Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments
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8 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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Readers: The entire comment thread seems to have disappeared from this post. I did not remove them. I'll try to find out what happened, and will report back on what I learn.
ReplyDeleteVery odd
ReplyDeleteWe experienced a similar problem around the time of the annual shareholder's meeting in April. Google later acknowledged a glitch, I believe.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I've developed a workaround involving Gmail to recover most of those that disappeared; I'll keep looking for more. Here are the ones I've found so far; they're in a different format, which is why this string looks unfamiliar. I'm going to need to publish them in batches, to get around a 4,096-character limit imposed by Blogger.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
You can call old-fashioned reporting crowd sourcing.
You can call a newsroom an Information Center.
You can designate a phone room a Center of Excellence.
You can describe halting home deliveries as enhancing the customer's experience.
You can rebadge it, spray paint it, perfume it, photograph it from a different angle and ....
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 10:18 AM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
Three things in reply to recent and on-going comments:
1 — Ohio, Indiana and Michigan mid-size/small dailies did have layoffs in the previous rounds. I don't know why people here insist on perpetuating false information. I guarantee you I saw some very talented people walk out the door that day. And I have friends at papers in the other two states who reported similar things.
2 — Those talented people (and some much less talented dead weight) were not all baby boomers. Stop assuming you were let go because of age discrimination. I saw kids fresh out of j-school get the pink slip as well as employees with a few years experience and a few decades. There are still plenty of people in my department with 20+ years here. Also, just because you're a baby boomer does not automatically make you more talented, harder working or anything except more expensive. The person with the longest tenure in our newsroom is also our least productive reporter (measured by average byline counts — and this person is not an enterprise reporter, quite the opposite). They get paid more to do less. From a business perspective, does that makes sense? So don't assume it's because the person is older.
3 — The reason the editorial departments weren't hit as much as the others is a cut in IT or marketing affects the product less than a cut in the newsroom. You can't outsource coverage of your local county council or school board meeting to a regional hub. When you cease to have strong local news coverage, you cease to have a reason to exist. If you don't have local news to sell, you don't need advertising reps or circulation people or press operators to print the paper because nobody wants your product. Keep hacking away at the news and you won't have to worry about editorial being protected because there will be no company left to protect anyone.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 10:11 AM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
ReplyDeleteAttention Arizona Republic, please stop running the same stories over and over. The paper's shrinking as it is, is there some purpose or value to this?
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 10:16 AM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
A blogger asked yesterday how the layoffs will affect Poughkeepsie news graphics merging with Westchester. Corporate should just look at what the two departments produce. Poughkeepsie has a high volume of work going through their department. Westchester does not produce much. It took them 8 days to get a simple graphic in the paper on one of the biggest stories of the year, a double fatal hit and run accident.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 10:59 AM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
Gannett stock down 20% since May 8, DJIA flat to same. The coming cuts are directives from corporate to meet targeted financial goals. This is like a racing team being told by corporate and top managers from a distant location to not change tires. The result wold either be a flat that ends the race or a spectacular crash with fire and smoke. I suspect we'll be looking at the current "team Gannett" car to be dead in turn 2 by the end of 2010 with a stock price around $2. by the end of 2009.
And no, online won't disappear, but without the current content and sales departments, it too will be dramatically reduced.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 10:36 AM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
"I saw kids fresh out of j-school get the pink slip as well as employees with a few years experience and a few decades. "
That's just so there's enough of a ratio so that affected employess can't file a class action against Gannett. The've culled the baby boomers and thrown in relatively low numbers of new hires so it appears to be legal. And in fact, it is.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 12:21 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
I understand that center of excelleces are making some drastic changes again that will affect customer service. I have a question do you think Gannett is going completely out of the print buisness.it is quite ovious that the advertising dollars are not there. The newspaer customers seems to have become a neccessary evil. This does not make sense to loose as many customers as you can to save newsprint. Am i missing a point somewhere ?? Is there any newspaper people on the Corp. staff. circulation people custmers service people that know newspapers. This has been a great company in the past toward customer service.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 12:52 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
ReplyDeleteAll the head-chopping, and Gannett STILL has some of the worst managers and workers in the news business. Seat-warmers, clock-watchers, retirement-waiters, ass-kissers, work-fakers, meeting-lovers, has-beens and never-wases THRIVE in Gannett. They're the ones who need to go.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 12:25 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,cks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks,Gannett sucks, if they have more layoffs!
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 12:34 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
Re: 10:16AM
It's called "repurposing" and we're very proud of it. It means a reporter in Glendale(or Tempe or Mesa or... you get the idea) can write a story for their zone and after the story runs in Glendale it's dropped into our metro section. We like cause then our overworked editors don't have to come up with something fresh.
>>Attention Arizona Republic, please stop running the same stories over and over. The paper's shrinking as it is, is there some purpose or value to this?
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 11:55 AM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
ReplyDeleteRE: 10:11. You make some good points, but you act like the news product hasn't been affected in this downturn, newshole hasn't been significantly cut and therefore the Editorial crowd is a protected group.
The size of Gannett newsrooms and their staff are in no way in sync with the actual product. How can you justify hundreds of newsroom staffers at the Lousiville Courier-Journal when this morning newspaper hardly reflects the collective efforts of that size group??
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 12:33 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
Couldn't agree more with 7:02 AM. USA TODAY can lose 50 from editorial without missing a beat. But the key is in picking the right 50. Losing more qualified/productive people would result in disaster for the newsroom. We've lost enough good people in the last two years.
But yes, I totally concur that there is an excess of under-performers, who all might be very nice people, but they are not contributing in any significant manner. Not in experience. Not in hands-on know-how. Not in a managerial or leadership sense. Not in producing professional content. Not in editing. Many pretend to be engaged in their work, but c'mon, we should all know the con artists by now.
This was once a very productive newsroom that didn't allow for too many slackers and frowned upon hiring under-experienced staffers. That has changed and I hope if anyone goes it's the employees who for one reason or another are just not even remotely essential -- those who shouldn't have been hired in the first place or who have been politicking their way into job security for too long.
We can't continue to decide on who goes, who stays, who gets promoted on nothing more than popularity. Some of the smartest and hardest working people we have aren't running around trying to yuck it up with everyone every minute of the day. They're working and trying to compensate for the lack of support from those who just don't seem to have much to do.
USAT managers, please use your heads in whatever round of layoffs might be coming our way. Don't rely on false perceptions to select who you think we can afford to lose. You're often wrong and those bad decisions hurt the rest of us. Ultimately, those faulty choices hurt the paper and the future of the brand.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 1:00 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
12:25, Everybody's an idiot but you, right? I get it.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 1:50 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
ReplyDeleteAs a final toast and thank-you to Jim and all those whose productive messages have helped me before, during and after my Gannett-icide, I provide the following century old text. Take a read and see if you can name the author and industry....and ask yourself if there could be a more accurate description of Gannett over the past few years……
”Here was ( ), for instance, run by a man who was trying to make as much money out of it as he could, and did not care in the least how he did it; and underneath him, ranged in ranks and grades like an army, were managers and superintendents and foremen, each one driving the man next below him and trying to squeeze out of him as much work as possible, And all the accounts of each were kept separately, and every man lived in terror of losing his job. So from top to bottom the place was simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds: there was no loyalty or decency anywhere about it, there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against the dollar. And worse then there being no decency, there was not even any honesty. He had come there, and thought he was going to make himself useful, and rise and become a skilled man, but he would soon find out his error – for nobody rose here by doing good work. You could lay that down for a rule – if you met a man who was rising in( , you met a knave. The man who told tales and spied upon his fellows would rise; but the man who minded his own business and did his work –why, they would 'speed him up' till they had worn him out, and then they would throw him into the gutter."
The Jungle, 1906
Upton Sinclair
(Meatpacking Industry)
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Best Wishes Jim – you ain’t in San Fran anymore, get yourself some sun block!
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 2:15 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
12:52, It's a good and valid question. Here's a bigger question, could the online components survive without the print component? That would mean being able to cover all expenses of staff, overhead... Keep in mind, the online ad revenues are falling too.
As I have said, online benefits from the current sales force and large quantity of online print ads and online references throughout the paper.
Without the internal promotional value, content, current (dwindling) sales force and client contacts, the question is how much would the online component shrink if print disappeared. I'm guessing 50%.
Plus, online revenues are estimated to be in the 10-15% range of print revenues. Imagine how Gannett would look operating on 10-15% of current revenues. Better yet, imagine getting ride of 90% of the current top local and corporate executives.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 1:38 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
ReplyDeleteQuit whining. Without the trolls, you wouldn't have any traffic anymore...
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 1:50 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
Two more behind-the-scenes types let go at KARE 11 in the Twin Cities this week. This time a winnowing of directors/TDs.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 2:50 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
@ 1.38 pm not only is the online revenue less, its much cheaper then print with no way to measure success unless you throw in a coupon or something. & there is way too much competition.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 4:42 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
For the person who was asking about extending unemployment benefits in New Jersey:
Mine were extended automatically. I got the usual Claim for Benefits notice in the mail and went online to file.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 3:12 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
I'm media guy, don't work for gannett but does manage an individual property for a small company. I'm one of the guys who recently announced a furlough to his staff. I enjoy reading this and have great empathy for you guys. Sure, every business will have its share of slackers, place holders along with those who work really hard and make a difference. Its gotta be tough sometimes, it not mattering how hard or good you work and your career is lost on someones excel spreadsheet because of nothing you did. How do you cope with the feeling of helplessness and a complete lack of control?
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 5:17 PM
Mike has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
I'm gone from Gannett but I now work very close to my former workplace. I still see the same losers out smoking their cigarettes at the same times with the same looks on their faces.
It's like watching one of those grainy documentaries about the Battaan Death March.
[IMG]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/2214/20090125123740810.jpg[/IMG]
Posted by Mike to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 5:26 PM
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday | June 17 | Your News & Comments":
"USAT managers, please use your heads in whatever round of layoffs might be coming our way. Don't rely on false perceptions to select who you think we can afford to lose. You're often wrong and those bad decisions hurt the rest of us. Ultimately, those faulty choices hurt the paper and the future of the brand."
Why should they change now?
And who cares about the brand. People should care about the content.
Posted by Anonymous to Gannett Blog at 6/17/2009 5:08 PM