Friday, May 15, 2009
Friday | May 15 | Your News & Comments
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74 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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ReplyDelete"I'm not sure what market you live in, but in Reno, NV, the consumers are noticing a difference. The products are far worse than they were just three years ago"
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine what went wrong in reno 3 years ago....
unemployed "non-impact player"
ReplyDeletestaring out the window
drinking cold water
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteGannett would love to see this blog go away, and all criticism must be viewed in that light. On the other hand, I wish Jim well in finding life after Gannett. I love mine, beating the local paper that laid me off by stealing advertisers from them every day.
ReplyDeleteI've determined what Jim is up to.
ReplyDeleteLook at the evidence:
• If you'll notice, Jim has not posted any news about Gannett since the bogus press closings stories from several days ago.
• The must outlandish writing ever was done before, during and after the shareholder’s meeting
• His entire revenue stream was spent around the shareholder’s meeting for travel and "security"
• His entire focus for the past few days has been on repeated, self-serving advertorials for his new site
• He has a “gay-meter” survey on the side bar of the GANNETT blog
And now for the real truth behind Jim’s antics leading up to and at the shareholder’s meeting: the whole thing was a calculated stunt, laying the groundwork for Jim to promote his new blog. How else could you explain the vaudevillian nature of his performance at the meeting? All the drama leading up to the meeting with outlandish fees supposedly paid for a "protection" service. How else can you explain all the homophobic comments that were probably planted by Jim and staff to create a build up for what you are now seeing? It’s all called marketing. This was a well thought out campaign finally unveiled this week.
Yes folks, Jim isn’t making money with the Gannett blog so he is finally being forced to move on. The sugar daddy train is leaving the station. The reality of life is beginning to take hold. He is hoping enough gay employees from a media company’s editorial departments (let’s face it, most of the blog contributors are from the editorial departments) will become angry and insulted enough to help his new venture become a success, perhaps with a few even becoming stringers.
I’ll be surprised to see much of anything original from Jim about Gannett over the coming days and nearly everything to promote this new venture. Nicely played, Jim! I wish you much luck in your new venture.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHOLD ON! Jim's blog on Ibiza is NOT the entire content you receive at this multi-topic site. Jim has a perfect right to do it. It's like the idiots who complain about television programs when they can turn the channel! Here, just bypass anything that holds no interest for you. I regularly do that with the Elmira Confidential. Is it any big deal? Duh....NO!
5/14/2009 3:05 PM
But it was the entire content received for an entire day: Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!! It has begun.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteJim has frequently posted items reminding people that the blog is for discussion about Gannett, and to please not post unrelated material.
But it's OK for Jim to post items unrelated to Gannett.
H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E!
5/14/2009 6:18 PM
I couldn't agree more. I also agree with the previous posters that said Jim has been promoting his new blog for some time with all his actions.
"Jim is losing the battle with Corporate and his blog has tacitly endorsed this management teams steady hand."
ReplyDeleteThat has to be the funniest, most asinine comment I've read in a while. Jim is not in battle with corporate, nor is he endorsing corporate.
This statement clearly demonstrate the writer's ignorance of the role of journalism. A journalists role is to question everything. Journalism is neither a battle, nor an endorsement activity. Questioning is about seeking deeper understanding, presenting the facts to the public, and then letting the public make up its mind.
Clearly 6:21 AM is not in the news business if one is to glean any substance from these casual opinions.
What Jim is doing with his travel blog is no different from what Gannett should be doing. Jim is demonstrating the age old entrepreneurial spirit of taking one brand, and making something new.
Perhaps if Gannett stopped firing its talent, but instead embrace its talent to discover new opportunities to market this talent in a different way, then Gannett would be making money.
Instead of a steady hand in these trying times, all I see corporate doing is crying the sky is falling. But instead of the rats fleeing from the sinking ship, the rats are throwing the able body crew who makes the ship productive overboard.
"• He has a “gay-meter” survey on the side bar of the GANNETT blog"
ReplyDeleteSO?
It's his blog. He can do whatever he damn well pleases.
What does having any type of meter have to do with the price of tea in China?
6:48 AM, thanks for your nonsensical observations, but please, in the future, show us the facts. Facts such as why the CEO of the Gannett can take shareholders wealth to create the CEO personal college scholarship fund, etc.
If I were still a shareholder (sorry Gannett, I sold all my company stock back when it was worth around $100 per share), I be questioning management's paranoid behavior over Jim's blog.
Keywords for Friday:
ReplyDeleteGovernment.
Contracts.
FREEDOM!
Hey Jim, I thought this was a blog about Gannett, not some homo .........whatever. I don't care if your a homo, but I don't want to see pictures of 2 dudes in banana hammocks either. Get back to reporting GCI business, PLEASE!!!
ReplyDeletequestion to all - what is the turn around time for ad proofs to customers across the country. hours? days? quality? errors? need info please
ReplyDeleteTo 6:48, To Gannett Jim is just a little, buzz around fly that they can swat away. I am the one with the real power over Gannett. The one that will NEVER go away.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm very surprised over the arbitrary nature that Jim police's this blog. I posted a comment early today that wasn't offensive, not mean spirited and expressed hope in the blog's future. Jim chose to pull the comment. It's happened before as well, and none of the comments have been homophobic, nasty or a direct attack on Jim.
ReplyDeleteYet right above this, 6:48 posts some interesting, far more critical commentary that remains. Whas up with that?
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ReplyDeleteCan we start a collection for Amir's new therapist? I'm willing to send him to Ibizia's famed Dr. Franz Cockenspeil.
ReplyDelete8:10 AM -- Expect no answers on this blog, all that gets posted here is anti-jim/anti-corporate BS.
ReplyDeleteBased on the informal sexual orientation survey, I'd say Gannett Blog and Ibiza Confidential aren't appealing to the same demos.
ReplyDeleteWhy is everyone concerned that Gannett Blog is a front for Jim's other projects? I don't see much evidence of that.
2:50 get off of your high horse already. we get it, you don't like the publisher. Guess what he has only been there 2 years so there goes your theory. there are many of us who appreciate his openness and honesty. just because you didn't like your reassignment don't blame it on him. He is great and many. many of us are glad he is here. No you, many of us could do without.
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ReplyDelete2:50 riddle me this batman. Who does or doesn't like dog stories in the paper?
ReplyDeleteThis is not a multi-topic blog. This is the GANNETT blog. Talk about things relevant to your audience or they will leave.
ReplyDeleteI don't see ESPN talking about gardening and cooking. There is a reason for that. Common freakin' sense. Jim needs a PERSONAL blog to talk about his PERSONAL life because I PERSONALLY don't care about his.
This is no longer a source of information about gannett. I think I'll take my browser elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteTo Jim bashers:
ReplyDeleteBottom line, this is HIS blog, not a corporate entity. He can do what he pleases with it.
He's trying to make a little money to keep it going. If you don't like it, don't contribute. But the man has a right to make a living. If he can't make enough from this, why shouldn't he start something else?
This points to the fact that too many people expect free rides today when it comes to online news. People forget that EVERYONE contributing to the online news has to put food on their tables. If they work for a paper, they rely on a salary. If they are bloggers, they either rely on their real job (which takes time away from the blogs) or from subscriptions/donations to the blogs.
If you're a news blogger with a different full time job, it's possible to have a good site. But the amount of time you'd have to invest in it would really stress you out. So, naturally, unless the news blog IS your full-time job, it's not going to be as good as some people would like.
In the other scenarios, if you take the source of income away, how do you expect them to keep putting news online?
Maybe Jim will be forced to discontinue this blog. If so, too bad! The same thing is true with newspapers. No bucks, no online news. Sorry! People are more than willing to express their views on these sites. But when it comes to supporting them financially, it's a different story. If money is not pumped into the system, the system will eventually go away, taking its free news and ability to post angry rants with it. Sooner or later people are going to need to realize that.
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ReplyDeleteAmir said...
ReplyDelete>>>Can we start a collection for Amir's new therapist?<<<
------
I'm still with the old therapist. Don't worry, I can afford two now.
Keywords for Friday:
gallup.
ethics.
policy.
5/15/2009 11:51 AM
Maybe you should just hire one really good therapist because the two you currently employee obviously aren't very good.
employ
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with Jim doing what he wants with his blog and I'll tolerate one post promoting his new blog to explain to us that he is attempting another venture but when a whole day and six posts are dedicated to advitorials, then I'm going go elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThrow an ad banner somewhere on the sidebar, up top or down low Jim to promote it, I don't care about that but lets keep the posts focused on Gannett.
I hope your new blog does well financially so maybe it can help keep Gannett blog running.
Wonder what happened at 11:30 AM to make the stock free fall so bad?
ReplyDeleteCNY Unionization Meeting.
ReplyDelete2 p.m., May 16, Round Top Park, Endicott.
Information: bingobackpacker@gmail.com.
Tucson Citizen printing final edition Saturday
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/breakingnews/116641.php
Recently overheard in Reno.
ReplyDelete"If you've got time to shoot a game of pool, and hang out in the break room, it's obvious you don't have enough work to do."
The interesting thing will be to see what audience Jim can generate. Is he a true digital media guy? The success of Gannett blog was founded in his desire to express an open communication policy and shine some truthful light on Gannett.
ReplyDeleteIt may have strayed into personal vendetta turf and have plenty of audience built off spite , anger and disgust but certainly does well at informing from around the horn.
Now with his Ibiza project he has to gather audience and info from a ship that isn't sinking but is very much afloat. That takes serious talent. Lets see if he has it.
1:49 -- And this comes on the heels of the company spending thousands on the new break room ... immediately after laying off some of the staff?
ReplyDeleteAll Jim is doing in promoting his second blog is what Gannett has been doing for years -- cross promoting. So, hopefully, those of you criticizing him for this are not the same people criticizing him for giving GCI leadership a hard time.
ReplyDeleteIf you can put Metromix photo galleries on the front or your news sites, Jim can tout a site targeted at gay men on his GCI blog.
1:56 the break room was in the works for a year. It was designed by our employee group. It was finished before the layoff. Bad timing yes but the money was spent well before anyone knew about layoffs. I love people like you, the company actually did something great for the work force and you and your sour puss buddies crap ll over it. I realize people like you don't care about real facts, but this is the truth.
ReplyDelete1:49 I was standing right there when that comment was made. Everyone knew it was a joke but you. What an idiot. By the way he is not a very good pool player. Lighten up
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is CNY?
ReplyDeleteI liked that break room.
ReplyDeleteBut the managers had been using it as a tool to discover slackery in the Biggest Little Newspaper.
So it was a lose-lose proposition from the beginning.
It looked nice, even if they used mental hospital colors in the paint palette. Maybe they will let me back in from my layoff, just to watch TV next to the fireplace, when my unemployment runs out?
Regarding Jim plugging his new blog here.
ReplyDeleteCross-promotion. Granted, they're two pretty unrelated subjects. But Jim has a right to promote his other blog, even if it's off-topic, on his blog. You, the Gannett Blog reader, aren't mysteriously redirected to the new site when trying to comment here. He's not hiding Gannett-related information on his other blog. There is no entrapment, no requirement, nothing of the sort. If I run a lemonade stand, and now I want to generate interest in my widget stand, by all means I can do that. You're not obligated to go or buy the widgets. And I'm not forcing them on my customers.
Separate entities and separate products. Jim has a right to attempt to promote it here. Not so much every day, not so much even to post the full stories from there onto here. But to mention his next venture, how it came about, etc., is perfectly fine in my book.
2:34....aaaaah no
ReplyDelete2:34 I love the reading room, nice, comfortable and peaceful. I use it every day and I am still here. No one is hassling me about using it. What, I should go outside and smoke? Nah, I will kick back on the recliner and read my book. By the way I love the colors. thanks Tony!
ReplyDeleteCNY= Central New York.
ReplyDeleteBut, I guess I shouldn't have left the assumption hanging that I'm posting on a blog that has readers of a higher-than-average intelligence.
re: 3:20 PM
ReplyDeleteMy aren't we the clever one.
Betcha I know more Acronyms than you do, LMSP.
USA TODAY should be unionized. It won't solve every problem, but if nothing else it will send a clear message to Mother Gannett that we are tired of this place being run like some 5000-circulation weekly in the swamps of Louisiana. We need more help and less fear. The help needs to be experienced and not just tech savvy. We need some protection so that whatever layoffs might be on the horizon are done more fairly than the last rounds of layoffs and buyouts. What a farce that was. I am sick of working in utter terror of speaking up, even when I know I am right, and listening to managers who sound like uneducated used car salesmen. One department in particular is being run by the village idiot. He might have some skills, but they sure aren't in leadership, wise hiring or staff development. He should go back to doing what he did best and should never have risen into the ranks of management. I've seen the way things have deteriorated in that department, and it has cost the newspaper dearly. Problem is, people in power, who could do something about it, have their heads in the sand.
ReplyDeleteThe people who post here have an intelligence level well below average. They don't have the skills to do their job, or really any job.
ReplyDeleteThey're too dumb to accept this, though, so they blame corporate.
4:41
ReplyDeleteIt takes one to know one - and since you post here...
Merry Christmas
5:37 illustrates my point immediately.
ReplyDeleteThank you, 5:37.
i find the corporate stoolies who post here quite amusing.
ReplyDeletei will raise a toast to you tonight at the bar, as you renew my belief each day of what a vile and putrid company that i no longer work for.
may you suck major **** and kiss major *** in your next "performance evaluation".
i would say good luck; but in gannett land that cliche is no longer relevant.
So if we enjoy our work at Gannett we are corporate stoolies. So only the people who agree with you 7:12 speak the truth? Enjoy that drink....is it kool aid?
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ReplyDeleteuh oh....the union horns are sounding in binghamton......better look into your evil ball Shero-man to strike lighting on the pass and force the fellowship of the union into the mines of maine
ReplyDeleteThe white wizard of the local 101.....is that all you can muster, Shermo-man?....."
ReplyDeleteShermo-Man.....leering into his book of spells, conjures the Beck-lag with a grin....hahaha all fear the Beck-lag..
the great eye in Mclean watches with anticipation.......
2:24 -- You took my comment wrong. The break room is great ... but only if people are allowed to use it.
ReplyDeleteIf we're suddenly going to have people running around sneering at those who take the time to use it -- and I've heard comments like the one 1:49 made as well -- then it's actually a negative right?
Here's this great break room, but if we catch you shooting pool we'll increase your workload.
As for the room itself, it's solid and I realize it was budgeted long before the layoffs.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090515/FREE/905159964
ReplyDeleteMore cuts coming at The News and Free Press.
11:35 That would be 150 layoffs coming to The News & Free Press -
ReplyDeleteWhy don't the papers cover their own dirty laundry
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ReplyDeleteIt will be closer to 200 job cuts in Detroit.
ReplyDeleteSo it is Saturday moening and we have no place to put Saturday comments other than Friday. This is a first. Is Jim reducing the digital frequency? I noticed he removed the USA TODAY edition several days ago.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is difficult to run two products out the door when you are a one-man show.
Amir said...
ReplyDelete>>>Can we start a collection for Amir's new therapist?<<<
------
I'm still with the old therapist. Don't worry, I can afford two now.
Keywords for Friday:
gallup.
ethics.
policy.
_______________
Amir's Keywords for Saturday:
I'm.
A.
Dumbass.
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ReplyDeleteWow -- no Saturday comments links at all and no word from Jim in almost a day.
ReplyDeleteI think the blog is over.
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ReplyDeleteHey! Look at Jim! He got so caught up in Gannett World, he decided to take an unpaid furlough, too! (At his former salary, he's got 2 weeks coming.)
ReplyDeleteLet him chase the great gay dream. Good for him.
As soon as layoffs hit again (coming soon to a paper near you), you'll all be rushing back here. So will I.
But let's all take a break for now. Jim most of all.
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ReplyDeleteI removed a lot of off-topic and spammed comments this morning. They built up yesterday, when I took the afternoon off and didn't check in very often.
ReplyDeleteYou'll see that I've left SOME off-topic comments up. Those are examples of ones where the authors at least put some effort and imagination into it. For example, read Anonymous@9:41 am: ("When all the world is a hopeless jumble . . . ").
2:50 they hired Ted Power and his wife.. Its funny Fred Hamliton is running the LA news papers for Media News. Go to RGJ.com which posted the article.
ReplyDelete