I can't wait to see my byline in print again, because you can't get more local-local than this! (Click on image for more readable view.)
Monday, December 15, 2008
Asheville: I'm reporting for a Gannett paper again!
I just wrote a story for the Asheville Citizen-Times, using the North Carolina newspaper's "get published" offer, which says: "Share everything with us! We want to hear what you have to say or see what you see! Start submitting now and see your content published on CITIZEN-TIMES.com."
I can't wait to see my byline in print again, because you can't get more local-local than this! (Click on image for more readable view.)
I can't wait to see my byline in print again, because you can't get more local-local than this! (Click on image for more readable view.)
20 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)
Nice job Jim. One question, is there really a Transylvania County in NC? Halloween must be a blast. Will they have the balls to publish it?
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a Transylvania county in NC. No, they won't publish or even investigate it. They would be on the short list for next lay off.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Jim...You could probably start your own blog on the paper's site as well. You just don't get the revenue there like here.
ReplyDeleteAwww, Jimbo - forget Asheville, come on back to the 'Ville. For free, that is.
ReplyDeleteAhhh Jim - assuming you actually submitted this, didn't you just lie by putting in that you were from Buncombe county?
ReplyDeleteSo much for your ethics and honest journalism.
If the paper didn't provide a place to put in San Francisco, then they didn't want someone from there to get published.
8:20 pm: I understand your point, but:
ReplyDelete1. I didn't say that I'm "from" Buncombe County. The form asks me only to indicate "city." It doesn't say city where I live, however. So, I wrote "Asheville,'' because that's the city where this news is taking place.
2. The form asks me to indicate "your neighborhood,'' without being more specific. Once more, I choose the "neighborhood" where the news takes place. (In any case, since when is a county a neighborhood?)
Having said all that, there is no way in hell that the Citizen-Times is going to publish anything by a writer who fully identifies himself as Jim Hopkins with an e-mail address of gannettblog@gmail -- which I did.
Indeed, 8:20 pm, on closer inspection, where the form asks for "neighborhood," it includes this guidance: "Select the neighborhood with which your article is best associated."
ReplyDeleteAs I said earlier: Not where I live, but where the news takes place.
We will in the Ville, Jim! Give us a shot. The dopes ruining - err, running - the site won't notice.
ReplyDeleteJim, you shit disturber. And I mean that in the nicest way :)
ReplyDelete"So much for your ethics and honest journalism."
ReplyDeleteGeez, what a wet blanket.
Does it matter that Dubow owns a house in Cashiers...in Jackson County?
ReplyDelete9:45 pm: I would be shocked -- SHOCKED! -- if that were true! ;)
ReplyDeleteGood luck, but I seriously doubt your comments will see the light of day in Asheville. Remember, this is the newspaper that blocked comments on its published announcement that it was closing its own press plant (60 people laid off) and moving its printing to Greenville, SC, 60 miles away, effective Jan. 4. It's also the newspaper that has not published a single comment or letter to the editor from readers regarding the plant closing, or the 16 subsequent layoffs in its business office operations, or the positions eliminated in September. It did, however, publish Dec. 15 a local front story on the "retirement" of the editorial page editor, and her replacement, which comes from within the edit page staff, thereby reducing that staff to 2 people responsible for 13-1/2 pages of commentary a week. Meanwhile, the typos continue to pile up like firewood for the winter.
ReplyDeleteHere, of course, is the problem for any paper that has a double standard: If it edits out bad news about itself, why shouldn't every other business in Asheville get to control what it deems is good/bad news?
ReplyDeleteAnd let me add right away: I know the pressures from McLean on publishers and on editors in situations like this. Randy Hammer might be OK with reporting warts-and-all Gannett news -- but not if Bob Dickey's going to jump all over him. It starts at the top.
ReplyDeleteDon't expect any comment from the Citizen-Times on this or any other Gannett topic.
ReplyDeleteHammer has written exactly one "message to readers" in the past year. When he took over as publisher last January or February, replacing the axed Jeff Green, who left "to pursue other interests," Hammer wrote a signed column reversing all of the GCI-mandated section changes that resulted in an all-local A section and elimination of the "Mountains" local second section (among other ill-conceived and poorly received changes.
Hammer's second move was to fire the executive editor who, ironically, had implemented the Tower-mandated changes. The EE wrote a weekly column addressing newspaper issues and responding to readers. Her replacement has not continued the column. In fact, he has never had a published conversation with readers and is the most invisible EE in the newspaper's history.
When Gannett took over the Citizen-Times in 1996, its circulation was 65,000 daily and 80,000 Sunday. Now it is closer to 50M and 65M Sunday.
Its profit margin was 35 to 37 percent.
You can't blame the Citizen-Times' decline on the internet, or the economy.
This region, with its conservative reader base and high percentage of retirees (Definition: Traditional newspaper readers), is prime real estate for the success of a traditional newspaper.
Unfortunately, Gannett knew more about publishing in Asheville than 125 years of predecessors, and its hubris is evident.
Jim, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned in the other posts about Dubow or its relevance, but the Dubows own and likely still do own a house in Cashiers. Cashiers is in the same county as Western Carolina U. I worked for the AC-T and it was well known (before Hammer) when Dubow might make an appearance because he was slumming it at his mountain retreat.
ReplyDelete7:48, I think your comment about the blame for the decline of papers Gannett bought is true elsewhere, too -- certainly in Asbury Park, NJ, and in Indianapolis. Both had growing products when Gannett bought them. Reader complaints spiraled consistently and exponentially since Gannett's culture began.
ReplyDeleteSome of the failures are insidious. Gannett can say "local local" all they want, but Gannett management doesn't practice listening to local people to satisfy their needs as advertisers or as news readers.
I like the use of exclamation points in your brief article; seemed to copy their style.
ReplyDeleteAsheville is such a sad situation.
ReplyDelete7:48 hit a lot of nails on the head.
What a beautiful place and was such a vibrant paper until Gannett destroyed it in the space of 10 years.
It should be dissected and analyzed by future students as an example of all the wrong business practices.
Poor leadership for many years, corporate oversight meddling, circulation mis-stated, lack of institutional control, shady accounting, you name it has happened in Asheville.
Please sell it, close it, let the people of Asheville start a new product. Go away Gannett.