Tuesday, April 19, 2011

April 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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38 comments:

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

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  2. Is the deal chicken brand a little strange? well, yes it is. but i work in phx and i've heard that it"s gonna bring in 2-3 million this year here. why is it such a bad thing if other gannett cities can make money off this? Big-J journalism it isn't but if it supports the overall business,, who cares?

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  3. 1:31 If those projections are correct, then yes, it will be a success. But how much of this revenue is going to overhead, and how much time will salesmen spend peddling $60 restaurant meal deals which bring in just $15 in revenues? Is there any substitution here involving restaurants who currently advertise who now will shift only to Deal Chicken and will that cost us more in the long-term? If it is robbing Peter to pay Paul, there is not much overall benefit and it is not the magic answer to making fortunes in this economy.

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  4. The only way I see to force this company to change and get its heart back is to elect someone to the board of directors who will bring change. Stockholders have a vote in making this company's future.

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  5. The only concern for this blog right now should
    be the layoff plans that the non-leadership
    team will now be concocking.
    The report/questionaire to Wall Street is now behind them and they can instigate the real
    goals of the company .
    Their talk of "EFFIENCIES" means one thing and and one thing only- COST CUTTING and LAYOFFS !!
    The need to talk about revenue generation is a waste of time,revenues may trend up in the distant future,but we all know that it took 3 to 4 years to get this bad and it will take years to build back those losses if at all.
    Now in the present day, revenues are way ,way down are not coming back by making a plan or giving an explanation or a speech.
    Costs can be cut now and this can be done immediately and without a future plan and not in years to come.Layoffs that improve will happen without a speech or fanfare.People will be gone and gone now without so much as business
    spread sheet to show why.

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  6. Funny thing about Deal Chicken, Groupon and all the rest...they've taken what small town radio stations have done for years and years and are making it work on a larger scale. Now that brings up in a roundabout way this question. What makes small town radio stations unique? They go gonzo on community involvement. They are generally not cookie-cuttered to sound like every other radio station up and down the dial. Perhaps that's what the USCP should allow its local papers to do.

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  7. It's funny, I don't see corporate putting money into the news operation beyond hiring more execs at USA Today.

    This Deal Chicken thing can generate bucks and that's good. But I doubt any of those dollars will find their way to news side.

    G A N N E T T is becoming a marketing company and slowly abandoning news no matter what Dubow mumbles on and on about.

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  8. 8:59 -- Where do you live that small-town radio stations still exist? Where I live almost every radio station is a cookie cutter, corporate-owned clone. That's why -- aside from the biggest stations -- I find very little variety in content whether I'm in Los Angeles or Salt Lake City.

    You are right that the few non-corporate stations that still exist are unique and fun. But the radio industry went through what we're going through now years ago. If you're in an area that still has thriving independents, you're really, really lucky.

    I think one reason radio has become really boring is that it was corporatized long ago.

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  9. Is the deal chicken brand a little strange? well, yes it is. but i work in phx and i've heard that it"s gonna bring in 2-3 million this year here. why is it such a bad thing if other gannett cities can make money off this? Big-J journalism it isn't but if it supports the overall business,, who cares?
    4/19/2011 1:31 AM

    I work in Phoenix too and the 2-3 million is a little pie in the sky, I see the spreadsheets and the trends weekly it's more like 1 million in TOTAL sales, plus their is no actual bottom line income yet, of the 1 million, it is evaporating in commission, marketing and the kickback to the merchants. I'll admit this may have some future possibility but it has to be way expanded and the other huge hurdle is that there is no reason for a merchant to buy Deal Chicken when they can go on Groupon and get infinitely greater marketing exposure.

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  10. Ya the Deal Chicken is a cheap knock off of Groupon, if you go on Deal Chicken there is ONLY one deal per day, if you go on Groupon, there are multiple deals going on, plus the Deal Chicken deals (while a good discount off the usual price of a given service) are still way expensive. For example today Deal Chicken Deal is "$150 for an 8-week hCG program at Wellness Forever ($699 Value)" but the problem is that it still costs $150 bucks people want things that are like a $150 massage for $29 bucks, I got that on Groupon, the price point on the services is so key to success and again Gannett doesn't understand that with the Deal Chicken yet another product doomed to failure.

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  11. 10:24 and 10:32 are clueless.

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  12. I guess Des Moines didn't want any part of the Chicken. Register has allowed a local group grab serious couponing. http://deals.dsmdaily.com

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  13. Regarding first quarter numbers. What would they have looked like if everyone making over $250,000 took a 5 to 10% pay cut and no bonuses were given out??

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  14. The sad thing about deal chicken is just how late gannett is to the party. two and a half years ago groupon had no sales rep, no contacts w quality mom and pop merchants in all these individual markets. We did. We could have owned this new market. Now groupon is worth $6 billion while gci continues to languish behind a lack of vision and leadership.

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  15. 10:24 and 10:32 are clueless.
    4/19/2011 11:48 AM

    Um and who are you... I see the spreadsheets and revenue figures on a weekly basis.

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  16. What is this deal chicken you speak of? Is it chik-fil-a's latest value meal?

    I hope it has honey mustard on it.

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  17. 12:55 we now know who you are. thank you.

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  18. 12:55 we now know who you are. thank you.
    4/19/2011 4:28 PM

    Really, I seriously, seriously doubt it, in fact it's impossible that anyone on here would know me.

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  19. I agree with the 8:54 comments about the impending layoffs.Although I am guessing that
    because there has been no further discussion here concerning layoffs,everyone else must be in the belief that they still have solid careers with Gannett.
    The focus today about coupon revenue(Deal Chicken etc ) and digital revenue leads me to believe the general population of Gannett employees have their heads in the sand and believe that there jobs are safe.
    Why be concerned about new sources of revenue for Gannett money counters when you probably won't be employed by them.
    That is laughable.

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  20. montgomery advertiser "redesign" :
    tinyurl.com/3g2fnk3

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  21. Is Deal Chicken a product of Content One? Don't tell me that Content One has actually done something.

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  22. I liked Wanda Lloyd's column about the Montgomery redesign. I haven't seen the paper, but her matter-of-fact style and concern for readers was nice.
    Good folks do good stuff at Gannett every day. They deserve praise.

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  23. Wanda has always been a straight shooter and a terrific Gannett asset. She is missed at USA Today.

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  24. I liked Wanda Lloyd's column about the Montgomery redesign. I haven't seen the paper, but her matter-of-fact style and concern for readers was nice.
    Good folks do good stuff at Gannett every day. They deserve praise.
    4/19/2011 6:15 PM


    ........another Koolaide drinker

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  25. That's really funny. Finally a new product and everyone is dissing it. I don't know nothing about cupons etc., other than everybody I know uses in one form or another. As for the revenue, I looked at the recent deals and get what, the ones listsed totalled more than 300k in revenue for 8 deals. So there is something to this thing. Just sayin

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  26. You can be sure there is something rotten in the so called circ increase at usat. I know at the property I worked in the numbers were always bullshit and now with abc's new reporting procedures (changed so that the industry will stay wit then) everything is a load of Baloney. no matter because gannett management does not know how to tell the truth.

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  27. I say no worry be happy no more layoff.

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  28. Former USA Today golf writer Harry Blauvelt was killed in a freak accident Monday on the Bay Bridge in Maryland. A tractor-trailer rear-ended his broken-down car, which pushed him over the railing and into Chesapeake Bay.

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

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  30. So sad about Harry Blauvelt. He was a really good guy.

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  31. Ya the Deal Chicken is a cheap knock off of Groupon, if you go on Deal Chicken there is ONLY one deal per day, if you go on Groupon, there are multiple deals going on, plus the Deal Chicken deals (while a good discount off the usual price of a given service) are still way expensive. For example today Deal Chicken Deal is "$150 for an 8-week hCG program at Wellness Forever ($699 Value)" but the problem is that it still costs $150 bucks people want things that are like a $150 massage for $29 bucks, I got that on Groupon, the price point on the services is so key to success and again Gannett doesn't understand that with the Deal Chicken yet another product doomed to failure.
    4/19/2011 10:32 AM

    As of about midnight they sold 50 of the $150 Wellness program that you said no one wanted. That grosses up to $7500 (or 750 $10 items if they listed cheap stuff like you suggest). If the chicken keeps $20% of that after expenses(I heard somewhere that they get more then that) that is $1500 in profits. Multiply that by 360 days and that is well over a half million dollars in profits. Not enough for Craig and Gracia's bonuses but not a bad business me thinks.

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  32. As of about midnight they sold 50 of the $150 Wellness program that you said no one wanted. That grosses up to $7500 (or 750 $10 items if they listed cheap stuff like you suggest). If the chicken keeps $20% of that after expenses(I heard somewhere that they get more then that) that is $1500 in profits. Multiply that by 360 days and that is well over a half million dollars in profits. Not enough for Craig and Gracia's bonuses but not a bad business me thinks.
    4/20/2011 12:00 AM

    Yes, Deal Chicken does keep 20% but they use it all to pay commissions, marketing, discounting and kickbacks. So AGAIN, there is no actual money being made. I think I have stated this 3 different ways now!!! It's like kids selling lemonade for a penny a cup and it cost a penny a per cup to make.

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  33. Yes, Deal Chicken does keep 20% but they use it all to pay commissions, marketing, discounting and kickbacks. So AGAIN, there is no actual money being made. I think I have stated this 3 different ways now!!! It's like kids selling lemonade for a penny a cup and it cost a penny a per cup to make.

    4/20/2011 12:34 AM


    I wish I could use pictures instead of words but let me try this again. What was written before was 20% AFTER expenses. That means the money that is left after paying commissions and such. That mean what the company gets to keep. That means pure profit. That said if it makes you feel better thinking they don't make any money then so be it.

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  34. I don't know what commissions are paid from Deal Chicken's revenue.

    But I do know how revenue is calculated. Deal Chicken pays the merchant 50% of the sale, less a 2.5% processing fee.

    Here's an example from Deal Chicken's guide for merchants:

    A restaurant agrees to sell $50 certificates for the discounted price of $25, as long as 100 people buy. On the day of the sale, Deal Chicken sells 550 certificates for a total of $13,750.

    The restaurant would then be paid half of the day's revenue ($6,875) minus the 2.5% processing fee ($343.75), for total revenue of $6,531.25.

    Deal Chicken makes $6,875 plus the processing fee of $343.75, for a total of $7,218.75.

    The question being debated here: How much of that $7,218.75 is paid over to the salesperson(s) in commission?

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  35. This is such a great deal, here's a link to the shoftware to set up your very own Groupon site:
    http://www.crunchbase.com/company/groupon-clone

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  36. I don't understand why everyone is attacking Deal Chicken. I think it's a fun brand name, and should be a successful program. It's not too late to get into this game. First does not always equal winner... just ask MySpace.

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  37. Gannett isn't THAT late with the daily deal launch considering that AOL and Facebook are just now launching theirs also.


    http://www.netnewscheck.com/link/2011/04/18/10667/facebook-eyes-social-daily-deals/comments

    http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/05/wow-aol-groupon-clone/

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  38. Wow! It's been a long time since I thought much about this blog, but I can still see the main subjects revolve around people losing their jobs. I wonder if Gannett will ever be concerned about actual journalism again. I find myself rarely looking at mainstream media anymore - even the local Gannett station. Seems Gannett has been reduced to selling chicken! Look out Kentucky Fried and Popeye's!

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