Sunday, May 09, 2010
Week of May 3-9 | Your News & Comments: Part 2
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23 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."
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Part 1 of this comment string is here.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many good people inside Gannett contrary to the rants that sometimes rule in these pages. The closer you get to the top at some newspapers, the people with guts are harder to find, but they are still there.
ReplyDeleteThere are advertising folks busting their hump to close deals and mid-level managers searching for a story that'll wake people up about their newspaper's love for the community.
How about a weekly celebration of someone who "pushed it through" for the love of journalism?
There are heroes in pressrooms, circulation departments and managing editors who fill in on the desk or the metro desk.
I'll give you one. In Monroe, there are several people who haven't given up and give it their best every day.
Ken Stickney still fights the good fight. Example of his award winning work: http://asne.org/article_view/articleid/109/ken-stickney-the-news-star-monroe-la-distinguished-writing-award-for-editorial-writing-109.aspx
Look what else that paper has done: http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20105020318 You'll see Stickney in there again.
And I don't even work there. Salute to them!
7:56 -- Good point. I'm as negative as anyone who ever posts to this board, but I would never argue that there aren't great people in Gannett who still try to do great work. That's one reason I get so frustrated.
ReplyDeleteA regular feature like this would be nice and give us all hope. Jim trots them out now and then. Maybe those of us who read can do the same.
I wish I had more examples. And I wish the examples I post on drew more attention in the form of comments. But I've never given up.
ReplyDeleteMid level managers searching for a story to wake up a community? Sorry, but that was my big gripe with Gannett. I was a beat reporter, and I knew my beats because I worked hard to establish trust with sources of all kinds--- not just the "official" ones that the mid-managers loved. My biggest problem was all the shunning and passive-aggresive shit I had to take when a story didn't turn out the way the mid level managers and officials wanted.
ReplyDeleteMy point is this: the people who sit inside a newsroom (ooops---information center) and talk only to official sources have no earthy idea what's really going on in communities. If you don't believe me, just take a gander at Gannettblog, and then read the company's official press releases. They paint different pictures.
Regarding one of Jim's recent posts on the Arizona Republic: This is the commentary that hits the nail on the head.
ReplyDeletehttp://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2010/05/roll-over-gene-pulliam.html
http://foxcities.me/node/127
ReplyDeleteOne man's one-week subscription to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. What a glorious experience.
The subscription story in the above post is not isolated. Took calls in the newsroom that underline just how poor followthru, digital systems and delivery reliability. Gannett stopped investing in true customer service and reliability long ago. There is no bringing this back without major technology and people investments. This story is what has me worried more about newspapers than any free web service vs. paywall debate. People do not have good customer service experience with circulation department around the country because we are running them too thin.
ReplyDeleteIs there a way here to separate the legitimate people with actual complaints from the ones who should have been fired years earlier?
ReplyDeleteI think that might add some credibility.
3:06 pm: How would you separate the two? What do you regard as legitimate people and actual complaints?
ReplyDeleteThe Indianapolis Star has just told employees that it's rebranding itself Star Media in its marketing to advertisers and potential advertisers. I think Louisville has done something similar. I'm looking for more examples from other sites, with launch dates, other details, etc. Got a memo, too?
ReplyDelete3:06 sounds like a Gannett reporter who favors using "official" sources only. People----do you realize how silly the stories sound to all the "unofficial" sources who are impacted by things such as council and school board decisions?
ReplyDelete3:06 is destined for one of them there Gannett bling rings, sure as heck sounds like to me.
St Cloud went to Times Media about two years ago.
ReplyDelete5:00, you sound like someone who is really good at making poor comparisons and then using them to justify a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteYou must be one of the people in the second category 3:06 mentioned.
NNCO will be MNCO aka Media Network of Central Ohio. They have already bought the domain name of mncogannett.com
ReplyDeleteGannett Blog readers might be intereste in this article about the actions of a Detroit Free Press columnist/blogger:
ReplyDeleteVandals mar new pedestrian bridge in Detroit
$5M pedestrian link in Mexicantown open for less than one day
TOM GREENWOOD
The Detroit News
Less than a day after it opened, the Mexicantown Bagley Avenue Pedestrian Bridge was vandalized, Michigan Department of Transportation officials said.
Numerous individuals have "tagged" the $5 million bridge with spray paint and used knives to carve into a wooden bench in the middle of the span. Others signed their names with pens and magic markers on the bench, officials said.
In fact, an MDOT employee's video camera caught one woman as she used a colored pen to scrawl on a bench in the middle of the 400-foot-long bridge.
"Yes, it was me," said Oneita Jackson, a copy editor at the Detroit Free Press and author of Sunday's "O Street" blog.
"I did it. If you see a person with a green pen ... dressed in black slacks and a red top, that's me. I was excited about the event and wanted to put my name on it."
Jackson eventually put away the marker and said "Oh, I guess I shouldn't be doing this," the tape showed. As a blogger, she has written about her efforts as a mom to raise her 16-year-old son and encourage citizens to be more patient and civil.
The Rev. Tom Sepulveda, pastor of southwest Detroit's historic St. Anne de Detroit Church, spoke about community pride at the ceremony Wednesday, which also marked the 200th anniversary of Mexican Independence.
Sepulveda said he was disappointed to hear of the vandalism to the span that reconnects the east and west sides of Mexicantown for the first time since Interstates 75 and 96 were constructed in 1968 when residents could drive Bagley, Lafayette and Porter straight across.
"The bridge is of the people and to do something like that is certainly a sign of disrespect toward the people," Sepulveda said.
"Residents of this area have waited for 42 years for this reconnection. They've been through hard, hard times and something like this just shows so much thoughtlessness."
Striking in its design, the single-stayed cable bridge, with its angled 150-foot-tall pylon and 15-high-tension cables, is part of the $230-million Gateway Project that provides direct access to the Ambassador Bridge for truck traffic on the freeways.
A bridge engineer also caught three young women in the act of vandalism early Thursday afternoon, said MDOT chief engineer Victor Judnic.
"They were carving up the wooden bench," Judnic said.
"The bridge is made of high density wood which discourages carving, but that didn't seem to make a difference. Others used magic markers on the concrete."
The three ran as the MDOT engineer approached them, he said.
Judnic said MDOT had no intention to take legal action against the vandals.
"We don't do that," Judnic said.
"We'll try and clean off as much of the graffiti as we can, but there's nothing we can do about the carvings. We're close to entering into a maintenance agreement with business leaders in Mexicantown who will assume responsibility for the bridge, including plowing, salting, cutting grass and cleaning off graffiti."
Judnic said most of the bridge and plaza has been coated with an anti-graffiti solution.
"But you can't cover every area and a protective coating won't stop someone who wants to do some carving," he said.
tgreenwood@detnews.com">tgreenwood@detnews.com (313) 222-2023
So what happens to a Gannett writer when they get caught on camera defacing public property. I sure hope the Free Press takes some sort of option. At the very least they should make her pay for a portion of the damage.
ReplyDeleteThat's just astonishing.
OK Jim, enough with the check out your "new" advertisers posts. You put on Google Ads on your site and they rotate using Google's algorithm depending on what they know about the computer viewer. It's not like you actually went to the Good Morning America's ad agency and sold your site specifically to them. If you want us to click on your ads to generate more revenue for you, though even if all of clicked on each ad, my guess would be that you ad revenue wouldn't even double.
ReplyDeleteThe Shreveport paper went to "Times Media Network" a few months ago. Revamped logo that's on everything from our corporate Christmas gift polo shirts to e-mail sigs.
ReplyDeleteOK Is Mark Frisby and Laura coming back to
ReplyDeleteGannett ?.And Tom Geonnotti,Jim Gregory ?. Now
that Brian Tierney is out of Phila. Inquirer.
9:35 am. You are certainly correct: I do not go out and sell these ads myself. But I've been surprised by how much more these image ads pay. My daily revenue has reached as high as $35 vs. a more typical $1-2 with text-only ads. And that's all with a relative handful of readers interested in clicking on them for more details.
ReplyDeleteGiven my relatively small base of reader contributions, this higher ad revenue makes a big difference. That's why these promotions are very important.
10:58AM, you forgot the "other one," Joan Mason who also went over to the Inquirer (wink, wink) with Mark and the others. Probably unlikely they would come back to Gannett. On the other hand, who cares???!!!??
ReplyDelete10:58 I would hope not after the jobs they did in Cherry Hill and then Philly. Life is bad enough without adding past disciples of B. Collins back in the mix.
ReplyDelete