In the shift to the new web-based news and pagination system, what remains of the old Pulitzer-winning Gannett News Service bureau in Washington, D.C., will report to Vice President Tara Connell's Communications Department, Media Bistro says today. In an interview with the website, Connell denies the move means "anything more than a drive for more united coverage and transparent content across all of Gannett's properties.'"At the risk of stating the obvious: How can ContentOne have any credibility when it's run by someone who is paid to spin the news? Even by Gannett standards, this is shocking.
Earlier: Gannett's P.R. department taking over GNS
I asked Connell about this nearly three months ago, in a Nov. 17 e-mail. To the best of my knowledge, she never responded.
ReplyDeletecommunication is our product, not our practice
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Ad directors have long insisted that if only they could gain control over editorial, they could bring in the mint. So what happens when their bluff is called? I have seen it happen about a decade ago, involving a concern that I shall not publicly identify. But editorial relented and advertising was given free rein to use any editorial copy it wanted, whereever it wanted.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened: they didn't know what to do with it. The dismantling of the Chinese wall was aimed at saving big bucks ad departments spent for freelancers to write pieces for ad sections. But they didn't want to use editorial for this purpose, because they didn't have control. If the freelancers turned in copy they didn't like, they could ask for a rewrite or cut out the offending parts. But they couldn't do that with their own editorial employees because they know they would scream bloody murder. So the dismantling of the Chinese wall only resulted in building a new imaginary one.
I assume in the ContentOne experiment that Tara will be the gatekeeper, conveying requests from advertising for stories on trendy new fashions, great new products, etc. But, hey, isn't that what the information centers are already doing?
So is Kate Marymont just a figurehead, with no power and nothing meaningful to do?
ReplyDelete"To the best of my knowledge, she never responded."
ReplyDeleteOf course not. She was busy drafting 30 minutes worth of witty banter with Craig "I sympathize with all the rabble" Dubow for last week's call.
At our shop it's always 'we could sell this as a tab, nobody wants a broadsheet' until we change it, then it's 'broadsheets are too big, we need this as a tab'.
ReplyDeleteI heard nearly two dozen took the buyouts at gns. Those left still face the very real possibilty of layoffs. Especially with the stock under five bucks. And that's career suicide with nearly 8 percent of the country unemployed and few journalism jobs to speak of. I'm glad I left that popsicle stand. Good luck as you wait for the other shoe to drop in yet another doomed gci initiative.
ReplyDeletewhy are political reporters working for the advertising department? are they being told to hype adveriser's products?
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