's suggestion to "say something nice to a co-worker." That is very often easier to do under the blanket of anonymity, but I no longer care about that! Being "over the hill" and "bought out" I have no qualms to post a compliment.
ReplyDeleteI worked for Judy Coddington at the Courier News for many years. No one could ever have inferred that we were "kissing cousins" so I want to take a moment to thank her for her fairness and her genuine concern over the years. I know how extremely difficult it was for Judy to make the mandated staff reductions. I know she never made these decisions without agonizing over them, and I believe that thanking her is way past due. Even the times when Judy tried to act "tough" she did a very poor job of hiding her real feelings and her caring for her staff.
I will forego the option of signing off anonymously on this post. Otherwise, she would never believe I wrote it!
"Chaos, panic and disorder...
ReplyDeleteMy work here is done."
that would make a great t-shirt, with a big Gannett "G" in the middle.
Yay on props for Judy! She's a class act.
ReplyDelete3:29: I don't know when you last looked at the Army Times, etc papers but they regularly break military affairs stories and are occasionally reprinted in USAT.
ReplyDeleteHow come you never hear about Army Times having layoffs? Seems they're always hiring. Do they make more money than the others or what's the deal?
ReplyDeleteThis thread is boring, there is a more heated thread below;
ReplyDeleteMemo: USA Today seen cutting 20 newsroom jobs
Print guys are bitching that online people don't work nights and weekends, I wonder if this is just a USAT problem or do other sites feel this way? Maybe this topic deserves its own thread.
Is anyone seriously thinking about fighting his or her involuntary termination on the basis of age discrimination?
ReplyDeleteIf the print guys don't want to work nights, why did they accept their jobs?
ReplyDeleteIf the online guys think they should be considered real journalists, why do they feel it's ok to be held to a different standard?
ReplyDeleteIf the online people just post what's already written, why doesn't Gannett just hire clerks to do that rather than journalists?
ReplyDeleteSOME Gannett papers don't have the luxury of "online people" and the website is updated via the newsroom's folks. That is the case at all the small Gannett dailies. It also is why so many of them are so poor in quality.
ReplyDeleteOne print department bitched and cried about online not working nights and weekends. But that print department lost half their staff last year and now they don't work nights and weekends anymore.
ReplyDeleteLarry St.Cyr to the rescue!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOnline is the wave of the future. Are you kidding? Des Moines even has an AME of Twitter!
ReplyDeleteThose of you who think you know the USAT print model better do some research. USAT pays contract rates for printing whether it is at non-Gannett papers or Gannett papers. Sometimes they pay too much and are overbilled even.
ReplyDeleteGet you facts in order before you blow off nonsense.
From Ad Age magazine:
ReplyDeleteWhy Brevity and Pretty, Pretty Colors Still Work
Media Reviews for Media People: USA Today
By Larry Dobrow
Published: November 20, 2008
Gaze with me, if you will, deep into the future, to a time when the 13th-century conceit of a printed newspaper no longer exists. To an era when only those individuals with access to a computer, cellphone,TV, radio (terrestrial, satellite or ham), motormouthed coworker or news-trawling robot can manage to stay reliably informed. To an age in which computer-illiterate scavengers can no longer sell their Pogs and tray tables because classified ads have vanished into the online ether. To a dark place where ink-stained wretches wander the streets holding "will utter sarcastic asides about the moral fitness of the city council's corresponding secretary for vending-machine food" signs.
USA Today has done a bang-up job of cramming gobs of material into a lean package since the early '80s.
Yeah, 2011 is gonna be pretty hairy. I have every confidence, though, that USA Today will crawl out of the post-apocalypse media rubble with a wide grin on its brightly hued face, reporting glowingly on Carrie Underwood's new project.
What America wants
Why? Because -- and see if you can stay with me here -- USA Today prints stuff that mainstream Americans want to read and that business travelers don't mind having shoved beneath their hotel-room doors. They want weather and USA Today indulges them with a map as comprehensive as it is colorful. They want health and USA Today dutifully reports on flu outbreaks and wonder drugs awaiting FDA approval. They want factoids and USA Today serves up pie-charty "Snapshots" about our crouton preferences and Christmas-tree-disposal tactics.
Those who self-identify as intellectuals might not have much use for USA Today because its news and cultural coverage doesn't delve deep. I personally might not have much use for USA Today because I can get my box scores online in real time. But for a great majority of Americans, for the plumbing Joes and meat-processing Janes who don't spend 17 hours a day listening to NPR or attached to the internet, USA Today delivers the day's must-have information in a pleasing array of colors. There's value in this.
For all the talk about the trend towards information synthesis, USA Today has done a bang-up job of cramming gobs of material into a lean package since the early '80s. The paper hasn't changed much over the years, sticking with the same organizational and graphic scheme (blue for news, green for money, red for sports, purple for life). It publishes a magazine supplement (Open Air) every so often, as well as bonus sections around events like the NCAA hoops tourney, but otherwise today's USA Today is barely distinguishable from yesteryear's.
Some things stay the same
That's why all the deep-thinking revisionist takes on USA Today -- the ones in which the paper is lauded for the breadth of its reporting and its ahead-of-the-curve embrace of color, photos and really small words -- don't exactly ring true.
The news and business sections (which, really, are interchangeable in these unfortunate times) hew to their traditional "here's how this issue affects you, the working-class hero" bent. Expected bits on holiday travel and military jobs mix easily, if ponderously, with ones on smoke-free hotels and primary-care doctors. The sports section kicks off with a duh-really feature ("Annika Sorenstam is good at golf," "College jocks gravitate towards dummyhead majors which leave them unprepared to hold jobs that don't involve kicking things") before diving into game recaps. The "Life" section traffics in gift ideas, linear profiles and quick-hit reviews. The way USA Today goes about its business may resonate with a lot of readers, but that doesn't mean it should start courting the Pulitzer committee just yet.
To its credit, the paper has taken steps towards narrowing its knowledge void, poaching content from other Gannett-owned titles. This week, for instance, the news section has borrowed stories on the proposed auto-industry bailout from the Detroit Free Press. The paper should tap into the Gannett cache more often.
Web evolution
Where USA Today has evolved significantly (and where it receives almost no recognition for having done so) is in its online presence. You can skip past the paper's official site, which comes across as a lobotomized CNN.com. Several of its 20 or so blogs, on the other hand, display the personality and passion the print product lacks. I dig "Pop Candy" owing to its sunny hostess Whitney Matheson, one of the few entertainment bloggers who seems to enjoy what she does for a living. Matheson doesn't get caught in the irritating anoint-Next-Big-Thing/immediately-tear-it-down cycle; if she doesn't dig an episode of "Lost," she simply explains why, rather than issuing a 2,750-word rant on how the show's creators have lost their way and thus should be exiled to an invisible magical super-island of their own.
Marketers will find a different audience online -- more pop-culture punks and cruise enthusiasts -- than they will in the print product, which hones in on business travelers. Nearly every hotel chain claims some real estate in the print edition, as do traveler-friendly brands like Avis, Garmin and Sprint. USA Today deserves props for its use of space, especially the unobtrusive ads that run along the bottom of the front page and the record ads couched within the music charts.
Our safest bet?
There are many theories, discussed to the point of exhaustion here and elsewhere, why newspapers may go the way of the dodo bird before too long (ain't it ironic that, as the papers themselves have done for Britney Spears and John Wooden, we're pre-writing the obituaries?). But owing to its brevity and its pretty, pretty colors, USA Today will survive the purge with its modest sense of mission intact. For readers and marketers, it remains the safest bet in American journalism.
If I'm ever comatose for an extended period of time -- not an unlikely scenario, given my recent encounters with undercooked shellfish -- USA Today will be the first news source I reach for when I regain consciousness. That's a compliment. ... I think.
____________________________
Yes, the future is a paper copy of USA TODAY. Flagship or not, it will be floating merrily along in print long into the future.
HA! A thousand word essay on why brevity still works!
ReplyDeleteThank god irony isn't broken.
I've been with Gannett on and off for some 20 years, and they have been good to me. Accept it, layoffs are everywhere. You think Gannett is the only company laying people off. Get a life. If it's me, I accept it. Maybe I should have done a better job, or not complained so much, wahhhhh, now everyone is thinking, why didn't I do a better job, or not complain as much. Maybe at your next job, you will think about it.
ReplyDeleteTo Randy Kowalik:
ReplyDeleteYOU are a class act and greatly missed at the CN.
Get a life 7:56?? Maybe you should get real with the situation. Do you REALLY think that those laid off or to be laid off are being let go because they should have done a better job or not complained? I'm not sure if your comments are even worth replying to.
ReplyDelete7:56PM That is simply not the case! You cannot be brainwashed enough to believe that doing a better job or not complaining so much would have saved these jobs! Open your eyes and see that the "cause" has often just been age or internal politics. How really sad that you would expect anyone else to believe the crap you just wrote!
ReplyDelete7:56, you make good points. But who are you to tell people to get a life. You are happy with your own little experience and that is great. But people have the right to vent and tell their stories on this blog. And you are right, everyone is laying off now. But Gannett has been buying out, laying off and outsourcing for over three years. Can you honestly say with a straight face that the ideas towards the future like METROMIX is a great direction for the company to go in.
ReplyDelete7:56 is getting abused, maybe he should go back to having his head up his bosses ass. I'm sure he got the pat on the back and wink last week, and a soft voice saying "you are safe"
ReplyDelete8:10 pm At least that's what they say about you now.
ReplyDeleteAre any other Gannett papers in danger of losing their Statehouse Bureau due to this round of job cuts?
ReplyDeleteMine is, and i'm wondering if any others are?
Sounds like USA Today will undoubtedly survive and prosper once the economic woes settle down.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for one bright light.
News from Today. FYI this is the boat that GCI rides in...
ReplyDelete"The default risk is high for highly leveraged newspaper companies, said Puchalla, adding that while some newspaper publishers are expected to default in 2009, those that do are most likely to restructure debt, rather than close shop.
Longer term, Moody's said it believes the industry will eventually deleverage, either by reducing debt with free cash flow or by way of bankruptcy filings. At that point, debt will likely stay at lower levels to make the industry a viable one."
Randy,
ReplyDeleteThank you. Your comments meant a lot to me. This has been the most difficult work-time of my entire life. We all miss you at the CN and hope you're doing well.
And for the record, I don't usually go on this piece of crap website, because it's too depressing. Someone printed out what you said, and I was touched.
Best of luck to you. Stop by and visit while we're still in Bridgewater.
Judy
7:56 ... I'm glad you had a pleasant experience with Gannett.... but some of us in the "heartland" at the smaller unprotected Gannett papers were terribly abused by this company... from sneared at by GCI and their ilk in McLean to ignored. The Wisconsin and Indian papers were especially abused.
ReplyDeleteAll the best and brightest in these papers quit, discouraged by Gannett's disappointing ownership letdown!
kxtv news 10 sacramento ca gannett owned will have another round of layoffs. 11 staffers have been offered buyouts budget reasons
ReplyDelete7:35 There is no way on God's green earth that USAT pays the same rate for prining their publication that they would pay to a third party commercial printer!
ReplyDeleteYou are delusional
"Piece of crap" Web site? Really. Is this Judy individual still a Gannett manager? Makes it even more clear why this company is on the rocks.
ReplyDeleteWhat goes around comes around, Judy. The stuff on this blog in terms of speculation is no different than what's in the comments section of any Gannett news site. Reporters are trashed daily in the comments sections of stories with no intervention, and it's far worse than on here. I have seen claims that female reporters perform sex acts on their sources and outrageous insults to reporters with ethnic sounding last names, among other "pieces of crap." Jim moderates the outrageous comments here much more efficiently than the poor stressed-out people at the Gannett sites are able to do.
hygore10:56PM....don't let the comments of 7:56PM throw you. This poster is a very unfeeling and stupid person. If everyone who was screwed over by Gannett took this poster seriously, there would be mass suicides. Too many of us have given every drop of blood, every measure of loyalty and every ounce of our abilities to Gannett.
ReplyDelete7:56PM is an example of the "hooray for me and shit on everyone else" philosophy that is now expected of a retained Gannett employee, It's part of the "let them eat cake" syndrome. You need to walk out of your newspaper and keep your head high and your self-image intact. Otherwise, they win!
Someone at the Courier News please print out 8:59 comment for Judy as she doesn't read this "piece of crap" website.
ReplyDelete