Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday | March 10 | Your News & Comments
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157 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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First. Now, feel free to complain about this post.
ReplyDeleteLouis Bozo to the rescue!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until you losers get furloughed and fired.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is full of people who have no desire to succeed. You spend more time on this blog complaining like a bunch of five year olds.
I can't wait for Bob Dickey to lay the wood and beat the shit out of you little union pussies.
11:48
ReplyDeleteYou have yourself a wonderful day tomorrow too.
Karen Berry to the rescue
ReplyDeleteUhhhhhhhh..........
ReplyDeleteAre we going to remove post #3 @ 11:48pm?
Is it just me or does there seem to be an unusally large number of Gannett cheerleaders on Monday's comments? They're not just debunking, they're propping up.
ReplyDeleteJim: Do you think Gannett is attempting to massage its own image by having Tara's team post pro-corporate messages?
Well,Monday is over and nothing really happened.So much for the BIG announcement. Typical BS that goes on in here
ReplyDelete12:14 pm: There DOES seem to be something a foot, doesn't there?
ReplyDeleteI’ve been reading this blog for about six months and I’ve been working for Gannett for about four years. When the layoffs all started I have to say I was very upset and angry at Gannett. They’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years. As time goes by, I tend to be less angry at them, and angrier at many of the people I see post here. It seems like most of you are bitter and can’t wait for the company to go under. You know what? Quit already. I watched many of my dear friends get laid off, and it really bothers me to see people who hate their job remain while my friends are gone. If you think the company sucks, then LEAVE. If you don’t leave, then shut up and deal with your job instead of getting on here and blaming one man for the problems faced by the ENTIRE newspaper industry. Hello! It’s the internet that ruined your paper, not Craig Dubow. Jesus Christ himself couldn’t save your paper. Get over it. Go work for Google or find a new industry to work in.
ReplyDeleteHaving no special insider knowledge, I would bet actual money that all the speculation about layoffs/furloughs/pay cuts is premature. Look at history; GCI makes decisions like this when a quarter ends -- in this case, March 31.
ReplyDeleteAre they looking at all the possibilities right now? Probably yes. But I'll give you odds they won't pull the trigger until the final numbers are in for Q1.
Whatever they decide, it's going to be bad news for a lot of people. Guessing is a waste of energy. You're better off preparing yourself for the worst.
yes.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed too.
A higher number of GCI cheerleaders.
Or better put, a higher number of GCI stockholders. Drinking 2 dollar "whine".
buahaha
11:48 pm: la la la la la I can't hear you!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought so.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a basher, but I am a December casualty, and I'm alarmed at the recent vigorous tamping down of dissent.
If I were corporate PR (and I was at one time, although in another industy), posting corporate talking points to this blog would be a cheap and efficient way to push the internal message at the most nervous of employees (and stockholders).
Plus, maybe some department heads are just downright frustrated that Jim's blog just keeps picking up traffic. Something they wish they could figure out how to do at their own sites.
12:40 "If you think the company sucks, then LEAVE. If you don’t leave, then shut up and deal with your job instead of getting on here and blaming one man for the problems faced by the ENTIRE newspaper industry."
ReplyDeleteI did leave, but I still look forward to the failure of this company.
Gannett is ran by a mean, arrogant, and ignorant management team. So, even though I am now doing something outside of the newspaper business I still like to come here and bitch about people that I think are a big part of the reason. You can’t just blame the economy! The broad indexes are not down 95 percent in 2 years! Why is it that Gannett was not on top of the Internet wave years ago? Poor management! Why is it that Gannett borrows over a billion bucks to buy back stock only to have it fall off the face of the earth shortly after? Poor management! Yea lets all get on here and give them a free pass on running this 100 year company into the ground with the lame excuse of “It’s the economy stupid”. No, its “poor management stupid”!
Then I love to hear people on here say if you complain about poor management you are a whiner and should quit. So, am I too assume that you believe that people should just keep working with their heads in the sand and pretend Gannett management is brilliant and they will guide our ship to safety? If that is what you think, I feel sorry for you. I for one think people should get on here and give their opinions, facts, and rants. Why just take GCI’s management for their word? Why just think they will fix this company? If you do you are a fool. It reminds me of right wing morons implying that if you believe we had no right to attack Iraq then you are unpatriotic and don’t support the troops. Pro GCI management koolaid drinks piss me off!
Bankruptcy to the rescue!!!!!
my word verification is: koolaidsucks
Jim,
ReplyDeleteThe McClatchy blogger known as newspapertrails2.blogspot.com shut down her site on Monday. She was doing a real good job but still works for McClatchy and was getting a lot of pressure from a right-wing, reporter-bashing, anti-McClatchy blog. She was trying to remain anonymous, but her critics were trying to out her. Soooooooo. Here's my idea. Why not set up a McClatchy Blog, Mr. Jim, similar to the New Jersey page you've got? Allow McClatchy employees to post their tips and do a little reporting. You still have sources in Boise and Kentucky and elsewhere, I imagine. It would boost your traffic and expand your reach. With a mention on Romenesko and word of mouth, you'd pick up thousands of extra hits a day from virtually day one.
And one more thing... With your successful track record, you should be applying for a grant from the Knight Foundation or elsewhere. You deserve more than $24,000 per year for your blog work. Poynter pays its top blogger well above $100,000 per year...
Keep up the good work!
12:40 -- It is possible to look forward to a day where Gannett will go under without wishing ill will on current employees. There are those who speculate that private ownership would allow certain papers to survive -- even thrive -- were they to be purchased from Gannett.
ReplyDeleteOf course, nobody is buying right now. A more likely scenario would see Gannett papers folding and local, weekly startups replacing them. In many ways, I think a situation like that would be better for the communities and the journalists in those communities.
The transition would be ugly, but it could mean a real improvement for journalism. And some of your friends might get their jobs back at papers who value their work ethic and knowledge. Gannett doesn't place value on either of those things. Thus the quality of its publications.
Perhaps a Hearst site should be added as well. Jim, you're in SF where the Chronicle is going through its travails. Hearst is chopping furiously. I recommend visitings mediaworkers.org
ReplyDeleteMomentum is building to charge for websites - some parts of the website likely would be free, other parts would charge. But there is no other way out -- the industry can not keep giving away everything for free. Otherwise, there eventually will be no newsrooms; hence, no newspapers or websites. What will it take for newspapers to realize that they have to charge for information, before it is too late?
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I made a post yesterday that was pro Gannett....or better yet Pro having a job, I am just a guy that works for Gannett and just glad to have a job, yes I may lose it in the near future but I can't sit here and blame Gannett, no way! I would start with former Pres. Bush to be honest with you then corp. America for being so damn selfish.
ReplyDelete1:09 AM
ReplyDeleteHERE, HERE!
This blog rocks.
(Do I smell troll? I thing so. Eww, that smell; doncha smell that smeeeellll? Smells like ... ZengerMillerites!)
Those at APP look over your shoulder the noise you hear is that of PCF here they come there you go.
ReplyDeleteI think this blog has become a place for very bitter people that have to look in the mirror and face reality. That reality is that you are worthless today. You are working in a dying industry, for a dying company and you are looking at everyone to blame.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get laid off, don't blame anyone but yourself. You don't have to work here, you don't have to like anyone either, but how you can wake up everyday and live a miserable life working at Gannett and find joy in what you do.
Many people have highlighted their careers at Gannett by turning to this blog to complain about what you see in management. If you are so bold and so smart, why don't you just tell it directly to the management team?
Why don't you email them and tell them exactly what you would do differently? None of you have the nerve to do this. You hide behind "Jims blog" because Jim is the biggest pussy out there!
This is the same guy that travelled across country to attend the shareholder meeting only to sit quietly and not say a peep. True to form, Jim failed all of you "Anonymous" supporters.
If it feels good to send Jim $20 so he can fight back people like me at Gannett, then keep wasting your money as you have a much bigger fight ahead.
Yes, there are people who care about this company. Many employees aren't happy about the current state of affairs, but they are willing to do more than spend their days complaining to a blogger that bitterly sits in his attic and blogs about one company all day long.
What a waste of knowledge! What a waste of skill. Surely if Jim was as good as the rest of you, he would have had a job offer, correct?
Do you think Jim likes begging you all for a pawltry $20?
Unfortunately, for many of you, the job as the "Gannett Blogger" is taken and the last I checked, newspapers aren't hiring. They are actually all firing people. So enjoy your final days and your last few $20. It will only get worse for you. I am certain your family is proud of what you do everyday.
7:12am. Thank you for your post. I think there are many people who come here and read the posts are actually trying to help pitch in and solve this puzzle. Most of the posters here are just down right negative.
ReplyDeleteI believe Gannett will succeed and I hope I am part of making that success!
Has anyone noticed that Jim boasts that his traffic is increasing and the number of people coming to his blog is increasing into the "tens of thousands", but this guy is still begging for $20 every 3 months. If so many people are coming to this blog, but so few (like less than 150) people are donating $20, then what does that tell you?
ReplyDeleteSeems like most of the visitors place a zero value on this value and if it disappeared, they wouldn't miss it one bit.
7:12 a.m. "When you get laid off, don't blame anyone but yourself."
ReplyDeleteBlame yourself! Blame yourself for the systemic failure of your company! Blame yourself for the drop in stock prices! Blame yourself for other peoples' failures! Socialize success; privatize MASSIVE FAILURE. Gannett employees, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.
Gimme a break, you Gannettized zombies...
The ZengerMillerites have landed!
Lock up the sheet cake!
Run away, run away!
7:31 AM
ReplyDeleteYou're here, obviously. Would you miss this blog if it went away?
If Gannett was such a wonderful company, smart, progressive, responsive company, this blog would neither exist nor would it need to exist.
ReplyDeleteThis, THIS, is the new media, folks. Get used to it. The newspaper industry lost the story line years ago when it climbed into be with the debt capitalists. In that moment, it lost its ability to report freely and began a death spiral.
THIS is the new media, this blog. This is people exercising freedom. Not something you can do in a place like Gannett.
3/10/2009 7:44 AM
ReplyDeleteNo meds today dude?
7:31 AM said
ReplyDelete"Seems like most of the visitors place a zero value on this value and if it disappeared, they wouldn't miss it one bit."
So, am I supposed to send Gannett a check for reading----for free---obits. from four of their papers just now? Sure, I value that information, but I'd do without it or get it elsewhere before I'd pay that company a dime. Why? Because I refuse to monetarily support a company whose practices appear to support age discrimination. Simple.
3/10/2009 7:37 AM
ReplyDeleteDid you take your meds today? Wow two in a row that are loose cannons this morning.....same guy right
Just for a second stop your back and forth name-calling and pause to think that there are real people and real lives affected by all of this. Many people's lives have been changed by what is going on at Gannett.
ReplyDeleteMy prayers go out for them.
Mine too
ReplyDelete"I can't wait for Bob Dickey to lay the wood and beat the shit out of you little union pussies.
ReplyDelete3/09/2009 11:48 PM"
Ewe, the authoritarians have discovered this blog!
LAY THE WOOD!
Bwah-haha.
"My prayers go out for them.
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 7:51 AM"
Nice sentiment.
But I have trouble believing God has any controlling interest in the Gannett Corporation.
Ever read "Paradise Lost"?
(I hear there's a prose version of it called, "Sheet Cake Lost.")
Get over it 12:40. Sure, lots of "good" people lost their jobs in recent layoffs but you can't tell me they didn't complain about their jobs. "Good" people lost their jobs at my site; they bitched just like the rest of us about the inequities foisted on us daily and the mind-numbing initiatives that did nothing but confuse.
ReplyDelete8:19 - YOU get over it.
ReplyDeleteGannett has what, roughly 40,000 employees? How many people do you figure post here? Seems to there are just a handful of cry-baby bitter whiners who take delight in squashing whatever ray of hope anyone tries to bring to the postings.
After all, if you're not as bitter and unhappy as the few that post reguarly, you MUST be Gannett management.
Corporate plants? Geez. Paranoid much?
"Corporate plants? Geez. Paranoid much?"
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 8:28 AM
Ok Dude why are you posting at this site then?
8:33 - First, I'm not a dude. Why that assumption?
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I'm posting for the same reasons you are. Why shouldn't I? Just because I refuse to bite the hand that feeds me?
Not even 8:30 am .......man what's up? To much BS has gotten people all up in to each other's faces....damn damn grow up!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 8:36 AM
ReplyDeleteCool not a dude....so whats up? LOL
"No meds today dude?
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 7:47 AM"
Nope. But Gannett was around 87 bucks when I left. Look at it today, at a dollar ninety-four. So I must have been mentally ill to leave such a FRIPPING GREAT COMPANY.
Get a grip. Not everybody who doesn't believe what you believe is mentally ill. (Another Gannett cult trope exposes itself -- if you're not thinking like us, you're "off your meds.")
To bad there's not a medication to prevent and/or correct "MASSIVE FAIL." Gannett would corner the market.
Comments made by posters like 11:48 PM, 7:12 AM, etc. are at the heart of what’s wrong with Gannett.
ReplyDeleteInstead of attempting to truly listen to the message that employees are trying to convey, people like these character seek only to marginalize anyone who dares to share a divergent view, let alone those who have the audacity to disagree. And, for your respective views, I watched more than a few of my OC peers, and many below that level, attempt to share ideas, in fact great ones for our market only to get shot down. Why? Because it diverged with McLean and/or the publisher of this very large group didn’t want to look like they weren’t on board too.
Look, employees don’t want the company to fail, just the careers of those leaders and individuals who convey the attitudes that the aforementioned posters have so deftly shared here.
So - anything going on in the finance depts nationwide? What's happening with the "consolidation"? Is the end of March still the final date for the rest of the site layoffs and the big unveiling of the new center? Just curious about my former peeps and whether or not it's going smoothly!
ReplyDeleteto 11:49 Non-Union Blue-Collar here.
ReplyDeleteI have endaevored -over my 9-years, 11-months, 3-weeks with Gannett- to: 1)offer constructive ideas to save money, increase efficiency; 2) worked EXCESSIVE unpaid overtime to assist my co-workers and immediate supervisors (an thus Gannett at large) deal with crushing shortages of manpower; 3) add value to the Company. I believe this DEFINES a "Desire to Succeed"
What has it gotten me (and my co-workers), impending lay-off and (to those unfortunate unough not to liquidate their Gannett holdings over the years) financial devastation, and soon-to-be-realized security guard escorted walk to the door without even an acknowledgement of any of the extra efforts I (we) have put in.
to prospective employers, Gannett will just give our names, our start date and our termination date.....makes you all warm and fuzzy inside....doesn't it?
I think your anger should more accurately directed at the LEADERSHIP of the Army. General George S. Patton Lead his troops (strongly yes) but he lead them.....he DID NOT lay-off blame for failure on them.
The behavior and attitude of the employees have nothing to do with the disaster of Gannett. The corporate leaders still profess that the employees are the company's greatest resource. Even on their own terms, corporate leaders are to blame for leading the company to ruin.
ReplyDeleteOh......PATTON also PERSONALLY took Responsibility for all Failures of his army
ReplyDelete8:44 AM
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
I'd take it one more step to include Gannett's relationship with readers. The company is truly out of touch, but oh well.
3/10/2009 8:58 AM
ReplyDeleteBravo...LOL I think we hold the same position within the same Co. but not at the same location....but well said anyway!!
Mr. Dubow, Ms. Martone, Mr. Blutarksi,
ReplyDeleteYour Stock Value is....ZERO-POINT-ZERO.
Fat, Drunk & Stupid is no way to go through Life.
Dean Wormer
9:06......this is 8:58.
ReplyDeleteWhere -pray tell- are you?
Northeastern United States here.
BRING THE WOOD!
ReplyDeleteMarket open yet?
"Many people have highlighted their careers at Gannett by turning to this blog to complain about what you see in management. If you are so bold and so smart, why don't you just tell it directly to the management team?"
ReplyDeleteOh, 7:12. Thanks for my first - and probably best - laugh of the day.
To the second 9:00 a.m. from the first 9:00 a.m.:
ReplyDeleteIf the negative-attitude workers are the reason that Gannett has fallen into ruin, then it is still management's fault for not getting rid of them. The policy of laying off just the expensive employees is therefore dysfunctional. It would be much more effective to lay off the malcontents — you could contract the staff down to almost nothing. Management has not grasped this obvious point. They are to blame.
9:26 AM
ReplyDeleteGotta ask this.
Do you know the difference between "attitude" and "behavior?"
If not, you might want to look it up.
Thanks.
All,
ReplyDeleteThere's a deadly car crash.
Do you blame the car?
Uh, no.
Enough said.
First!
ReplyDeleteNo?
I'm not?
Damn.
12:17 a.m.: "If you are so bold and so smart, why don't you just tell it directly to the management team?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe because they don't want to GET FIRED. durh.
Tracy? Karen?
ReplyDeleteFor the Kool-aid drinking, head in the sand can't find my ass with two hands loyalist to Gannett, your time there is limited, today's stock market is soaring and once again Gannett is dropping.
ReplyDeleteNobody want Gannett, investors, readers, advertisers, no one is Sucks and its time is over.
Gannett's management may indeed be the most corrupt, inefficient and just plain stupid group to ever walk through a corporation's doors, but I'm still waiting for someone to point out for me the newspaper/media company that is thriving these days.
ReplyDeleteGCI SURGES NINE CENTS!
ReplyDeleteStop the presses!
To 10:24 a.m.
ReplyDeleteWe have some alt entertainment tabs expanding in our neck of the woods in Wisconsin. Valley Scene is picking up where we left off (dropped the ball?) in entertainment coverage. They're flush with ads, and they actually practice real journalism.
Fort Collins here:
ReplyDeleteWell' it's been in the works for awhile now to close our Press and Post-Press. That means about 50 people are going to lose their jobs. Now that the Rocky is gone, contracts have been signed with the DNA (Denver News Agency) to start printing the Coloradoan. Mandatory meetings for press and post press tonight and tomorrow morning. Thanks a lot Kim. Hopefully you're next to go.
It just occurred to me yesterday how brilliant Tony Ridder looks for selling Knight Ridder to McClatchy when he did in a deal that was two thirds in cash. Gannett, on the other hand, saw itself as a King of the Mountain, the industry leader, an acquirer, not a seller. Well, it's still the industry leader, only in terms of circulation, but it's now King of the Anthill. People forget that in publicly traded companies, CEOs and boards of directors have a fiduciary duty to work on behalf of shareholders and share value. In Gannett's case, they did none of that. It's beyond obvious that some turnover and fresh thinking is needed in the Crystal Palace. Sooner rather than later.
ReplyDelete10:24 Not thriving, but not collapsing either is Google. They post some great stories and have great coverage around the world.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree 10:02. The boorish Gannett management doesn't get it. These are people who don't know how to manage people, and are even worse at managing an international news company. This toxic corporation needs to come to an end. I think we're reading the final chapters right now.
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of all the "if you don't like it, then quit" comments.
ReplyDeleteThis is America, folks. If Gannett doesn't like my work ethic or my bitching, well then, the company should fire me.
Complaining about this company on this Web site is therapy that costs me only $10 a quarter.
A donation to gannettblog is on its way, Jim.
9:45 AM states, "There's a deadly car crash. Do you blame the car? Uh, no. Enough said."
ReplyDeleteYou're obviously not a reporter. There can be many reasons for a deadly car crash including, but not limited to, faulty mechanical operating systems, weather, roadway, signage. It's not always human error.
What tedious drivel this blog has become. Goodbye for good.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there are any more trolls on here than usual. It's just that the one (maybe two) trolls that DO post are posting multiple times. I don't post often, and never more than once a day. My guess is the troll spends hours posting. And guess what, troll? We writers have the ability to read your writing "voice" better than the average joe. Even if you weren't using more profanity than the rest of us to try to make your point, we could STILL tell that you're the same person trying to pretend you're having a discussion with yourself.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003949706
ReplyDeleteCute.
11:11 has a special troll detector ring that he uses.
ReplyDelete"It's not always human error.
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 11:05 AM"
But someone got killed, nevertheless. Deadly crashes are nearly always human error. Or stupidity.
11:14 et al: Yeah, just what I wanted to see when I opened the E&P home page this morning for drips and drabs of industry news -- and there is the face of my Phx ex-boss telling about how tough it is not to work while on furlough. And when you click through, the story has more Gannett editors! Well, try a @#$@#$ layoff and see how you freakin' feel!
ReplyDelete11:23, stop trying to salvage your stupid freaking analogy. It was ridiculous the first time, but now you're making it worse by trying to prop it up. Just let the stupid thing go. Jeez.
ReplyDelete"There can be many reasons for a deadly car crash including, but not limited to, faulty mechanical operating systems, weather, roadway, signage. It's not always human error.
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 11:05 AM"
But no matter what, Darwin always wins.
Or Satan! Bwuhahahaha!
ReplyDeletePsst! Gannett. I'm going to give you the secret to saving your business.
ReplyDeletePaper print is dead. Instead of trying to somehow make the old standards work in the digital age, what they should be doing is collaborating with all of the other industry and publishing giants to come up with a standard format for e-publishing. Go hire someone from Adobe, Microsoft or Google and generate a real standard. Start distributing ALL of your papers that way. Cut out production and distribution.
Despite their foibles, Gannett still has a sizable content portfolio. Start using it! Customers have shown with the Kindle that they're willing to pay for electronic periodical subscriptions.
Stop wasting time trying to salvage the old and go forward decisively. Show some leadership for a change.
"You're obviously not a reporter."
ReplyDeleteNo, thank God.
Because everyone knows every reporter is an all-seeing, omniscient, Many-Worlds-interpreting Renaissance genius. And that martyr's burden is too heavy to bear, oh, so heavy.
Gannett is the car crash and you're in it. Care to report on that? So sorry for the stumbling metaphor.
"Or Satan! Bwuhahahaha!
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 11:36 AM"
Interesting...
Is Gannett Satan?
(discuss)
Who funds Poynter? Whoever or whatever does will be pulling funding when they find out a friggin blogger is paid more than 100,000 as 2:10 asserts
ReplyDelete1:09: You say trolls are lurking about here, but my earworm keeps playing the theme for Darth Vader...
ReplyDeleteDah Dah Dah, Dah dah-dah, Dah dah-dah...
9:08, aka Dean Wormer: I say lets put the Dubow Frat on TRIPLE secret probation!
Sorry to disrupt, but I'm laughing out loud at all the sheet cake references, too. Man, what a clueless management technique that is: "Let them eat sheetcake!" Of course they know that journalists will eat anything sitting around the newsroom unless it has green fuzzies growing on it.
C'mon, show of hands. Who hasn't seen someone scraping cheese off the box top of day-old sheet pizza (for those special moments when sheet cake isn't enough).
BRING THE SHEET CAKE!
ReplyDeleteBRING THE WOOD!
Word verification: bring
(wtf?)
11:49 The 100k blogger is probably Romenesko, who is the most popular Poynter blogger. Poynter is a foundation, which also owns the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly. The foundation status gives it tax advantages as a charity that GCI doesn't have. I have often thought that one path to salvation for the newspaper industry is to be controlled by a foundation like, perhaps, the Freedom Forum in our case.
ReplyDeleteI worked on a copy desk that labored every night to hit two deadlines. Only this is, I'd estimate 98% of what we worked on had already been thrown up on the Web site during the day. By 5 a.m. or whenever the paper hit the streets, the "news" in the paper wasn't news, in fact, most of it had already been posted.
ReplyDeleteWhich begs the question: Is the newspaper a news-paper? No! Think of the manhours and salaries/benefits it costs to put that paper out. When all the news was already online.
This situation is a fact where I worked. I didn't get it then, and I still don't get it.
Why buy the news (or ad space) when they're giving it away free?
Lead story at Editor & Publisher this moment:
ReplyDeleteFurlough Week a Challenge for Gannett Editors
Everything is ok now !IM HERE
ReplyDelete"NEW JERSEY PAPERS ROCK"
Bullshit. From the article: Behan said the zero-tolerance approach has provided some relief for workers who may already be stressed about losing a week’s pay. It does allow them some relaxation and an excuse to put work out of their minds for at least a week. “This is a less burdensome alternative,” he added. “There is a lot of joking about the vacation you never had when you joined the newspaper business.”
ReplyDeleteNo one's joking at my site. And it's no relief for those who worked too many extra hours before and after their furloughs. And while others are on furlough.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete12:37, Connell had her chance to outsource this blog. FAIL. And besides, wouldn't it be a little sad if ContentOne's goal is to outsource this blog? Shouldn't you be aiming a little higher with your pursuits?
ReplyDeleteJimmmy is going down!!! Good bye to this blog. Corporate is making come back.
ReplyDeleteNo room for losers anymore. Go ask Obama for a handout. He is your man now.
12:07 You got it. Newspapers are making themselves irrelevant by giving away their content. So where is the backlash, and where are the newspapers dismantling their links to the Web? They are few and far between. Corporate and other publishers are making a bet that the Web is their future and the dead tree product is dead. Read the reason that Scripps folded the Rocky Mountain News. They studied it for several months, and concluded that even if the economy recover, the fortunes of the largest newspaper in their chain would not. I have never been this depressed about our future. There is none.
ReplyDeleteJim and this blog rock.
ReplyDeleteON another note, it's worth noting that Gannett is now worth what it once spent in one year on sheet cake alone.
One lonely man’s opinion versus what investors have been saying with their money about Gannett for too long now.
ReplyDeleteSorry 12:43, Gannett won’t be a valuable investment until the company truly starts listening to what its employees have to share and quits giving them so much to write about. And, given the problems that many of us know, the problems that Jim’s blog has publicly exposed, and the fact that many of the leaders who got Gannett where it is today are still here…suggests that Jim’s value will increase even more.
11:46 AM states, "Gannett is the car crash and you're in it. Care to report on that? So sorry for the stumbling metaphor."
ReplyDeleteBut I ride my bike to work on the bike path.
You really should've given up before you published your first comment.
"You really should've given up before you published your first comment.
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 12:54 PM"
You must love da sheet cake.
11:46 am: I know you're not a reporter, because reporters can't spell "Renaissance."
ReplyDeleteJim's blog will survive because the truth lives here.
ReplyDeleteJust learned that Jim is now on Gannett payroll. :o
ReplyDeleteIs he? Please explain.
ReplyDelete"11:46 am: I know you're not a reporter, because reporters can't spell "Renaissance."
ReplyDelete3/10/2009 12:59 PM"
I know you're not clever because clever people don't comment on such things.
Happy Motoring!
1:14 pm: I'd like to learn more about that, too -- since my last severance check was in mid-October.
ReplyDeleteNashville cuts a deal to share content with other Tenn. newspapers. So this saves on travel, cuts expenses and perhaps payroll?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003949123
Great job Craig abd Gracia.... Gannett is at $1.95 a share.
ReplyDelete12:37 should be the poster child for birth control.
ReplyDeleteThe pro-Gannett troll has dragged the blog's discourse to new depths today.
ReplyDeleteBut it's not surprising, coming from someone so closely aligned with the company's management.
Behold, the troll is the epitome of the leadership of the country's largest newspaper company!
Boorish. Immature. Incoherent. Dishonest. Unable to communicate. And not very good with analogies.
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!! No wonder this thing is going down.
AGAIN - what and/or is anything going on with the finance "consolidation"????????? Very curious if I lost my job for naught!
ReplyDeleteTo 1:34 p.m. Well said.
ReplyDelete$1.91 now. Rock on.
ReplyDeleteDow up 327 points.
ReplyDeleteGannett at $1.92, down two cents, is it?
GCI: 1.87 down 4.1%
ReplyDeleteOther media companies? All up, from 2.5% to 8.72%)
WTF?
to 1:37 PM
ReplyDeleteFinance, Credit and Accounting consolidation appears to be on hold at this time. I was informed by a current employee in the Finance dept. for which I used to work, that in whatever group or region that the the test trial for the consolidation was held, it didn't work out as planned and there were many problems with it. Be they "special" billing practices, payment accomodations, or other isolated financial agreements.
Therefore the plan was scrapped from being rolled out. Other more pressing issues within the company have taken center stage and the finance consolidation is a back burner project at this time.
This is all I know of the matter.
Interesting. So what about the budgeted savings at varioius newspapers for all the finance moves? Hard to believe Gannett still won't expect each paper to cough up the cash.
ReplyDeleteHere's the problem with paid websites. There is no way to prevent nonpaid sites from paraphrasing the contents.
ReplyDeleteAnd there also is no way to prevent sites from paraphrasing those contents incorrectly, or with a biased spin the objective media did not make, thereby eroding the credibility and potential readership of the paid site.
The bottom line is that the resurrection of the "idea" of paid sites is just a desperate move by the dying corporate media to maintain a quasi-monopoly it has with the convergence of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Republican Revolution's estate tax cuts and the Bush FCC.
And the bottom line is that layoffs, furloughs and other tactics aimed to make workers hysterically afraid is corporate media's attempt to bust the unions and make labor willing conspirators to help corporations -- which ARE NOT PEOPLE and do not serve people -- regain the quasi-monopoly they've had for more than a decade on information and, in a sense, thought in America.
Closing the barn door is useless when the horses are already gone. These desperate acts are simply pitiful demonstrations of a dying dog.
2:01 p.m. very interesting. All the other consolidations they forced us to try suck; yet they still forged ahead with them. Wonder why finance got a pass?
ReplyDeleteGCI $1.89 now.
ReplyDeleteLike a goldfish, weak and swimming around upside down, dying....
So called pro-Gannett bloggers are welcome here as far as I'm concerned just like everyone else. We all see through your crap anyway. However, the attacks on Jim Hopkins are not fair at all. This blog is THE meeting place to discuss our employer and our experiences. This is good for our mental health as it is a place to vent and discuss. We all know that Gannett and their management, local and in Virginia, don't give a damn about employees now or ever! Leave Jim alone. He's doing good things for all of us and we need him!!!
ReplyDeleteWell said anon 2.08........The final days of Gannett the cycloptic giant is going down!
ReplyDeleteI say all the people here that hate Gannett "raise your hand"!! Time to open a can of whoopass and call a "jihad" on them! Coporational Satan lovers!!
ReplyDeleteI guess with the stock crashing some of the mid managers and VP's have nothing to do but come on the blog and trash it and Jim. The market is up Gannett is down. What will happen next?
ReplyDelete2:17 pm : " All the other consolidations they forced us to try suck; yet they still forged ahead with them. Wonder why finance got a pass?"
ReplyDeleteDoes this include 2adpro? I'm kinda nervous about what my customers are going to do when they find out about this.
Any serious investor of the investor class now faces this dilemma: Should I buy a share of Gannett stock or should I buy a goldfish?
ReplyDeleteRemember, everyone, please don't feed the trolls. They crave the attention and they'll go away if they don't get it.
ReplyDeleteIf I go to a site that I need to pay for or even register more than once, I just leave it. I can get the news somewhere else UNLESS the content is so great I want it from the source. When was the last time the content on Gannett was great?
ReplyDeleteThe Dow is up but that's just the zombie banks twitching because a congressman (leaving names out of this) said something titillating about the uptick rule. They're still zombies. Like Gannett is a zombie; it just keeps twitching and lumbering forward out of habit.
ReplyDeleteI purposefully don't read the Gannett media products in my town, but I know that I'm very informed about this market through other means.
ReplyDeleteJust looked up Poynter's 2006 990 on Guidestar. Romenesko made $170,000 that year. Blogs!
ReplyDeleteFellow Gannettoids!
ReplyDeleteI realize that NJ has its own blog now, however without the last two columns (Saturday and today) of the associate editor of the CN and HNT, you will never understand the lack of talent and class infesting Gannett.
On Saturday, we were treated to an indignant rant about why he saw no reason to get off his ass and stand for National Anthem at sports events. Today, the same man shares his thoughts and wisdom about BREASTFEEDING!
I wish I were joking.
The board of directors should dictate that all executive compensation be adjusted downward to reflect the decline in revenues and asset value. Why are these people still getting paid for running a multi-billion dollar firm with 30 to 40% margins? The savings in executive compensation would save untold front line jobs which are needed to ensure quality for readers and advertisers.
ReplyDelete"Remember, everyone, please don't feed the trolls."
ReplyDeleteAfter you scratch the veneer of Gannett just a bit, there is much to see. Unhappy workers? Sure, and this type of intolerant "troll" who spouts hate, "Homo Jim" and "nasty sanchez" comments. If this guy really works for Gannett, I can't imagine how or why?
And the Micromanaging follows us to the blogs. Come on!
ReplyDeleteYour voluntary Lobotomies are not a valid medical excuse to follow your employees to their therapy sessions.
Please log off, and find some random negative item to add to your employee's reviews. (admit it, you know you do it)
Ha! My Zengerbossie used to collect stuff on us all year long for our annual scathing reviews. Any little thing was fair game, including failures on her part that turned into turf wars among the desk members. Sad and stupid at the same time. After a few years of that kind of treatment, you learn how to appear to toe the line.
ReplyDeleteThing is, they know when you're not a true believer...
First, a paid website can work if it is local-content rich and managed at the LOCAL site. That's easy.
ReplyDeleteSecond, someone posted that what may happen in the future is that many Gannett community papers will fold and be replaced by locally-owned or reginally owned dailies or weeklies.
I see this as a VERY valid probability.
I am told that, as an example, there is a Gannett community newspaper in Chillicothe Ohio that is hated and despised by the entire local community. Circulation is way down, the paper is now just 8 pages three to four days a week.... It6 is a travesty.
The community leaders, residents, everyone who value a strong LOCAL newspaper for their community HATE that Gannett just comes in, drains all the revenue off and leave the local paper in a shambles.
That's what has happened in Chillicothe and a number of other community sites.
Those site will soon fail, and local papers will spring up - OR local papers will spring up and run the Gannett papers out of business!
Either way.... if you work at these papers, don't expect to be working there a lot longer.
Maybe finance is on hold because there is no green to hold on to!
ReplyDeleteIf the consolidation of accounting is on hold, it could be good news for us in Springfield. Maybe GCI would consider selling us, preferably to a local group of investors. We are viable business, but GCI won allow us to serve the community that supports us.
ReplyDeleteI am no longer employed with the company, and I must admit that every day since I left has been glorious in comparison.
ReplyDeleteI do not necessarily blame Gannett for my horrid experience. My direct line of management was the worst I have ever experienced. They showed no concern for their employees and it appeared that they were actually trying to make it even harder for them to do a good job.
Until the corporate big-wigs take notice of how horrible their management is at the individual papers and start listening to the people who actually do the work, things will continue to get worse.
I have my doubts that this will happen since, at least in my experience, the management was clearly hired based on their ability to bullshit and kiss ass - not by demonstrating the appropriate skills for the job. I even had a sale's manager tell me they didn't know how to sell.
I just hope that my ex-coworkers are able to find a new job before theirs no longer exists.
RE: Furloughs. I have heard more furloughs are coming. But, I was under the impression that salaried employees can only be furloughed so often before they are booted back down to hourly employees, so if corporate cannot furlough salaried employees, how are they going to get away with only furloughing hourly? Isn't that clearly discrimination? How would they handle this? Does anyone out there know?
ReplyDeletecolIsn't print still making profits for Gannett? When the economy turns around I hope Gannett won't be a online only company. If it is it will be leaving a huge vacuum for readers and local advertisers. How much of Gannetts income is coming from their websites? I believe while some newspapers may close in the next few years, the Newspaper well be around for another 50 years. Gannett should be too.
ReplyDeleteUhhhhhhhh..........
ReplyDeleteAre we going to remove post #3 @ 11:48pm?
3/09/2009 11:59 PM
________________
Why would you do that? Can't handle the truth? Don't like free speach? Want to censor the written word and opinions?
The truth sometimes hurts.
Their online web sites aren't making any money because they are horrible. You can't find anything on them, you certainly can't find any advertising, they just totally suck.
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of all the "if you don't like it, then quit" comments.
ReplyDeleteThis is America, folks. If Gannett doesn't like my work ethic or my bitching, well then, the company should fire me.
Complaining about this company on this Web site is therapy that costs me only $10 a quarter.
A donation to gannettblog is on its way, Jim.
3/10/2009 11:01 AM
It costs me nothing, zero, nadda, zilch, zippo, baby! I get what I pay for.
Is their any truth about the Asbury Park Press doing away with their carriers and moving delivery to a central warehouse like the HNT to save money ?
ReplyDeleteBill Albrect to the rescue! Not!
ReplyDeleteSince the Board of Directors sets pay, I guess they could "dictate" what everyone gets. Oh, I guess they already do...
ReplyDeleteLast year's shareholder's meeting? Nearly a year and more than one million Gannett Blog visits later, I KNOW you must have SOMETHING -- anything! -- more than that mossy chestnut to whine about! ;)
ReplyDeleteBlowbacks like today's sometimes presage Gannett delivering negative news. This reminds me: I wonder how close we are now to Corporate's disclosing 2008 compensation for CEO Craig Dubow and the other top five earners?
ReplyDeleteStill troubling: The fact that some newspapers are close to sustaining historical profit levels are having to make changes. They continually are being brought into cost-cutting that hurts their product and-or diverts leadership focus from revenue opportunities. Yes, print has to change, but clumping strategies might not work.
ReplyDeleteIf you could see individual newspaper profit levels, the issues are not one-size-fits-all. However, because of the strategies from higher up and group level and because of the flat approach, they are becoming universal.
The furlough, plus the staffing reductions plus additional expense cuts that are going on are not individualized or market specific.
Naysayers will say this voice is ignorant of leaders ability to see the trends before they hit. All newspapers need to make these changes and the cuts are critical for the overall health, it is said.
Current efforts to devise a series of radical changes to products and new ways to slice the production and press operations to achieve major cost savings in 3rdQ coupled with additional staffing cuts might put the nail in it all.
11:48 p.m., I'm not union, I busted my ass to help this company own the market I worked in. My section kicked ass and then some. And Gannett shit all over me because they hire managers who can't stand people who have the audacity to succeed and earn the trust and respect of the public. You're the loser. Go fuck yourself.
ReplyDeleteI think it is horrible how mean everyone is being to each other. Why can't we support each other and offer suggestions about job searches, resume help and how to land another part-time job while you are still working for Gannett. How do you think our grandparents or great grandparents felt during the great depression. Number one, they didn't have the debt we do. They didn't NEED the internet, TVs, i-pods, blackberrys to survive. Here are the essentials people: Housing, food, utilities and some form of transportation. Everything else gets put on the back burner.It will be a great shock to so many people the hardships of us will endure. We have to prepare now. If you still work for Gannett do the best you can do. If you are allowed to work extra hours work them. Save that money. Don't spend it on something stupid. Start your resume now. Look into taking classes in another area that interests you. Skills Centers are offering free training for certain income levels. Invest in yourself. No, we should not be married to Gannett or expect them to save the day. It's all about ourselves. Use this time to think about what you are passionate about. What is the one thing you love to do? Then take baby steps to make it happen. During times like these thousands of small businees you create could be the employers of tomorrow. We don't need Gannett to survive, we need them to help us achieve the goals we need to achieve. Not for Gannett, for for ourselves. Now go get em tiger!
ReplyDeleteJimmy,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote about "blowbacks" and "mossy chestnuts". These terms are confusing. Could you explain cuz they sound obscene. If they are, let us in on the meanings. To show that Hortense is not a prudish old bat, I want you to know that I visited my grandson in reform school this weekend, and little Virgil von Beaverbottom told me the meaning of FEAR.
Fuck
Everything
And
Run
Your friend,
Hortense in NJ
P.S. Spent the entire day at the CN looking at a certain columnist and wondering why he is so interested in breastfeeding! Oink-Oink!
Lets all go in and buy this sumbitch!
ReplyDelete"Lets all go in and buy this sumbitch!"
ReplyDeleteThat would be entertaining -- a bunch of people with no skills trying to run a big company.
I find it amusing that just in this thread, it was disclosed that Jim is still on the Gannett payroll and that he went to the shareholders meeting but just sat there with his hand in his crack.
What a loser. What an idiot and a pussy. If this is the guy who somehow is going to expose Gannett, then Gannett has little to worry about.
Keep wasting those $20 bills on the blog, though. Reading these posts makes me feel better because I know most of the rest of the world is smarter than the people here, and that the posters' imminent firings mean evolution is occurring.
6:44
ReplyDeleteDiscrimination has legal definitions, and furloughing non-exempt employees doesn't meet the standard.
Exempt employees have a $$ salary minimum below which (about 24K)they become non-exempt and therefore are required to be paid overtime $$. If repeated furloughs lower someone's salary to this amount, then they have to be paid for anything over 40 hours.
Post...But, I was under the impression that salaried employees can only be furloughed so often before they are booted back down to hourly employees, so if corporate cannot furlough salaried employees, how are they going to get away with only furloughing hourly? Isn't that clearly discrimination?
ReplyDeleteYou are under the wrong impression. According to the DOL an exempt person is paid a salary for work, and they can be furloughed for a week at a time. No discrimination here.
Hourly people are different under the law.
Arron Barrett to the rescue, if Larry St. Cyr isn't available.
ReplyDelete10:29, Thanks for showing the world what it's like to work at Gannett under people like you.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's news to you, but Jim has already exposed serious problems with this company. Oh yeah, there will be more to come, as long as this company stays afloat.
I promise you'll read it here first.