Sunday, June 06, 2010

Week of May 31-June 6 | Your News & Comments

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84 comments:

  1. Thank you, everyone working holiday shifts!

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  3. Happy Memorial Day !! Jim , do you or anyone else know exactly what is going on with the Journal News in Westchester County. I know all about the move to New Jersey and all the hard working people who lost their jobs---but I am very interested to hear about who exactly is running the show and how many people are employed at One Gannett Drive . Thanks.

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  4. yeah, there's 4 people left in white plains. and if you don't know who's running the show, perhaps you should pay more attention.

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  5. Interesting are the thoughts on print vs. online. I wonder if similar thoughts related to the core business were present in Kodak in the late 90's.

    http://www.slideshare.net/Christiansandstrom/the-2-kodak-disruptions

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  6. Why does everyone sound so bitchy? Yes we are all newspaper people without a future, but let's not turn on each other!

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  7. How many reporters vs. editors are there at your publication?

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  9. 2;19 I guess you are one of the four people remaining in White Plains. I don't buy the Journal News , but if the same people are there that brought this once good newspaper down to circulation of 40,000--then Gannett doesn't have a clue.

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  10. I am hearing there is a lot of fighting between the executives at Gannett and the Digital team.

    Also heard there is a brew ha ha between Gannett and Point roll.

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  11. hey look at this...WE SUCK LESS!!!

    "The Newspaper Association of America says first-quarter advertising revenue fell 10 percent, marking the first decrease of less than 12 percent since the final three months of 2007. It's the latest signal that the ad slump is easing.

    April 16: Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, reports smallest drop in ad revenue for publishing in more than two years: 8 percent. CEO says year is "off to a great start."

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  12. Gracia Martore6/01/2010 1:24 PM

    no, no, no Craig, you mean to say, "We suck even less"!!!

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  13. No, Gracia,it should read as follows..."We suck less than that gay Gannett blogger Jim"

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  14. At the risk of stating the obvious, those recent comments were not posted by the real Dubow, Pence and Martore executives.

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  15. Uh oh, Jim!
    Stock is tanking.... and here they come!

    J'ever notice when the stock is tanking the Trolls come out from under their bridge, like the Troll in that Story book "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" ????

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  16. It happens when the stock tanks and whenever Jim has some exclusive that reflects especially badly on the company. The trolling and sexual insults always ramp up.

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  18. 6:41 PM. Then do better on your own blog! YOU give us information!! At least he is trying!!

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  19. Jim, please don't let the trolls drive you away again.

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  20. Jim:

    Please give the trolls less to have to worry about each day. Simply delete the posts for everyone's sake.

    If it's not a pertinent post, please delete so that you can keep the blog useful.

    As a reminder, you could post a total number of posts each week that were deleted in order for everyone to detect the desperation on the part of Gannett to shut you down.

    When you posted that traffic report, it must have really sent everyone in the palace into fits of rage.

    Keep it up.

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  21. I looked at those rules on interns ("trainees," as the Department of Labor says. I bet a few Gannett properties would have a hard time justifying no pay. How about yours?

    http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pdf

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  22. Agreed. Jim, if somebody has a legitimate disagreement with something you've written, you should go ahead and post that.

    But I see no reason we should all have to wade through comments about you needing to be lobotomized, going off your rocker, etc. They're annoying and a waste of time.

    Legitimate, well reasoned criticism is one thing. Pointless insults don't need to be posted.

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  23. I agree with 1:25 AM and the others. If you feel you absolutely must allow them to post, give them their own category and call it "Gannett Trolls". Maybe you could make it a permanent fixture and place it right under "The Morgue" tab on the right side of the page.

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  24. Perhaps 20-30 percent of what's posted hear would classify as reasoned. Now, I would LOVE to have a place (here?) where we could have an intelligent debate. But anyone who posts anything about what Gannett or one of its execs might have done right is branded a "troll", along with the gaybasher. Then you get the constant refrain of "Gannett sucks and has always sucked," followed closely by "XXX person at my site sucks." I would love you take out both the gay/Jim bashing, and the mindless "sucks" comments. But that isn't going to drive traffic, is it?

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  25. 1045 am et al: I constantly look for ways to keep comments useful. There's no perfect solution. Moderating comments in advance slows down discussion. Spiking the sort of comments you reference -- especially anti-gay/personal attacks on me -- tends to inspire even more. I'm reviewing my current strategy, and hope to do better. As always, I appreciate your patience.

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  26. Hollis Towns may be getting tossed out of New Jersey. A big boost in web traffic might save him, but the quote in the NY Times about Devils coverage did not go unnoticed.

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  27. Anyone want to place bets on what will go on Friday in Honolulu?

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  28. Just because a poster is anti-Jim does not mean they are part of the rumored conspiracy to bring down this blog.

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  29. It just gets so tiring... there is no real reason to have to wade through the mess.

    Let's try and keep things on the up-and-up. More business here, and less crap makes the blog much more interesting.

    I especially like it when other employees post helpful information about what is going on locally, that might be coming down for some of our other sites.

    Gannett likes to test the waters with procedural changes, and I've learned a great deal about what to expect next by keeping up with Gannettblog.

    Thanks, Jim.

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  30. What's really going on at Cherry Hill?

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  31. Hollis Towns, on his way out??? Gannett spent a lot of monay to lure him away from the Kalamazoo Gazette and gave him a coveted Exec Editor title within four years. There has to be more to the story than his careless quote to the Times. Isn't the APP staff standing up for him?

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  32. GOD! Can we get any info from any sites?? Or is there anyone on here that is actually still working at Gannett??

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  33. This blog had jumped the shark. There hasn't been any good posts in months and limited posts for that matter. I find myself checking this less and less.

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  34. Gannett Blog thrives on contributions from everyone -- including you, @3:07 p.m. How many good posts have you submitted in recent months?

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  35. Jim - this would make a good post: How many Gannett papers are on this list. Check out PCOLA.

    http://community.naa.org/blogs/growingaudience/archive/2010/06/03/audience-metrics-update.aspx

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  37. If you don't like it, go elsewhere and find something that you do like.

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  38. What do you mean, 'what's really going on in Cherry Hill,' 9:30 p.m.?

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  39. I think part of the silence from various sites is coming from the fear that posters will be identified somehow. Our publisher issued a starkly worded warning against leaking any proprietary information to the public. He didn't specify what information he meant, but said anyone caught would be fired immediately. I've hardly posted a peep since that warning.

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  40. In the nearly three years I've been publishing this blog, I've never heard of a case where a poster has been outed against their will. What's more, I can't identify an anonymous poster -- unless they volunteer their identity to me via an e-mail.

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  41. Perhaps they'll start leaking carefully-managed misinfo to certain people and see if it gets leaked; and, if so, the person's canned?

    I don't work at a Gannett paper (and never have -- I simply live in an area served by one), of course, so I don't know the likelyhood of that happening/working/even being possible.

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  42. 8:31 is the classic pro-Jim drone.

    Jim, it doesn't really matter if you can identify the person, you dumbbell. If the workplace IDs the person, then the person is gone.

    As usual, Jim is still trying to figure out what's going on.

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  43. Hi, Jim: It's the end of an era here tonight in Olympia, WA. The Olympian newspaper, a Gannett paper until July 2005, printed its final edition of USA Today and for the first time in at least 100 years, no longer prints a newspaper of any kind. The Olympian still exists, of course, it's just that it's printed by The News Tribune in Tacoma as part of a desperate consolidation move by McClatchy to cut costs. USA Today in the Northwest, meanwhile, will be printed by The Herald in Everett, WA. Twenty-three press men and women lost their jobs tonight, lowering The Olympian's overall employment to 31, down from 200 five years ago. The dark days of the newspaper biz have been writ large in this town.

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  44. Jim, I recall an anonymous poster was outed after making threats on this blog, yes?

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  45. Cherry Hill/NJ... Be careful. Info could be a plant to find out who is leaking. Or shared early to find out if there is someone undermining.

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  46. 9:26 am: That is correct, and I should have mentioned that lone, exceptional case.

    In November 2008, a reader posted a comment in which they said, ""I brought a gun to work but decided not to use it." Their post closely followed a recent workplace shooting that resulted in fatalities.

    I do not tolerate threats of physical violence; no responsible publisher would. Here is how that case was resolved.

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  47. I'm happy I have a job, but I'm a lot less happy about taking a furlough this year. Last year, I was OK with it: We were doing it for the health of the company, right? We're all in this together, right? That was before the big bonuses to top brass were heedlessly and arrogantly distributed. Now I see how naive we were. Last year, I wouldn't have considered signing up for unemployment on principle. After all, I had a job I was going back to and others needed the money more. It didn't seem right.

    This year? I seriously considered signing up on principle. And that principle would be to get back at Gannett, even feebly, by adding to its unemployment tax liability.

    What a difference a year makes. And what a difference another year will make: That's my deadline to find a job at a company where the people running it don't look at their loyal employees as an obstacle to higher payouts for themelves.

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  48. 10:51Am is probably giving some good advice about Cherry Hill. The Courier-Post is well known as a place where employees are treated like crap and management which is nasty and evil; even the "new" management is carrying on the tradition of incompetence and nastiness. This place is a big mess and has been for many years.

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  49. Wow!
    Cherry Hill sounds worse than RIKERS ISLAND!!!!!

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  50. Cherry Hill is wonderfully positioned in the Phily suburbs to take circulation away from the Inquirer and News. Yet because of absolutely atrocious management decisions that go back 20 years, it has not been able to get up the gumption to take on what should be its area. Top level infighting and perverse management incompetence are legendary. I have no other explanation for why Cherry Hill is not flourishing and happy, especially with the competitors in bankruptcy court.

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  51. I always thought of Cherry Hill as more like Shawshank. I don't know anything about the current crew there, but in the past you could simply substitute the movies weasle Warden with Publisher's like Collins and his protege Frisby.

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  52. The Courierpost's advertising sales department is an even bigger mess than the rest of the place. It's loaded with cutsey little sales "girls" and some real pigs who have no clue at all. They've now gone to these ridiculous programs giving away ads to sucker businesses into buying ads in this terrible paper. And, because of continued sinking circulation (not the phonied up numbers) the ads don't work and the business community knows it. If the Phila Inquirer would just get their act together, they could wipe out this Gannett mess. Unfortunately, the Inquirer thinks they can fool the public by putting out a product that claims to cover South New Jersey, but there's more coverage of the murders in Philly than what's happening in South New Jersey. No wonder: Mark Frisby formerly of Courierpost and a couple of his buddies and girlfriends who used to be with him in Cherry Hill are now at the bankrupt Inquirer/Daily News. Sad, sad, sad.

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  53. Former Daily Record publisher to head Springfield, Ill., newspaper

    JUNE 4, 2010

    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The State Journal-Register in Springfield and the (Rockford) Register Star have named new publishers, days after the publisher for both papers stepped down.
    Walt Lafferty is a New Jersey newspaper executive who is taking over in Springfield. Longtime newspaper advertising executive Peter Ricker takes the same post in Rockford.
    The appointments follow last week's resignation of Scott Bowers.
    The 49-year-old Lafferty spent three years as president and publisher of the Courier Post in Camden, N.J., after holding the same position at The Daily Record in Parsippany, N.J.
    The 53-year-old Ricker spent the last two years as senior vice president of advertising for Republic Media in Phoenix. He's held management jobs for Gannett Corp. and Knight Ridder and at various newspapers.

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  54. Well good luck Springfield. You've got Walt Lafferty who really screwed things up at the Courier Post in Cherry Hill NJ. During his tenure at Cherry Hill the famous 'Poopgate' episode(s) took place! He'd been gone from Cherry Hill for quite some time and everyone here wondered where he went since we were fed the typical Gannett line of crap that he was off on some special assignment for Gannett. We thought that when a publisher screwed up they ended up in Cherry Hill. A former Cherry Hill publisher (another real loser) Dan Martin came from Springfield. This is all like a merry-go-round.

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  55. Both Lafferty and Martin have nothing to fear from Anon 10:08, though, who sneaks around posting attacks.

    I bet they know how to use commas properly, too, which puts them way ahead of 10:08.

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  56. Some of you will recall that Gannett sold the Rockford paper to GateHouse Media in May 2007.

    Also included in that sale: the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin, the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va. -- all for $410 million (!).

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  58. Israel strikes again. This time, its June 8 1967. Wonder if any Gannett papers will recap the history of the USS Liberty attack and the sailors killed or wounded in that "accident," given the recent attacks on the Gaza aid ships in which several people aboard were also killed.

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  60. For whitewashing unpleasant facts you can't beat the New Jersey Group.

    Kicks is the Friday entertainment pullout for the Courier News in Somerville. Pulse is the Friday entertainment pullout for the Home News Tribune in East Brunswick. Both sections look alike and share much of their content.

    This week Kicks and Pulse had a story on Adam Lambert, who's doing a concert in the area. Buried at the bottom was an inconvenient truth ... his performance on the American Music Awards and the fallout from same. A "temporary backlash"? Lambert was disinvited from "Good Morning America" after ABC got hit with a ton of complaints. Not only that, his bump-and-grind on live TV led directly to the defeat of same-sex marriage in the New York Legislature.

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  61. >>>Not only that, his bump-and-grind on live TV led directly to the defeat of same-sex marriage in the New York Legislature.

    Really? This place is so stupid sometimes.

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  62. ABC televised the American Music Awards on November 22. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York was defeated in the state Senate on December 2.

    As the song says, one thing leads to another.

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  65. I agree with a lot of posts on this site, but absolutely disagree with those Walt Lafferty haters. This guy has been a quality newspaperman for decades, knows the business inside and out and is a solid guy. Finally he will be able to florish with employees who aren't total jerks.

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  66. i just love ... LOVE! ... the rants about cherry hill ... jim, you should have a separate channel just for this site ... donations would skyrocket.

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  67. I would like to know how many people here are gay, not because there's anything wrong with that.

    Jim gets a lot of support for things that make no sense, and there has to be more to that than hatred of Gannett.

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  68. Heard Ashville was getting a new Ad Director. Anyone know who?

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  69. Now that "My Boss" has almost certainly left Gannett, where will be getting our insider information?

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  70. 1. I'm rather certain My Boss is still an employee.

    2. I have other equally excellent sources. (Hi, guys!)

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  71. If you want to get promoted at Gannett follow these three steps:

    1. Bend over and take it like a troll.
    2. Win a Gannett ring for doing nothing.
    3. Just learn to say YES.

    As for me, I am waiting for the right opportunity to get the F??? out.

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  72. Hi, Jim: Another update about a former Gannett paper in the Northwest. The Olympian press sits idle for the first time since 1890 and so does the newsroom, denied a chance to write about the final press run because the powers that be said "press contracts end all the time." Except in this case it's the end of the press as we know it. That didn't sit well with the newsroom or the press guys; even advertising suggested we do a story to keep the rumors about the paper to a minimum. To no avail, though. The only message our part-time publisher wants to project to the community is that we're getting better and better, which is a joke because the paper is so clearly failing. A business unit shutting down for the first time in more than 100 years and casting 23 people into the street is a story, but not here, apparently.

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  73. I'm gay, I work for Gannett, and I think Jim is a schmuck.

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  74. To the employees of State Journal-Register in Springfield: you will love Walt Lafferty. He is smart, intuitive, innovative, industry-savvy, and fair. If you are dedicated to your work, he will notice it and appreciate you. He is completely accessible to all employees, has an open-door policy, and gets out of his office and into the departments to know and listen to employees. You guys lucked out.

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  75. 5:36 pm: I have more than 10,000 monthly readers. In June, I surveyed them on the question you ask: how many are gay? After more than a week, only 71 said yes.

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  76. Why did they get rid of Walt Lafferty in Cherry Hill, NJ? Was it because he is intelligent, accessible, or what?

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  77. Walt Lafferty was a disaster at the Courier-Post

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  78. What is up with all the gay talk?? Who cares? If it is because Jim might be gay, then it is because only I would care because I want a hook up with him and I am female!!!! PLEASE back to the subjects!!

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  79. You can deservedly trash all the Courier-Post publishers, but Dan Martin shouldn't be included in the group. He was a first class guy and publisher. He was the only one in the group with balls enough to stand up to Napolean Collins.

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  80. Too funny. A job posting for an alternative in Lansing includes a statement that goes something like this----you'll be surrounded by Gannett so you'll have plenty of opportunities to shine. That made my day.

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  81. Dan Martin was (and is) an old-fashioned newspaperman and was a champion of the Courier-Post newsroom. He was publisher when we all received substantial pay raises every six months because our pay levels weren't up to par. Of all the C-P publishers, he was my favorite.

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  82. yeah Wal Lafferty made his mark on springfield... shut down there printing press and moved printing the springfield paper to peoria. I heard around 70 production positions were eliminated a few weeks before christmas there.
    merry christmas and thanks for helping the springfield economy

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  83. 2.SJ-R looks at printing newspaper in Peoria
    The State Journal-Register announced Monday it is considering a move to print the Springfield newspaper in Peoria.


    http://www.sj-r.com/archive/x1996689568/SJ-R-looks-at-printing-paper-in-Peoria

    Tue Dec 7 11:27:53 CST 2010

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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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