Saturday, September 06, 2008
Saturday | Sept. 6 | Got news, or a question?
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16 comments:
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ReplyDeleteStill no questions from journalists for the new celeb, Palin. Give her a few more days for the grand old party to tell her how she feels and she'll get back to you on that! haha
ReplyDeleteBy BRENDAN CASE / The Dallas Morning News
ReplyDeletebcase@dallasnews.com
The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have reached a joint distribution agreement in an effort to reduce costs, the two newspapers said Friday.
Under the agreement, The News will deliver about 5,000 daily copies and 7,000 Sunday copies of the Star-Telegram in Dallas, Cook, Denton and Ellis counties.
The Star-Telegram will deliver about 21,000 daily copies and 20,000 Sunday copies of The News in Tarrant, Parker, Hood and Johnson Counties.
“There are certain geographies where we both have significant distribution, and we’re sending two cars down the same street, each delivering one product of each of the two companies,” said Jim Moroney, publisher and chief executive of The News.
“If we can get one car going down the street, delivering both products, it lowers the cost of distribution for both companies,” he said.
Neither newspaper would disclose the savings it expects to achieve from the deal, which takes effect Oct. 6.
The agreement covers both home delivery and single-copy distribution of the two newspapers, and also includes distribution of Quick, The News’ publication aimed at younger readers; Al Dia, The News’ Spanish-language daily, and La Estrella en Casa, a Spanish-language weekly of the Star-Telegram.
It also includes The News’ third-party distribution contracts with The New York Times, the Financial Times, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily and Daily Racing Form.
More changes for KPNX here in Phoenix. Our information center is now forcing reporters to start shooting their own stories. News director Mark Casey says even he will start shooting stories and expects everyone else to too. That'll happen. Casey's chief photographer Robert Nino doesn't even shoot. This management team at KPNX is all smoke and mirrors. Memo to Gannett management in Virginia: the clowns in charge at KPNX pretend to follow your marching orders. They all cover each others asses and act like they're abiding by your edicts. You're trying to squeeze blood out of rock, there are no more solutions to save money. Morale is at an all time low. Nobody and I mean nobody wants to work here anymore. We all wasted money on a college education for this? We're an educated work force, your worst enemy. We're not as stupid as you think we are. You will reap what you sow Gannett. Dubow, you and your fellow board members are collosal failures.
ReplyDeleteMust say, and I'm at a paper not a station, nearly everyone in our newsroom who isn't just in the door or close to being out the door is openly discussing their job hunting efforts, even telling their supervisors that they are actively looking. And in the meantime, the middle managers are being raked over the coals even more than six mos. ago for being unable to stretch the staff w/o OT. It went from indecent to insane. Almost no one can do more than they are doing. There are always exceptions and areas where time is wasted, but 95 percent of us are doing all we can and much more. And the product continues to suffer. This is not whining. This is the death rattle. I feel like my head will explode because I cannot concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes because all I do is put out fires and try to rearrange the deck chairs as people leave. And for those who are already typing that I'm a whining lazy ass, it is Saturday. I am about to start working. I don't "work weekends'' but here I go. Tomorrow too. That would be fine if there were a future. I wish I could see one. I still love this business. I can't imagine spending this historic election night anywhere else. But I very well may be an ex-journalist by then. How very sad.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous@2:28 p.m. - it is sad, but not your fault. You are doing all you can and this is the inevitable result of all the cutbacks and strangling of resources. It's depressing, but just try to get through it as best you can.
ReplyDeleteI just flipped through the last week's worth of pages to see what I missed, and caught a little bit of the discussion from people wondering if they'd get OT working during the hurricanes. I must say, I'm completely appalled by the poster who says we shouldn't be thinking of OT when a hurricane is coming, because this is a "calling."
To that poster: what on Earth are you talking about? May I ask, who pays your rent, buys your food and gas, pays for your kids if you have any? Why shouldn't people be thinking about OT? I mean, yes, journalism for most if not all of us is more than just a day job. But why should anyone disregard their pay? That's so masochistic.
Yes, this "calling" often requires more than a 9 to 5 schedule, asks for a dedication that most jobs don't ask for. But it's not selfish to want to be fairly compensated for hard work. Especially since most of us aren't paid what we're worth to begin with.
DO NOT WORK PAST 5PM.
ReplyDeleteGannett has the reputation of burning out workers. It will not improve your job security no matter how late or how hard you work. I have seen it happen to many fellow employees, and it ruined their families. All of this because the Ad Director called them a TEAM PLAYER.
What a joke!!!!
I don't see you as whining, 2:28. It's the same at my paper. We all feel like Reagan in the "Exorcist." We work too many hours and go home too tired, and still have families to take care of, to have time to look for new jobs. We know we should, because we hear the layoffs will be even bigger just before Christmas, for tax reasons, but we care too much about not being embarrassed by the product we'd put out in only normal hours with breaks (lunch? We see only big bosses taking that break).
ReplyDeleteWhat if that's the design? I mean, the corporation remains profitable to the investors. Death rattle for us, yes, but I'm not convinced it isn't all by design to purge real journalists and make this a Rupert Murdoch, one-size-fits-all political propaganda tool designed to dumb down the society and keep people subservient to the corporate oligarchists.
Tin-foil, maybe, but you know the S&L scandal and the latest mortgage scandal didn't catch everyone off guard; the ones who profitted from it understood the inevitabilities all along.
Like all Directors they have zero original ideas. They want you to bring the new ideas to them. They know you will do it because you think your job security will improve. (FALSE)
ReplyDeleteOn top of all that BS they take credit for your idea or let another manager take credit for it.
Don't be fooled it happened to me and when I started going straight to the publisher instead of my Ad Director my AD threatened me.
Obviously they took credit for my idea not knowing I had been to my publisher first. LOL.
6:21, you make an excellent point re: profits despite knowing the inevitabilities.
ReplyDeleteListen closely, readers. Gannett is making a profit on our blood, sweat, and tears. Don't let them profit a minute longer on your backs.
OK 7:08 basic reality check. Other than the gov't and not-for-profits the whole point of employing someone is to make a profit. No profits no job. If you aren't contributing to the bottom line or if you are sabotaging the efforts why are you there? Things suck now but to whine about Gannett making a profit is stupid. No profits no 401k match, no profits no benefits, no profits , no pension, no profits no jobs. Profits are shrinking, there's nothing that can be done about that. If it's so horrible, take charge of your own life and go get something better.
ReplyDelete9:48, there's a difference between making a profit and blood money. Gannett is seeking unrealistic profits and making it sound like they're in the red. C'mon, do you really believe that 2 percent raises that don't keep up with the skyrocketing cost of benefits are fair when Dubow is getting a $1.75 million bonus in a year when the stock price fell nearly $50?
ReplyDeleteI don't begrudge them profits. This is America. But you have to remember the people who put those profits in your pockets and do more than tell them to be happy they have a job.
families?
ReplyDeleteI wish I still had one. They left because I worked too many hours.
I got laid off 6 months ago.
No family. No job. Saturday night reading the Gannett blog.
It all wasn't worth it. Like an addiction to a bad drug, I couldn't help it.
Say, my shift starts at 5 p.m. Since I shouldn't work past 5 p.m., can I just go home now and get paid?
ReplyDeleteYou know there comes a time when one has to quit complaining. It does not do one iota of good. I guess I haven't reached that point, but I have reached the point of reading a lot of posts and laughing.
7:45 AM
ReplyDeleteYup---go on home at 5 PM.
Don't complain. Just stop working uncompensated overtime. Every day, notify your supervisor in writing how many hours you have worked. Notify them again when you are down to about five hours of straight time left.
ReplyDeleteThen if they ask you to do more, ask if they are authorizing overtime to do it.
Do not sign fraudulent time cards. Turn in only honest, complete reports of the time you work, and keep copies.
If you are threatened or abused or chastized for doing that, call the Department of Labor immediately. (Forget HR. They're not on your side.)
Gannett has been pulling this scam for decades and the only way to make it stop is to stop doing it. They have no more right to demand free labor from you than they do to demand free ink or newsprint from other vendors.
You are selling your time to them, it's a business transaction. Stand up for yourself!