Sunday, June 13, 2010
Week June 7-13 | Your News & Comments: Part 2
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31 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 thread is here.
ReplyDeleteMy Boss, How will this affect the current online sites? If access to the industry content portal will require payment or subscription, then will it also be required to access content on the existing sites? Seems it would be a big change in direction.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Sodom and Gomorrah, no X-Mas Fur-Low Party for USA Today again?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the real skinny? Are there more jobs in the balance, cuts ahead?
ReplyDelete12:05 am refers to the following comment, left on part 1 of this comment thread:
ReplyDeleteThere is a big deal that Josh Resnik and Jack Williams are working on with News Corp. Apparently, Gannett and News Corp will be joining forces to build an industry-wide paid content "portal".
There have been numerous meetings in NYC and LA between Gannett and News Corp and both sides are very close to a deal.
This will also include merging together news departments across USA Today and will leverage our local news gathering sites.
Big implications for USA Today and should help our local newspapers.
Gracia Martore has appointed Jack Williams as the lead with support from Digital. This will have major implications on our overall "paid content" strategy and technology.
David Hunke has also bought into this strategy and is determining a "working relationship" with News Corp and The Wall Street Journal.
That would be quite a deal, My Boss. It's certainly true that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has been grousing about standard industry practices -- i.e., giving away content, allowing Google to piggyback on newspaper content -- so it's conceivable he's pushing for such an arrangement.
ReplyDeleteBut why would this require such merging of news departments at USAT?
Jim... you don't have to publish this, but thank you for removing all crude references to gays, body parts, etc. It's a tactic being deployed to sour interested readers on the real content available here.
ReplyDeleteThis strategy has been successful in limiting the growth of other websites (used in the political arena, especially) in order to hurt the credibility of the person manning the site.
Thanks again.
Agreed, 11:03. Thank you, Jim, for doing so.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
ReplyDeleteI'll believe this News Corp thing when I see it. With everything going on at USA Today, there's been no hint of some other portal shoe dropping, which would throw into disarray the already topsy turvy future plan now being finalized.
ReplyDeleteStock up 6 percent today. I know you have, at times in the past, mentioned the stock going up. But not recently. And you often find some way to plant it inside some other story, and keep the rising stock out of the headline. But it sure seems like you savor every day the stock goes down, putting on a biting head (dims, crashes, flatlines, nosedives). If you care about objectivity, some of us out here notice these things.
ReplyDelete7:46 pm: Your concern is fair, and I'll try to do a better job in the future. For the record, I was mostly offline from before the stock markets closed until about now.
ReplyDeleteWith today's 6% gain, GCI is now up 3.8% year-to-date -- far better than the S&P 500's 2.5% decline, according to Google Finance.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is necessary to post the daily stock movings because you have the Motley Fool bug on the right top of your page telling us the stock movements.
ReplyDelete10:54 pm true but then jim should not pash GCI everytime it is down
ReplyDeleteWhat's everyone's experience with the GPC?
ReplyDeleteAs far as the stock goes, in true newspaper fashion... "If it bleeds, it leads!"
ReplyDelete4:58 p.m. what's the GPC again; I can't keep my silly acronyms straight anymore with this place.
ReplyDeleteIt would not be out of character for Gannett to get into a digital tie-up with News Corp.
ReplyDeleteGannett owns myAtlTV in Atlanta and myDenver20, two stations that air the My Network TV service owned by News Corp. Gannett tends to lurch to the right in news coverage. News Corp. units like the Wall Street Journal and Fox News are hard-right at best.
I heard that Dave Hunke is going to announce that he is stepping down.
ReplyDelete9:35 am: in the absence of more concrete details, That should be treated as a wild, unfounded rumor.
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it, but a joint effort industrywide to charge for content is more likely to just seed grassroots news organizations -- likely with all the many excellent pros these corporate moguls have tossed to the curb.
ReplyDeleteThe writing on the wall is that there will not be an even commensurate investment, let along growth investment, in hiring large teams of experienced reporters and editors to attract paid customers.
If so, besides being too little, too late, consumers who may have originally seen value in the news product now see how badly corporations have corrupted and diminished the product.
Dave Hunke is not stepping down. On the contrary, he is involved in numerous intiatives, some digital, some boxing people's ears until they ring, to turn things around.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, that was a stir-the-pot posting by a troll.
Following up, lest people think I'm a corporate troll, I am not saying Dave will succeed in these things or that the situation is saveable, just setting the record straight that no, he is not stepping down.
ReplyDeleteJim screens comments so only the ones from the pro-Jim drones get through.
ReplyDeleteHeckuva job you're doing there, Jim. Great "unbiased" look at the company.
with more sites going live with GPC this week, there should be some interesting comments to come
ReplyDeleteInteresting, yes. Factual, no.
ReplyDeleteBut Jim prefers interesting to factual.
If Gannett wants to get its soul back, it has to show it will reward high-level skills/talent in a big way and recruit top journalists to join the ranks. Then, just get out of the way. News sells. Load the papers and websites up with it and things will stabilize. Then, just accept a lower rate of return given the changed environment while working on next big thing..
ReplyDeleteIF Gannett wants its soul back, it just needs to reward highly skilled journalists in the ranks and recruit top journalists into (or back to) their papers at all levels. Then just get out of the way.
ReplyDeleteNews sells. Load the websites and papers up with it in various strategies and things will stabilize. Problem now is the significant reduction in headlines and coverage -- the aggregate losses are harsh.
Accept a lower return for an extended number of years while it reforms and reinvents its sales force and invents the next info - moneymaker - panacea. If you hire and bring in (or bring back) top talent and the very best advertising folks, it will happen.
Lastly stop beating up on the people you've always been able to count on. So they lose a major local account or two .. their communities are suffering. Take care of the paper and build relationships. Give them freedom to make deals the old fashion way. Really.
"Pro-Jim drones" is redundant. Jim himself is a drone.
ReplyDelete