Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Week Oct. 25-31 | Your News & Comments: Part 1
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54 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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How's your week looking so far?
ReplyDeleteWhere are these latest round of layoffs hitting? Are they doing reporters again, or are editors getting hit this time. The office staff and the editorial assistants are already gone, as are the cartoonists and support staff. So what are they planning to hit next?
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest fallouts of the USAT reorg? No formal backups in place for any of the editors if anyone goes on vacation, gets sick or -- heaven forbid -- goes on furlough. One can assume each "team" will have to come up with their own new plan of sharing the workload, but one should not assume too much -- other than such details as planning and editing will likely suffer.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEven after adjusting the figures generously, USA Today shows an almost 4 percent drop in circulation, according to the latest ABC report. The WSJ, its main competitor, increased circulation over the last year.
ReplyDeleteUSA Today's circulation USA TODAY dropped to 1,830,594 from 1,900,116 over the last year, a decline of 3.66 percent. ABC went along with industry demands and agreed to loosen rules on what counts as sales of newspapers.
Oh things are just great. I figured out what "transitional pay" really means and it made me sick to my stomach. What a piece of sh*t organization we all work for!
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, 4:30, the following proposed cuts are awaiting final approval by Gannett's board of directors:
ReplyDelete1. All training and professional development costs and travel expenses to seminars and conventions will be borne by non-management employees on a payroll-deducted basis.
2. Should reporters and photographers elect to use their privately owned vehicles to interview and photograph subjects physically rather than company-prescribed methods of telephone, texting, Twitter and e-mail, they will do so at their own expense.
3. Any past consumption of drugs, tobacco products, alcoholic beverages and foods high in fat or sugar content by non-management employees, to be verified through lie detector tests, will be grounds for immediate cancellation of company-sponsored health insurance coverage.
4. Personal usage of the Internet, including e-mail, will be assessed non-management employees through payroll deduction at the following rates: $1 per minute for Internet usage and $1 per e-mail sent.
5. As part of the company's new all-digital initiative, Gannett properties will no longer subsidize the purchase of paper, printer ink and toner, reporter notepads, FedEx shipments, copier repairs, postage or going-away cards.
12:14 p.m.: Oh, har!
ReplyDeleteWait until they announce the new cell phone policy! What a crock, don't worry won't hit until 2011.
ReplyDelete4:30. You're actually worried about backup editors? Have you seen the organizational charts and USAT masthead? Plenty of senior editors with no actual job titles to fill in on copy editing duties. Additionally, plenty of dead time among the new Vertical hires who have nothing to do, and the Weekend editors who spend weeks debating and pouring over must read articles on pie crusts.
ReplyDeleteAt most of Gannett's community dailies, the back-up editors are other editors. The metro/local news editor goes on vacation? The managing editor steps in. Sometimes it's the executive editor. That's as formal/informal as it gets
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at USAT, I was mostly a reporter, attached to the technology team. When the tech editor went on vacation, I filled in. Under the new structure, why can't each team designate a reporter as the team editor's back-up?
When you use reporters as backup editors, that means fewer people producing stories. It sometimes also means unhappier reporters and staffer who have to report to them when they are pressed into managerial duty. Many reporters really hate wearing the supervisory hat. Of course, to keep their jobs, they'd do it and probably conceal their displeasure.
ReplyDeleteUSAT has cut too close to the bone in some areas and has excess fat in others. Not addressing that fat (and in some cases downright incompetency) has almost been as disappointing as the layoffs. The talent and work ethics of some of the people who have been let go has been breathtaking and left many of us in a bind in more ways than just finding fill-ins when folks are on vacation. This is a national paper that is being operated like a weekly. I am trying not to sound whiny, but gosh, what has happened here has been stunningly negligent - not just the layoffs, but how they were done, who was selected and how management seems to continue to make things up on the fly while safeguarding themselves and some teacher's pet types.
Most of us are so upset at the magnitude of the destruction in the last three years, as well as continuing threats of even more layoffs, that it's hard to believe it won't manifest itself in the product.
I suppose there are all kinds of Band-Aid approaches to temporarily get by at USA TODAY. Eventually, however, GCI is going to have to determine whether the print edition is worth keeping afloat as a national daily. You can't keep cutting corners forever and expect to remain competitive in a difficult economy where people are reluctant to give up their quarters for what is clearly a product on the slide. You can't expect the current staff to keep plugging holes created by execs and directors who have never worked in a newsroom. Is there room for greater efficiencies at USAT? Probably. But not the way Hunke or the board or the few chosen editors at the top think. Not by cutting, slashing and hiring interns to fill in. Not by putting people in positions they aren't well suited for. This mix-and-match approach at this level isn't going to work forever.
ReplyDeleteCurrently -- and certainly for the near future -- it is the print edition that keeps digital afloat. Print advertising accounts for as much as 90% of USAT's advertising revenue. Take it away, and the entire enterprise would need to shrink so dramatically, it likely wouldn't be recognizable.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jim, but look at the increased use of e-editions by readers:
ReplyDeletehttp://paidcontent.org/article/419-newspaper-fas-fax-newspaper-circ-dropped-5-percent/
At the bottom of this, you see there are almost 100,000 e-edition readers of the Freep, and 50,000 of the Detroit News. I know this is because they aren't publishing on some days, but look at the 7-day-a-week papers, and it looks like it is coming much faster than I thought.
I think we all should discount the WSJ because stock analysts and dealers have to read this as soon as it is published in order to operate their businesses.
I don't know where these figures are coming from, but I guess they are in the more complete ABC report. But Advertising Age has a story showing that if you strip out the inflated numbers, USA Today's hard-core paid circulation is actually down more than 9 percent and under 700,000.
ReplyDeleteHere's the key paragraph:
"But over at USA Today, you also have to decide what to make of the distinction between circulation paid for by individuals and circulation distributed free to airline passengers, say, or hotel guests. USA Today's individually paid circulation declined 9.3% to 692,901."
How many of those Freep and News e-editions are sold on their own -- that is, without being packaged as part of the three-day home delivery subscriptions?
ReplyDelete12:14: The sad thing is that most people (like me) didn't realize your post was a gag until towards the end. Up until then, it was entirely within the ballpark of probably reality in GCI-land.
ReplyDeleteOK; I think I can answer my own question. Those roughly 100K in Freep and 50K in News e-edition subs are paid, and are separate from the three-day print home delivery plus electronic subs, right?
ReplyDeleteIf you are right on your 3:29 comment, expect an avalanche of papers to discontinue publishing on low-ad days ASAP. In this environment, I would expect the Community Papers to be the first to follow in Detroit's footsteps.
ReplyDeleteJim, I do not know if they are separate or not. I don't have access to the complete ABC report which is proprietory.
ReplyDeleteIt does not make any sense to me they would be separated. Why would three times more people in Detroit be interested in buying the Freep and News than the 28,000 in Washington who are subscribing to the e-edition of the Washington Post, or the 30,000 in San Francisco subscribing to the e-edition of the SF Chronicle?
Nearly 100 percent of the Freep News online subscriptions are bundled with home delivery package....
ReplyDeleteThat, then, would be a very important distinction.
ReplyDeleteAt the WSJ, on the other hand, I suspect its 449,000 in electronic edition readers (WSJ.com-only, iPad and mobile subscriptions, e-reader circulation) are virtually all separate subscriptions. In other words, they aren't bundled with print subs.
And those 449K are up 10% from a year ago. It's been one of the few papers to successfully get large numbers of readers to pay for digital access.
Some very creative accounting going on here, I suspect. Why isn't USAT Today on this e-list? Does it have no e-subscribers?.
ReplyDeleteIf you examine the WSJ's 450,000 e-subscribers, and the 50,000 e-subscribing to Investors Business Daily, I bet you will find many stockbrokers who are writing this off on their expense accounts.
ReplyDeleteMore interesting to me are the Washington, Houston and San Francisco e-subscribers because these papers are not big (IMHO) on business news. Some of these will be county clerks who have to read the obituary pages every day and those who have to check the legal ads for errors.
But a lot are average Joes adopting the new technologies, and this is our future we are seeing unveiled before us.
There's still a lot of people among the Great Unwashed who want hard news, and have an interest in what newspapers are saying. We're not quite dead, yet.
I'm pretty sure the USAT's new circulation veep boasted last week that circulation was up 10% - at least that's what generated applause at Hunke's big speech last Tuesday. I can see this guy attends Hunke's School of Spin. He and the other non-performing Veeps (Heather, Rudd, et al) should do really well under Hunke's watch.
ReplyDeleteIf I see one more blog post about USAT lacking editors, I may hurl. Several former MEs and DMEs have nothing but time on their hands. They can rotate between content rings when they aren't attending meetings.
ReplyDeleteFor those who remember our discussions about the lack of hard news and economic stories on the front pages of USA Today, the paper today had a good and lengthy piece on the economic troubles facing those over 55. Obviously, they had been working on it for some time.
ReplyDeleteWhat is happening in St Cloud? Is it that boring nothing happening.
ReplyDelete12:35 just outed himself. The obscure and meaningless comment will come back to haunt you. Expect a knock on the door tomorrow!
ReplyDelete12:14 may be closer to the truth on #3 than we realize. Just wait til you get the results of your "health risk assessment".
ReplyDeleteAs for #5, sounds like Gannett is going to the public education model of supplies. My wife spends hundreds every year on paper, ink and classroom supplies for her prekindergarten students.
To 10/25/2010 8:07 PM...get over it and MOVE ON!!!!!
ReplyDelete(Actually, we know who you are...you're pretty much a dead giveaway!)
Anyone else having trouble logging into the new 401(k)/health benefits site? I know my name and password, but computer won't accept. After 10 minutes of waiting on the phone, you get a human being whose only response to any question is: "We can mail you your information, but you'll have to wait 7 to 10 business days." So glad we gave up a very nice administrative site for a disaster to save a couple of bucks.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been able to log in to the new 401(K)/health benefits site either.
ReplyDeleteI've consistently had trouble logging into the site. Truly unbelievable. Just once I would like to see this company change something for the better. It's as if they are intentionally trying to drive people crazy.
ReplyDeleteI had no trouble. Did you use your new log on and password? They sent you an email
ReplyDeleteI haven't had any problems logging on, but I find the new site less easy to use than the older one. That could easily be only because I was used to the other site and have not yet become used to the new one.
ReplyDeleteOne good thing about the new site is that the 401K information is more up-to-date. Hewitt was often 2 to 4 days behind the market.
We all know that any change to anything is not for the benefit of the employee. It's only to improve Gannett's bottom line.
ReplyDeleteThe terms "human resources," and "benefits" are incongruous when coupled with Gannett.
We seem to be to back into the USAT mode
ReplyDeleteand larger circulation areas.
Where is the news on community weeklies and dailies? In percentage of employment lost these will be hit the hardest,and in most cases have the most effect on their communities.
The GCI local weekly where my son lives has only a small percentage of ad inches compared to last year and only a fraction compared to 2008.What will happen to these sites that are
just bearly afloat ?
Has anyone out there had anything happen or heard of anything that is coming?
Did anyone else notice the fantastic wikileaks packages in The Guardian over the weekend? USAT had something, but the Guardian had maps, charts, timelines, live chat, etc. I spent over an hour taking it all in. Now, that's reporting.
ReplyDeleteThat may be because the site doesn't go live until Nov. 1, as spelled out in the communications on this. RTFM.
ReplyDeleteSomeone just bought $10 million worth of GCI stock:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marketintellisearch.com/articles/1067051.html
Wasn't me!
ReplyDeleteDaddy Warbucks
ReplyDeleteI spend a lot of time working in Starbucks and other WiFi sites. Here's an observation that may or may not interest circulation and bean-counter types at USA Today. No one is buying your paper. I don't mean they aren't reading it. I mean they are picking up a copy from the open rack, bringing it to their table and reading it without having paid for it. They are doing the same with the other papers, too.
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age where news is free online, maybe they think they don't have to pay for newspapers unless they are locked in some box. You all gave it away on the web, so I guess it makes sense some people think it's free in print, too.
But here's the thing, if you're so carelessly giving away your print product like this, you can't really complain too much about slipping revenue. USAT, like many other papers, is probably somewhat wasteful. I know, I've worked in that industry. Newspapers tend to be penny wise and pound foolish. Gannett is more guilty of this than many chains. They cut staff but run up their electric bills. They produce special or targeted editions that don't pay for themselves but maintain large bonuses for publishers and CEOs.
I know people not paying for copies of your paper at one Starbucks isn't going to break the bank. But multiply that by however many Starbucks (and other vendors) there are in this country and I have to wonder how it even pays for you to deliver the paper to these places.
Clean up the small stuff, USAT, and maybe you won't have to keep ruining people's careers with layoffs. While you're at it, get rid of the big gap between upper management and staff. You'll be amazed at how the bottom line improves.
Under the deal with Starbucks announced in March, USAT was to be sold at about 6,500 stores. Multiply that by, say, five copies per store, and sales should have climbed by about 33,000. Not a huge amount compared to the 1.8 million circulation base, but still worth reaching for.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem 5:58 identifies for USAT and others is that the racks (in my Starbucks, anyway) don't always make clear that the papers are for sale. Instead, they look more like storage places for papers either provided by the store, or left behind by other customers. Plus, the clerks are too busy to police what's going on.
The Springfield News-Leader had town hall meeting today... It was confirmed that ad production will go in January to GPC
ReplyDeleteI have seen this happen several times at the Starbucks located inside a Barnes and Noble in my neighborhood. People just pick up the paper to read while they are drinking their coffee, and I have seen some just leave it on the table. Some leave the books they have been reading, also.
ReplyDeleteBarnes and Noble doesn't seem to mind (about the papers, or the books). The racks don't say the papers displayed are for sale only. In fact, the racks contain no advertising at all, probably part of the deal with Starbucks to avoid advertising clutter. Compounding this issue is a nearby rack of the free alternative weekly, which is quite popular with the younger generation.
I recently stayed at a Holiday Inn, and there was a pile of newspapers on the front desk counter that you were invited to dip into without any payment. Someone this week gave a figure of 690,000 for paid subscriptions to USA Today. You can only get to 1.8 million used in the advertising campaign by including giveaways.
I realize we're anxious about potential layoffs but everyone needs to pay attention to Gannett's planned assault on employee privacy in the form of the new "wellness" ruse for healthcare re-enrollment. Go to the story Jim has posted and read the comments. Gannett could care less about your health or mine, this is about saving money, period. How can it be legal to threaten employees with higher premiums if we don't give-in to this health privacy invasion. Volunteering is one thing but this is outright blackmail. WTF!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading comments I went to benefits.gannett for the first time today. In just a couple minutes I was in the system looking over my 401k. It wasn't hard at all. I don't have a clue why some have so much trouble logging into the site.
ReplyDeleteThe new benefits website has been live since the first of the month when they turned on the 401(k) part. The health portion doesn't go live until Nov 1.
ReplyDeleteThe "free" papers at Starbucks and other locations is symbolic of so much that is wrong with the business side of newspapering these days. This kind of sloppiness and oversight is in large part what has gotten papers into trouble, which has now snowballed into other issues that have taken a toll on the quality of papers, not just the distribution.
ReplyDeleteUSAT has fudged circulation numbers for years. But instead of continuing to do that, maybe they should work on the basics a little more. Maybe a little integrity and attention to detail across the board would be a better business strategy than abstract reorg plans that merely cover up for the many growing deficiencies at the nation's newspaper. At least half of the problems at USAT are not directly recession-related. It just took an economic downturn to reveal the horrible business/hiring practices at the flagship. Unfortunately, employees took the hit for a decade or more of mistakes.
For Part 2 of this comment thread, please go here.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading the comments here. Well my 2 cents worth. Has anyone looked at production costs. Plate usage, equipment that needs it own engineering staff (plate setters), color controls etc.. We are a technology company, give me a break. Still hand topping our bundles. I am just saying!
ReplyDelete