Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Week March 7-13 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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65 comments:

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

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  4. Please add two more to the laid off list.

    Even as Gannett rolled out the new logo -- with balloons in the lobby and posters -- two Content One staffers in Tysons were let go during the celebration this weekend past:

    # One a longtime and experienced administrator dating back to the better days of the Gannett News Service.

    # The other an editor with Content One who served as a liaison with USA Today.

    Timing is everything, after all.

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  5. The Content One layoffs make no sense. Tara's operation was supposed to be golden, and a path towards editorial consolidation. It's been painfully slow, but what happened to the idea?

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  6. What do you all think of a charity fund-raiser to buy a certain ceo a decent tie? We could include a note that displaying your underwear isn't acceptable in fashion today as it was in Eddie Haskell's day.

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  7. I'd buy corporate's big blue ball for $25 and roll it to Des Moines to replace their ball from 1943.

    "Earth! Now with more Israelites and less Soviets!"

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  8. NJ Daily Record publisher announced his "resignation."

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  9. There are going to be huge job losses because there will be entire newspapers dissolved. NJ group, get the resumes updated.

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  10. "Earth! Now with more Israelites and less Soviets!"

    What is that supposed to mean???

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  11. Maybe they told him to slow down and smile foolishly every few seconds, but he sounds medicated.

    All they had to do was trot him up to the newsroom. We girls would have said "Uh-uh, honey, you look and sound like a drugged-out hippie. You go shave and put on a tie and come back when you've had a cup of coffee."

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  12. Two more layoffs? Time to start writing those Merry Prankster checks made payable to Craig Dubow.

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  13. Jim I'm surprised your oh so amazing journalism skills didn't pick up Dubow on live tv yesterday. He did a live on air interview in Fox Business.
    But hey you were reporting on their noses growing longer so thats why you must of missed it. What a joke this blog is haha How about you and your dumb followers actually report news

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  14. 10:21: My conclusion is Jim and the readers of this blog aren't part of the lowlifes Fox attracts.

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  15. 10:27 it's Fox Business like CNBC not Fox news. Fox business doesn't have any political connection.

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  16. Dubow was on the wall street journal as well yesterday.

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  17. 8:15 and others: Is there any more information available about the Daily Record publisher? I've just checked the paper's website, but don't see anything.

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  18. ""Earth! Now with more Israelites and less Soviets!"

    What is that supposed to mean???
    3/08/2011 10:04 AM"

    My guess is that the globe DMR has is so old, Israel wasn't a country and the USSR was.

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  19. Jim can you post the fox business video

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  20. http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4572894/gannett-ceo-were-in-the-midst-of-a-transformation

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  21. Great post, 10:21. When I read the nonsense Jim and the lemmings circulate here, I often think of this saying: "They could screw up a two-car parade."

    With so many unemployed people here, you'd think one of them would have flipped past Fox Business on the way to Judge Judy.

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  22. No politics on Fox Business? The one time I watched Fox Business they interviewed a business professor from Cal. The interview opened with "you mean you teach free enterprise at Cal?" No politics, huh?

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  23. Note: Cal is University of California, Berkeley.

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  24. Yes, 10:31, I'm sure it's fair and balanced. Just like the WSJ. No politics at all. I believe that. Really I do.

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  25. You're crowing over this, 10:21? http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4572894/gannett-ceo-were-in-the-midst-of-a-transformation

    He's just spouting the same empty blather buzzwords he's always blathered about. He just was fortunate enough to be interviewed by a corp cheerleader who didn't do his homework.

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  26. If it is true about the Daily Record publisher, then Heaven Help Us All. That will be two lost in the last couple of weeks - taking a huge amount of knowledge with them. From what I know, the publisher was a straight shooter. He knew his market inside out. I think that maybe the "higher ups" didn't like his questions...who knows? He has a loyal team.
    Look for some of them to jump ship.

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  27. How many sites no longer have publishers?

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  28. NJ-DR pub remains until April, then gone, gone, gone ...

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  29. 11 layoffs at Minneapolis Offset (printing plant for USA Today and other outside customers) including sales staff, estimating, press management and scheduling March 4th.

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  30. Anyone know the 4 Lansing losses? I left ahwile ago and thank god that I am still not in that s#$thole.

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  31. Jim, I think the question about how many sites are currently without publishers asked above is worthy of you trying to answer. I know our site's publisher was pushed out the door a couple months ago and the Executive Editor is filling in as an Interim Publisher. This going on at one or two sites wouldn't mean much but if it is happening at many sites at the same time it could indicate corporate is heading in a new direction in terms of having publishers at the smaller community papers. What say you, Jim?

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  32. Re: ContentOne layoffs, unfortunately they chose the wrong two people.

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  33. He needs to shave. Bad Abe Lincoln look he has going on there. Aside from the shit coming out of his mouth, not sure what else was memorable with that Fox news interview. DOUBLING DIGITAL REVENUE AS A PERCENTAGE IN 2-3 YEARS!!!! GOOD LUCK DUBOW

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  34. 3:54 - at least one in production in Delta (C.P.)

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  35. There is nothing better for a news/media operation than a strong, responsive publisher.

    And there is nothing worse for a newspaper than a bad one.

    I know that sounds cliche... but it is true.

    Having had my career ruined by a Gannett little despot publisher with ---- for brains, I know of what I speak.

    Sadly, few of the Gannett publishers and EEs fit into the former category. Most hurt a newspaper by their total lack of interest in the quality of the product and their butt-kissing talents with The Tower.

    That is especially true of the worthless Ohio small papers and the ones in Indiana.

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  36. 303 p.m. You are so complimentary about Lansing. It doesn't merit such generous praise. Lay it on heavier next time, please! Whoever lost their jobs will be hurting now but far happier in the long run.

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  37. Granted, not ALL papers need a publisher. But knowing which ones no longer have one might show a trend. It would be helpful to know how many papers in each group have publishers and how many don't. Also, size of paper. All of this information would be quite revealing.

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  38. And now for something completely different, with gas approaching $3.50 a gallon our paper dropped our mileage reimbursement to $.26 a mile. Is there an way to force them legally (I know any mention of morals and Gannett is not applicable) to give us a fair amount, or are we just screwed?
    mydeepblueplanet

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  39. If Publishers aren't worth their salt than what about GM's @ USA Today for each of their Markets? Can there be a cost savings at USAT as well?

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  40. Most small newspaper do not have Publishers unless you kiss so much rear end that all you can say is yes Gannett. The ones that are still around are the YES men or women. If you question the group or corporate you stand a chance. They will get rid of you.

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  42. Site's without a publisher? What a novel idea.
    They can take our publisher away and no one will notice the difference. He, and most of the brass here, are so removed for the daily operation that they don't know what goes on in their own departments.
    We all understand that it isn't business as usual, and that changes has to be made to stay alive, but I just shake my head when I look at who was let go and who are left behind. With the same amount of people being axed, my list would have saved the company about 2-3 times as much money.
    I would love to hear the reasons behind the choices, and see if I can find some logic in it.

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  44. Yeah, 6:06 p.m., the mileage reimbursement is an old Gannett trick. In Westchester, the powers that be would keep the reimbursement unchanged for months and months as the price of gas went up.

    By the time they'd get around to increasing the reimbursement, the price of gas would drop a bit. Then, quicker than a flash, they'd drop the reimbursement.

    And all the while the publisher and all the VPs tanked up for free at the company pump.

    This is yet another example of the previously posted "rude and crude" Gannett management, aka let the peons pay Gannett's overhead.

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  46. On the gas mileage question, you have to pity your newspaper, which is now paying extra charges to truck in the newspapers from the far-away locations where they are now published. So it is understandable that someone will have to pay the additional costs for truck deisel (it runs about 10 cents a gallon over gasoline prices). So employees will have to accept less on their gasoline allowances.

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  47. Anonymous said...MAJOR DECISIONS COMING AT WESTCHESTER SITE SOON WATCH OUT AND LOOK OUT.

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  48. Anyone hear about company cell phones going away?

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  49. 8:34 ...

    "Closing time. ...
    Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

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  50. gannett is working with fox news, that's the trade off I guess.

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  51. Who was laid off at Content One? I know some people there but I can't make it out based on the comments.

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  52. Don't chide anyone for not watching Fox Business News. On a good day, they have an audience of about 125,000. Neil Cavuto is a shrill tool

    Does anyone know who, specifically, was laid off at Content Uno?

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  53. I watched the 5 minute Fox segment. I don't know if I heard our CEO string one cohesive sentence together. At least he wore a suit.

    However, the Fox "media reporter" did not ask a substantive question about the quality of journalism Gannett produces or even how publishing side is producing more profits on sharply lower revenue. About as incisive as watching one of the Fox News commentators. Not!

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  54. What happened at the Arizona Republic and KPNX Channel 12 yesterday? Major reorganization? Layoffs coming or not?

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  55. Anonymous said...
    I just read a book about post war Vietnam ("Vietnam Now, A Reporter Returns") by David Lamb, who opened the LA Times bureau in Hanoi.

    He had a paragraph about the Vietnamese Communist Politburo and the economic stagnation that marked the 1980's in Vietnam, "There was no reward in saying the right thing and risk in saying the wrong thing...That meant saying nothing at all, making no decisions, deferring to authority, leaving no fingerprints on anything."

    Obviously Gannett is not the Vietnamese communist politburo, but that attitude, the fearing of saying or doing something that would anger the Crystal Tower, is exactly what's holding this company back.

    New logos ain't gonna fix this ship.

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  56. Now I'll have to write "bonus + go buy yourself a tie" on the memo line of one of my Merry Prankster checks.

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  57. Re: 10:42PM.

    Zidich sent out a PowerPoint presentation detailing the new structure.

    News wise, Randy Lovely is now Senior Vice President News and Audience Development (wtf is "Audience Development"?) AZ Republic Executive Editor is now Nicole Carroll. Mark Casey, from KPNX, is the 12News VP News and seems to answer to both Randy and John Misne, the COO of KPNX.

    No word on what any of this means to workers in the trenches. I think there will be more announcements as things shake out.

    So far there's been no word of furloughs or layoffs at 200 EVB.

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  58. 11:02 The PowerPoint (which a reader gave me today) shows KPNX news V.P. Mark Casey reporting to Republic COO John Misner. But it also has a dotted line between Casey and Randy Lovely, suggesting a reporting relationship there, too.

    Was Misner promoted to COO from KPNX general manager? Or has he always had the COO title/job?

    And was Brooke Christofferson named to replace Karen Crotchfelt as head of advertising? This PowerPoint slide shows she is a V.P. But I thought Crotchfelt was a senior vice president.

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  59. 4:20 On sites with vacant publishers/general managers, I'm interested. I know of two such sites (I think): Fort Collins and Clarksville, Tenn.

    Corporate's new website design inconveniently no longer lists pubs or GMs at newspapers and TV stations. Perhaps the names are changing so fast, Corporate didn't want to hassle with updating pages.

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  60. Name names, svp. Who is the soon-to-be-leaving publisher at the DR?

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  61. Company cell phones going away? Hmmm... why do GCI Crystal Palace executive assistants get theirs paid for?

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  62. Company cell phones going away? Westchester's rank and file had their's taken away YEARS AGO. Around the same time as the pagers were recalled by management.

    And to that poster who suggested it was fair for reporter, photographers and ad people to accept lower mileage reimbursements to compensate their paper, you must be nuts!

    The execs decided it would be cheaper to print off site and to truck the papers 30, 40, 70 miles. Any amount they're paying for fuel is peanuts compared to running their own print plant.

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  63. 9:49 at Part 2

    Please don't ever quote Supersonic again.

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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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