Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday | Your News & Comments
Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)
36 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No. 1, I'm reposting this this article on the Westchester paper.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/July-2009/Paper-Jam/
No. 2, If I ever read another paragraph on Michael Jackson it will be too soon. Celebrity worship at its finest.
I posted the following late yesterday and would ask for some estimates on how online ad revenue has been doing the past few years and would like to add- Anybody ever total the $ value of ad space papers dedicate to promoting their respective online components? The Arizona Republic commonly uses a combined page+ almost daily in promoting azcentral, moms.com and such. Wouldn't that be in excess of a million dollar ad budget annually to convert print ads to online?
ReplyDelete"8:39 makes a great point, online revenue was always estimated to be approx 10-15% of print revenue. What's not included in the totals was where the online revenue was originally- in print. Ad reps cannibalized existing accounts for a better, hip, more targeted vehicle and as we all know, online is king!
Odd how it works especially considering the volume of online ads in the newspaper every day. Anybody have the totals for online viewer
Dates to remember while chewing nails....
ReplyDeleteToday: last full week in second quarter to complete furloughs.
Monday, June 29: last day of second quarter, possible day for announcement?
July 8: D-Day.
July 15: second quarter earnings conference call, 10 a.m.
Quarters never end on Mondays. They end with Gannett weeks.
ReplyDeleteSome places laoffs will e delayed a week or so
I am one of the lucky survivors of working for Gannett. My newspaper was bought by Gannett in 2000 from Thomson, a company most of us in the newsrooms disliked.
ReplyDeleteWhoa unto us! We never knew how great we had it until we had to deal with the desperate stuffed-shirt, robotic, pasty-faced Phil Currie and Co.!
Of course, it didn't take long for us to realize what a miserable company Gannett really was. Clic-ish, condescending, elitist know-nothings who enjoyed finding the tiniest things to complain about.
Unfortunately, I worked for an aweful, snivling little dictator publisher who loved throwing everyone under the bus to curry favor with Gannett.
Despite lots of "bonus" stock ... I quit in disgust three years later and sold every gannett stock I had gotten. Smart move!
So many of us were badly treated by Gannett (no support, no backup, no way to confide in ANYONE about serious ethical issues at my newspaper) - Gannett always gave lipservice only to ethics, by the way.
So just days before I was going to be fired, I quit. But the hatred and bitterest toward this company is stronger today than ever! And I know that MANY Gannett ex-employees feel the same way.
Yes, I still have a job in the media with another newspaper company, but Gannett ruined my career forever, as it did the careers of many good journalists.
I continue to wish nothing but failure for this company, and I seem to be getting my wish.
Remember, incompetence will out.
Just look at the poor quality of publishers and EEs at many of the Indiana, Michigan and Ohio community papers. Their papers show the amazing lack of leadership from these miserable suck-ups!
I looked in our new publishers office to welcome him and say hello. I am just a worker bee. So the next day I was told to stay away from his office, that he is a very busy person and cannot be bothered with meeting the employees. Gees, I hope I don't get fired for being friendly.Until then I had never met a publisher in my 9 years with the company.
ReplyDelete1:31's experience is not unusual. The upper management(?) are not interested in "the employees" and must be trained to treat them (employees) like trash. This is probably the main reason that this company is failing. Everyone knows that Gannett doesn't give a damn about the line employees and never did.
ReplyDeleteWow 1:31 pm ... what paper is this?
ReplyDeleteAnd in 2009, how can ANY publisher afford to be so distant?
At the newspaper I work for - obviously not a Gannett paper - the publisher walks through the building EVERY SINGLE MORNING and says hello to the employees. Every one.
Now, this is a building with maybe 30 employees total, we are small... but still...
Shouldn't every publisher connect with his/her staff daily?
1:31, why don't you name the publisher and the newspaper? Details add to credibility.
ReplyDelete1:31 - What paper was that? The publisher should be outed, and out.
ReplyDelete1:31 Big mistake. Do not ever approach a publisher. They are god's annointed on earth, and not to be approached by mortals. They are only there in deference to their own belief (universally held by this class) that they have been misassigned and should instead be running the company. If they ever make eye contact with you, the proper response is to divert your glance and tug silently at your forelock.
ReplyDeleteAnnointed?
ReplyDeleteAll Knowing?
Divinely Inspired?
Ignores the Masses?
Hmmm, I didn't know Obama was a publisher!
You think Dubow dosen't know how to drive the Gannett bus, wait till you see where Obama has his headed with his healthcare racket and cap and trade taxes.
And the worst part is all the media kisses his ass for whatever reason, or there is no media left thanks to the bus crashes like Gannett turned out to be.
Wow, that sounds like it could be our publisher here in Fort Collins. Her name is Kim Roegner, and has been here a little over a year. She is the most anti-social person I have ever had the misfortune to be around.
ReplyDelete11:03,
ReplyDeleteIt is astounding how a Fortune 500 company and "leading" media corporation could amass such a laughable crew of executives, publishers and managers. I worked for several public and private newspaper companies and as bad as some may have been, they were places of enlightenment compared with Gannett. Someone needs to take charge of this company and do a MAJOR house cleaning if they want to ensure its survival. I wish they would solicit nominations of dead-weight and do-nothings to be fired. I've got half a dozen names they can start with.
One of the reasons they don't take the time and effort to get to know people is that it makes their job much easier when they need to push people out the front door. Ignorance is bliss ...
ReplyDelete3:28 p.m.: Half a dozen? That's just the tip of the iceberg! Try the publishers at Tennessean, Cincy, and that group publisher woman at the Indiana small papers; the EE at Cincy Callahan, pub at Lancing, the pubs and EEs at all those profit-sucking small Ohio papers (big salaries, plunging revenues and circulations); all the Cherry Hill exec team.....
ReplyDeleteThat's a good start...
3:43 p.m. - You are right, and of course the point is ... it SHOULD be hard to fire employees. The publisher SHOULD feel badly because he/she should know them ALL as part of the newspaper's team.....
Here's a gem of an editorial from the great LSJ in Lansing.
ReplyDeleteHirten: Legal notice bill is bad for transparency. Allowing an online option will further boost secrecy.
"Disclosure here: As an employee of a company that publishes newspapers, I benefit from the ad revenue earned by publishing these notices. But our business is battered enough these days that another advertising hit is just another hit."
Read the whole thing here:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906210681
Is he kidding? Legals and obits are the only revenue left - If it goes away - they are in serious deep water. Legals and obits are the only advertising that brings in the serious cash cow. Compare the price of an obit or legal inch for column inch to any other ad rate... then take into consideration the pages and pages of foreclosures in the Michigan papers. Really, Mickey?? just another hit?? Please.
Just another old newspaper guy wishing the internet didn't exist. And he's the one who gets to stay and I'm the one who got the broom. I just don't understand.
I just had to share.
It would be very interesting to start a list of "dead-weight and do-nothings" paper-by-paper on this blog. As we all know, the butthead suits at Gannett DO READ this blog. Since none of them have a creative bone in their sorry bodies, maybe we could help them identify who they have on the payroll who is "dead-weight and do-nothings" since the clueless publishers won't do it. There aren't too many more days in the life of this blog so let's start this and maybe we can get the list(s) site by site before the shutdown or even better, the expected RIF in the coming weeks!
ReplyDeleteYou're going to laugh at this, but I feel sorry for the Publishers. Most of these people came from a time of empires when the newspaper was the only game in town. Almost no level of ineptitude could effect success. Now, they're in charge of a sinking ship with no clue how to handle the controls under these conditions. They're closest to the corporate ranks and the first to see corporate is just as lost. I've been in meetings when the publisher would paint rosy pictures everybody would accept. That too must have driven him nuts thinking everybody would unanimously accept the bull he was shoveling. Then you have the Managers who would explain great products or promotions which ultimately didn't work. Yet they do the same thing repeatedly! Must be great confidence builders for the Publisher. So, next time you see a Publisher, look at him or her from a distance an know inside their heads they're thinking bow's in the front, which side is the stern???
ReplyDelete11:03 - I don't believe your story. During the time line that you are provide - 2000 to 2003 - Gannett gave out stock options that did not vest until after four years. So, I highly doubt that you were given "lots of bonus" stock which you were able to cash out after only three years.
ReplyDeleteThis put into doubt your whole sob story.
OMG! Sparky to the rescue!!!
ReplyDelete1:31 - unbelievable comment about being told to stay away from the publisher. It is "possible" that did not come from the publisher, but instead some snivelling middle manager type who saw you coming or going (without you knowing) and then told you to stay away thinking they needed to their territory or special status of having access to the publisher.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 4:35. Might be that middle management types are worried that their charade might come to light by talking to a line worker. Afterall, at our paper, most of the mid-management are arrogant little incompetents who have protected their kingdoms by keeping info to themselves and trashing those on down the chain. Gannett is loaded with these types who are useless pieces of crap. On the other hand, Gannett publishers are known to be sneeky bastards themselves who couldn't get work anywhere else and have risen therough the ranks by being incompetent followers of Gannett's empty suits in Va.
ReplyDeleteTo: 4:14
ReplyDeleteStock options vest at the rate of 25% each year. That means that options could be excercised at the 3-year point for 75% of their value. SIRs, on the other hand, only mature after four years.
Get your facts together.
4:15 - sorry, but we never had to wait four years to sell stock given us. It was two years at most! Most folks "bought in" at about $50-$60 a share and when the stock jumped to the low $80s we sold... we're not talking thousands of shares here... we're talking maybe 500. You might make $3,000 on the difference betwee what you "bought in" at and what you sold for.
ReplyDeleteBut we never had to wait four years!
Throw the EE of the APP on that pile of dead wood.
ReplyDeleteI had a new boss who for three months (prior to my being let go), never once allowed me the chance to go over what I do, what's at stake, what opportunities exist... I gave it to him in writing which he lost because he made comments in meetings that were so confused and unrelated to business it made everybody in the room uncomfortable. I later found out the same person never once spent a moment with his predecessor 10 steps away to see what the department had been working on the prior year or so.
ReplyDeleteWell, as far as publishers go.... the worst example of hypocrisy was Ketan Gandhi at the CN/HNT. He never failed to mention that his door was always open to discuss concerns with employees. If an employee made an appointment to speak with him, the usual outcome was sitting across from a man who was ignoring you while he was on his computer or letting you talk and then ridiculing your statements. HOWEVER, this man was famous for calling people to his office at a moment's notice, berating everyone and making insulting remarks. His common policy was to call the advertising director and order her to send one of the sales reps to Starbuck's to fetch his coffee.
ReplyDeleteNo one has ever been told the reason he was let go on extremely short notice (maybe an hour) but that day was probably the last happy day the employees at the CN/HNT ever knew!
To 1:31 p.m., sorry to hear about your experience with the publisher. I'm no huge fan of Walt Lafferty, the Courier-Post's publisher, but one thing I can say is that his door was more or less always open. I stopped by a few times and had a handful of conversations, always friendly.
ReplyDeleteHe's not perfect, but he's far more competent, approachable and genuine than EJ Mitchell.
4:02 feels sorry for publishers. I don't because they make the big bucks and the bigger the property, the bigger the bucks. This group is pretty much set no matter what happens. Even if the company goes down the tubes they'll be OK.
ReplyDeleteOn the point of publishers not talking to the worker bees - I've been in Detroit since the Frank Vega days. Frank spoke to everyone and seemed to know most everyone's names. I'm a mid-level manager and Hunke never called me by name once in the entire time he was here.
7:18 PM -- Vega was/is a trip!
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News publisher couldn't give the 2009 circulation numbers (98,000) to the magazine reporter, what a joke of an operation in Westchester.
ReplyDeleteFROM THE WESTCHESTER MAGAZINE ARTICLE: The latest figures, from April 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008, show an average morning circulation of 122,529 in Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland Counties.
Larry St.Cyr to the rescue!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo many posts about awful, evil, arrogant publishers! That should tell the suits in McLean something about the monsters they've created. In case you corporate types are too thick to read between the lines: They suck up to you folks, but they shit on everyone below them all day every day. Of course, the real tragedy is you probably do know and those are the people you prefer. Karma, karma, karma.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, back in the bowels of one of your mid-sized community newspapers, I can report that the mood is quite steady, despite the pending blood-letting that you sniveling cowards haven't announced yet.
I would say three-quarters of the people at my site are looking foward to the announcements and hoping they are on the list to go.
They have a plan for their transition and while they expect to make less money, they are delighted at the thought of getting their hands on their pensions and 401Ks BEFORE the bean counters at corporate run us completely into the dirt.
I think EVERYONE here already is looking for work and, while we are in a state hard hit by the recession, they still feel some optimism at the chance to get out from under the heels of Gannett's combat boots.
Good luck, everybody!
I was at Crystal Palace this week for a meeting. It was a ghost town. Cuts and furloughs. If they are looking over things, they are doing it from afar. Or maybe they shut off all the lights and are ready to close the door. I did see one guy who said he hadn't seen his boss in 3 months. Might be gone.
ReplyDeleteMy publisher is great.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say she rolls through daily, but she'll answer emails promptly. She's generally in a good mood. I had a few suggestions for her a few months ago, told her, she appreciated them and used two of them.
If my paper was left to my publisher, we'd be in much better shape.
I'm with a newspaper in the 10k-50k tier.