Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday | Dec. 11 | Got news, or a question?
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49 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 Win!
ReplyDeleteAnd YOU are the prize!
ReplyDeleteAt least i won something?
ReplyDeleteWe'll be in touch.
ReplyDelete7:12pm Wednesday: Way-Off, Not even close! Think, Think, Think
ReplyDeleteGannett stated that 2009 will be worse than 2008 ? Wow that's showing confidence in your product.
ReplyDeleteGet a room, guys. :)
ReplyDeleteYesterday a poster questioned AFL Printing taking over New Jersey Print operations. This could easily be accomplished by GANNETT leasing the Freehold Plant to AFL. Sort of a financial invasion of the body snatchers.
ReplyDeleteWhile this NY Times article is not about Gannett, it does illustrate why Gannett's business model is in such trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe old model was delivering mass audiences to mass advertisers for mass money.
The new model has mass merchandisers figuring out how to send messages directly to consumers most likely to buy products.
Incidentally, researchers are figuring out how to specifically tailor ads so the color and typeface appeals to particular computer users. The creative content of the ad will have little to do with spurring the purchase.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html?hp
Trying to keep the old business model where tons of ad reps supported tons of reporters, editors, photographers and stockholders is like trying to keep buggy whip manufacturers alive.
A little bit of optimism for our changing industry. This is good news! http://bit.ly/x8yR
ReplyDeleteJim, something has been bugging me for a couple of weeks since you wrote something indicating USAT has 2,000 employees. Really? I count 400 in the newsroom operations, and I cannot believe there are 1600 others. You have any documentation/explanation for this nbr?
ReplyDeleteHow to keep your business(es) afloat in a rough economy:
ReplyDeleteNotice the Digital Editor here: http://tinyurl.com/6l7t5b
Notice the Pet Photos with Santa Contest here: http://tinyurl.com/6pm8g2
Check out the photographer for the photo contest shots: http://tinyurl.com/5py3yc
Pay attention to the prize: A photo shoot with the Hungry Hound's Photo Studio.
Notice Paragraph 7 in this story about the Brother in Law who isn't listed by name in this story, or in the Pet Photo Contest Prize. Cached copy from google: http://tinyurl.com/63xwsa
Notice the Hungry Hound's Photo Studio page which lists the Studio Photographer as who? The owner's Brother-in-Law/Digital Editor of the Courier News and Home News Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/5kx4lt
While this current contest is for a good cause and raises some money for local shelters, there was one over the summer 2008 that was simply a UCG clickfarm to drive traffic to MyCentralJersey and promote the Hungry Hound.
How can this not be a conflict of interest or some kind of ethical hiccup? It appears the Digital Editor is using his position to promote his sister-in-law and his side business.
Last week's free mailer, the Community Courier, had the story promoting the contest on A1, A 1/4 page Hungry Hound ad on A4 (which touts itself as "Barkery, Boutique, and "Pet Photo Studio.") and a 1/4 page house ad about the contest on A8. I don't know if he is a partner, contractor, or just an employee of the Hungry Hound, but he certainly is the Studio Photographer there and a masthead figure of the Courier-News, Home News Tribune and MyCentralNewJersey.com.
Shouldn't there at least be an up-front clearly defined disclosure about the relationship of Loren Fisher to both businesses? Even if it is all on the level--isn't there the appearance of undue influence, lack of arm's length relationship, or something a little fishy here?
It all just seems like a way for a guy on the masthead to drum up business for himself and his self-interests--both at MyCentralJersey.com and at the Hungry Hound.
It appears he is using his position at the newspaper to bolster his side business while also driving traffic for the newspaper's website. I've seen 2 photo contests in the last 6 months where the prize was a shoot at the Hungry Hound. I don't recall seeing any other pet shops being so prominently promoted/featured/partnered in the same timeframe.
Furthermore the local big-box store had been promoting an in-store pet shots with Santa for charity, on the same day (12/6) as this "sponsored" shoot: and I have not seen it in the online front page news spots at all (or anywhere on the site for that matter!). But today, there's a ticker item about a cat attacking a Santa at a big-box store: http://tinyurl.com/5q66bp But search Petco and PetSmart and this is the only current news. Negative news.
By the way, the local Petco is doing another Pet's Photos with Santa fundraiser on 12/17--think it'll be mentioned? Never mind. A pet photographer at these shops would be competing with the current Mycentraljersey contest, and sponsor's photo studio, wouldn't it?
Beware: articles have a tendency to disappear from MyCentralNewJersey.com. A link that works today won't point to the same story tomorrow--it'll point to a 404. But the impermananence of web-based reportage is another issue.
We are so NOT alone in our misery:
ReplyDeleteBy Chris Kaltenbach
December 11, 2008
National Public Radio announced yesterday that it is canceling two programs and eliminating 64 jobs, blaming a "sharp" decline in corporate underwriting and other revenues.
The move, part of an overall 7 percent work force reduction, comes as NPR's radio and Web audience has been growing. About 26.4 million people are listening to the NPR programs every week, while its Web site, npr.org, is getting 8 million visitors a month.
9:30 am: I think I wrote -- should have written -- that USA Today has between 1,500 and 2,000 employees. And that is a rough estimate, based on figures given to me when I worked at the paper.
ReplyDeletePeople mentioned in day's past about how decisions about who was laid off were made for personal reasons (e.g. managers not liking them).
ReplyDeleteThey were shocked, SHOCKED that decisions would be based on personal feelings.
Why?
Look around and I'll bet you'll see that most promotions were made for the same reasons, not because of professional credentials.
Some years ago during a performance review my manager took me to task for not being a "team player."
I pointed to any number of times when I would offer to and did help my co-workers when they were under the gun or running into a wall.
Her reply: "Well, yes, but you never join us for a weekend outing when we ask you."
That was her criteria for giving promotions and raises -- that you joined the group when they got together to paint each other's house or would go on shopping trips.
As much as I protested, the verdict stayed. So I put in my response the circumstances.
After she ws gone I came up for another review and the new manager complimented me on my change of attitude because, as far as he could see, I was a major team player. When we started talking about it, I discovered that my reply mysteriously never made it into my official file, the previous manager apparently "lost" it.
Which added evidence to my theory that the problem with a lot of businesses today is "social promotion" not "merit promotions."
And the country is paying a heavy price for it.
Gannett property Planet Discover has let go 8 people between the Cedar Rapids IA and Ft Mitchell KY offices today. Company meeting at 2pm.
ReplyDeleteFormer DM Register cartoonist Brian Duffy gets in a parting shot at Gannett in Des Moines Cityview.
ReplyDeleteScroll down midway through the December 10 entry on retired Register sportswriter Ron Maly's blog for more.
http://www.wesleyvaclav.blogspot.com/
7:18 thank you someone who at least can see the possibilities. didn't our former owners spend a fortune in a building, pressline and equipment only to sell shortly after. so gannett spending money should not be taken as a sign of their commitment to running Freehold. A lease or a JOA could still be in the works
ReplyDeleteGearing up for Metromix Friday - always the best day of the work week in GannettLand.
ReplyDeleteUSAT employment numbers have to include the business, advertising and circulation staff not at the crystal palace.. out in the field.
ReplyDeleteGANNETT CO INC
ReplyDeleteGCI | 12/10/2008 3:15:32 PM
Dec 10, 2008 (BAYSTREET NEWSWIRE via COMTEX News Network) --
Tom Reese/Paul Rubillo, Dividend.com
Gannett Co. (GCI) just announced that full-year sales would fall about 8 percent, which is largely in line with analyst expectations.
The company is expecting revenue of $6.8 billion, down from $7.4 billion last year, but basically in-line with Wall Street consensus for sales of $6.86 billion. Management sees a tough first quarter for 2009, compared with the year-ago quarter, before the recession began to take a toll on the advertising market.
The Bottom Line
We have avoided shares of GCI since our early June coverage began, when shares were trading at $27.75. The company is currently sporting an in-all-likelihood unsustainable 18.26% dividend yield, based on last night's closing stock price of $8.76. We do not see a catalyst that will quickly turn momentum around, so we would avoid the shares here.
Gannett (GCI) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars.
It's down nearly 80% with little to no chance of increasing revenue in 2009 and they still give it three stars?
http://www.stockhouse.com/News/USReleasesDetail.aspx?n=7152305
Here is the the cartoon Brian Duffy did for a rival local free tabloid newspaper:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eandppub.com/2008/12/laid-off-cartoo.html
Here's the latest from Lafayette, La. The publisher just had a staff meeting and said that everyone that was being laid off has been notified as of this morning. The numbers previously given by depsrtment still seem right. We wish all of those laid off the best... You are in our thoughts!
ReplyDeleteGannett is tanking right now---already down 1.01 and sinking fast !
ReplyDeleteTo those of you posting on this blog who still have a job at your newspaper, please don't try to understand what it's like to get ousted. Just thank those of us who made up the 10% budget cuts for saving your jobs---for now.
ReplyDeleteGet ready for the next leg down for GCI stock....just look at the chart....new target between 3 to 4 dollars.
ReplyDeleteDes Moines Cityview's full editorial comment on the Des Moines Register layoffs and Duffy is at the bottom of the letters column at http://www.dmcityview.com/letters.shtml
ReplyDelete"We continue to be saddened by a kinder and gentler Des Moines Register with more fluff and less facts, focusing on gingerbread cookies rather than political hot potatoes. But we are most saddened that Iowa no longer has a daily newspaper it depends on."
The economy is poised for a miserable year in 2009 with many more layoffs in almost all business sectors. If you are still working at Gannett I would become a team player with a positive attitude. Now is not the time time to be cynical. There will be 4 million workers out a job next year and anyone of us can easily be replaced. Be VERY THANKFUL you still have a job, regardless how you feel about the company you work for. I have no doubt that the majority of laid off workers bashing Gannett would take their job back in heart beat. I'll bet their attitude would be different too. And no I do not work at corporate.
ReplyDelete3:09 There are ass-kissers everywhere. If you think that people should lie down and take the brunt of idiotic decisions without complaining, you need a job as a carpet in a carpet store. I, for one, am not willing to be walked all over. We have a right to bitch and complain about what is happening to this company, which we built up with our own hands and effort. Silly management decisions are now destroying what other generations left. Speak up and tell management what idiots they are, and don't just cash your paycheck in resentful silence.
ReplyDeleteNow is the time to be more cynical and less complacent. Do something for yourself. The company isn't going to do it for you. They continue to demonstrate that with their actions, not their words.
ReplyDeleteCNY was promised layoffs the first week of December. Those that survived thought they were safe this time.
ReplyDeleteWednesday the 10th, an artist was handed his hat anyway. He had been sick the Wednesday before, missed the layoffs, worked Thursday and Friday, and then was laid off a week later.
Merry Christmas, JC. Right?
A poster asked a question about how a Virtual News Gropup Co-Op would work. I've been trying to put a few rought organizational, logistical and financial flow-charts together.
ReplyDeleteEssentially, it would be a national/local news-site (accessible) for a nominal fee say $2.99 Per Month(like I.B.D., W.S.J. or the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette).
Former Gannett, Tribune etc journalists would write stories in their area of specialty -either on a national, state-wide or local subject). Readers (AND NEWSPAPER COMPANIES) could customize their website access to their ZIP CODE REGION. The Co-Op (tentative name INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS' FORUM) would SELL stories, other content, data streams to the newspaper compaines (like A.P. does). individuals could also subscribe.
I.T. people would have to design the web-site so people could not lift by copying the stories.
Members of the "Forum" would own small shares (I haven't figured this out); journalists would retain copyrights on their work and would be paid as independent contractor's. I don't know how to structure the editor's function (I'm just blue-collar).
The Co-op would also have "Affiliate Links" to other webistes as revenue generators. (To boost revenue we may have to have a Cincy Mom B.J. sister site...LOL). I'm going to set up an e-mail so some of you out their can contact me.
Perhaps, all the Gannett/Tribune "Discarded Trash" could ultimately buy pieces -AT 5-to-20 Cents on the Dollar- of Gannett & Tribune as they frantically de-contruct themselves in this devastating economy and collapse like dying stars into ghosts of their former glory.
Sorry about the feel flowing thoughts here...like I said this is an idea that is geling in my mind.
Reggie H.
Looks like about 50 USAT people got cut from the circulation offices today.
ReplyDeleteLooks like about 50 USAT people got cut from the circulation offices today.
ReplyDelete12/11/2008 4:10 PM
______________________
Well where's the big advance notice on this breaking news story? Nothing on it until 4:10 this afternoon. Two hours later and still nothing. What's up with that? I heard even more in other parts of USAT as well.
Let's get on this news!
7:18, 12:16
ReplyDeletesince press improvements come out of a capital account, directly from corporate. Those plans had to be approved at least last year, they may be totally out of line with today's situation. It's a left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing sort of thing. The money is never given back. It's spent even if the plan no longer makes sense. Look at Bridgewater's 48" cutdown. That money just ended up in a dumpster.
Leasing Freehold to AFL makes complete sense. If the bullies haven't thought about it before, they're drooling over the idea now.
6:04, if you know so much, why don't you post it?
ReplyDeleteDear 3:09, You know sh*t about us laid off workers' additudes. Working long hours, even pulling all nighters, to get the paper out and web site uodated while understaffed did not save our sorry a**es. Myself and all the ones I know worked hard for our money and hard for the company. That was not the issue. Company expenses vs. revenues were. Would I take my job back? You betcha! Would I work just as hard. You betcha! Would I still be skeptical? You betcha! - That's what they pay us for.
ReplyDeleteNow excuse while I go upload more resumes.
@6:50- They've been drooling over the idea for a while now. I heard about it long before I read it here and long before I learned about this blog.
ReplyDeleteAny updates on the status of GNS (staffing and fate) and Tara's possible new role?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHey Jim, why don't you check on the number of shares owned by Dubow and Martore. Assuming the dividend remains on target, how much will those two rake in because of that dividend? I bet $20 -- sorry, it's all I can afford -- that Dubow's income from the dividend on shares owned exceeds his puny $200,000 pay cut. Martore can't be far behind.
ReplyDeleteAll on the backs of their fellow employees, and at the expense of the company's future.
Damn, those two got one sweet gig...
I just removed a comment that included references to individuals possibly being fired -- a pejorative.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this comment from Gannett... How will this change how content is gathered? Who will be gathering this content? What type of content are they talking about, and what does it mean???
ReplyDeleteToday, it announced its new ContentOne initiative, which, according to Dubow, will "upend the traditional thinking about content in our industry, both in how we gather it and how we sell it." He described the venture as a system for content development, sharing, and information gathering, which is meant to eliminate content redundancies across properties in order to better focus on deep local content.
Hey 9:40am - did you send that information to the publisher? you should. he should have something interesting to say about that. so far i respect the guy...so far.
ReplyDeleteSkip is aware of it.
ReplyDelete3:09. You are wrong. I won't take my job back at Gannett. The newsroom I worked in was a hell hole. The managers were unprofessional. If you didn't kiss ass, you were considered a problem child. I wasn't kissing nobody's behind.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I was relieved when I was called in to get my walking papers.
It's never good when anyone loses a job, especially in these difficult economic times, but I left there feeling like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I know I needed to get out, but I stayed for fear of the unknown.
I still don't know what my future holds, but I wake up every morning now feeling great that I don't have to go into that office.
What type of content are they talking about, and what does it mean???
ReplyDelete12:07 - I think that means "any shit that we can get for cut-rate prices and throw up there in the hope people might look at it."
So, 3:09, I'm supposed to put up and enjoy the dysfunction and abusive behavior in my shop, because I should be grateful I have a job there?
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what these people are counting on?
What if I'm in an environment where backstabbing is prevalent? What about verbal abuse and open derision of coworkers? Should I or anyone else have to put up with that because of the economy?
Only if you want to get paid, 10:21.
ReplyDeleteSlavery was outlawed years ago, so if you don't like the backstabbing, abuse and dysfunction - you're free to leave.
The rest of us are happy to feed our families and work to fix the bad atmosphere. And if we can't, we swallow our pride, morals and anything else and try to keep on moving forward.