[A Wisconsin paper's Page One promotion today]
Anonymous@12:12 p.m. asks: "Was there a nation-world page from USA Today in your local paper today? Mine had one. Anyone know anything about this?"
I checked several Gannett newspaper fronts today, and found at least one -- Wisconsin's Wausau Daily Herald -- promoting on Page One a "new daily feature: the top national and world news, from the desk of the USA Today."
The feature appears to be part of the ContentOne network, where more news gathering and distribution is handled from central hubs.
[Image: detail from the Daily Herald's front, Newseum]
And so starts the conversion of the USCP's to semi-local USATs?
ReplyDeleteDidn't someone post something about this a while back?
It's been talked about for years: A local paper wrapped around a slimmed-down version of USA Today. The ideal circumstances may now be at hand: New technologies, including ContentOne, plus the drive to cut costs.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Wisconsin. All the papers that use the Nation/World page from Content One are "encouraged" to use the USA TODAY page. The memo said because they're seen as sophisticated. ... WTF? Plus we can't change anything on the page (even if there's an error?)
ReplyDeleteI cringe thinking about the community's reaction. Whether they can pronounce it right or not, the word Gannett does not resonate well with our readers at all.
The Appleton Post Crescent also ran the page today, I believe.
Yes, Poughkeepsie got the word today.
ReplyDeleteWell, now they're truly deserving of the term "fish wrap."
ReplyDeleteNot in the Rochester D&C.
ReplyDeleteThat a Gannett editor -- any Gannett editor -- would say on the front page "from the desk of the USA Today' is completely unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteTara Connell is clearly at work. Sports soon to follow. One size fits all.
ReplyDeleteAnd where is Kate Marymont, the supposed chief journalist of GCI, in all of this, huh?
ReplyDeleteWhen you don't have enough reporters to fill a local newspaper with local news, then this is what you get.
ReplyDeleteWatch subscription numbers drop further.
If Sports follows, then wouldn't the other USA Today sections -- Money and Life?
ReplyDeleteIf Sports follows, then wouldn't the other USA Today sections -- Money and Life?
ReplyDelete3/24/2010 5:04 PM
Jim said...
It's been talked about for years: A local paper wrapped around a slimmed-down version of USA Today.
3/24/2010 12:48 PM
Oy
I believe this is the perfect example of the negativity continually exhibited by a few of our colleagues around the company. This is nation and world news! Not local news. The largest newspaper in the country is producing a consistent page of news. So the few naysayers are pissed that they may not have an opportunity to put wire stories together? And yes, it would be great to put a sports page together as well. Local readers are not going to go crazy. In fact they may love it because in most cases it will be an improvement. It is a PAGE people; we will still have an opportunity elsewhere in the paper to add stories of interest. Geez, get a freaking life. By the way, if you can’t tell I enjoy my work. As Simon Cowell would say, “Sorry!”
ReplyDelete5:19. How blind can you be? Yes, you may enjoy your job now, but you won't for long. You can't see the forest for the trees. Soon there won't be a need for any journalists at individual sites, except for 1 to gather local stories. Only 1 sports writer for local stories. AND ONLY 1 DAMN NEWSPAPER WITH 1 PAGE OF LOCAL CONTENT FOR THE WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY! Can't you see? Who wants the same newspaper from town to town, state to state? That is what they are aiming for. Open your eyes and look around you, and no, people won't like it. Just because somebody who puts this page together at USA today likes it doesn't mean everybody across the whole freaking U.S. is going to. Ever hear of individuality? I guess not, drone. You'll be just as naked as the Emperor.
ReplyDeleteLeaders at a number of Gannett's biggest papers have banded together to oppose this effort, and have stopped it from coming to their papers, at least for now. (We're talking papers on the level of Cincinnati, Louisville, Des Moines, etc.) Smaller dailies did't have the muscle to block it.
ReplyDelete"In fact they may love it because in most cases it will be an improvement." - 5:19 p.m.
ReplyDeleteAss.
I'm in circulation at relatively small site. Many of the complaints we hear regarding editorial content are in regards to a lack of national or world news, especially after the newshole cuts last year. A page like this would give that missing piece back to our readers with the power of a well known, well respected brand backing it. I don't see how it can hurt us.
ReplyDeleteUSA Today better worry about itself. Today's edition seemed rather light and thoroughly unremarkable. Not the paper I remember from when I read it five days a week a few years back. The paper seems to have lost its pizzazz, not to mention journalistic content and page count, which makes me wonder what stuffing portions of it into a local paper is going to do for local circulation. It's not what it once was. That's obvious, even to a now infrequent reader.
ReplyDeleteDetroit Free Press' Nation/World Page is almost exclusively AP Content. Don't really see what difference this would make in that very large market which currently is not printing this way.
ReplyDelete11:03 pm: The reality today about all newspapers is that you need to read print and digital in tandem to get the full measure of content. Many of the resources once devoted to print are now focused on websites. There's content there -- blogs, videos, audio files, early versions of stories -- that aren't in the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI think of print now as an abbreviated hard copy of the website. For people who only like to read print, that may be inconvenient. But we're in an awkward transitional phase, where we're slowly (sometimes quickly) shifting to a new press: the Internet and mobile applications.
Ideally, publishers would have anticipated this phase, and established two, full staffs: one for print, another for digital, so both would be complete during this period. But that opportunity, to the extent it existed, is long past.
The Connell vs. Marymont story is a great tale of corporate intrigue among insiders. Connell has the ear of Dubow and Martore. That's power few in Gannett would challenge. I still imagine Connell consolidating the News Department and even USA Today into her portfolio. That would be sweet revenge, wouldn't it, USAT-ers?
ReplyDeleteHere is the bottom line. If I want USA Today content, I'll buy a USA Today. If I want local content I'll buy my local newspaper. If I have to pay to be force fed what I don't want, guess what..I'll stop buying.
ReplyDeleteSo, to accomplish creating a nation/world page available to 84,83,82... daily newspapers, when does this thing get built?
ReplyDeleteJust how many hours of fresher rip'n'run are we giving up newshole for so we can say we've got a whole page of four stories and a photo?
Wait for your readers to say this: Hey, looks like Obama signed that health care thing. Sure am glad my Wausau Daily Herald covered that on the front page yesterday and with the same story inside today!