Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saturday | Feb. 21 | Your News & Comments

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58 comments:

  1. Three men: an editor, a photographer, and a reporter are covering a political convention in Miami. They decide to walk up and down the beach during their lunch hour. Halfway up the beach, they stumbled upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you three wishes, but since there are three of you, I will grant you each one wish."

    The photographer went first. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas.

    The reporter went next. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean.

    Last, but not least, it was the editor's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked the genie.

    "I want them both back after lunch" replied the editor, "the deadline for tomorrow's newspaper is in about ten hours.

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  2. When a visitor to a small town in Georgia came upon a wild dog attacking a young boy, he quickly grabbed the animal and throttled it with his two hands.

    A reporter saw the incident, congratulated the man and told him the headline the following day would read, "Valiant Local Man Saves Child by Killing Vicious Animal."

    The hero told the journalist that he wasn't from that town.

    "Well, then," the reporter said, "the headline will probably say, 'Georgia Man Saves Child by Killing Dog'."

    "Actually," the man said, "I'm from Connecticut."

    "In that case," the reporter said in a huff, "the headline should read, 'Yankee Kills Family Pet'."

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  3. "NEW JERSEY PAPERS ROCK"

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  4. I'd much rather take a furlough than a 5 percent pay cut! At least I'd get the time off then! Please, Gannett, offer your papers to buy themselves out! Let us save ourselves!!

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  5. I'd much rather take a furlough than a 5 percent pay cut! At least I'd get the time off then! Please, Gannett, offer your papers to buy themselves out! Let us save ourselves!!

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  6. Jim Kroeze to the rescue!!

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  7. Wow the first in line the last in luck!

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  8. Last year GANNETT should have invested pension money in GANNET PUT OPTIONS.

    From August-2008 to NOW:
    GCI April-2009 $12.50 PUT OPTIONS have increased over 1,000%.

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  9. First! HA! Maybe?

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  10. Jim and the rest of you bloggers,
    You truly are a bunch of losers. The more I read this blog, I am beginning to wonder why I even thought that management was to blame.

    It is you, yes that's right, YOU lazy ass journalists that are overpaid to write a story a week.

    Jim you should be ashamed of yourself for having this senseless blog.

    If this is how you are going to survive, I can't wait for the rest of us to get laid off. I won't beg for money like you Jim. I have a greater sense of worth.

    Yes, I am the real plays with crayons, the rest of you can play with THIS!

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  11. Well said crayons!

    All of these bloggers are losers!

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  12. Someone walks up to Jim Hopkins and some of these whiners and says: "How do you keep a bunch of morons in suspense?"

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  13. Lansing's highest-paid columnist is the king of the newsroom whiners.

    He'd be better off in the woods with Thoreau pondering life's minutiae -- which is often what he writes about.

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  14. I have Finally realized that most of the time the post's here are negative in nature,and what people fail to realize is that they are doing more harm to themselves then good.
    We all sit here and scream about the company doing things to get us out of this mess,and what's going on here with all the negative post's is not helping the situation one bit.
    Maybe we need to be the bigger party here and start by showing a positive attitude towards the company with less negative post's and by starting here it might show someone that we really do care about the company and maybe this might start a upswing in stock price.
    Please do realize I feel the same as most along with being in your boat,but something needs to change and it seems like it's not going to start at the top...Thanks

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  15. postive postings may cause an upswing in stock prices?? Jeez are you serious?

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  16. Think of it this way, 10:30 AM.
    Positive postings aren't likely to be a force in pushing them down.
    The market may go down, but it won't be because someone found something constructive to say.
    I'm sick of the New Jersey complaints and the crayon people, too. I loved the jokes that were the first postings today.
    I don't want Gannett to fail. I don't see any harm in looking on the brighter side and supporting the 80% of people still employed by the company.
    I hate the layoffs of people who weren't ready to leave, the furloughs of people who can't afford a week without pay and the worry that there will be pay cuts or more firings.
    But if you think about it, there is nothing any of the rank and file can do to changes these things and if you get too obsessed about the unknown future, you can damage your mental state and your health.
    So if people want to lighten up, let them.

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  17. All right, who paid off management to fill up the blog this morning. Was it corporate or the aliens?

    oh wait. I hear the aliens said, "Take me to your leader." But no one could find one in Gannett.

    spineless

    soul-sucking

    warthogs

    What have you done to deserve "positive" comments.

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  18. 10:46 AM
    You need to hop over to Good Gannett Blog and watch a movie or something. Or, maybe go to the official company site and read some press releases. Maybe then you'll be happy.

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  19. Josh Resnick to the rescue, Josh Resnick to the rescue. Go, go rescue.

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  20. I guess what grandma said is true, misery does love company.
    Have a lovely day, everyone. The sun is shining outside and I'm off to rake leaves.

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  21. 10:53
    The only aliens we heard of are circling URANUS in search of Klingons....
    Oh wait maybe thats your heard looking to go further up you ASS!!!

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  22. Oh come on - we are in the newspaper business and you know what sells a newspaper - bad news. So, I suppose it's in the blood that we continue that in a blog. Does anyone remember that newspaper called Grit? It was a good news only paper. It went out of business about 15 years ago (I think).

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  23. There's nothing wrong with being positive. In my day-to-day life I am. And I fully realize that I'm better off than a lot of people.

    But those folks who continually rant that the complainers need to do something positive and turn the company around are missing the point. Many of the complainers are the folks who have tried for years to do great work only to watch management homogenize and dumb down the product. Many of us have contributed ideas that would make operations more efficient, only to see them ignored because they came from an underling.

    The Gannett environment does not allow "innovation" from anyone other than a few choice people, and in my market we have the least innovative and most difficult people in the choicest positions. It wasn't like that five years ago, but it's like that now.

    So, if one cares about his/her job it's difficult not to complain. In fact, I've found that some of the people who complain the least take that tact because they just don't care. They have no interest in a long-term future with the company. they just want a paycheck.

    Sadly, this increasingly frustrating working environment is driving many of us who do care to the same conclusion. And that's what will kill the company. When we stop complaining, we've given up on the hope that we can make things better.

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  24. Aliens again are you kidding!whats up with all this stuff.UFO's Mother ships,Aliens,sounds like NJ group!

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  25. YA UFO's AND NJ PAPERS ROCK

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  26. Go back to the mother ship,and find another site

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  27. As Gannett stock heads to zero, I must ask this question: What is the point of having these newspapers tied to a chain anymore? How would they be worse off if they were independent papers?

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  28. Need a positive post about Gannett------Krista Mueller to da Rescue !!!!!!!!1

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  29. The publisher at Florida Today always has positive things to say at his meetings. I'm wondering if he is really feeling positive about his division or if it is just something he does to try to motivate people. Any ideas?

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  30. Don "The Rug" Stinson to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!

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  31. Sorry, but I thought this was settled: NJ PAPERS AND NJ MANAGEMENT SUCKS THE BIG ONE!

    Please, CS! None of it rocks.

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  32. 2/21/2009 12:55 PM: Excellent post! You said it so well. This post truly speaks volumes about the Gannett company as a whole:

    There's nothing wrong with being positive. In my day-to-day life I am. And I fully realize that I'm better off than a lot of people.

    But those folks who continually rant that the complainers need to do something positive and turn the company around are missing the point. Many of the complainers are the folks who have tried for years to do great work only to watch management homogenize and dumb down the product. Many of us have contributed ideas that would make operations more efficient, only to see them ignored because they came from an underling.

    The Gannett environment does not allow "innovation" from anyone other than a few choice people, and in my market we have the least innovative and most difficult people in the choicest positions. It wasn't like that five years ago, but it's like that now.

    So, if one cares about his/her job it's difficult not to complain. In fact, I've found that some of the people who complain the least take that tact because they just don't care. They have no interest in a long-term future with the company. they just want a paycheck.

    Sadly, this increasingly frustrating working environment is driving many of us who do care to the same conclusion. And that's what will kill the company. When we stop complaining, we've given up on the hope that we can make things better.

    2/21/2009 12:55 PM

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  33. Arron Barrett will be named CEO on Tuesday.

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  34. Don "The Rug" Stinson to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!

    2/21/2009 1:45 PM

    Heard of most of the names bandied about on this blog, but who the hell is Don "the Rug" Stinson?

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  35. Positive?

    The stock market has a lot more to worry about than this blog. If this blog is the cause of Gannett stock woes, how do you explain the problems other newspapers are having? Are we that powerful that we have affected the entire newspaper industry?

    If we are that powerful, then Gannett was REALLY stupid to let us go.

    I tried on a number of occasions to improve things at our Gannett paper. Every time I was met with:

    "That's not your job." Thenwhose was it? Whoever they were, they were sleeping on the job.

    "That will make that other manager look bad." Maybe it would just reveal what was already known.

    "Are any other newspapers doing it?" This in answer to a new suggestion that had never been tried. When I answered "no," the reply was "Well, then we can't take a chance."

    "Can you prove it will work?" The answer was that was "not until I try it." And the reply was "Well, when you can prove it will work, we'll consider it."

    On this last one, I would sometimes go around the resistant manager and when it did work, either I had to go along with the company line that the resistant manager was already thinking about it, or I was called on the carpet and warned that I had overstepped my job boundaries.

    Oh, the company kept doing it the way I suggested and the fact that I came up with it went down the memory hole.

    It seems that the people who keep asking for positive ideas, but don't include any, are waiting to be saved by those who can.

    Sorry, it seems that petty managers, afraid to be shown up have managed to get those people out of the company.

    Who is John Galt?

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  36. These are difficult times please let's be serious on this blog and try and help each other

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  37. More on Journal Register. Read this and then let the whiners keep groaning about Gannett.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090221_Journal_Register_files_for_bankruptcy.html

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  38. Memo to Board of Directors:

    Act responsibly - Fire Dubow - Save our company. We have a crisis of confidence.

    Signed: The Gannett Employees

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  39. Interesting reading this blog today. It seems Gannett Exec's don't know how to handle the truth. So they have to try and dis-credit this site. There's nothing they can do.. except keep playing games.. they're good at it. It's about all their good for.

    Keep up the good work JIM.. you have more followers. than not.

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  40. Should all newspapers send a similar request to upper management?

    Guild asks Gary to take paycut

    Hope the coding works.

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  41. It's just a dying company. It's a downward evolution. The trend is not your friend. There is no miracle that will save any printed newspaper. The downward spiral will never reverse.

    I hold these truths to be self-evident. Explain any scenario where I may be wrong.

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  42. There is a big difference between being negative about EVERYTHING and negative for negativity's sake (ie, "Jersey sucks - never been there of course but I'm sure it sucks''), and being naive and foolish. Those of us still employed have every right in the world to be worried about our future employment, our paychecks, our benefits, our working conditions, the incredibly shrinking print product, lack of news coverage, the precariousness of the pension funding, the state of our 410Ks and the disintegration of the industry outside our doors - as well as what that means to democracy. We are also worried about our laid off peers, Gannett or otherwise.

    But that doesn't mean we have nothing positive to say. I have seen teamwork and determination since December's bad bad Tuesday. I have seen a lot of compassion for those let go. I have struggled within myself to concentrate on the work in front of me and try not to get mired in all the things I cannot control.

    But I do not come on this blog to hear platitudes or, frankly, ideas for improving Gannett because those ideas are not going to find their audience here.

    I come on here to see if I will have a job next week, next month, next year. I come on here to read if my pension is going to evaporate. I come on here to see if I will be given another week of pay-free vacation. Oh, and I come on here to try to make some sense of what the heck ContentOne is going to be, because if I'm going to write ad copy I can make more money doing it somewhere else.

    And if I can help someone else in any way, I will do that.

    Period.

    That's it.

    Don't care about the aliens. Really don't care about the CN's advertising dept. or what the Cinci Moms are discussing.

    But if you still work for this company, I do care about you. And I hope your future is brighter than your present.

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  43. Slow day out there, people? I'm shutting my computer down and going out and playing in the snow with my kids.

    And my paper will still be in the box in the morning.

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  44. 5:23

    What you're saying could be true. But if you're expecting news for free online into the distant future, forget it! That will eventually change because journalists will not work for free. It's only a matter of when and how. Get used to paying for news.

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  45. There is a difference between being negative/positive and just making stupid, insipid comments. Dumb jokes and worthless comments seem to be in the majority today..oh well, it is 78 degrees out. Time for golf!

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  46. quoted from MediaBistro "Revolving Door Newsletter"--

    "The day when newspapers share all their content draws ever closer: Five New York and New Jersey dailies -- New York Daily News, Albany Times Union, The Record, The Buffalo News, and The Star-Ledger -- agreed to create the Northeast Consortium, designed to facilitate editorial crossover..."

    Well, what do y'all think of that?

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  47. Journal Register files for bankruptcy? Maybe the Trentonian will FINALLY shut down. I've never understood how Trenton, a so-called city of 90,000, can support two newspapers.

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  48. As for the Trentonian: Never underestimate the Page 6 girl.

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  49. My MacBook is feeling a little puny, which is one reason I haven't blogged much today. But I'm minutes away from my appointment at the Genius Bar, here at this Apple store somewhere in San Francisco.

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  50. THANK YOU 5:25. Your message was about the only one worth reading today.

    If the jokes were a little funnier I would have liked them :)

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  51. Wilmington is launching its "green" site tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it's being spun.... or if the reporters will get extra time during the week to focus on the blog posts. Hah!

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  52. 7:04 p.m. ditto to that!

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  53. Can anyone on this blog please explain what the hell Content One is?

    There is nothing aboit it anywhere on our intranet. My publisher has no clue what it is and she told me and my staff to ignore it anyway.

    Should anyone care about this? I heard Tara Connell is in charge of it, but there has been no announcement and I have editors asking me about the NCAA stuff they are putting together.

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  54. "The Rug" used to head up Gannett's National Ad Network...

    I don't know what he's doing now.

    keyword: subpar

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  55. I really want Gannett to go bankrupt and let all the newspapers fend for themselves and the money makers will survive by being bought and the none money makers shall turn into "pennysavers" or toliet tissue!! This is the silver lining in the dark cloud. Even the none money makers maybe can be revived and bought by towns or entreprenoirs. Gannett's only making people's lives very stressfull by hanging their job over their head while bleeding the blood out of their wallets and souls!!!

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  56. To 2/21/2009 9:37 AM you are a hopeless loser. You are also not very good in observation. My blogger name is prefixed by the orange google blogger icon... something you cannot copy! Because I have it and you don't! I also have something else you don't have... honor! Sorry Jim, looks like we have another repeat of last fall... copy cat handles who insult people.

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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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