Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday | Jan. 12 | Got news, or a question?
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51 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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Hi!
ReplyDeleteInteresting article from the Nieman Foudation for journalism at Harvard
ReplyDelete"The best approach for battle-weary media executives may be to let the fire run its course—however counterintuitive that might seem. That’s partly because there is little the newspaper industry can do to stop the advancing flames.
But it’s also because today’s obsession with saving newspapers has meant that, for the most part, media companies have failed to plan adequately for tomorrow’s digital future. The economic downturn has added to the urgent need for a change of direction."
Full article:
http://nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100669
Hello JIm!
ReplyDeleteI saw a post recently about Gannett freelancers and I'd like to hear from others who freelance. At my G paper, recently, some long-standing columns have been cut from the newspaper. Money for freelancer photos has been cut. I suspect more pay cuts are coming. But freelancers provide the bulk of copy for magazines, which I think are doing pretty good moneywise and adwise. What's the story at other papers? Anyone else seeing their freelance budget cut?
Question on Homescape/Homefinder yesterday; this came out mid-December from Gannett Digital Ventures to ad execs...
ReplyDelete"We’re pleased to announce the launch of a new online real estate brand—HomeFinder.com, which will replace the existing Homescape brand effective January 7, 2009..."
1:10 AM, exactly the same thing is happening at my paper.
ReplyDelete@ 1:10 AM; You need to read the trades. Magazines are in no way "doing pretty good moneywise and adwise."
ReplyDeleteMagazines are not in quite the same mess that newspapers are in, because they haven't been reliant on the evaporating base of classified advertising; typically don't have all the editorial, production and distribution overhead; and, they're used to more market-focused product development. But, titles are still folding almost weekly, staffing is being cut -- including salespeople -- and books are getting much thinner.
So, we're having 12 to 23 percent layoffs, losing most publishers, closing more presses, hacking out features depts, shrinking the web, rolling out involuntary furloughs, perhaps dropping days of the week altogether, backing away from "local, local'' and charging more for the paper. I know when that bill lands in my mail as we roll into the most challenging year since 1945, I would DEFINITELY resubscribe.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard anything about Elmira, Ithaca and Binghamton NY merging into one regional paper with just one masthead?
ReplyDeleteThe Obama inauguration site is symptomatic of what's wrong with the Gannett News Dept. and the company as a whole.
ReplyDeleteLocal readers in Podunkville will get all the inauguration coverage they can stand from the other media.
Devoting so much time, energy and resources to this shows how out of touch Kate and the others really are.
People want to know what's going on in their local schools or why their streets aren't plowed. Again, this company demonstrates exactly why it's in the shape it's in.
Happy New Year!
As part of the latest blood bath they have canned the publisher in Hattiesburg, Judith Haik. Wasn't she a big award winner for holding the paper together for weeks after the hurricane?
ReplyDeleteHow will more cuts help? If we are in the red as a corporation, I get it. If we need to shut a few papers or do things like Detroit because of their challenges, I get it.
ReplyDeleteAre we going to cut our way to prosperity? Not if we keep harming revenue producing areas.
We haven't spent enough money on customer service. It was once said that a loyal 7-day subscriber is worth about 10K or more. How much are they worth if they are a 40-year subscriber with 10 years to go? What are we doing to assure they get top-notch service.
Proposed: A golden membership club for seniors who have read the paper for 25 years or more. They get to call the local newspaper and get their personal service assistant.
Proposed: A golden membership for online members who have posted 1000 messages to a local site. They get $5 iTune gift cards for every 1000 posts.
Where are the success stories on customer service? Hint: REWARD CUSTOMERS.
Certainly, a company like ours has trend reports and can identify areas where customer service is higher than year 2000. Please tell Wall Street about our customer success stories, so we all can know.
After leaving the company I cancelled my subscription. I though I would miss it. I was one of those that always read the paper 1st thing with breakfast.
ReplyDeleteSomething funny happened. I do not miss anything by not reading a daily. In fact I think I am more informed thru other media. I cannot believe that I wasted so much all those year reading the dribble that was printed.
The future of photography at Gannett newspapers?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.whattheduck.net/
I so agree with 9:00.
ReplyDeleteThe only way papers will survive is to dump national, international and go
LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL!!!
I so agree with 9:00.
ReplyDeleteThe only way papers will survive is to dump national, international and go
LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL!!!
From 1:10 a.m.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't talking about all magazines - just the mags that G papers produce. Totally different. The G paper in my city puts out a few and some regular supplement-things. Yes a few are smaller, but compared to the newspaper, they are swimming in ads.
I still get home delivery 7-days. Although the news is old, stale and really boring, we like to see the few ads that are left. These are retail ads that you cannot see anywhere else because those advertisers cannot afford TV or radio so they go on the cheap and get what they can. Once the ads diminish (even more) we'll probably halt home delivery.
ReplyDelete1:10: I'm a long-time freelancer at a Gannett paper and feel like I'm hanging on by a thread. I hope to continue to write for this paper, but I'm not confident that they'll keep me on. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm training for another career...
ReplyDeleteRegarding the health of magazines, Time killed Cottage Living magazine recently [my subscription doesn't run out until 2010. They're substituting Southern Living for my unused subscription. Also, Meredith will stop publishing Country Home in March. However, I received a "get two years for the price of one" promotion for the magazine in the mail on Friday.
ReplyDeleteNo layoffs or unpaid vacations ... no magazine, period.
BREAKING FROM DETROIT:
ReplyDeleteAll-
As has been announced previously, we will be reducing payroll expenses as we implement our new business plan. Staff reductions will affect both union and non-bargaining employees.
Negotiations will begin this week with the unions to bargain the impact on union employees.
Non-bargaining employees whose jobs are eliminated will receive severance of 2 weeks’ pay for each completed year of service, up to a maximum of 26 weeks.
If any full-time, non-bargaining employee of the Detroit Media Partnership would like to be voluntarily considered for the same severance, you may submit your name to Shirley Robinson in Human Resources no later than Friday, Jan. 16.
We must work to preserve our operational strength as we go forward with this process, so we cannot guarantee that everyone who volunteers will be accepted.
We will inform all volunteers as to whether or not their application has been accepted by Jan. 23. We will also provide departure dates at that same time.
Thank you.
Kristi B. Bowden
Vice President, Human Resources
Detroit Media Partnership
Michigan's Information Leader
o: 313-222-2061
f: 313-222-5426
kbowden@dnps.com
Jim,
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen this up yet, so thought I would bring it to your attention...
The Des Moines Register has a big "story" in their business section, spinning PR for the paper. It's kind of funny that, as a journalist, we're trained to cut through the corporate spin and public relations jargon we encounter, but then the newspaper goes off and delivers the exact same kind of drivel to their readers. Hey, if it benefits your own organization, who cares?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090112/BUSINESS/901120325
My favorite part is when Hollinsworth says she is "intrigued" by what's happening in Detroit. Hmmm.
Keep up the awesome work.
Don't you think the DM Register article is a response to the business editor jumping Hollingsworth that she granted an "exclusive" interview to the Iowa Independent and said very little to her own business staff explaining layoffs and changes in the newspaper?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the Iowa Independent story didn't come out like she wanted so she asked the business editor to write a "do over?"
Read the comments, people in that community have had total buy-in for the Register and they're as upset as the newsies about what is happening. They don't like being helpless to change things, either.
Corporate newspapering is not well serving this newspaper.
Did that reporter write that with a straight face? wtf?
ReplyDelete1:46 pm: I vote for this one: "Or maybe the Iowa Independent story didn't come out like she wanted so she asked the business editor to write a "do over?"
ReplyDeleteLynn Hicks is the Register Business Editor, I think.
ReplyDeleteThe Des Moines Register reporter could only find 2007 Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers that showed a decline of just 1.3 percent? Some digging. Why couldn't the reporter find the same study quoted here by Jim on Oct. 29, 2008, on a study by the Deutsche Bank of Audit Bureau of Circulation Numbers for the six months ending Sept. 30, 2008:
ReplyDelete"The Des Moines Register: 135,756, down 3.9% from 141,330 on Sept. 30, 2007. Sunday: 219,745, down 4.4% from 229,757."
Hearst Corp. put Seattle's oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, up for sale on Friday and said that if it can't find a buyer in the next 60 days the paper would likely close or continue to exist only online.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't being addressed anywhere on this blog how Gannett's indentured newspapers and TV stations are drained of a certain percentage of their operating income by corporate. Is there a standard percentage? How has it changed, if at all, in the past two years? Unlike independent papers/stations, few that they are, Gannett properties struggle in part because they have to subsidize the overhead of Dubow and his legion of strategery-izers and bean counters. That money would be better invested in staffing, web development, marketing, etc. at the local level. With so many chains tanking, it's time for Gannett to sell papers/stations and pay off its heavy debt.
ReplyDeleteWell, duh, 2:20 PM
ReplyDeleteOf course it would.
Never has. Never will be.
All Gannett newspapers will get to keep is LESS than budget, which means they'll rework their budgets to fit the revenue retained ... or else.
Gannett newspapers are not there for the betterment of the community any longer. They are not there for the benefit of the employees, editors or publishers.
ReplyDeleteThey are a revenue conduit.
They exist only to generate money for the corporation and the stockholders.
Forget your romantic notions of the press being the crusader for good. It is all about money money money.
Hey...my last three posts haven't appeared. What's up? They haven't been rude
ReplyDelete@3:19 - you are an idiot. The economy of scale has long ago made a huge difference in terms of costs for local newspapers and tv stations. I know you don't want to see this but if individual papers had to purchase and run the same set of services without the pricing advantage of gannett, they would be in much worse shape now than they are...
ReplyDeleteLots of changes in Honolulu.
ReplyDeleteAt least the Advertiser has a valid reason for ending the TV pullout: Hawaii TV stations go all-digital this week, a month ahead of the US mainland.
Why don't newspapers toot their horn more about being profitable? If the stock market price is so geared toward rumor and speculation, that might up the price. Instead, they act very secretive about profit margins, which IMHO are set too high.
ReplyDeleteNews from a former Gannetteer:
ReplyDeleteFormer Gannett President and Publisher Mary Stier Launches Mary Stier Connects
Mary Stier, former president and publisher of The Des Moines Register and senior group president of Gannett Co., Inc.'s Midwest and Sun Coast Newspaper Groups, announced today that she has launched her new consulting/speaking firm, Mary Stier Connects (http://www.MaryStierConnects.com) a division of the Brilliance Group.
Des Moines, Iowa (PRWEB) January 12, 2009 -- Mary Stier, former president and publisher of The Des Moines Register and senior group president of Gannett Co., Inc.'s Midwest and Sun Coast Newspaper Groups, announced today that she has launched her new consulting/speaking firm, Mary Stier Connects, (http://www.MaryStierConnects.com) a division of the Brilliance Group.
Stier will offer team/company wide workshops, individual coaching and public speaking sessions on:
* Leading in Turbulent Times
* 5 Trends for the Next 5 Years
* She Leads for Results (Focusing on how women can use their natural skills to lead)
* Name, Claim and Be Your Brilliance (Inspiration journey to find your personal brilliance)
"There has never been a greater need for leadership than today. My goal is simple. I want to inspire and teach women to find their true leadership gifts and to magnify those gifts by taking their organizations through one of the most difficult economic times businesses have ever faced," said Stier.
"This is the age of women's leadership; a time when those who can build and lead effective, focused organizations are charging to the top of their field and becoming the leaders they aspire to be in every aspect of their lives," Stier added.
At Gannett, Stier led and mentored more than 7,400 newspaper employees through an evolution in the industry into a digital, multimedia environment. She initiated and led the Gannett Generation X Task Force that developed strategies to attract and retain younger readers, a program which has been modeled across the country.
As an advocate for women in her profession and her community, Stier has been recognized with numerous awards. She received the Athena Award from the Council of 100 and a Top 30 Award from the National Organization of Female Executives. She attended Fortune magazine's "Most Powerful Women in Business Summit" in 2002.
Stier began her career on-air at KRNA radio in Iowa City, Iowa. She joined Gannett at the Iowa City Press-Citizen in 1982 as the retail-advertising manager. She advanced to become publisher, one of the youngest to hold this role at Gannett. She was then promoted to president and publisher of the Rockford Register Star in Rockford, Ill. Stier returned to Iowa in 2000, to serve as president and publisher of The Des Moines Register and the senior group president of the Midwest and Sun Coast Newspaper Groups.
She oversaw the publication of 26 Midwestern and southern daily newspapers, more than 350 non-daily publications and 27 Web sites.
Stier graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts and received an Honorary Doctorate, Humane Letters, from Grand View College.
Stier can be reached at Mary (at) MaryStierConnects (dot) com.
Krista Mueller to the Rescue!!!!!!! Oh God Help Us!!!
ReplyDelete4:38 GCI sank 7 percent today after Cramer said he doesn't trust Gannett’s dividend yield, and newspaper stocks are “toxic.” The dirty little secret that will come out when Corporate announces its 4th quarter results is that not not all Gannett newspapers are profitable.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to divert with this old question, but some of you will have a better answer than our silly HR. When you are laid off, what is the next thing that happens with the pension, as in when does the paperwork arrive and how long do they have to send it, or whatever they do? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know what they're talking about in Greenville, holding meetings about consolidating sports reporting with Asheville, 50 miles away? Greenville has been printing the Asheville C-Times since Jan. 4 and Asheville's press plant was closed, 60 people layed off.
ReplyDelete4:17 PM - No, you are the idiot.
ReplyDeleteThe last I heard, an average Gannett site is paying $100+ per ton more than if they brought directly from the mill. Why? Gannett supply.
My site is paying GMTI over $100,000 a year to host our web site. We could do it ourselves for less than $25K per year. Let's not discuss the bloodsuckers "classified ventures". We are paying 10x more for a service than it generates in revenue. Why? Because corporate says so.
Was hoping to never hear name of Mary Stier , she destroyed everything she touched. I'm sure she wants to empower women, she tried to destroy every male she encountered, she needs to come out of the closet.Unfortunately Laura learned her bad ways but hoping with time she will change and be her own person.
ReplyDeleteMetro Mix...another fine Gannett idea that readers in small markets do not like.
ReplyDeleteSoft porn under the guise of attracting young readers and page views.
I didn't know the esteemed Frank Gannett, but I'm fairly certain he's rolled over in his grave multiple times as he watches the transformation of his once-proud company from industry leader and First Amendment champion to one that sells content to anyone who'll buy it and panders to pervs.
Happy New Year!
5:36
ReplyDeleteI was laid off early December and still haven't received my pension information. My 401K info just about beat me home from being laid off. My exit letter said the pension info will come within 90 days. I have a colleague who was laid off in August and has processed her paperwork, but has not yet received the money. They are hanging on til the last minute. Hope this helps answer your question.
Perhaps it is my inner city upbringing, or maybe it is my class bracket, but can anyone please explain the wonders of two-ply TP. After reading here that it was the choice of top GCI execs, I bought a roll of an expensive brand to find out what I have been missing. I am now two days into the experiment, and have yet to experience any orgasm. It feels the same as the old el-cheapo brand, and seems to accomplish the same job with similar efficiency. So am I missing something here? Given the bounds of decency we all expect on this blog, can anyone tell me what am I doing wrong? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteFollowing on the pension question--Assuming you file an unemployment claim online, how long should it take before you get some type of paperwork and instructions from this office? We are talking about New Jersey here, and it seems totally impossible to get through to them on their designated phone lines. You are also instructed NOT to go to their offices unless instructed to do so.
ReplyDeleteDavid Carr's column on Business front of NYTimes today is interesting and relevant for GCI. In musing about a way to monitize news, he notes:
ReplyDeletequote:
As a report by Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research stated last year, “The notion that the enormous cost of real news-gathering might be supported by the ad load of display advertising down the side of the page, or by the revenue share from having a Google search box in the corner of the page, or even by a 15-second teaser from Geico prior to a news clip, is idiotic on its face.”
With the price of newsprint still on the rise in 2009, it will be interesting to see how newspapers further attempt to reduce page counts and overall usage. Web width reductions will be followed up with more reductions in classified sections, a ban on house ads, no stock pages, less agate sports, fewer comics, no TV Listings, no horoscopes, no crosswords and no wire features.
ReplyDeleteBy mid year, Gannett newspapers will be expected to eliminate news altogether, in an effort to save newsprint. The ads only product will be available for home delivery at a cost of $2 per day or $15 per week. Subscribers will be encouraged to forego home delivery and simply view the ads online for free.
Can we get at least get some fresh juice from Jersey...
ReplyDeleteC'mon everyone-- I miss the innuendo about the skinny bald photog in the company car, the chit chat about who shat, the office pool on who is on Skippy's infamous Christmas list, and the debates on exactly who is doing that Tourettes-style screaming on a nearly-vacant floor of the mothership.
C'mon guys, spill the beans...
(I guess I'm just missing Jersey since moving to Florida.)
Regarding the following comment:
ReplyDeleteWith so many chains tanking, it's time for Gannett to sell papers/stations and pay off its heavy debt.
Could someone tell me who is buying newspapers? Seems to me newspapers are on the market longer than houses, and that's long.
5:36 pm axed:
ReplyDelete"When you are laid off, what is the next thing that happens with the pension, as in when does the paperwork arrive and how long do they have to send it, or whatever they do?"
Your pension information will be mailed to you at the end of the month in which your severance runs out. I got mine about the same week as my last check that included vacation time.
The ideal time for Gannett to have put its papers/stations up for sale was before the stock market crash. Gannett should have hired an investment adviser to assess the appetite for buying individual properties at what would have been top dollar in 2006/2007. Too late for top dollar now, but that's not to say the company couldn't cut a good deal for some of its monopoly properties, like the Ariz. Republic or Louisville C-J. At the rate those businesses are going, they might not be worth anything. Better to sell for something, even at a loss, than to go insolvent as the last remaining volume advertisers -- car dealers, department stores, furniture stores and homebuilders -- go elsewhere. A buyer would not have the same debt load, corporate overhead, corporate commitments and lockstep management that the properties have under chain ownership. Anyone who thinks the chain model is the road to stay on hasn't seen the stock price lately. That, my friends, is what the world thinks of Gannett.
ReplyDelete