- Where are the regional webmasters to be based? How many will there be?
- Is broadcasting now establishing the same hub structure that the newspaper division is rolling out in Central New York, New Jersey, the Indianapolis area and elsewhere?
- Are these web folks moving to Gannett Digital under Chris Saridakis, the chief digital officer and senior vice president?
- If the TV stations no longer need local webmasters, is Corporate planning the same for the community dailies? Or have those jobs already been eliminated?
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
As TV loses local webmasters, are papers next?
In a surprise move yesterday, Gannett shifted technical control of the 23-station broadcasting division's websites, Gannett Blog readers say, creating a new team of regional webmasters to replace those at the local level. All the local webmasters were laid off, readers say; I don't have hard numbers. I've got plenty of questions:
28 comments:
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Fewer "webites" doesn't seem like that bad of a thing to me. Not saying digital isn't important, but things were getting out of whack. Replacing seasoned journalists with tech kids was not wise. The pendulum needs to swing back to having more content providers like reporters, cartoonists and designers, and wise editors to assign and process their material. Web sites don't require large staffs to function decently from a technical standpoint. But news gathering does. It's such a shame so many veteran journalists were let go in order to bolster web sites that ultimately won't need as many folks as they recently had. For journalism to survive, large companies like Gannett need to value hard-nosed news folks and not get too wrapped up in every latest tech gadget that comes and goes. The web is here to stay for a while, and in many ways that is a good thing, but if we are getting sued for libel every other month, missing big stories and are unable to edit copy...well, you catch my drift. I hope the frenzy to hire web people levels out a bit. I don't want to see existing employees lose their jobs, but if anyone has to go, geez, I hope it's not more seasoned news people. In fact, I would like to see some people come back.
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing that Kare11 (Gannett's Minneapolis/St. Paul NBC affiliate) webmaster and HR person have been told they are staying on and will now become regional resources. No definite word for how many other Gannett properties they will be filling that role. Gannett may not have decided yet either.
ReplyDeleteWell Jim, I'm sure you hope it includes newspapers so you will have something to write about.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in a large organization like Gannett, there is no reason to think the same webmaster couldn't handle both TV and Newspaper sites. In larger organizations, "webmaster" is a very segregated set of skills that doesn't have anything to do with providing content, designing look and feel, or knowing much about the local situation. It's very much a "back end", monitor that the wheels are still turning, and implementing what others have dictated kind of gig. About all they have to do with content is making sure the staff who need access to the local CMS (Content Management System) that really puts the news on the web, have that access.
ReplyDelete@ 5:28PM:
ReplyDelete"Webmasters" typically do control the look and feel of a site. Though I agree that they sometimes implement something dictated by others, much interaction is still required on their part. CMS's (Content Management Systems) generally only offer the ability to input and display data/content from a database. How that data is displayed, including look, feel and functionality, is controlled by the "webmaster". It seems more and more people think they are qualified to make coding and design changes on company sites, and I believe that's why we're running into more problems with some of them.
Bottom line: If each property still wants to present their product/site in a way that's exclusive to their brand, there's a good chance a "webmaster" would be needed for each one of them.
5:28
ReplyDeleteLook up "System Administrator" and get your head out of your @$$.
"monitor that the wheels are still turning"
ReplyDeleteDo you have any idea what goes into keeping those "wheels turning"... or how to make sure they turn with the competition? The Webmaster isn't simply a "poster of content" or a "monitor of content".
Who creates, manages, and edits your user interactive databases? Your interactive Maps? Videos? Javascript?
Who monitors your page rankings in google to ensure you are utilizing the right serach engine optimization techniques?
Who installs, edits, and customizes your bloging sfotware?
your Refers?
Your Photo galleries?
You know all those fancy things you like to click? Yeah you don't cut and paste that type of stuff.
On top of it all, webmasters for gannett are forced to learn and work with countless 3rd party providers of content, while making sure they all play well with the Saxotech publishing system.
It's a little more complicated then providing your CMS username and password. You don't get a college degree to assign usernames and passwords.
@6:09
ReplyDeleteThey *can*, but they don't typically *in a large organization* like Gannett. The business units/graphics arts people will have a lot more to do with that --and then the webmaster will implement it. Tho I agree that if those BU/graphics people aren't too web-savvy, the webmaster might have to bring them back to earth and that can be an extended interactive process.
But hasn't Gannett dictated "GO4" or somesuch for all their newspaper and TV web properties which already dictates from corporate much of how look and feel, and navigation, is going to operate anyway?
Probably 95% of the world's websites are designed, operated, and content provided by one or two people and they call themselves "Webmasters" --and they are. But the higher up the website food chain you go the more "webmaster" becomes an engineering gig, not an artsy/content gig.
What paper do you work for?
ReplyDeleteThey *can* but typically don't in the *smaller papers* in Gannett.
Business and Graphics Arts have nothing to do with coding web pages. They simply create images promoting stories and applications that developers build to support those stories.
Take a look at some of the web technology being implemented by the larger Gannett papers and then come back and tell me that webmasters are cutting and pasting content into the GO4 design.
YOU look up System Adminstrator. It has nothing to do with implementing websites.
ReplyDeleteAs to all the other technical tasks mentioned above (java, DB, blog software, etc) --yep, sure. Now tell me how they are different for webmastering a TV station website vs a Newspaper website, particularly when the same corporate parent owns both and has been standardizing the formats and tools between them right along and surely will continue even further down that path?
Well, at the largish Gannett property I'm familiar with, it isn't the webmaster who does content, even video. It's handled by two other techie-inclined types who have other non-web job duties as well.
ReplyDeleteAs to the smaller Gannett properties not having the expertize, I bet that's true. . . and probably seen as a reason to consolidate those tasks elsewhere.
@ 6:27PM:
ReplyDeletePossibly, the cookie-cutter approach is the problem with many of the sites today. A decent part of the time, it's like fitting a square peg into a round hole, and a complex solution needs to be developed by a local "webmaster" to overcome those limitations.
I find that dealing with some of the strict guidelines put forth by corporate only makes local developers' jobs more cumbersome and hinders productivity on a local level. Working with the CMS provided, and dealing with the structural limitations of these sites, is a developer's nightmare. It's an extremely inefficient process on many levels.
We were given a horse and carriage, then were asked to put on different sizes and shapes of wheels on each axle, and we're all trying to make it down the Oregon Trail. Yeah, well... Little Timmy just died of Yellow Fever.
This is where your ignorance shows.
ReplyDeleteNOT ALL PAPERS ARE USING THE CORPORATE MANDATED TECHNOLOGY
Why?
Because most of it is no good.
Do a little research. Check out some large Gannett papers and educate yourself on what they are doing. You might learn something.
Yeah, I might learn part of why corporate is obviously hell-bent to consolidate. Ignore the bosses at your own peril in the long-run, however much you are telling yourself you just need to keep the wheels from flying off today.
ReplyDeleteSure, they might learn some things along the way too --like some of their tools and recent purchases are laughable crap. Probably the only way they will learn it. Enabling corporate to think things are kinda okay by blue smoke and mirrors, or having them think that it would be okay if only the troops in the field would actually implement what they've been told to do, isn't a long-term strategy.
Cleveland has moved webmaster to sales department. Evening web guy moved to MetroMix. 2 left in web department.
ReplyDeleteHell, why do we need webmasters, digital designers, web producers, or IT departments for that matter? Corporate can do it all for us.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone else noticed how slow pages load? This situation might be an old story... but I notice it on many Gannett sites.
ReplyDeleteHell, why do we need webmasters, digital designers, web producers, or IT departments for that matter? Corporate can do it all for us.
ReplyDeleteHave you people forgotten we are a NEWSPAPER company????
-The remaining webmasters will not report to Digital.
ReplyDelete-The remaining webmasters will not be moving to corporate in Tysons.
-About 30 Gannett newspapers do this already through the DPC (been doing it that way for years and years)
What Gannett really needs to do is consolidate General Managers and Publishers.
ReplyDeleteThe Atlanta GM can spend a couple days a week in Macon.
The Az Republic Publisher can spend a couple days a week at KPMX.
More efficiencies would then happen with with a single captain than with the turf war approach (and there are qualified people that know newspapers & TV--ask Media General)
This thread is epic. Well done.
ReplyDelete"Hell, why do we need webmasters, digital designers, web producers, or IT departments for that matter? Corporate can do it all for us."
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, and that's been the plan for about 4 years now.
As a former Gannett WebWhateverIwas(they never did get my title correct) I remember sitting in on a conference call while the higher ups at corporate told my director: "Publicus would allow the individual papers to get rid of all us highly paid webmasters and programmers". My jaw hit the floor.
Over the next year or so, I implemented this new technology and rewrote the processes in the newsroom. I was then laid off the following year.
Now they've got the new standard design, standard tools, widgets, and ad system (among a lot of other things) in place. So the time is ripe to centralize web operations. Databases and PHP programs can be built centrally and distributed locally via the unique affiliate code which was integrated into the design rollouts a long time ago.
There's a few papers that are out there exploring new and innovative designs, the elements of which will become part of the next major rollout for all the papers to implement.
Seriously... Gannett made all the TV stations websites the exact same. Now they claim they are too hard to navigate around. Yet the webmasters are getting let go? Hmmm, I can only imagine where the real problem is.
ReplyDeleteHow on earth can these "big wigs" seriously ever smile or look themselves in the mirror each morning? This is all getting out of hand, and quick. Why can't they just cut their losses and sell? They'd all run away with loads of cash and then they can do as they please and only mess up their lives, not others.
The Craig's list keeps replacing good assets with junk. Any takers?
ReplyDeleteThe 23 network affiliate stations will inevitably have a bumpy road ahead. Who do you think is going to replace the local ad dollars from the 798 or so Chrysler dealer closings? (never mind the other dealers). What about the local spots from Circuit City and so on, and on, and on? If you do know, let management knows, maybe they'll send you a $5frozen turkey for Thanksgiving. (Assuming that you will still be here then).
So, let's keep cutting down a dollar today and layoff the backbones of our digital infrastructure, even if it means that it'll cost us 10 dollars tomorrow. After all what's important is this quarter and this quarter only. Let's keep the numbers within forecasting and let's keep Ariel happy so that they can keep speculating on our lives and they can also allow King Kraig (alias King Kong) laugh all the way to bank.
12:45 PM -- I wasn't jesting when I wrote that. I'm in digital and I can tell you corporate is hell bent on consolidating every f'ing thing they can. It doesn't matter if the product sucks afterwards, all that matters is that they consolidated it.
ReplyDeleteHow many sites have consolidated accounts payable? Of those, how many are paying 100s if not 1000s of dollars per month in LATE fees because the consolidated A/P doesn't work?
How about the COE, has that helped circulation?
RE: 8:58 PM
ReplyDeleteI wasn't jesting either. Web centralization and consolidation has been the plan going back about 4 years now and to hell with who it affects along the way.
I think all the parts and pieces are now in place to actually pull this off. The testbed is TV. The rest of the Gannett properties will be next.
I'm still trying to figure out why USAT has all these web people. Lot of managers who don't appear very busy. Of non managers, there are at least 10 in our department. They don't report. They don't write - well, they rewrite a lot of stuff they see elsewhere, but I'm not sure if they would, or even could, discern if something were true or not. They don't really monitor the anonymous, nasty comments readers send in. Most of the time, they don't speak to anyone outside they're closed off little world, either. They're like hamsters on a wheel. I'm sure many of them are doing coding and other important things, but couldn't print writers and editors be cross trained to do the same thing?
ReplyDeleteThe bigger issue is they no historical context of news events or people. They dress goofy and think they're cooler than everyone else too. Tuck your shirts in and leave the flip flops at home, dude.
This is the future of journalism?
"I'm still trying to figure out why USAT has all these web people."
ReplyDeleteUSAT did not go the Publicus route that the rest of the company did and therefore require a robust staff to put out their online product on a daily basis.