Saturday, December 20, 2008
Saturday | Dec. 20 | Your News & Comments
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34 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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I hope to take a blogging break this weekend; I'm feeling a little burned out.
ReplyDeleteWhy not band together against traditional newspapers and reorganize as a Huffington Post-Type local version in specific cities? The Huffington Post just got $25 million in Venture Capital to do exactly that. Even though the Huffington Post may be not be objective, where are all of the other startups raging against the machine?
ReplyDeleteAm I missing something?
This week's NEWSWATCH:
ReplyDeletePhil Currie leaves News Department as VP/News; A great choice who did a great job
By Phil Currie, Retired Senior Vice President/News
Let’s hear it for Phil Currie!
Bob Dickey, president of the U.S Community Publishing Division, announced this week that Phil Currie, senior vice president/news, resigned effective Dec. 15 as senior vice president/News for the division.
As Gannett folks know, Phil has been in his assignment here at corporate for far too long, coming from someplace in upstate New York where he won a measure of fame for reporting on the Attica prison break sometime in the last century.
Phil was a great choice for the job, and he did terrific work.
Phil established himself well from the corporate perspective in his position. He made numerous visits to Gannett news operations in the last 20 years. He helped significantly in shaping our renewed push on Information Center priorities. He has established excellent contacts across divisions at corporate and beyond. And he has had several appearances at various industry gatherings where he is recognized for his ground-breaking work and leadership.
As our message travels across multiple platforms, it was very important to have someone who had worked with all of those areas head up the team here. Even before the economy took its severe hits, it was clear that we needed to find more ways to reach more people effectively with content, while building revenues along the way.
Phil not only worked with some of those new methods, but he also pioneered them. For example, who could forget the News 2000 Pyramid? Or Mainstreaming and Diversity? Or Empowerment? Or the First Five Graphs? Or “Real News, Real People”? Or the seven-column layout? Or “Moments in Life”? Or Local, Local, Local? Not to mention the practice of moving publishers and editors around the country through a series of Podunk assignments that obliterated any local community connection between Gannett’s newspaper managers and the communities they were presumably to serve?
With that and other work at Gannett, Phil’s credentials were superb.
He won too many President’s Rings to count, and lots of other Gannett stuff, including a Big G travel bag, a Big G suit bag, a crystal News 2000 Pyramid, and several copies of Frank Gannett’s autobiography. He also continued to receive Christmas cards from Gary Watson after the latter’s retirement, a testament to the esteem with which Currie was regarded within Gannett.
It was a treat to watch him in action. Many Gannett journalists knew that already. Unfortunately, no more will experience it.
Godspeed, Phil.
In you, Gannett had an outstanding news leader.
1:08AM I posited this idea of a CO-OPERATIVE ORGANIZATION made up of all the laid-off journalists, I.T., ad design, and editors from Gannett, Tribune, Journal, GateHouse, etc.
ReplyDeleteI've been talking with recently laid off I.T. and Ad Design people to analyze the logistics of creating a forum that utilizes all the institutions knowledge and talents of all the newly idled people out there.
I am trying to get a roster of talent (by geographic location) to see if it's is feasible to put to get one main national website with a local targeting system utilizing zip codes and/or counties to target local stories.
anyone interested, please e-mail your function (journalist, I.T., Etc), any special knowledge, location (zip code, state), years of experience....NO NAMES YET.
e-mail:REGGIE H.
tammjenanalytics@live.com
how many other pressrooms are getting their hours changed on xmas and new years just so this company can save on overtime? In my pressroom they changed our hours from 10:15pm to 3:30pm. Just so they can save 6hrs of Dbl time. so does anyone have a similar tale?
ReplyDeleteJim, I think you've done a good thing this past week in exposing the 40K "gift" to Craig Dubow's favorite charity. He has asked us to sacrifice and he tells us that he is sacrificing in taking a pay cut. This "Gannett-to-Craig-to-charity" sleight of hand shows us all the intentions of Gannett. I am reminded of Leona Helmsley's "Only the little people pay taxes" comment, right before she went to jail on tax fraud. Although, like you say, there's nothing illegal in this "gift", it does smack of elitism and give "shared sacrifice" a new meaning. However, I never really believed Dubow was going to lose any money.
ReplyDeleteHO,HO,HO...LARRY ST. CYR to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteOn Donner, On Blitzen, On Larry...
I would like to take a poll. What would help the company more. Keeping Debow at $7,000,000 or getting rid of him and adding 140 $50,000 per year employees? I can't decide so please help me out.
ReplyDeleteArianna Huffington is the new Rupert Murdoch. She understood the meaning of the word "news" -- and that the public thirst for it never will be obsolete.
ReplyDeleteOn many issues that interested me, HuffPo reported the news before -- sometimes hours before -- the AP moved a word on it.
In the tribute to Phil, "Phil not only worked with some of those new methods, but he also pioneered them. For example, who could forget the News 2000 Pyramid? Or Mainstreaming and Diversity? Or Empowerment? Or the First Five Graphs? Or “Real News, Real People”? Or the seven-column layout? Or “Moments in Life”? Or Local, Local, Local?"
ReplyDeleteGROAN!
They all vexed me, every single one. including one left out "sense of place." Crackpot ideas that have not well served newspapering.
10:43 - Ha! "Sense of place" is a concept designed for new, clueless turd Gannett publishers sent to a new, unsuspecting Gannett town!
ReplyDeleteThese publishers do not care about this new town, nor the people, NOR the newspaper, really. Gannett has just shuffled this fool to the new site because he failed at the last site, leaving a devastated newspaper and probably community in his wake.
"Sense of place" means this guy has no idea what city and state he is in, and doesn't care.... he's just waiting to mocve on in a couple of years!
In reading the Currie message -
ReplyDeleteWhatta crock!
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I met the man several times and he impressed me a great deal - as a gannett idiot with no sense of what it is like to really work at a newspaper today.
Currie, Paulson, etc., they are all Neuharth yes men.
ReplyDeleteNothing they did added value to the news the readers were getting (or not getting).
Neuharth handed out his trinkets to those who bend over the longest. Al so loved that position in his henchmen. Remember the cake in the face at the 1 year anniversary of USA Today! He knew out to make them grovel and whimper.
Dubow is simply lining his pocket as the ship sinks. He'll have the only viable lifeboat for himself, since he's drilled holes in all the others.
Currie never added anything to my knowledge of journalism that I didn't learn in my first college news writing course.
I guess Regional Controllers don't get paid enough to pay their credit cards. The Regional Controller in Lansing try to pay is newspaper subscription and his credit card was declined. HOW EMBARASSING.
ReplyDeleteIs that 8-K that was filed yesterday something the board does routinely every year, or are the changes significant?
ReplyDelete10:43 and 10:58. You are spot on!Information center always vexed me. It's a newsroom, darnit. Everyone knows what that means; why change it?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, I remember the diversity program. I totally understood the concept and even made legitimate attempts.
ReplyDeleteThe problem was trying to do this at a newspaper that was seriously understaffed, ... at times barely capable of handling the daily headlines because of its available talent pool.
It didn't matter that so-and-so reporter actually did what was asked.
There weren't enough numbers on the board during designated audit times for the paper itself to pass muster, therefore EVERYONE including said reporter, who made efforts, got bad marks on evaluation?
Or, so that was the explanation.
Friday it was announced at The Home News Tribune that a reporter was leaving (on her own). The good news is that the paper is looking for a replacement, and not eliminating the position. Contact Paul Grzella if you want to work in the expensive NY-NJ market. A job opening. Can you believe it?
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://airamerica.com/blog/2008/dec/20/grittv-talks-john-macarthur-and-amy-goodman-are-newspapers-dead
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe likelihood that many of the funds you own or your 401(k) plan will go broke is still close to nil. Plan assets belong to participants, including money that employers have contributed via company matches, subject to vesting rules. A plan is a separate legal entity from the company that sponsors it; even if your company fails, you should suffer only market losses (which can, of course, be substantial).
ReplyDeleteThe above is part of an article on MSN
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn-how-to-invest/Could-your-401k-company-go-broke.aspx?gt1=33014#pageTopAnchor
In discussing sense-of-place narratives, don't forget boots-on-the-ground reporting, a key technique favored in real people-focused storytelling.
ReplyDeleteAll you have to do is go find some old-timers at the local watering hole or small eatery with a down-home atmosphere. They're always perfectly willing to share key insights on their community's past, present and future, and provide pithy, quotable insights. Plus eager to have their photos taken and be interviewed on video.
Just make sure whatever you bring back reflects the editor's preconceived notions of what the story should be and what people are saying! Oh, and do it on deadline without racking up any OT.
1:12PM Contact Paul Grzella!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat that dude is, but he is a great image of Gannett. If you take the job after interviewing with that one you deserve all the crap you get. Bridgewater-- been there, done that!
In most small businesses the person who sacrifices the most in the beginning is the person at the top. In corporate America it's the opposite. They lose their hunger. Fat cats don't chase rats.
ReplyDeleteAll of the top execs in the newspaper business (or any business that is failing) should voluntarily cut their pay.
If they believe in what they can create in the future, they should only be paid with stock options.
This happens in every business. As they grow, they lose the hunger that they started with.
Why not just blow up the legacy and start from scratch? With hunger this time.
great clawing and backstabbing was reported elsewhere as the layoffs neared.
ReplyDeletein indy, i didn't see that. the company didn't comply with the contract in the layoffs, dumping people seemingly at random, and the guild is taking legal action.
but the holiday spirit is alive and well in indy, where 30 guild members donated the supermarket gift cards they received from the union to be given to fellow members laid off from the newsroom. no, it's not a fortune, but it's nice to know that people care.
meanwhile, movie critic chris lloyd, among those the star dumped, is reviewing movies online at
http://captaincritic.blogspot.com.
(chris, if you read this, i sincerely suggest you follow jim's example and accept subscriptions.
i always found your reviews a better guide than ebert's as to whether i'd like a movie, and i'd gladly send you a check.)
Uh, guys, the NEWSWATCH item on Phil Currie is a parody of Currie's announcement of Kate Marymount taking over (subbing Phil's name at every instance). This week's NEWSWATCH had no mention of retiring Phil (so soon forgotten by all of his corporate pals), so I decided he needed a tribute of his own. Apparently, no one is left at corporate who is capable of writing a NEWSWATCH tribue.
ReplyDeleteJim, Could you set up a comment's section like you did listing the 80 paper's and the number of layoffs they had,but in place of the numbered laid off,let's see what papers gave bonus's or christmas cards or gift's or anything !!!! thanks
ReplyDeleteDO SOMETHING POSITIVE FOR YOURSELF
ReplyDelete"Psychology Today" article on changing jobs/careers --
http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20040514-000005.html
You can wallow in dark-hatred for VICIOUS GANNETTOID MIDGETS. I've been there.
Or you can change your life. I did. And you can, too.
(Psych joke: How many psychologists does it take to change a light-bulb? Only one -- but the light-bulb has to really want to change.)
Wasn't easy. More classes. More reading. Starting over.
But it can be done. Besides -- what's the alternative -- hating midgets?
Your choice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
ReplyDeleteAnd?
Let's be better than the average Gannett monopoly paper.
I'd like to see if Gannett/USAT really handed over the Christmas party fund to the Gannett Midwestern employee relief fund or if they just lied and kept the cash. Everytime I am in the Daily Item (store in HQ) it never appears as if any picks up the collection box. It always looks the same.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't surprise me if these clowns are lying about that as well...
That kind of funny about the Lansing Controller. Probably needs to move to Corporate Finance so he can pay his bills.
ReplyDelete"Sense of Place," my foot. It's almost as if sometimes they wanted you to create a story that was totally not there.
ReplyDeleteOur EE, who was totally not from the area, came up with some of the stupidest ideas that ended no further than the floor.
Whoever came up with that one size fits all, for every Gannett paper, just did not have a clue.
From the website to the kinds of stories, it was one size fit all. It didn't matter if the paper was in a huge metropolis or in a little hamlet.
Indeed, HuffPost is Internet gold.