Wednesday, March 16, 2011

March 14-20 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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38 comments:

  1. For Part 2 of this comment thread, please go here.

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  2. Is Gannett still offering to match charitable contributions? Japan is in major need.

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  3. 1:13 absolutely

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  4. I heard that Gannett is announcing a new Chief Digital Officer. Apparently not a great choice as no one is excited by the candidate.

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  5. I think Maryam's day in the Sun will soon fade if they announce a CDO today!

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  6. OK My Boss, a clue? Corporate appointment to which 7:15 AM referred? More furloughs?
    My newsroom is a ghost town this week because of furloughs.

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  7. My Boss is teasing you. She doesn't want to let on that she knows because it is a digital issue. If she were specific she'd be busted because there are only a few that know.

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  8. "My friend who got laid off last time had a choice: take Gannett severance OR file for unemployment but NOT get the entire amount for his severance."

    11:18 pm - The deal now is that you MUST file for unemployment to get ANY severance. As soon as you are NOT eligible for unemployment, you are not eligible for the supplementary payments (up to the number of weeks for every year you worked at the company).
    Let's say you worked for Gannett for five years. If you find a job in week three, and can no longer file for unemployment, Gannett will not have to pay the supplement for the remaining two weeks.
    At my site, exempt employees, except sales people, had to take furlough from Sunday to Saturday.

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  9. Come on My Boss tell us about your New Boss!!!!

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  10. Wait...I know....corporate is announcing a new and sweeping transformation program that will speed GCI into the Internet age....

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  11. David Payne named Gannett’s Chief Digital Officer



    McLEAN, VA – David A. Payne has been named senior vice president and chief digital officer of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Craig A. Dubow, chairman and chief executive officer, and Gracia C. Martore, president and chief operating officer, jointly announced today. Payne will be a member of the Gannett Management Committee.

    Payne joins Gannett from ShortTail Media, Inc., where he was president and CEO of the video ad technology start-up he co-founded in 2008. From 2004-2008 he was senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com, which produced and distributed all of CNN’s digital services, including CNN.com, CNN Mobile, CNN.com Live, and CNN Video on Demand.

    “David has an incredible track record developing and leading digital operations in the media industry. He has tremendous digital content and advertising experience and understands media distribution, sales and marketing. He clearly has his finger on the pulse of what consumers and advertisers want in today’s digital world,” Martore said. “As consumers and advertisers continue to embrace new ways to engage with and share content on any platform and device, Gannett will continue to be a leader in developing new digitally delivered services. David will help us grow and innovate even faster and help us chart a new and exciting direction for our company and the many audiences we serve.”

    Gannett is a digital leader with hundreds of newspaper, TV and national web sites that reach 52 million unique users monthly, or about 24% of the Internet audience, as measured by comScore Media Metrix. The company’s digital portfolio includes PointRoll, the industry leader in rich media advertising, and ShopLocal, its retail division and leader in multichannel shopping and advertising services. The company’s digital business has grown 44 percent in the last two years and, with revenue of almost $1 billion, makes up 18% of Gannett’s total revenue.

    “Gannett is a terrific company that has seen tremendous growth in its digital segment,” Payne said. “The company not only has an unparalleled news organization, but it also has an enviable portfolio of digital products and incredible local and national reach that is unique in the digital ecosystem. I am very excited about Gannett’s future and to be joining this talented team.”

    During his career at Turner Broadcasting, Payne also served as senior vice president of business operations and development at CNN (2001-2004); senior vice president and general manager of CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive (2000-2001); vice president of legal and business affairs for Turner Sports and vice president and team counsel for Turner Sports Teams (1994-2000); and as counsel for Turner Entertainment Group (1993-1994). Prior to joining Turner, Payne was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC; an associate of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, DC; and a producer and weekend assignment editor at KUTV in Salt Lake City, UT. He holds a law degree from Duke University School of Law (JD with Honors), and received his Bachelor’s of Arts degree, cum laude, in Public Policy Studies, from Duke University.

    About Gannett
    Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is an international media and marketing solutions company that informs and engages more than 100 million people every month through its powerful network of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing properties. Our portfolio of trusted brands offers marketers unmatched local-to-national reach and customizable, innovative marketing solutions across any platform. Gannett is committed to connecting people – and the companies who want to reach them – with their interests and communities. For more information, visit gannett.com.


    For media inquiries, contact:
    Robin Pence
    Vice President, Corporate Communications
    703-854-6049
    rpence@gannett.com

    For investor inquiries, contact:
    Jeffrey Heinz
    Director, Investor Relations
    703-854-6917
    jheinz@gannett.com

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  12. David Payne in his own words:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPWBeONV1_Y

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  13. Techcrunch.com reported yesterday that Adgent Digital had acquired Payne's company, Shorttail Media. Payne was the only one of the original Shorttail Media startup team not remaining. The Techcrunch story said Payne was leaving "for an unnamed U.S. publishing house"

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  14. Looks to me as if ShortTail had two employees in addition to Payne. Not sure I really understand the need for this company as advertisers already doing this. But I'm no expert in this field.

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  15. Payne:
    -- no "reaching" on this GCI release, either.
    -- no appointment to the gmc. If this is to be our new corporate boss, that would seem a prerequisite.
    -- his credentials as a lawyer look the strongest of any part of his resume.

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  16. ShortTail media was a joke. A failed network experiment. This guy is no innovator. Come on Dubow and Martore! You could top someone like Saridakis so you find the one person who is unemployed who comes from a large media company and a failed start up!!, Aim low Gannett!!,

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  17. 10:17 you have no idea what you are talking about. But congrats for being the first Lemming Troll to spit on the new CDO!! Points for you for waking up early. And please make sure you spit on his work at CNN.com as well!

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  18. Shoot, we thought we were hiring David Pogue!

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  19. Was there a memo sent out that all tech companies have to slam together two capitalized words when naming the business?

    I'm taking PissPoor BeforeSome ShmuckDecides to SwipeIt FromMe.

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  20. Any day now -- possibly as early as today -- Gannett will disclose 2010 pay to Dubow & Co.

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  21. "11:18 pm - The deal now is that you MUST file for unemployment to get ANY severance. As soon as you are NOT eligible for unemployment, you are not eligible for the supplementary payments (up to the number of weeks for every year you worked at the company) ..."

    The system not only screws employees if they find a fulltime job. It screws them if they attempt to get off their butts and apply their talents to contract work. Gotta hand it to GCI for coming up with another incredibly creative way to screw their employees while encouraging them to not apply their skills. Problem is: If you're looking for fulltime work, telling your next boss that you're working contractually is a helluva lot more impressive sounding than saying you're getting unemployment.

    Yep. GCI has REALLY figured all of this out ... But can't wait for the job market to improve overall and see the mass exodus of workers there leave who have been screwed now over and over again for three years plus now ...

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

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  23. I am amazed that Gannett's "Temporary Transitional Pay" program is even legal. For 25 years, the policy published in our employee handbook stated that if an employee were to be laid off, the employee would receive severance commensurate with length of service. When my job and my entire department was outsourced, guess what. No severance -- instead, "temporary transitional pay," whatever chump change earned by their new calculations for this length of loyalty and commitment, now to be erased upon re-employment. Just like that. Gannett is slime.

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  24. This is first appointment I've been excited about. Looks like he knows what he is doing. A lot of the people acting like they know what they are doing around here -- but really don't -- are not going to last long, I hope.

    Welcome to the House of Payne! in a good way.

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  25. Dickey is looking older everyday..

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  26. 2:27: If you have it in writing in an employee handbook, then there could be a legal case against it. Would need a lawyer to take it up in class-action fashion. I personally gave up eight weeks due to me because I simply could not not work. I had clients who were more than willing to keep me busy. While the temptation to put them off in hopes of sticking it to GCI for as much as I could, there would have been too much risk in losing good clients who represented long-term relationships that continue to this day.

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  27. Haven't seen this before: The Washington Post apologizes for plagiarizing the Arizona Republic:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/editors-note-an-apology/2011/03/16/ABxGsnf_story.html?hpid=z3

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  28. Arizona stories in the WPO written by Pulitzer Prize winner Sari Horwitz, a veteran who has been with the WPO for a quarter of a century.

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  29. Thirty years after Janet Cooke!

    At the non-Gannett paper where I work, plagiarism will get you fired on the spot.

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  30. This is from Jalopnik:

    Scott Burgess resigned today as The Detroit News auto critic after his editors bowed to a request by an advertiser to water down his negative review of the Chrysler 200. This is why we can't have nice reviews anymore.

    The Chrysler 200 is the car that sits at the center of a multi-million-dollar, Eminem-starring "Imported from Detroit" campaign meant to symbolize the rebirth of not only the automaker, but of Detroit. Unfortunately, as we've experienced first hand, the car's just not competitive with current models — only competing well with the older version of itself, the Chrysler Sebring.

    Scott Burgess, who up until today was the auto critic at The Detroit News, called it out for what it was in a review that ran in this past Thursday's paper. We agreed so much with his assessment, we linked to it Thursday morning in our "Morning Shift."

    Apparently not everyone enjoyed it. Two sources at The Detroit News tell us that after receiving a phone call from an advertiser, changes were made to the online version of Burgess' review. We still don't know whether the advertiser in question was a Chrysler dealer or Chrysler itself. What we do know is that although the changes don't go so far as to turn a negative review into a positive one, it was certainly enough to water it down. We called Sue Carney, the business editor for The Detroit News, but have not received a call back yet. Burgess, for his part, is unwilling to talk about why he left the newspaper but our assumption is this was it. Other editors at the 138-year-old newspaper only agreed to speak with us off the record.

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  31. Janet Cooke. Wasn't she hired by Gannett soon after her fraud was discovered? Only Gannett would have given her a job!

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  32. Regarding Detroit auto writer....Yessir, Gannett is definitely shifting from news to marketing. Look at Cincy for another example.

    The news pages are for sale folks.

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  33. Before people get all up into a lather -- there's no legal right to severance pay in the United States. Employee handbooks are not legally enforceable contracts and are subject to amendment at any time. And even transitional pay is not something the company is required to provide. But please, by all means, someone go pay a lawyer to find these things out. I'm sure they could use the money.

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  34. please help if you can!

    http://yourlife.usatoday.com/mind-soul/doing-good/story/2011/03/US-donations-not-rushing-to-Japan/44961802/1

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  35. Jack Kelley was 10 times worse than Janet Cooke.

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  36. there is rumors about another furlough in 2nd quarter?

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  37. This guy is no innovator. Come on Dubow and Martore! You could top someone like Saridakis so you find the one person who is unemployed who comes from a large media company and a failed start up

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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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