Sunday, August 08, 2010

Week of Aug. 2-8 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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25 comments:

  1. For Part 1 of this comment thread, please go here.

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  2. Re: New EE at TJN... It was rumored last year that Barry Silverman would return from Pojo and clean house.

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  3. Anonymous said...

    This top wage earners story is nothing new--Same story was run a couple of years ago. I think a Metro North Railroad story on overtime will be next to round out the cycle.
    5/17/2010 8:14 PM

    And it came to pass: :-))



    Comptroller audit finds "uncontrolled overtime" at MTA

    More than 140 employees at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority doubled their annual salaries through overtime pay last year, according to an audit released by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

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  4. Have other markets heard about the new Yahoo parntership and the 40 or so corporate positions that are being created for ad fulfillment?

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  5. Gannett has been slow to the Yahoo table. There is much digital revenue waiting here for incremental ad payouts for placement and search sales in local markets. They also are slow to roll out some other digital initiatives, seemingly paralyzed by top changes. They are missing $s the longer they take. Roll and go!

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  6. Probably 10:21 means Barry Rothfeld, or possibly Mark Silverman or hell, llet's bring back Barry Hoffman! Or could it be 10:21 just doesn't know what he's talking about!

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  7. Pensacola No. 1 Gannett market for growth

    http://www.pnj.com/article/20100804/NEWS01/8040329/1003/BUSINESSJOURNAL/PNJ-among-top-growing--U.S.-papers--study-finds

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  8. @9:04am...You are right- I meant Rothfeld. And you may be right about me too!

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  9. Ft Myers is moving offices and creating room for 40 people who are not now working in the building. Rumor has it that these are for Yahoo people

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  10. Wooo hooo! And the Bad News Bears are coming to Phoenix. This just in at the Arizona Republic:

    "Please save Thursday, September 9 for a very special visit.

    Gannett Company Chairman/CEO Craig Dubow and President/COO Gracia Martore will be in town to meet the GannettPhoenix Team. Joining them for a special Town Hall meeting will be President's of the publishing and broadcast divisions Bob Dickey and Dave Lougee. Craig and Gracia have made it a priority to visit with employees to share their perspective on the business and provide all of us an opportunity to share thoughts and ask questions.

    The meeting will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center, tentatively scheduled from 2 - 3:30 pm. Bus transportation will be arranged from the bureaus. Final details will come in the weeks ahead including a system to RSVP your attendance.

    Enjoy the weekend. JZ"

    (JZ is not Jay Z the rapper, but John Zidich the publisher)


    I can't help but wonder how much it's going to cost them to rent the hall in Phoenix' new convention center.

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  11. Phoenix Convention Center???? Are they expecting an overflow crowd?

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  12. It's not going to cost them anything. That convention center bill will come out of JZ's budget.

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  13. GMTI might be in charge of creating that system to RSVP your attendance in Phoenix.

    Sooo, it'll get delivered to the site about September 10th and when you click the button to RSVP, you'll delete your hard drive.

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  14. Will it be open to the public or GCI stockholders like Jim?

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  15. Does anyone know what is going on in the NJ Group. I heard that some advertising managers have been moved (demoted) and that there is much chaos going on.

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

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  18. Following is an edited version of a comment posted by Anonymous@2:47 a.m.:

    I'm told the Reno paper goes live on GPC (Gannett piece of Crap), end of August. The new [XXXXX] is surrounding himself with Yes-men. Female manager types are being relegated to lesser positions. Some have already resigned.

    Morale is really bad. The Ad builders thought they were getting a bonus for sticking around. But all the sudden, no one remembers anything about it.

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  19. I've not heard of any prepress dept. getting retention/stay-on bonuses for sticking around until GPC takes their work.

    Would be rather pointless for the company to do so. If you leave early they save a boatload of cash in make-up pay continuation, and the only downside is someone has to be hired short term, part-time or temp or you run overtime - still cheaper.

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  20. If Gannett has second thoughts about paywalls it should look to Long Island. Newsday went behind a paywall last October -- this week its owner reported a 12.6% drop in advertising revenue for the spring compared to 2009. Naturally that bit of bad news was buried at the bottom.

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  21. 4:54 what the heck are you talking about. I work in Reno. No one has been appointed to any position with the exception of one person. One female manager left for a huge job in California.

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  22. Any new hijinks at everyone's favorite sitcom, the Journal News, this weekend?? Do tell!

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

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  24. Demand Media, which is being used in several GCI publications, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock. I was caught by the executive salaries, since this company pays pittances to its freelance employees who write what I consider schlock. The head of the operation earns $4.7 million, which includes a $ 104,112 a year in a base salary, plus a $100,000 bonus. He also is in line to get 4.2 million shares, valued at $1.60 each, plus another 2 million shares based on his performance. There's also 2.3 million shares more if he can the price of the stock up over $9.

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  25. So Salisbury, Md., just did a "watchdog" story about salaries at the local board of education.

    Funny how the story fails to mention that the public information officer for the district is married to the managing editor of the newspaper.

    It's also humorous that the district - in a county with one newspaper and two TV stations - has TWO communications staffers - a coordinator at $61K and the PIO at $55K.

    And it's knee-slappingly amusing how the story fails to mention that fact in its discussion of cutting administrative fat.

    This is the same newspaper whose executive editor/GM was married to a press aide for the local congressman. (The congressman was defeated two years ago and she's gone on to other things.)

    Conflicts of interest apparently mean nothing in that town.

    I'm posting anonymously because I work there and don't want to be fired, but I'm sick and tired of having our newspaper be the laughingstock of the own every time we run an education story and don't disclose the fact that the editor is married to the propagandist.

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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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