One in an occasional series of Q&As about yours truly.
Q. Why don't you write more about other newspaper departments, like circulation and production? And how about the TV stations? You never write about them!
A. My biggest failing as a blogger is that I don't know enough about departments outside newspaper newsrooms, where I spent my entire 20 years with Gannett. I'd like to write much more about other departments -- and, especially, about the broadcast division. To do that, however, I need you to first teach me the most important, basic stuff.
Got a question? Use this link to e-mail FAQs About Me; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
10 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yes, it's pretty obvious that you don't really know too much about the company. You know that the stock price is down. Don't we all. You know that the company has fewer employees than it used to. You have pointed out that company senior executives make a lot of money running a 7.5 billion dollar company still making huge margins compared to most other industries. You apparently were told that there was some bad behavior at some business units.
ReplyDeleteWhat you can't do, at least so far, is do a decent analysis of the financials and provide insight into how Gannett might better spend capital dollars, budget or better economize on a large scale. You haven't provided a reasonable analysis of what might be a better business model for Gannett.
It used to be "no axe to grind." That's now gone. What is your point in "covering" Gannett now? If you're not going to try to cover the company in an objective way, what are you trying to do? A little payback? Why not provide a statement about your purpose and plan for the blog? At least we would understand the editorial underpinnings that you bring.
I'm sorry you are disappointed; I keep trying to do a better job, and always welcome feedback. Gannett is a very large company, with many businesses and even more employees. I am just one person.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first put my name on this blog, I said I had one main goal -- and I've reiterrated that goal since. I am using dirt-cheap technology to level the playing field between rank-and-file employees and top management. This blog is meant to be a place where employees and others can gather and share information about Gannett -- without fear of being punished by their bosses. My role is to help guide that discussion, and to explain as best I can what public documents, etc., mean to employees who are too often in the dark.
When a Gannett employee in the field is told they're only getting a 1% or 2% raise because times are tough and "everyone's tightening their belt,'' I want them to be able to say: "No, that's not true. Gannett's CEO got the same bonus in 2007 that he got in 2006 -- even though his strategy is failing."
Information is power. Employees who organize online get that.
Anon sounds like a corp. flak...
ReplyDeleteYour response is exactly the point. By what measure is the strategy failing? What don't you like about the strategy? What could be improved in the strategy? Can you even articulate what the strategy you are referring to is?
ReplyDeleteThe Dubow strategy is failing because it is just more of the same: Do more, with less -- while maintaining the highest possible profit margins. That is not transformation. That has been the company's business model for at least the last 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI can't satisfy everyone on this blog. As I have said, there are 46,100 employees; I am just one person.
Quit trying to explain things to the corp/management voices that keep popping up on YOUR blog, Jim.
ReplyDeleteTheir livelihoods depend on following the company line. Unfortunately, the careers of Gannett employees are not prospering as they practice this survival technique.
A lot of stuff you've uncovered and posted on this blog is stuff Gannett employees would never have known otherwise. What's that old cliche? The one about newsroom employees being treated like mushrooms?
I admire that you're not writing about subjects about which you have no expertise. And I like it when you hammer home the huge gap between the recogniction and reward of the people doing the work and the people ordering them around.
Don't worry about your credibility, it's fine. You also don't have to come up with a strategy to save Gannett. Go ahead and point out the one corporate is using is failing re: stock prices and newsroom morale.
I'd read the corporate posts with more interest if they were able to point out how you are wrong, instead of sniveling about how much it hurts when you turn the knife.
Thank you. If I spend a disproportionate amount of time engaging my critics, it is because I don't want to abuse whatever influence I may have as a blogger. The easiest thing to do would be to blow them off, and make them feel unwelcome; I don't feel comfortable doing that. Plus, I gain and lose traffic one reader at a time; I hate to lose a single person.
ReplyDeleteAnother suggestion for my unhappy readers, like Anon@1:13 a.m.; I've made it before, I bet I make it again in the future:
ReplyDeleteGannett is a company comprising hundreds of businesses, with a combined 46,000-plus employees. I try to cover as much as possible, but I can't do it all. If someone feels strongly that, for example, Gannett's strategic plan is working, I would encourage them to start a blog expressing that view. Do what I have done: Keep that blog daily for five months. Write more than 700 posts. Do original research. Publish hundreds of comments. Then, we'll let the market decide. If your argument is the more persuasive, I'll lose my readers, and you will claim victory. You see, I'm not afraid of competition.
Good point, Jim. When every newspaper is sponsoring blogs on its website, you would think someone at corporate would be setting up blogs as a means to communicate with employees and distribute kool aid. Of course, they'd probably put them behind the intranet, so they could easily track who is looking and who is commenting. Open exchange of information is probably too much to ask at that level.
ReplyDelete(I'm assuming usage is being tracked, or at least trackable, since we now have to sign on to access the intranet. Does anyone know for sure>)
@anon 5:00 - what do you mean you have to sign-on to access the Intranet? Are you saying specifically to see Intranet pages or just when you sign on to your computer? If you are using some browser other than IE like Firefox, you may have to do a configuration change to prevent authentication requests from happening when accessing certain sites.
ReplyDeleteAlso, yes, usage can be tracked depending on how the specific Intranet site is setup. It's also possible for Internet sites to track which IP address goes to their pages as well. They can drop cookies that can show repeat visitors, etc.
There are blogs setup on the Intranet already. If you go to gannett.gci you will see a reference to one on the front page.