Sunday, February 28, 2010
Week Feb. 22-28 | 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.)
37 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)
It looks like Gannett's partner in the Metromix entertainment websites -- Tribune Co. -- is backing away from the venture. I'm looking into that possibility right now.
ReplyDeleteLast week on this blog there were several discussions about circulation numbers. If you want to see such numbers in any state or community, you can visit the ABC website abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newsform.asp
ReplyDeleteWouldn't surprise me in the least.
ReplyDeleteMetromix at Trib papers is just an unprofitable holding place for the hot chicks the execs are (or fanatasize about) banging. No-talents with 50K salaries out on pub crawls. One was assigned to me on the business side, secretary/pet of my VP and he wanted to "advance" her. I spent several years trying to teach newspaper marketing. When we determined it was never gonna happen, the VP gave her a new job as a Metromix party girl.
Trib has tried and failed at the "cool and happening" interactive game several times. I could say I'm surprised that Gannett got it bed with them, based on that track record, but then I'd be lying.
Fads never last.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, most Metromix folks aren't making anywhere near $50,000. In fact, Metromix is one of the few Web ventures I've seen Gannett attempt that actually has the economics right. A low overhead operation run -- after startup -- by one person who makes a relatively low salary. The companies that work on the Web work this way. Broad audience. Few Employees. Low Overhead.
ReplyDeleteMetromix may not have a broad enough audience, as you need one person in every market, but the concept is closer to right than any other "news" site I've seen Gannett attempt. Where they've ruined themselves is then pimping the Metromix content on the front page of their news sites because they were unwilling to promote the Metro sites properly.
The "right" economics, as you say, are right because, like most web efforts, the parasite get lots of off-the-books support from the host.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the promotion and marketing is done by print side salaries, editorial is (at least at Trib) supplemented, if not fully provided, by print side personnel.
This is not new. Niche pubs, weeklies, show impressive P & L's when a lot of the L is on someone else's operating statement. Eventually, when things get tough companywide, these ops get analyzed more objectively.
@1:35 -- I'm not disputing anything you say. But the fact of the matter is, the only Web-only sites that I've seen that are truly financially viable are those that employ few people yet play to broad audiences. If you take away the print support the Metromix sites are getting, they wouldn't be as good and might become even more likely to fail. If they could keep running and maintain the audience with a one- or two-man operation maybe they would truly be successful.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Gannett has the formula "right" on this one, but I think they're getting closer. The idea that all you have to do to built a profitable Web site is take the stuff you create for the paper and throw it up online is ludicrous. If you eliminated the print publications, the revenue couldn't support the massive personnel costs of the newspaper newsrooms.
Beyond this, people read differently on the Web than they do newspapers. The best Web sites keep this in mind and spend as much time on SEO and Web-style writing as anything else. I've never seen this happen at a Gannett site.
I guess the upshot of my post is that even Gannett's best efforts don't come close to sufficient. The company is in real trouble if it thinks its going to use Web-based papers to salvage itself.
Of course, I don't think that's the case at all. I think the execs are just trying to fool Wall Street long enough to pull down another few bonuses. Dubow and company know full well they won't be around when -- and if -- anybody actually saves the newspaper industry.
Is anyone out there suffering an onslaught of spam blogs? Today's Shreveport Times homepage features one for penis enlargement. They took over our site and are crowding out staff blogs. Our online editor is either unable or unwilling to do something about it. Are there limitations to the Pluck software or is there something staffers can do to block these?
ReplyDeleteHow's your hit count as a result? Has it enlarged as well?
ReplyDeleteHey Jim,
ReplyDeleteWanted to pass along a link: www.chipin.com. It's free to use, works with paypal and would make your fundraising drive a little more graphical and interactive. It might get people to pay more attention.
The so called "Mentoring Program" is going on in Wisconsin right now, I believe. What a waste of money. The mentor we had last year is a complete joke. We have not seen any significant change since she went to that program. Just another place for the brass at Dumbette to drop money with no viable results.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Gannett has the formula "right" on this one, but I think they're getting closer. The idea that all you have to do to built a profitable Web site is take the stuff you create for the paper and throw it up online is ludicrous.
ReplyDelete"throw it up online" is hilariously exact. reporters vomit up their notes, without benefit of editing, for all to see. and now, there are too few copy editors to clean stories up before they get into print.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, 5:57 PM. I'd like to add that both reporters and copy editors are fighting a losing battle to maintain their professional integrity ... while praying our paychecks don't start to behave in a rubbery manner. :-) Good luck to all, including those who are job hunting.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of decent editing has always been a problem. For years, nobody seemed to care about the stupid little mistakes that made it into print. The situation has gotten much worse with the gutting of newsrooms and the frantic demands to put stories online. Gannett hates the fact that journalism done well is a painstaking, labor intensive task.
ReplyDeleteSpam penis blog just struck me as terribly funny. Somewhere, someone had this brilliant business model that said THIS was the way to push their products.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, we're promoting online pet memoriams in the paper.
Same model - what 98% of people think is stupid, 2% will pay for...
isn't the HUB the metromix of the midwest? being launched now
ReplyDelete4:50 a.m. wins for the best line of the day: Gannett hates the fact that journalism done well is a painstaking, labor intensive task.
ReplyDeleteOur Web site is a sheer embarrassment and has been for some time. The glut of day editors pat themselves on the back for the number of hits they get for the lame photo galleries and stories from print (that are not edited before they throw them up).
Just because you call someone an editor doesn't make them an editor. Our golden Web person can't even spell the name of our city right in headlines, for god's sake.
How come that OT lawsuit wasn't included in the K-1 under the employee section? I think it was filed October 2009.
ReplyDelete2:50 pm: I think those issues are reported in the legal proceedings section of the annual proxy statement; we'll be seeing the 2009 version next month.
ReplyDeleteanyone hear rumors that there will be NO furloughs in 2nd quarter?
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gannett.com/news/pressrelease/2010/pr022510.htm
Over the last few days, at the Arizona Republic, several people were laid off...Thoughts Comments Please
ReplyDeleteFor all of you asking, Metromix is handled by Digital Venture Chief Williams. I was speaking with a very good friend of mine there and she told me that Jack Williams does not even show up to the board meetings and he has basically checked out.
ReplyDeleteShe also said that Gannett has been having trouble finding an investor for Metromix and that since Tribune has bailed out on this investment, she said that Hearst was approached, but they are not interested.
If you ask the Digital team, they do not even support the product anymore as all functions have been moved to Chicago.
Our site deployed it and we feel like we could build a better product than what Metromix has put together. We are already starting to build our own social-entertainment site and we will promptly remove Metromix and throw it back to Jack Williams!
Metromix is a sinking ship and Mr. Williams is at the helm of that one too.
Thanks for coming back Jim...
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, 2:03 am!
ReplyDeleteGannett....Connecting you to your world
ReplyDeleteThat is the new tag line that was leaked by someone at a USAT meeting the other day. Susan Lavington was up in arms and totally pissed off at the "corporate no bodies in the other tower" as she went off on how Gannett is trying to ruin the USAT brand.
As if the USA Today did not have enough trouble, they now will have to compete with their own parent in who brand is bigger than the other!!!
Gannett... Connecting you to artists in India, circ service in Kentucky, billing in Illinois, tech weenies in Cincinnati and the one free-lancer actually in your town trying to cover the school board and the metromix hotties with video, photos, twitter, and facebook - that is, when he's not trading blood for medical coverage.
ReplyDelete10:14 PM: Who was laid off and what departments?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if 10:14 pm is talking about advertising production folks?
ReplyDeleteNow that Gannett has basically proclaimed itself a marketing giant rather than a trusted news source, who is the competition?
ReplyDeleteYou ask: "Now that Gannett has basically proclaimed itself a marketing giant rather than a trusted news source, who is the competition?"
ReplyDeleteSadly for Gannett, the competition is any small group of independents in these smaller markets in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin who are sick to death of every single dime of revenue earned by Gannett in their markets heading straight to Gannett corporate.
Already, small locally-owned weeklies are spiring up to compete with the Gannett "dailies" in these markets.
An unfair fight, you say?
Yeah, an unfair advantage to the local independent!
Many Gannett papers may be dailies in these markets, but they are like eight pages most days, with little local content. They will be blown away by the local "independents" that are springing up to take advantage of the weakness of Gannett.
Serves 'em right.
My mother that has been a loyal reader of the Fort Myers News-Press for over 30 years has done nothing but brag about the free weekly paper that has out done the News-Press!
ReplyDeleteIs it bad for me to think Gannett was trying to expedite the sale of the Honolulu Advertiser this morning after the tsunami threat popped up?
ReplyDeleteI despise the company and would certainly like to stay away from anything Gannett-related, like advertisers, etc. I just don't know how though. First, I cancelled the subscription. Now I read it for free, but I am still supporting the company with clicks, aren't I? Aren't they still making money off me with the targeted marketing, Ripple6 and all? I resent that so much. It's wrong. It feels so dirty. How much does Gannett make off of the demographics alone, anyone know, and who buys those and for how much? Is this the digital information that's considered so private that investors can't even get it?
ReplyDeleteWe have tales to tell from the New Jersey side.
ReplyDeleteMy landlady dropped the Courier News shortly after New Year's. Her husband said -- correctly -- they were paying more and more while getting less and less. This week the freebie Community Courier came via USPS and announced a new look for the Sunday C-N starting this week. I buy the Sunday C-N and what do we get? Same stuff as before, only with different packaging.
A section? Promote the new look on Page 1 above the fold. Beat the drums for the Census, a US Government project that takes place every 10 years. As before there's also the Daily Briefing force-fed from Gannett corporate.
Features? I swear it's identical to the similar section in the Home News Tribune. Big spread on "Alice in Wonderland", mandatory mention of Disney in 3rd graf. Conveniently omitted: New Jersey's largest theater chain has threatened not to play that movie. (Disney wants "Alice" out on DVD at the end of May.)
Features, Part 2? Fancy spread about shopping bargains -- a suburban/exurb daily acting like a NYTimes wannabe. TV listings same as before: local Spanish stations omitted, Philadelphia network stations included. Travel occupies the back pages, same as before.
Sports? Same as before. At least there's game stories from snowstorm-delayed high school tournaments.
Opinion? Separate section, all of 4 pages with the cutting-edge title @ Issue. A surprise as many dailies have combined Sunday op-ed in the news section. Local columnist gives a wet kiss to the Winter Olympics (he also told the media to go easy on Tiger Woods). Q&A with president of state teachers' union, fitting since the union bought a full-page ad in the A section.
The way this company handles its online product is a freaking joke. Got anything new? Throw it on the web? Even a crappy video is fine!
ReplyDeleteSo much crap is thrown up as online updates that any real breaking news is off the home page within an hour. Gosh, people are so damn excited about the photo gallery from the local city hall meeting/little league game/parade. I'll click on it to see if there's a picture of me!!!
No one should be surprised that this newspaper company is in such bad shape. It starts at the top with so many of the disconnected suits in Virginia.