First, U.S. newspaper division President Bob Dickey sends staff a memo on Tuesday, announcing first quarter furloughs at 81 dailies. It's marked, "CONFIDENTIAL: CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION."
Then, recognizing its news value, a reader posts the memo on Gannett Blog, which is read by reporters covering the media industry. Soon, the story is picked up by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, drawing attention back to this site and -- most important -- giving a wider audience to your comments and concerns on a variety of issues.
Bottom line: Your contributions are the most important ingredient to this blog's success. So, keep that information flowing.
"CONFIDENTIAL: CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION."
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the above on this blog, I was ROFLMAOOOOOOO
So much for confidentiality!!!!!!!
It was marked as confidential to make it very simple to terminate anyone who was found to have provided the document to this site or other non-Gannett entities. There are measures in place to review when documents like these leave through Gannett networks.
ReplyDeletewhich can easily be circumvented by cutting and pasting the text, emailing it to your personal GMAIL account, and then onward to Jim. Sending directly from your Gannett account would be fairly reckless, but there are ways around anything. Besides, if the IT guys in McLean are as competent as they are where I am, you have NOTHING to worry about.........
ReplyDelete"There are measures in place to review when documents like these leave through Gannett networks."
ReplyDeleteDoubtful.
While I don't doubt that "There are measures in place to review when documents like these leave through Gannett networks." I do doubt that Gannett IT peeps have the time to track the leaker down UNLESS it was a sting specifically set up to track down a leaker. If that's the case it may well work.
ReplyDeleteIf Gannett thinks it could get away with terminating someone for releasing information that was conveyed to every single employee about a publicly material change in Gannett practices that will cost nearly every non-union employee money, then it needs better legal counsel as it would be laughed out of court trying to defend that action.
ReplyDeleteEven more so as a news organization who routinely profits from reporting this type of information about others.
Not true 10:27, The graphic artist in Westchester that forwarded a CONFIDENTIAL memo from GCI to outside party was never terminated.
ReplyDeleteThe outside media is missing two components of this story: For the third year in a row, Gannett is shifting its payroll obligation to the U.S. taxpayer even as the gov faces a tremendous revenue problem of its own. Second, Gannett then tosses millions of dollars at the scoundrels who lead the company to reward them for this practice. As a taxpayer, I find this disgusting. When will it end or is this going to business as usual for the monster?
ReplyDeleteAny email you send from a Gannett account is very easy to monitor. Beyond that, I doubt GCI has invested the money to monitor behavior.
ReplyDeleteOk if you use outlook save the email on a usb drive then open it at home if you have outlook there, if you do not have outlook at home save the email in text format to a usb drive. Then do what you want with the info just edit your information from it first. Ops no trace possible if you edit correctly.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong but - couldn't a person take a screen shot of that email with their own personal iPhone and then email it? Like I said - I could be wrong!
ReplyDeleteBob Dickey sends staff a memo in it he says the cuts in payroll will help because year on year numbers are lower from a year ago and investor will is it as a miss!!
ReplyDeleteI call that a leak so the stock will not get hit as hard on Jan 31 earnings report.
When in doubt, always exercise caution.
ReplyDeleteGood for this quarters revenue should help those views. Keep up the good work. This is the best website in the world I visit it daily.
ReplyDeleteI had a question about this when the Dickey memo first appeared, and that is it contains insider information. Under current Securities and Exchange rules, execs are prohibited from disseminating insider information, especially in the period leading up to the release of a quarterly report. We are in that period now. So was it not a violation of SEC rules for Dickey to talk about revenues and projected revenues when this information had not been released publicly. The SEC takes these issues very seriously, because they give advantage to stock speculators. I still think Dickey violated SEC regs, and that statement on the top of the memo does not provide any excuse.
ReplyDeleteIt is very easy to monitor outgoing email traffic that has "CONFIDENTIAL: CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION." in it. That includes emailing it to your hotmail. Be careful.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all. If you're that stupid to forward documents to the blog from your work computer or email you deserve to be fired. In fact just going to the blog from your GANNETT NETWORKED PC is just as dumb.
ReplyDeleteSecond. It amazes me that this string has gone on for so long. The best option was the first typed. COPY AND PASTE. It doesn't take a lot of investigative probing to figure that out people.
8:57
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with "first". Not so much with "second".
Not that Gannett IT would ever invest in the capabilty, but you can track a copy and paste. The only way to truly be safe is to break the electronic chain and go off the grid. It's easier than it sounds.
You print the document, scan it into a non-Gannett networked machine, and send the file from your personal hardware. You should also create a new email account with ZERO personal information specifically for the transfer of data. Not to get all "Grassy Knoll" about it, but i wouldn't doubt it if Gannett hasn't compromised Jim's security. So you want as little to track back to you as possible. Very simple.
First, let me repeat my earlier advice: When in doubt, always exercise caution.
ReplyDeleteLet me then add the following: Perhaps the single dumbest thing Corporate could do would be to get caught spying on employee communications with this blog. And believe me, sooner or later, word would surface because it always does.
And should that ever happen, I will move heaven and earth to make sure the world knew every stinking detail. That would be a story that the mainstream press would chew on for days: Major newspaper publisher compromising free speech rights.
9:29 I don't think Dickey violated any rules because he sent it to Gannett employees only. When ever employee is hired they sign paper work explaining insider trading and how information my be released internal but not external. Great example are budgets. This is coming from a person that does not agree with how Gannett is run. Also, i may be incorrect please someone call me out if i am.
ReplyDeleteThe people putting their trust in Jim in this area are going to be disappointed. Do you seriously think someone who couldn't even figure out how to adjust a microphone knows the ins and outs of cyberspace? Doubtful.
ReplyDelete"That would be a story that the mainstream press would chew on for days: Major newspaper publisher compromising free speech rights."
Wrong. Other companies already have found a way to police just about everything under the banner of "non-work use." Nothing was ever said. I doubt the "mainstream press" will make much of an effort to defend people who run to their work computers to spread factless gossip about their workplace.
Dream on, Jim. It's fun to watch your logic crumble.
Easy..print the content, take it home, scan it into your personal computer and e-mail it..Trace that!
ReplyDelete11:38 AM - Corporate troll working on the weekends... I thought that was for the rank and file? You management types amaze me.
ReplyDeleteLovely to read how lemming trolls conspire to release confidential information. Forget loyalty that isn't the issue, it's your personal ethics that are in questions. The lemmings have no line. They will post anything. Way to go. Respect and Dignity.
ReplyDelete2:42 must be a high paid corporate troll who doesn't understand that Gannett is one of the most miss-managed companies out there. Yes all media companies are hurting but our so-called top management was late on reacting to the changing industry, wasted un-told millions on questionable web assets at best (crappy at worst), all while continuing to spread million of dollars to upper management cronies. Forget loyality and personal ethics...the company that has laid off thousands, doesn't deserve our respect or dignity. Shame on you for trying to protect them!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteLovely to read how lemming trolls conspire to release confidential information. Forget loyalty that isn't the issue, it's your personal ethics that are in questions.
Wow, this poster has no shame. Conspire, loyalty, personal ethics. That really takes the cake! And that coming from a COMPANY (probably one that is in the higher ranks - otherwise this comment makes no sense) that continuously forgot LOYALTY, resorted to CONSPIRACY at every turn and really, really has no PERSONAL ETHICS.
Please, 2:42 p.m., go fly a kite - you're probably better at that than insulting our intelligence.
The easiest thing to do is zip up the file so now it's binary and won't scan on outgoing emails and the email it to your gmail account. Then at home un zip it and send it to Jim. They are scanning out going email for that confidential piece so don't send it out in plain text. Not smart. However if you zip it first you will be fine.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSuggestion:
ReplyDeleteCopy text, paste to your GMAIL-YAHOO-HOTMAIL email account if you want to send something to Jim.
Exchange email server, the email system we use, keeps a log of every incoming and outgoing email. It would be fairly easy for someone to search the sent log for Jim's email address. This would point to the sender's email address. From there someone could access the sender's SENT folder for a copy of the email. Deleting the email from SENT does not mean it's really been deleted from the server. So, be safe and don't send email to Jim from our corporate email account.
I check the blog almost daily from a work computer while eating lunch. Hell, if the VPs and publisher can, so can I.
I never post to the blog from work, only from home.
For paranoid folks:
ReplyDeleteUse an anonymous proxy to get to here.
Most, if not all, site firewalls are centrally managed by corporate IT. This means they have logs of all outgoing network traffic to the internet. When I was "let go" the log only showed the source and destination port#/IP#. It did not record the complete URL of the site you were going to.
This means, yes they can tell that you came to this blog from a work computer, if they look.
So, use an anonymous proxy or redirector if you're afraid of being caught.
It is possible for corporate to see every URL - the complete URL - that you go to.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess they're seeing this then!
ReplyDelete