Sunday, July 04, 2010
Week June 28-July 4 | 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.)
112 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)
How's your week look so far?
ReplyDeletePaul Anger says Freep is getting an iPhone app.. Anyone else besides USA Today have one? http://www.freep.com/article/20100627/FREEPRESS/6270388/1320/A-heftier-Free-Press-and-thanks
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe obsession of Cincinnati Enquirer publisher/former ad saleswoman Margaret Buchanan to turn the paper into a community newsletter reached new heights Sunday with two special sections that made many of us puke our guts out. The first, a 16-page section called "GOOD NEWS," is full of the kind of fluff you expect to find in a town of 5,000, not a city of 2+ million. Like "Cookie girls help troops, homeless" and "Teen has been volunteering since age 12" and lots of posed "happy" pictures of people. Editor Tom Callinan has completely turned the newsroom over to Buchanan and made the section possible by volunteering his first-string reporters, not interns or freelancers, to write the crap. The poor business staff had it even worse. They had to process copy for a 20-page section called "60 that are the BEST," about the best places to work in Cincinnati. The companies were chosen by employees of the companies, with no independent judging done at all, and the "stories" are full of passages written by the companies proclaiming how they are the "best" at something or were the "first" or is one of the "strongest" at what they do. Pretty sickening. Most of the advertisers in the section appear to have been included in the 60, which makes us wonder what came first, the ad buy or the award. No one is standing up against this prostitution of journalism because they'd be gone if they did.
ReplyDelete@12:17
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised by this. At NNCO the Executive Editor has a real hard on for accidents. He is practically giddy with excitement if a med flight is called in. There has been nothing worthy of Sunday exclusivity. Linda Greiwe is cut from the same mold as Buchanan. Pretty clueless about technology/editorial. The only thing she knows is sales and I wonder how much of that she knows.
Anyone have a timetable on when these alleged big changes are coming to USA Today? How about an educated guess (educated being the key word) of how many people might be laid off?
ReplyDeleteNo timetable, but on the extent of layoffs and where they might come, I've been monitoring the postings of Demand Media on USA Today's Travel Tips. I haven't seen many comments posted on these stories, which I find to be terribly generic and capable of standing the test of time. In fact, they probably could run a decade or two from now and no one would notice. I liked the insights of one on Italy, which concludes: "Italians prize fresh food and often visit the market on a daily basis." I guess that is contrary to the American experience.
ReplyDeleteMy views are not supported by any evidence, but I see Demand Media filling in for other sections as well. Living and Business come to mind. Demand Media seems big on "how to" stories, so how to invest in the stock market, or how to deal with a stockbroker could fit in business sections. How to redecorate your house, or how to arrange furniture might fit into Living. Demand Media doesn't seem to bother quoting people, so there's libel issues don't loom large.
In a fix, they could fill a paper, but I suspect you might bore readers so much they wouldn't return. But if you are looking at saving money at USA Today, you could use the copy.
The Republic has done several Good News-type sections in the past year. But they've been part of our individual community sections. Staff may not like them, but readers' feedback indicated they were well received.
ReplyDelete12:17 pm: What kind of advertising appeared in the "good news" section?
ReplyDelete3:46 pm: Can you quantify that response in single-copy/subscription sales, or in net ad revenue increases?
ReplyDeleteWhat's going on in Binghamton?
ReplyDeleteIt appears as if 20 jobs will go at USA Today. Apparently the company has recruited 20 chronic complainers from the Gannett Blog to fill the positions because these people have been shown to be ""consistently negative, day after day,'' and Gannett loves that piercing negative traits in their employees because it keeps everyone sharp.
ReplyDeleteHey Jim how much common stock does Dubow own.(# of shares) and what options does he have or been given since 2007. Just wanted to know thanks
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News (Westcheter) did this crap years ago. We called it "A Day in the Life of..." add your town here. A different town each month for about two years. About half the photo staff and a dozen or more reporters were sent to inundate the town for the day and tell slice of life stories that made each town unique. Great concept but lousy (as usual) execution. They turned into cookie-cutter sections with the exact same stories about the same businesses in every different town. Not coincidentally, each business that a story was done about also had an ad in the section. At the beginning, we were asked to find some neat stories ourselves but that deteriorated into just cover what we tell you (whoever bought an ad). After the day was done, the staff would gather at what was almost always, the WORST bar in town for drinks on the company. Showed even more about how little the news managers knew about these towns. At one such gathering, one of the photographers got into it with one of the editors who had a bit too much to drink on the company tab. The photog basically told the editor that the whole concept was bullshit and was a lost opportunity at community journalism. We were hoping it was gonna come to blows as we all had our money on the photg when they both went outside to "finish their conversation", but it never materialized- just some more arguing. Typical Journal News- another chance blown. Eventually, they couldn't sell enough ads and the projects were dropped. Oh- and the photographer who had won a ton of awards over his 20-plus years was restructured last August. The editor however, has remained to make us miserable on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteUSA Today shuts down in Batavia:
ReplyDeletehttp://thedailynewsonline.com/articles/2010/06/25/news/doc4c249128ea780925826573.txt
The ads in the Good News section appeared to be ROP. Car ads etc. They had trouble selling earlier versions of this. This is the third one they've done. Don't know about this edition. The 60 are the best section was more unusual, touting Enquirer Media on every page. Looked like a play if you pay deal. P&G - which treats its folks well - and is city's largest company wasn't even on the list.
ReplyDeleteWe've been doing Good News at our paper for about year. The readers love it. The feedback is great and our circulation numbers are...wait for it....UP!!!! Sorry to all you purists who feel you should decide what the public wants. We decided to give them what they asked for and they have responded. Sorry!
ReplyDelete4:24, you are bullshit. None of that happened.
ReplyDeleteRe: Cincinnati
ReplyDeleteThe ads cover the gamut, but there's a suspiciously high proportion of car dealer ads, ads that normally would have run in the weekend classifieds. Other than that there are ads from three small colleges, a full pager from a high school, a half pager from a furniture store, half a page from a local museum and an old-folks home, and good-sized ads from a closet company, a bank, a restaurant and a hearing aids company. All at the expense of Local, Business and A sections, which have gotten ridiculously thin.
@5:11 pm...Sorry troll. It's all true. I, along with many other current newsroom workers, was there, but you probably already know that.
ReplyDelete4:22 pm: Good questions. I'll research that, and post results later.
ReplyDeleteMy traffic suggests this week and next will be big vacation periods.
ReplyDeleteThe Courier Post in Cherry Hill, NJ also did the "Day in the life" crap. (I also believe that other NJ Group properties got sucked into this as well) At the Courier Post it was done very poorly and didn't last too long. Their idea of covering a targeted area was to send a photographer out to take pictures while reporters wrote pathetic little stories that no one was interested in. The (horrible) management saw this as a way to sell ads to businesses in the targeted areas. What a cluster f**k.
ReplyDeleteDay in and day out I read this blog. Sometimes I find something useful (hence me coming back). Most of the time I don't. What i find is a bunch of self important editorial types whining and complaining. What's wrong with a community section, or a best of employers section? Nothing really. In fact readers like them. What's wrong is that writers can't feel free to be their "oh so" clever and intelligent selves. whah... everyday i have to do crap that I think sucks. All i have to say is... Suck it up. You are not the next pulitzer prize winner. go do some work....
ReplyDelete5:09 -- I don't know what site you're at, but our paper has also been doing a "Good News" section for some time (clearly this is a corporate idea). Although the section seems to be relatively popular with advertisers it has done nothing for circulation.
ReplyDeleteWe've lost about 33% of our circulation in the past 10 years despite the fact that we are in a growing area. So market penetration would be terrible if it wasn't for the Web site, custom publications, etc. Throw those things in and we're still a force to be reckoned with, but good news has had nothing to do with that. The lack of competition is a bigger factor.
9:15 -- Nice attitude. If nobody believed they were the next Pulitzer winner ... or the next president ... or the next Wal-Mart manager ... or the next shift manager at Starbucks, nobody would ever achieve those things.
ReplyDeleteIt must be sad to live in a world where doing crap that sucks is the only future you can believe in. I guess what I'm saying, is if that's really what you think, you're just as much a part of the problem as the complainers. Believe it or not most people who complain do so because they give a damn. The people who shrug it off and say, "All jobs suck," have given up and will never do anything inventive for the company they work for. I don't blame you, considering how Gannett operates, but that is the sad truth.
The discussion started off with a complaint about a whole section titled "Good News." Others have generalized to saying what's wrong with some good news or with what readers say they want. Big difference in degree and focus. By the way, puffy good news never draws the big hits on the Web the way harder stuff does. If it's real and it's also upbeat, it works. The problem with a puff approach is that it's not real and readers see it soon enough. I skip over so much of that stuff to save time for reading the stuff that has some impact. But a whole section? Good-bye.
ReplyDeleteThe methods for picking the business best places to work relied on insiders? So, what if an all-white company's employees touted their employer? If I'm black and feel my people have no way in there, how might I feel about the article? If an employer rounds up his staff to all nominate his company, how fair is that?
Amen, 9:15! I've got my j-school degree and I work in advertising. Journalism shouldn't just be writing what you need and want to write - it's writing what they need and want to read.
ReplyDeleteSome of our most dedicated readers are the ones getting the free TMC that we shovel calendar, chicken dinner, check-presenting-photo crap around the ads.
Sure local local local is often drivel. But it's important to them. Nobody clips the latest story on what happens in Washington - but when it happens on 'my' Washington Street? It goes on the fridge.
Community sections are a pain - no doubt. But properly done, they can be a boon for advertising and circ - and editorially it pops us out of the rut of covering the same people and events.
Regardless of how big the community, writing something average Joes will want to read is how we draw eyeballs and pay staff.
"Stuff" is gonna hit the fan at the NJ Group today.
ReplyDeleteFor 5:11 p.m. and 9:15 p.m....I wasn't at that post "Day in the Life" watering hole, but everything else jibed with what I know about the project.
ReplyDeleteThat said, "Day in the Life" and "Good News" can have their place.
A problem with "Day in the Life" was that it was too cookie cutter. Every place had to fit a single mold. And how many times can you do a community? Only once. That it was purely an advertorial was never disputed. In fact, a Journal News editor running the show said as much.
As for the "good news," newspapers have always written such things. It was simply part of the day-to-day coverage of a community. What's to be gained from putting it into a single special section? Not much from my perspective.
Herein lies a problem: People with advertising backgrounds running newspaper and TV stations. They should stick to their expertise and leave the news to news people.
Gannnett's slide began with McCorkindale, a bean counter extraordinaire, who in turn put another business guy in charge.
For 9:15 p.m.....The reporters I know are hard-working people. I wish I could say the same for the higher-level editors. At least that's the situation in Westchester.
ReplyDeleteA key issue as I see it is that corporate interferes too much in local operations. As other posters have said, if the businesses are doing well, leave them alone. And please, leave them some money to put back into their operations.
It has all boiled down to corporate greed. Corporate has refused to accept lower profits, and wants to extract as many bucks as in the pre-Internet days.
Asbury Park Press moves newsroom into a coffee shop.
ReplyDeletehttp://freehold.injersey.com/2010/06/28/finj-launches-coffeeshop-newsroom/
9:15 I think you are the troll, but here goes anyway: There's nothing at all wrong with community sections. Us oh so clever writers think we're doing that now when we cover our communities and write stories for our newspapers. Writing news for the community is the definition of what we do. We don't do it daily for a Pulitzer prize, although that would be nice, and the fact you can pick up a paper each morning shows we are working.
ReplyDeleteIf I read one more missive from an ad-side whore about how newspeople need to write what people want to read I'm just going to puke. They are the people killing the newspapers with their blame-somebody-else inability to cope with the combination of high ad rates and insipid strategies, circulation and delivery wastelands and the fact business-side publishers already have dumbed the papers down to oblivion. Just once I'd like to see a ranking editor with a real set of balls (male or female, the same) let it all hang out about what has been done and stand up with real integrity.
ReplyDelete1:04, That ain't going to happen with Callinan. He sold his soul for a box full of president's rings long, long ago.
ReplyDelete1:04 - so you're saying content doesn't matter?
ReplyDeleteDon't tell Rupert Murdoch. Somehow, he can build audience and revenue and I'm pretty sure it's not because of anything his ad departments are doing with rates, sales contests or circulation/households issues. Heck, I've seen some of his content and frankly, much of it couldn't get any dumber.
But his companies create audience by providing the content people want and pay for. And in turn advertisers who desire that audience pay for the privilege of talking to them.
Guess what? Unless people are dying in the street, nobody wants to read highlights of this year's water quality report. They don't want to read it, they won't read it, and they sure as hell won't pay for it or make any effort to pick it up. They WILL read it if it is presented and written in a way that makes the issue matter to them.
I know it's hard to believe an ad whore appreciates interesting content - but before I worked here I was a reader. I sell ads, but I don't buy the newspaper to read the advertising.
For 5:11pm Re:BullS#$t. I was there as well. It happened. The editor was BF. The photographer was SB. Since you can't ask SB, ask BF if it happened.
ReplyDeleteMy condolences to the reporters at the Cincinnati Enquirer. Special sections and advertiser-friendly stories won't save this company. Gannett will have to get back into the business of providing valuable information and little known facts. Back in the dark ages, this was known as NEWS.
ReplyDeleteThis "legendary" Westchester incident of the ogre manager vs. the sainted photographer is really getting old. Give it a rest already. What a bunch of babies.
ReplyDeleteSo, putting a few reporters into the middle of a coffee shop in Freehold and calling it a newsroom is the "stuff hitting the fan" in NJ Group? Is that all you've got?
ReplyDeleteOn "Good News," any project can be worthwhile, even good news about a community, if it is well-written and reported.
ReplyDeleteAnother day at the Blog: Instead of discussing real issues that afflict the company, instead we have marginal talents complaining.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 9:27. Not sure that adds up to a crisis or a fan-worthy warning.... I can write anywhere if I have to, and don't mind doing it. But I wouldn't want to write in a coffee shop every day any more than I'd want to write on the shoulder of a four-lane highway every day. Unless GCI buys the coffee. In which case I'd bring smelling salts because that would cut into bonuses, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteLafayette (Ind.) Journal & Courier Executive Editor Julie Doll is leaving but it's a big secret where she is going. I've heard there was an upper-level management meeting (which pretty much means everyone in the building) and they were told but what's interesting is they weren't told where she is going. Anyone have any idea what's in store in Lafayette?
ReplyDeleteThis is what has Gannett executives and the entire GMC concerned.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/reachlocal-2010-6
ReachLocal is taking away significant amount of business from Gannett's local newspaper sales departments and Bob Dickey is challenged with finding the right solution. If you ask the local sales teams at each of our newspapers, Reach Local has been dominating the space and taking share from us. Gannett has no solution. Our recently announced GannettLocal initiative is being run by someone who has no online or start up experience. In fact, the entire team in AZ are confused by the channel conflict that exists between the different sales organizations.
Jim,
Please take a look at this analysis that has been circulating throughout Gannett from Citibank.
Also concerned is Dave Lougee who is seeing a negative impact to local advertising dollars shifting away from broadcast and moving to online.
For all the Gannett executives that are reading this post, you should spend your time reading this book.
http://www.yodledummiesbook.com/
Enough with the Advertising/Editorial meeting
ReplyDeleteagenda and planning session.
Is there no real news as to what is happening
within Gannett?
Stock is down, the second quarter is over and had to be a very bad quarter as usual.I had
heard there were 2nd quarter furloughs
at some of the weeklies and is has been kept quiet.Are there more layoffs coming or closings?
Former Gannett Manager(Thank God ,Former)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI'm reposting some of the text from a comment left moments ago by Anonymous@10:10 a.m. (Note: Please don't post the entire text of stories as a comment; you can post a snippet, then link to the rest). Here's the top of that story:
ReplyDeleteBy Nat Ives
Published: June 28, 2010
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Look at newspapers' share of digital advertising, the crowds checking out other kinds of news sites, or the prices that advertisers will pay for the competition. The conditions in digital media, essential to just about any future growth for newspapers, are getting worse for papers instead.
Newspapers' share of digital ad revenue has fallen from 16.2% in 2005 to 11.4% last year and is heading for 7.9% in 2014, according to the new entertainment and media outlook from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Here's the rest of Ives' story.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteReplying to Former Gannett Manager ... there were absolutely furloughs in the second quarter as several people I know at the Lafayette (Ind.) location were required to take several days off and the upper-level folks were required to take a whole week. So, yes, the ship is still sinking at Gannett despite what they tell (or don't tell) the public.
ReplyDeleteAllan Mutter has been making the same point as that piece on the decline in digital ads. It is not just volume, but the cost of Internet ads is declining, so revenues are hit by double or so. I am waiting with anticipation for the 2nd quarter report, although I seem to recall GCI says it will no longer give quarterly digital results.
ReplyDeleteThere are more layoffs coming, but we don't know yet where. Hunke has hinted there will be some at USA Today as a transformation is made, but since the details of the transformation have not yet been worked out, we are all left waiting.
ReplyDeleteDoes it strike anyone else as passing strange how this company seems to be taking much more time to do things than in they used to in previous years -- filling the top level vacancies, implementing Content One changes, consolidations at the community papers are three that come to mind immediately in addition to USA transformation.
jim have you asked investor relations how many shares of common stock dubow has?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete3:29 pm: No. Based on my experience as a business reporter, Investor Relations would refer me to the relevant SEC filings, as would any company.
ReplyDelete"jim have you asked investor relations how many shares of common stock dubow has?"
ReplyDeleteWhy do you bother asking these questions? Of course he hasn't.
Newspaper stocks got whacked again today. Gannett closed at $13.46, down more than 4% -- the lowest close since $13.16 on Dec. 11.
ReplyDelete@ 6/29 10:33
ReplyDeleteIf Lafayette (Ind.) Executive Editor Julie Doll has anything planned for after she leaves, nobody in the newsroom has been told. A manager told staff last week that she wasn't forced out, but neither have we heard that she has landed another job. Rumor has it Doll is leaving journalism completely. I just hope her departure doesn't signal something terrible is ahead for the J&C. She could be getting out while the getting's good ... this is all speculation, of course.
Bill Cotterell compares online readers to shoplifters, says website is something newspaper just left lying on the Internet. What a total dick.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100624/COLUMNIST03/6240306/Bill-Cotterell-There-s-no-more-free-ride-for-our-online-only-readers
It would be interesting to know how much Tallahasee and these other papers make from online ads, because once the paywall goes up, their click-throughs will go down. That means revenue will go down, too. I am in favor of this experiment because I think they will realize they get more from being fully online than not.
ReplyDeleteJulie Doll is leaving due the news from corporate to sell their press overseas. Just another way to protect an overpaid publisher/vp in the Interstate Group. Someone at corporate should truely inform the shareholders the true mission statement for GCI. Take the news out of NEWSPAPER.
ReplyDeleteto 8:41 a.m. The reporters I know are hard-working people. I wish I could say the same for the higher-level editors. At least that's the situation in Westchester.
ReplyDeleteamen to that. In late, out early
Julie is a great journalist. I am not surprised that she is fed up with all the crap that corporate is shoveling down the pipelines.
ReplyDeleteAnyone care to give the initials of the Journal News editor and photographer from the story above?
ReplyDeleteThere is no way on God's green earth I would pay to use our website. In fact, Gannett has to pay ME, since I only use it at work, and only because I have to. The new redesign is the worst yet. It's not just my opinion -- our 20-something college interns laugh at it! Once you scroll past all the clutter, you hit long gray lists of boring headlines. Click on a video or photo gallery, and it won't lead you to the story. Hyper link? What's that? Search engine? Try garbage collector.
ReplyDeleteUpdates we throw up in five minutes and graduation/prom photo galleries are given the spotlight over stories, no matter how labor-intensive or well-written. Know exactly what you want? Too bad. There's no easy way to find it, but you'll waste a lot of time hunting it down.
I'm no tech whiz, but I'm a heavy Internet user. If corporate wants to attract/retain new readers by sending them online, why aren't we investing more in our sites? We've had our site for, what, a decade? Shouldn't we know how to do this by now?
Our online updates look a lot like spam. Reporters are simply re-writing junk press releases to comply with the orders of our esteemed management team.
ReplyDelete10:57: You don't get it. We don't want people to come to our Internet sites. In fact, we are building paywalls to keep them away. Once you hit once of these walls, you don't bother to come back no matter what is on the site. We are trying to be as hostile and unfriendly to Internet users as possible.
ReplyDeleteIf the interns laugh at it, then it MUST be bad. What a good point you make, 10:57! And how have you not been laid off yet?
ReplyDeleteAny reporter who would sit there and "rewrite press releases" because the bosses demand it, should not be in the business to begin with.
ReplyDeleteThere are journalists with integrity and backbones and then there are the mythical spineless wretches described here.
Sorry, I just dobn't buy it.
Yes our newsrooms are being decimated. These are bad times. But even in the worst of times a reporter or editor needs to stand for something. If they don't, then they deserve what they agree to.
My boss made that rewrite press release demand. She also insisted I "localize" stories that our readers didn't car about. For months, I tried to do all that, but ended up using my own time to do the real work----like getting out and finding the news that mattered to people. I couldn't take the 60 - 80 hour weeks, so I left Gannett. It wasn't until I found Gannettblog that I realized that I wasn't alone in my dislike for the Gannett ways. Thanks Jim.
ReplyDeleteThe stock is falling, GCI stock is falling! It warms the cockles of my heart as I approach the 1st anniversary of being laid off from the Gannett NJ paper group. One year unemployed... I hope the stock keeps falling! ;-)
ReplyDeleteSorry Gannett and Gannettoids, the paywall solution won't work, because you've pared the product down so far that it isn't worth the price. Any price. That is, unless you give it away. A paywall now will be like erecting a toll booth on the bridge to nowhere.
ReplyDeleteSo...this is why they're sprucing up the place, painting the hallways and cafeteria. And I thought it was because they cared about me:
ReplyDeleteCorporate Visit on July 9th
Craig Dubow/Gannett Chairman and CEO, Gracia Martore/President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Bob Dickey/President, U.S. Community Publishing and Robin Pence, VP of Corporate Communications will be visiting The Tennessean on Friday afternoon, July 9th. They are making a number of visits to Gannett locations this summer. They want to hear what's on people's minds and to thank them. They will meet with our management committee to discuss what's going on here and afterward they will hold a "town hall" meeting, which is scheduled for 3:00 p.m in the cafeteria. This meeting will consist of an update of what's going on in the company as well as an opportunity for questions and answers.
I saw the corporate guys in Reno this week.. Does anyone know what happened?
ReplyDeletePaywalls are way too late... They needed to be installed in 2000, maybe 2003 at the latest. They're still making a tragic mistake. Big corporate media (Gannett, NewsCorp, NYTimes Co., TimeWarner, WashPost Co., and others) need to get together and develop a universal strategy and apply it TOGETHER... It's the only way everyone can survive.
ReplyDelete12:11 p.m. The people I work with are not "spineless wretches" or bad journalists. They are people with bills to pay in a state with a soaring unemployment rate.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete11:14 There are anti-trust laws that prevent the big media companies from getting together and conspiring to fix prices, whether it is newspaper print or paywalls. The Justice Department would come down on them like a ton of bricks if they did anything together.
ReplyDeleteThe weather and news on the Stevens Point Journal website has not been updated since Wednesday. It has been the same re-purposed stories, letters and updates. Weather bar is calling for Wednesdays forecast.
ReplyDeleteIs everyone on furlough?
So, how much would you pay to access that website, 7:22?!
ReplyDeletewhat a bunch of BOring BS.
ReplyDeleteDeparture for Doll is not surprising. Panacea of smaller newspaper size (Berliner launch a few years ago) with same prices for ad ratios was temporary .. minor circ bump will turn out to be too.
ReplyDeleteCustomers starting to notice real cuts in total report and that can be frustrating for an editor. You can only put so much in the paper that has reduced page counts significantly from launch of new press.
What can you do with a smaller staff getting smaller.
That have good succession options but the ongoing stress will burn out that team.
Berliner size good if you can keep the page counts hefty and the local news bold and beefy. That has taken a hit.
The Appleton Post-Crescent recently devoted a page and a half to a Justin Bieber promo and another half page to Miley Cyrus. The end of journalism is upon us.
ReplyDeletePaywalls miss the entire point. We serve customers and deliver eyeballs. We always have. Subscriptions simply helped offset delivery and newsprint costs (for the most part). Paywalls serve a niche and give up on audience solutions.
ReplyDeleteRe 6:48: Unless the mother ship has a totally different demographic than all the other newspapers. ...
ReplyDeleteNah. Guess it really is the end.
no 11:02, we are a business. First and foremost a business. Over all the value statements and such our # 1 goal is to make money. Gannett is a publicy traded company. We are not a non-profit, not subsidized. So we need to make money
ReplyDeleteLike it or not that is what our goals are.
Oooh: 11:02:
ReplyDeleteFor whom do we deliver? Advertisers who have money. At USA TODAY circulation actually does much more than subsidize newsprint costs - it actually makes money.
7/03/2010 4:36 PM is right on the money - literally.
I also agree with 7/02/2010 4:27 PM!!
Jim: In your pension study I think in the last week or so, you only counted stock options, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut according to SEC filings, the execs of this company also have their own exclusive pension plan, called Gannett Supplemental Retirement Plan (SERP). It is only for the top executives Dubow, Martore, Dickey and Hunke. Saridakis also got it.
I got interested in this because I wondered how McCorkindale walked out the door with $26 million in pension benefits.
The execs are part of the regular Gannett pension plan covering everyone, but because they make more than the average of Gannett employees, their salary is capped. So the SERP provides an additional pension benefit only for execs.
As Gannett told the SEC:
"The SERP is a nonqualified retirement plan maintained to attract and retain a highly-motivated executive workforce by providing eligible employees with retirement benefits that cannot be provided under the GRP (the pension plan for the rest) due to the Internal Revenue Code, which limits the compensation that can be recognized under qualified retirement plans as well as imposes limits on the amount of benefits which can be paid."
We do not know the amount of money that goes into this SERP, but it must be handsome because Corporate suspended payments in 2008 because of the recession. It looks like they resumed this year.
Unlike the regular pension plan given Gannett employees, payments under SERP are lump sum, given out when execs leave Gannett, unless they are younger than 55. It also seems to have its own cost-of-living index, which is not stated.
These special retirement plans for execs are controversial and have raised eyebrows at the SEC, which wants to crack down on excessive benefits. They are also a bitch to find out about, because they are only briefly discussed in SEC filings and only in general terms.
Have you run across this, and do you know anything about it?
Great. Google ads just put one up for "a great way to transfer money to India!"
ReplyDeleteLike getting my job sent there wasn't bad enough.
It would be hard to believe stock was in the seep because they wood retire penniless.
ReplyDelete11:16 pm: My examination of Dubow's stock ownership was not a pension analysis, per se, but instead a response to a question by a reader. That said, I do, indeed, know about the SERP.
ReplyDeleteBusiness magazines and interest groups have been jumping up and down about the SERPS, contending they are making a new class of royalty out of today's top business leaders. About 20 percent of American corporations offer special pension benefits or SERP plans to their top executives. They are also contributing to the underfunding of regular pension programs, as contributions are siphoned off to provide the tremendous amount of money SERPS require.
ReplyDeleteOnce they are established executives lose interest in the regular company pension plan. There is a simple reason for this: why should Martore fully fund the regular pension program when she isn't going to get any money from it? She has her own, and much better pension plan.
How much better we don't know. But SERPS are typically designed to give executives 70 percent of their final seven-figure pay as annual pension benefits. They are extraordinarily rich because they have to payout so much money. About 2 percent of the annual incomes of executives go to these accounts, double the 1 percent the ordinary pension plan gets. They are also exempt from ERISA, the federal pension law.
I think corporate is setting us up for walking away from the traditional pension plan. In the event of such a default, ERISA-covered plans would be taken up by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the federal agency that guarantees a portion of your benefits. But anyone counting on the traditional pension needs to be aware it is only a portion.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJim's blog is anti-American and anti-business.
ReplyDeleteNothing more anti-American than exercising our First Amendment rights, eh?
ReplyDeleteThis blog is many things. Unamerican isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteSheesh.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThis blog is many things. Unamerican isn't one of them.
Sheesh.
7/04/2010 3:59 PM
Right; this blog is boring.
Remember when Frank Gannett wouldn't accept liquor advertising on principle? That was old-fashion but was a moral in the name of integrity.
ReplyDeleteEditors leave for many reasons but mostly when they can't find agreement with what they are being asked to do time and time again....
If you want to keep integrity in the company, get Doll to stay. Alas, it's too late.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteFollowing is an edited version of a comment posted by Anonymous@5:09 pm:
ReplyDeleteI was laid off in december 2008 from the cincinnati enquirer after 22years of service. I knew then that the newspaper business was suffering but the way i was let go with a manager telling me yeah tell him how you got f ucked. I hate that newspaper and i hope that manager [XXXXX] AND THE ENQUIRER BURN IN HELL.
"Nothing more anti-American than exercising our First Amendment rights, eh?"
ReplyDeleteYeah. Like your right to make up B.S.
I'm sure that's what the Founding Fathers intended. You are the King George III of the modern era.
@5:38 p.m. Welcome to Gannett Blog Glenn Beck.
ReplyDeleteI suppose seeking the truth might seem a tad bit unamerican to some people.
ReplyDeleteRiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. No one here has been seeking much truth for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteThere's plenty of truth in this blog, along with conjecture and lies. What's more pro-American than giving voice to all of these people, allowing the masses to make their own determinations? It's called democracy.
ReplyDeleteSo you favor conjecture and lies at a site about journalism, and then you call it democracy?
ReplyDelete2:26 p.m.: So, you are unable to sift and winnow through lies and conjecture in pursuit of the truth? How dare you peruse a site about journalism. Some of us still toiling at the Fourth Estate still hold our heads high.
ReplyDelete