Sunday, January 02, 2011
Dec. 27-Jan. 2 | Your News & Comments: Part 2
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.)
72 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)
I've been gone for a few years now and am happily on my feet working in the investments field for people who are wonderfully competent and are quick to praise my work. Please make a New Year's resolution to update your resume and start making contacts in the field that could be your next career. I hate to read about the continuing agony of working for bosses that are inept, insecure, dishonest, unprincipled, spineless, back-stabbing and not interested in your future. Your future is with another employer. This should be the year to make the leap.
ReplyDelete9:31 is very much on point. But it's more than about updating your resume folks -- it's about redefining your career. Don't think in the same, drab box that visionless, inept GCI managers painted you in for all of these years. Think of the transferable skills you have that could be applied elsewhere, to employers who'd be glad to have someone with your ability.
ReplyDeleteHere's what a reader had to say about a fatal accident story published in The News-Messenger at Fremont, Ohio, a MNCO paper. The N-M was once a well-respected community newspaper. Now is it just another piece of crap, thanks to Gannett.
ReplyDeleteThe reader wrote:
"I think it's a da** shame we read about tragedies like this many days after it happens.
"There is NO excuse for this kind of BAD reporting!
"NM, either pay a honest wage for good reporters
or get out of the business. Your paper is worthless when it's full of OLD news or NOTHING printed when there is news. No follow-up reporting either.
"When you moved your printing out of Fremont so did anymore up-to-date and following-up reporting.
"Might as well close the doors OR get with the
program!"
It's difficult to disagree with his/her assessment.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete100% fits my previous publisher and boss.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete9:31- Completely agree. Trouble is. There aren't that many jobs out there to be had. I've got my resume updated. Just waiting for a good job to come along. I suspect i'm not alone in that regards at my paper.
ReplyDeleteI have left Gannett ,more than a year ago.
ReplyDeleteI can now fully appreciate being gone and employed elsewhere and working in advertising
which has been my life.
I look back 5 to 8 years ago when Gannett
was a great place to work,with friends being coworkers,and the objective was to put out the
best product ,give the best customer service,
provide the best designed ads and sections.
Now as I look back,as a manager,how things have changed so dramatically,quality means nothing,
employees mean nothing.I heard a story from a friend who still keeps in touch with the still employed at the weekly group that I worked for.
The morral is so terrible,the stress just ridiculous, that everyone just dreads even coming to work each day.They are not glad to be employed,in fact just hate working ...for Gannett.This was a place that was full of cheer
and people absolutely loved their jobs,just a short time ago.They loved coming to work,as it really wasn't work,it was a group of mostly lifelong friends coming together to put out a newspaper and shopper each week, having fun doing it ,and getting paid.
Now it is when will Gannett end it,so they can all get on with their lives.They won't leave,that would be like leaving a lifelong spouse.So they
wait....until Gannett pushes them out.
The rest....should be ready,as many posters have said,because for most it is a matter of when ,not if ,you will be unemployed.
Is this a true statement or just another rumor?:
ReplyDeletePhiladelphia Media Network in talks with Gannett for a JOA with Cherry Hill and Wilmington or an outright sale of both sites to the Inquirer. Deal expected to close before the end of Q1.
It's the begining of the end for the USCP.
Morral? Earl Morrall?
ReplyDeleteWe know this is the kind of crappy writing people were turning in. Why is it a surprise Gannett wanted to cut some cords?
People will now insist Gannett is a bad company. That is true, but that does not exclude the likelihood that many employees were terrible, too. In fact, it increases the likelihood.
News that is on our local radio's website will be in our paper two or more (or never) days later.
ReplyDeleteWhen I need to know local news, our newspaper and our website is the last place I go.
11:29 I haven't read anything yet to suggest this is more than a rumor.
ReplyDeleteHello, Cincinnati Enquirer staffers! You may be learning the identity of your new executive editor as early as next week -- and I believe this is going to be an Iowa import.
ReplyDeleteThe Cincinnati editor candidate was here for two days last week and I believe met with the top executives. And yes, it was a female.
ReplyDeleteGroupon has filed for a Series G funding round that authorizes it to raise up to $950 million.
ReplyDeletehttp://mashable.com/2010/12/28/breaking-groupon-raises-up-to-950-million-report/
9:31- Completely agree. Trouble is. There aren't that many jobs out there to be had. I've got my resume updated. Just waiting for a good job to come along. I suspect i'm not alone in that regards at my paper.
ReplyDelete12/29/2010 7:54 AM
No offense, 7:54, but if you're just sitting there on your hands with your resume updates "waiting for a good job to come along," then that explains why you're not having much luck. As an employer, I want to hire people who make their own success as opposed to waiting for good things to happen. Unfortunately, your years with GCI have conditioned you with a passive "follower" mentality and that's not what's cutting it in the 21st Century.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete9:48 I work at a paper that had to run a correction because it referred to the actor "Carrie Grant." I can see that getting by a sloppy youngster fresh out of J-school, but where was the first-read editor? And the page editor after that?
ReplyDelete4:06- 7:54 here...I apologize for my wording. We here in the Midwest tend to be more polite in the way we state ourselves. We're not keen on drama. Let me translate it into the rude east coast jersey dialect you must be familiar with.
ReplyDelete"yo! I sit at my desk all day scanning for jobs. If i talk to someone for advertising i find out if they're hiring. If i go out to sell ads. I don't. I'm lookin' fo anotha gig. Screw this company! they suck ass, and i don't care if i ain't making them no cash. This situation is finding another situation before the situation i'm in goes bankrupt. peace!
And so if Carolyn Washburn goes to Cincy, who follows her at Des Moines? Might they send Denny Ryerson back to Iowa? and if so, who, then, to indy? someone Crotchfelt likes from Phoenix, wouldn't ya think? Or maybe Rochester's Karen Magnuson figures in somewhere...
ReplyDeleteare editors of the "hub" cities "hub" editors, like Kane is hub publisher for the eastern papers? If that were true, why would Washburn leave Hollingsworth's side?
9:30 here again. Right, 4:06, you've got to find the job, or create the demand for your skills. It's not going to knock on your door. Newsroom people, especially reporters, are transitioning to the securities industry (the SEC itself is interested, per chairwoman Mary Schapiro), to law firms and PI firms, to federal and state agencies, to the media staffs of politicians at all levels, to research firms of various kinds. They're not advertising necessarily for people with news backgrounds, but you can sell them on your skills if you're personable and persuasive enough. You'd be amazed at how impressed employers are with the kind of broad knowledge and information digging abilities that reporters have. Just don't be shy.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see this covered in other media. It's suspicious that it's not, because how many media companies are left, after all. And what is their motivation? Media? Hardly.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete7:54, this is 4:06: That was actually a very, very funny send-up! Thanks for replying in such clever fashion. Whether in the Midwest, Northeast, SEC or Pac 10 ... That stuff don't matter. My only point was to be as proactive as possible here -- whether trying to find a new employer or putting the pieces in place for you to strike out on your own should GCI continue doing what it does best (that would be firing people, of course).
ReplyDelete5:17: I couldn't agree more with you. You are the kind of former GCI-er who's doing it the right way -- coming up with a 'real' self-eval of your skills and value and worth on the free market. Not thinking in some silly, little box that GCI managers would like to put everybody in. You assessed your talents and experience and the broad-based potential opps for these assets and you went out and landed a great Wall Street-related gig. That's EXACTLY what I've been talking about here.
The most essential point 5:17 made, and it can NOT be stressed enough to every, single person on this board (and not just editorial folks): "They're not advertising necessarily for people with news backgrounds, but you can sell them on your skills if you're personable and persuasive enough."
Which means: Do not EVER take job ads/requirements at their most literal level. If you think you'd like the gig and the company, go for it. If you get the interview, you can use your personable/persuasive skills to convince an employer that you're bringing incredibly valuable, transferable skills to the table. If you're a reasonably talented person in editorial, for example, you'd be SHOCKED at how elevated your skillset is beyond what employers expect in these other places.
It just takes a bit of initiative and a willingness to redefine yourselves folks. If you can do this, you'll find the possibility (probability?) of a layoff isn't nearly as scary as it seems now.
Bless you 7:54, 5:17 and everyone else here on the board and best wishes that everyone finds themselves in a better place when bringing in the New Year in 2011!
"This should be the year to make the leap."
ReplyDeleteI agree. I work for Gannett now, and I will leave soon. The more talented or educated you are, the more motivated you should be to leave. First, to ensure a financial future for yourself. Second, let us drain the Neuharth-Dubow beast of talent, and then let them argue with their own pain caused by being a lifeless, talentless, shrinking mess -- the one they have created. Let Gannett become the unit they have long desired to be -- a newspaper company staffed by twentysomethings, the one that writes about "Carrie Grant" and "Albert Ironside's theory of relatives."
I remember a couple of months after the Oklahoma City bombing; the newspaper I work with at the time ran a piece that identified the building as the Arthur Murray Federal Building instead of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building. But that piece came from the AP. Not all mistakes are make by Gannett papers
ReplyDelete5:11 p.m. said:
ReplyDelete" Let me translate it into the rude east coast jersey dialect you must be familiar with.
"yo! I sit at my desk all day scanning for jobs. If i talk to someone for advertising i find out if they're hiring. If i go out to sell ads. I don't. I'm lookin' fo anotha gig. Screw this company! they suck ass, and i don't care if i ain't making them no cash. This situation is finding another situation before the situation i'm in goes bankrupt. peace!"
Please,enough with the Jersey put-downs. You sound more like an overage hippie who dropped too much acid.
Carolyn Washburn and Margaret B are very good friends, and they've worked together before. That's why Carolyn would leave Des Moines.
ReplyDeleteAs we end this year I'd like to say that I like my job and my boss as well. That doesn't make me an adversary or a troll. It's just another point of view. Happy New Year to all my friends. Nothing but success in 2011.
ReplyDeleteAny idea who will replace Crotchfelt in Phoenix?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to all.
ReplyDeleteAnd may all Gannettoids who are planning to leave and find a new life in 2011 have a great year ahead !!!
I left about this time last year and believe me
it was not easy.I am a 50 ish ,former middle
manager and it was a tough decision.My health was being ruined from the stress,I could never enjoy life because every moment was centered
around ....How can I produce more revenue,get my reps to produce more revenue in order to meet the outlandish high budget expectations
put upon my command.My job depended on it!
My life was completely dominated by a corporation that cared nothing about it's employees or how their lives might be effected.
I hope you remaining folks find life after Gannett,and in a much better place.
As for Gannett and the weekly that I worked and bled for for 10 years.....
May it go down in flames after it is shuttered,
and burn in hell.
The corporation deserves no better.
I am bitter because I gave 10 years to them and was paid,certainly, but was it worth the price? I follow this blog to monitor how everyone else is doing in my shoes and it seems that more and more are doing what I did and getting the hell out of there.
Hey kids what are you doing New Year's Eve?
ReplyDeleteIf you're not stuck editing copy, covering cops, shooting DUI pics or in the press room printing the paper head over to the Newseum in Washington D.C.
For $150 per person have one-of-a-kind cocktails and food from Wolfgang Puck and other goodies!
http://www.newseum.org/news/2010/10/new-year-s-eve-headliners-ball.html
AS POSTED ABOVE:
ReplyDelete"The most essential point 5:17 made, and it can NOT be stressed enough to every, single person on this board (and not just editorial folks): "They're not advertising necessarily for people with news backgrounds, but you can sell them on your skills if you're personable and persuasive enough."
Which means: Do not EVER take job ads/requirements at their most literal level. If you think you'd like the gig and the company, go for it. If you get the interview, you can use your personable/persuasive skills to convince an employer that you're bringing incredibly valuable, transferable skills to the table. If you're a reasonably talented person in editorial, for example, you'd be SHOCKED at how elevated your skillset is beyond what employers expect in these other places."
BRAAAAAAAAAA-VO!
You are absolutely correct! Although a potential new employer/company can access the records as to ones last employer - I didn't even mention the name of the last employer, ONLY MY SKILLS and received an abundance of requests to be interviewed along with job offerings!
You all - don't feel intimidated in the least! Pull yourself up, stick your chest out and - GO FOR IT! And: Many Blessings in the New Year to you!
Any more news on the design hubs, did they ever announce who was going to run the Des Moins one yet. have they started hiring for the other slots?
ReplyDeleteA guy at a weekly was so burned out and stressed he had to leave the big bad corporation? Yeah those weekly deadlines will kill ya. Come on dude, try meeting deadlines every single day. Happy New Year
ReplyDeleteCarrie Grant? Arthur Murray? We once had an intern who headlined a historical item "Woman performed first heart transplant." She saw the name Christiaan Barnard and assumed it was a variation of Christy-Ann. It ran, and we had to run a correction.
ReplyDeleteVery petty, 12:28. People work hard all the time everywhere, whether the deadlines are weekly, monthly or daily. It's not like people at weeklies write less copy in a week than people at dailies. And if they do, who cares? Try picking a scrape over something worth scraping for.
ReplyDelete3:49 what do you know? Why Reno?
ReplyDeleteTo 12:28
ReplyDeleteWeeklies may seem like a walk in the park to you.Keep in mind that there is still a million dollar yearly revenue budget to made with mostly small, mom and pop businesses to acquire ad dollars from and very few corporate accounts.And further more, you have one shopper per week and one newspaper per week, plus special sections to achieve this goal.
Walk in the park, yeah right !!!No problem !
No stress there ,right ?
Good luck to us all in the year 2011.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jim, for this site.
Happy New Year.
rumor on a replacement for Crotchfelt is Jeff Bergin and Mike Burns. They both left GCI Corporate gigs working for Leslie (i won't say it) around the same time but Gannett wants them back. Bergin is in SF (ugggg) and Burns is at Freedom (grrrrrr).
ReplyDeleteAnyone else?
No way on Jeff Bergin or Burns. Bad rumors...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete5:17 everything you wrote is true but the original poster was whining over his extreme stress. Stool doesn't compare to a daily. Sorry but it's true.
ReplyDelete9:48: I like your thinking about why the editors didn't catch that -- but why must you blame it on age (a "sloppy youngster fresh out of school")?
ReplyDeleteI think we're setting the next generation (the future of our industry) up really poorly when we constantly dismiss them and disrespect them for their age.
Funny that you didn't mention the 50-year-old reporter at your paper who misspells the name ADOLF HITLER!
(That egregious historical error has passed multiple times through the same front-line editors and copy editors and has NEVER been corrected.)
Stool.
ReplyDelete8:41 is a flop.
7:24 PM No way on Jeff Bergin or Burns.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Zidich won't go for either one.
Thank you 12:27 I couldn't have said it better myself. And 5:11, a Happy New Year to you and your small, small mind. You're Gannett executive material.
ReplyDeleteHey 12:28 - Most of us who work at weeklies put out more copy in a week's time than daily reporters. We also take and process our own photos, respond to breaking news AND attend meetings. As for deadlines, considering I have to put out 1-2 stories per day, if I didn't treat every day as a deadline day I wouldn't still have a job.
ReplyDeleteMark Adkins has already accepted Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteDailies vs Weeklies....quit fighting. We ALL are working harder, with fewer co-workers, and with uncertain futures which makes working for Gannett or any media company stressful.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year... may you all find new jobs in a different field.
Mark Adkins is not coming to phoenix. Desperate rumors.
ReplyDeleteAdkins would never go to Phx. He headed to retire next not get into a huge job like running the Republic.
ReplyDeleteRumor has it both Bergin and Burns have been seen in Phoenix this past week talking to Zidich. It's all about stability right now. Since Linda left there hasn't been any. KAren is really smart but didn't do anything for the ad department. Many were happy she left.
Some of us are working harder. The corporate toadies never seem to sweat. This company will really be doomed when the economy improves and the rank and file employees leave en masse.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Jim on surpassing his quarterly revenue goal! First time, innit? Hopefully the first of many. . .
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSince no one replied to 3:49's 12/30 question about Reno, the feeling that's been relayed to me is that more furloughs and even more layoffs of a skeleton staff are expected in the first quarter. This is, however, just a rumor -- but it speaks volumes as to the toxic workplace created by secrecy, ambivalence and yesmen. For my part, I've assured (as some posters here have) that, yeah, it's scary but even unemployed you're better off out of that pit. I know I am! Friends have even noted "What's changed? You look great!"
ReplyDeleteI wonder if all that rain will leave Palm Springs GREEN? Or will GREEN leave Palm Springs?
ReplyDeleteRumors about Phoenix are sad on this blog. Bergin, Burns, and Adkins have not been to the building nor will any of them be considered for the job.
ReplyDeleteRumors about Phoenix are sad on this blog. Bergin, Burns, and Adkins have not been to the building nor will any of them be considered for the job 3:53
ReplyDeleteSo what I saw with my own 2 eyes and a short hello how are you conversation were all part of a dream huh? Don't be suprised if any announcement is made on one of these 3 ex-Gannett corporate guys in first week of January!!
3:51 ok but what does that have to do with Reno?
ReplyDelete6:07 is trying to see what will stick to the wall. By doing that, he has nothing to lose. If he's right, then he will be sure to tell us all. If he's wrong, then he'll just pretend he never said anything.
ReplyDeleteGreat system you have here, Jim.
what the heck is 10:28 talking about? I don't get it??????
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhy paywalls might help to understand readers better
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/hHzt2S
1:31, it should be obvious, but I will try to explain it to you, even though you still won't get it.
ReplyDeleteSeveral people here are throwing around rumors about specific people in Phoenix. That is nothing new.
6:07 takes the rumors up (or more precisely, down) a level by claiming he has seen those people and that there will be an announcement this week.
He has nothing to lose by doing that. If it happens, he'll come back to tell us how he was right. If it does not happen, he will not admit he was wrong.
Are you able to follow this?
Chris Stegman will be the replacement for Crotchfelt.
ReplyDeleteOh I get it, My Boss Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteWow- wound a bit tight these days 3:22 ?
ReplyDeleteThe reason this blog works is everyone (within reason; Thanks Jim!) gets to express their opinion. That's yours and the 1:31 seems to disagree.
I guess the only way anyone will know who will replace Karen is to wait it out. Right?
I know all three of these gentlemen and any would be better than what we have had in the past here, and many would agree all three were big losses to Gannett.
Phoenix isn't what it use to be. Not by a long shot. We need someone who can run the exsisting business but also have an eye towards developing better online sales plans. Ms. Crotchfelt was not the person to do it. It always felt she was temporary after the last guy left.
7:30, you must be one of the many who does not know the difference between opinion and fact.
ReplyDeleteComing on here and guaranteeing someone will be named to a position is not "stating an opinion," no matter how much you insist it is.
1:31 wasn't stating an opinion or a fact. That person was just being intentionally dense. This is a characteristic many people here have mastered, and they get their cue from Jim, who often responds the same way or accuses people of being corporate spies.
One of my favorite Jim response tactics is when he or someone else gets caught guessing, and then he says something meaningless like: "Gannett doesn't make that information available." He thinks that somehow makes the guessing OK.
I know someone with a little Gannett info, and this person indicates the "information" here is wrong quite often. I have tried more than once to persuade the person to come here and shred some of the blowhards, but I guess some people don't want to waste their time shooting down baseless rumors.
7:30 I have to confront you on your statement that Ll three are better than what you had. Adkins could do the job no doubt but he wontbleave SF. Burns and Bergin simply don't possess the leadership or communication skills to do the job and neither us better than CC. Please remember Bergin never ran an as dept larger than Fort Myers. He hasn't done a thing of note in SF. Sorry but it is true
ReplyDelete