Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Week June 7-13 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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41 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. When I went out after 9 p.m. to get the Sunday papers I found one copy of The Star-Ledger and one copy of The New York Times alongside about 20 copies of The Sunday Press.

    Is it wrong for me to experience Schadenfreude?

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  3. Does anyone know anything more about when we can expect the NJ Gannett papers to be combined? I had understood that it was going in that direction and was wondering what was taking so long.

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  4. What is going on in Phila. any body know ?.

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  5. New Ad Director at Asheville is from Muncie. That is why big mama was sent to Muncie from Montgomery. She did not relate to the community here in Montgomery and all she did was express her powers and not her people skills which were terrible. Thanks Muncie for taking big mama. Let's see how Stan the man does here.

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  6. @5:42 PM Asheville watch out...the new AD is dumber than a post,a back stabber and a$$ kisser. Ask anyone from Richmond that may still be there.

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  7. What is this I hear about the NJ group selling at each others newspaper. I was told that they go out in teams every few weeks to completley cover a territory. It is across the state.

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  8. @6:47 Not sure about dumb, but a kiss up for sure. Definitely awkward with terrible sales skills. She did nothing to deserve the ring she just won, except to be given a title at a paper with a very experienced and talented sales team. She claims every idea, revenue win, etc. as her own. She revels in attention and glory.

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  9. I knew "big mama" fairly well in Montgomery.

    Her people skills seemed fine to me. I was not one of her favorites, but I found Cheryl Lindus to be fair and reasonable. I wish she was still here.

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  10. Jim, you shouldn't allow posts like the 'foreskin' post above.

    Yes, it shows the low-level mentalities thinking they are being clever, it shows efforts to devalue this blog and it even demonstrates how far society still has to go, Gannett-centric or not.

    But your true readers know all that, and not one would feel it wrong to remove such ugly physical grafitti. Whether a supporter of yours or not, you deserve better. And so do we.

    Remove that junk...

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  11. Other than USA Today, do any other Gannett publications have apps?
    http://tinyurl.com/36y2bgt

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  12. Actually, this blog demonstrates how far society has to go.

    Jim is a lunatic who was thrown out of Gannett. Yet people buy into what he says. It's troubling in many ways.

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  13. I agree that too many people buy into this blog, and that Jim enables liars at times. And to be frank, there is big stuff happening in the company that Jim knows nothing (apparently), about.

    But it is also a lie that Jim was "thrown out" of USA Today or Gannett. He took a buyout and would probably still be there if he had chosen to be.

    Lies come from many directions in a thing like this. That is what makes crowd sourcing so flawed, despite its very rare successes.

    Jim is not a lunatic. Many of us wish he would act more like a journalist and less like a gossipy provocateur.

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  14. Wow, 3:31....I have never read something here that I agreed with more.

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  16. "Jim enables liars at times."

    That says it all. Anything else he might accomplish is destroyed by those negatives.

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  17. 3:31 am raises several valid points, and I appreciate their clarification of the circumstances under which I left USA Today (i.e., I did, indeed, accept a buyout).

    No doubt, posters lie here; that's the downside of allowing anonymous comments. For obvious reasons, I can't require that people post under their real names.

    Where I know someone has been untruthful, I correct the information. When I think an assertion is unlikely, I'll say so, and explain why.

    But there's a vast gray area beyond. Crowdsourcing is an imperfect means of getting to the truth, although it does often work.

    This blog might be improved if I made it my full-time job. But it does not pay enough to warrant that much attention. Few blogs do.

    Most important: The record shows the challenges I face. I began publishing this blog in September 2007. Since then, several other writers have started competing blogs, then quickly abandoned them. Gannettoid is the only one standing, and it is closer to a traditional website than a blog.

    I always welcome suggestions and critiques. And I always strive to do a better job each day.

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  18. No one tells more lies and withholds more truths than the management of Gannett. THAT IS A FACT. Without Jim to tell us what he hears, and this blog for those of us to post what WE hear, the truth would not come out. The stupid, ignorant trolls who post worthless comments about Jim's personal life or parts of his body should be deleted before the rest of us have to read them. They have no bearing on this company, nor do they have any bearing on all the bull shit this company is dishing out. What Jim does is VERY, VERY important to those of us with bullseyes on our backs. So those of you who think your jobs are safe, and want to post stupid homo remarks because you have nothing better to do, YOUR JOB IS NOT SAFE, Gannett doesn't give a rat's ass about you, and go f**k yourself, because we don't give a rat's ass about your homo opinions either! And by the way, how much is Martore paying you to post that shit?

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  19. the trolls are out

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  21. 2:08 be specific. What lies has management told us? Yes we dont' like things that have happened but saying all they do is lie is throwing bombs. So please give us the top tem lies. Not the things you don't like; the lies we've been told. And no I am not a troll but I like to push the bullshit button when I hear it.

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  22. NO. 1 LIE: We are only laying off 1400. I believe the final tally, as foretold by My Boss was closer to 4,500.
    No. 2 Lie: Furloughs, wage freezes and pay cuts were necessary. If that was so, why did Martore and Dubow get such huge salary increases, bonuses and stock options IN CASH?
    No. 3 Lie: Wage Freeze to be lifted. No it was not. Not entirely. Now they want to play with everyone and only the ones they want get a pay raise, not across the board as it should be. Another way to screw the worker.
    No. 4 Told the ad consolidation center wasn't really going to happen. It's happening.
    And on, and on, and on...

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  23. So how many people lost any or partial access to their websites this afternoon? I know I couldn't get into several paper sites for quite a while. 'Server too busy' error.

    DoS attack? Or did somebody at GMTI trip over the cord for the servers?

    And why did USAT have no issues?

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  24. All of the Gannett sites were down for a little over 20 minutes this afternoon. They're all hosted out of the same location. USA Today was unaffected because it is hosted separately.

    It also affected e-mail.

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  25. @9:34 Big Mama was not very friendly and her people skill were lacking. She grunted her orders which were sometimes overwhelming. She was however fair. Still a corporate troll.

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  26. New ad director in Ashville is Mary Young that came from Muncie. Very nice so far but she seems flighty. We will see how she performs. If it is anything like I expect from a corporate troll, revenue will go down, and she will be given a presidents ring.

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  27. Both USA Today and the community newspaper sites can be hosted out of either Maryland or Phoenix. Generally Phoenix is the backup for the community newspapers and I believe also USA Today. It's possible USA Today switched automatically or they happened to be out of Phoenix anyway at the time.

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  28. Help.

    As a new ipad user of the USAT App, I am amazed that there are no ads. I think some ads would add some life to these pages. I am sure that there is a reason, so please enlighten me. Thanks.

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  30. OMG, 7:53 p.m., I just about choked when I read this line of yours: Or did somebody at GMTI trip over the cord for the servers?

    Holy shit man, are you from Wisconsin?

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  31. For my money, The Huffington Post has been beating everyone on election returns tonight: NYT, WSJ, USAT, Politico -- even the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle.

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  32. 7 p.m. -- Nice list. It's good for people to see an accounting of just how loose corporate is with the facts.

    I might add that corporate regularly lies to Wall Street by arguing that it is a cutting edge digital marketing company. Anybody who knows anything about digital marketing, knows that the only edge Gannett is close to is the one that would put them hopelessly behind.

    Also, the "state of the company" memos are always filled with lies (or at least half-truths). Have you ever read one that said the company is really grateful for your hard work and service? I have and they all came on the wake of layoffs, furloughs, etc. Oddly enough, almost all the people layed off at my receipt had received previous memos telling them how valuable they were and how much the company admired their service.

    So were those memos lies? Maybe the next one Dubow sends out can say, "I value your service ... not as much as I value my bonuses ... but I still value it ... at least a little ... when I'm not too busy golfing or gulping down painkillers."

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  33. 11:26 - I believe you already know the reason based on how you asked the question but for those that do not: The reason there are no ads on the iPad is because most ads are flash based. The iPad does not support flash.

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  34. There 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.

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  35. the reason why their are no ads yet is because marriott and usa today have an agreement until july 4th 2010. Then their will be a fee to get the app per month and ads.

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  36. Despite the critics, I find this site ton be a far more reliable source of accurate information about Gannett (and sometimes the media in general) than anything Gannett itself ever puts out.

    And Jim is aware that many of us posters are ex-Gannetters who DO loath and hate this company with an unending passion - but that doesn't mean our comments aren't valid or our facts are not correct. To his credit, Jim understands this and lets us have our say.

    Which is more than Gannett ever did.

    By the way, did anyone else see the article this month in APME News about the "successful" desk consolidation in New Jersey Gannett? What a crock!

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  37. It's all opinion, but I think Cheryl Lindus is a good leader who understands GCI's editorial obstacles. She wants to push forward.

    I'm sad she left Montgomery. People in Muncie are getting a good one.

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  38. Any word (or rumors) on 3Q furloughs???

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  39. regarding the service interruption on tue, msoft
    was updating windows or security essentials. i believe there were 8 issues to be taken care of.

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  40. Regarding the service interruption on Tuesday, the result of centralized IT services. Sign of things to come.

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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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