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Tuesday, May 31, 2011
67 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."
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The calm before the storm, that's how this Memorial Day break feels, waiting for the ax to fall in the form of yet another round of layoffs. Come on Dickey, stop the torture and get on with it already!
ReplyDeleteSearch 'gannett' on Google or Bing and the #2 entry is this blog. That explains all those posts from the person constantly referring to "lemming trolls".
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the day off,will it be the last as Gannetteer?
ReplyDeleteWhy in the hell don't they just get it over with.
The lists had to be compiled by Management weeks
ago.Why drag on the freakin drama !
Was it because of some misplaced compassion to not wreck the Holiday week-end.! Oh,brother who gives a damn about one more day!
If the managers putting these lists together were to do the decent thing, they would put their owns at the very top of those to be laid off. That would send a message.
ReplyDelete10:51 That may have happened.
ReplyDeleteI pledge to rend these do-nothing execs with goobberwarts and finie the job with my burglescutcheon. See if I don't.
ReplyDeleteOn this Memorial Day, a thought I know many will support though they haven't said it: Cemeteries are dotted and, in some cases filled (Arlington) with the graves of those who died in support of the same values good journalists try to uphold every day. Like soldiers, we don't always get proper credit for what we do. But we get to live. Sometimes, some of us would quarrel with the wars of choice the nation enters, but the sacrifice of those who fought is beyond question. It is well that we remember them, and that we keep our problems in perspective. Many have had it far worse. Far, far worse.
ReplyDelete2:35 Things can work well in this country. Look at the bin Laden operation and IBM.
ReplyDeleteWinter is coming..... Oops. Wrong blog. Layoffs are coming....
ReplyDelete8:26 why is it ok for you and your pals to call anyone who disagrees with your position a Troll but if we call you a Lemming Troll we are evil? Just asking
ReplyDeleteBecause, my child, Jim lives near the real trolls, and so is able to determine real from fake:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Bridge_Troll
And do a search on "It's all within reach" and the #1 hit is this blog. Gannett has lost the SEO battle to one guy and his legion of readers. That says a lot about the company and its aimless wanderings in cyberspace.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with other readers who have argued the real Lemming Trolls are the ones who blindly follow corporate and post their senseless and hurtful screeds here. (And for all we know are paid to post here.)
The Urban Dictionary defines a troll as: "One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument." That is exactly what the corporate apologists are doing with their off topic, homophobic rants.
The thing is, I think most people want Gannett (and their jobs) to survive. What they want is an employer who treats them fairly, speaks honestly about the future and cares about the product.
Instead we get Martore and Dubow, who fire people to line their own pockets, who lie and obfuscate about the future, and whose mission is to destroy the products we work hard to create.
A heartfelt amen to 2:35 and 6:36.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have a profitable May? We have been scary slow from December to April but May was super busy. We had several specials this month that really took off. Just wonderint if this one month blip or start of a trend.
ReplyDeleteHow long might a close relationship survive once you realized that when she got up in the morning, she did nothing. When she went to work, she did nothing. When she went to lunch she did nothing. And when she went home in the evening she did nothing. You get the idea.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back to hell everyone.
ReplyDeleteLet the stress begin.Meeting,closed doors
and bloodletting plans.
Bring it on.
Let the layoffs begin,I am certain that all
will be relieved.A collective thank God will be heard across the USA.
One good month out of the last ...36 ?
ReplyDeleteThere's a trend all right.
10:24/8:48: Please shut the hell up. We don't need your constant harranguing to remind us that our jobs are precarious. Next time you feel the urge to "warn" us, which should be in another 23 minutes or so, try this online trick: Type your message in the little box. There, wonderful. You got it out of your system. Now X out.
ReplyDeleteYou'll feel better, and we'll be better able to face another uncertain day at Gannett as we continue to do our jobs as best we can, given the circumstances, and work on our Plan B.
We get the idea, OK? Seriously, I'd rather be skipping over Lemming Troll Doofus's posts than see your Smith-Corona-ding-hit-return typing here yet again.
11:47 from yesterday, it would be helpful if you posted where your site is. Give us some context as to who had a good May. Otherwise your words have little meaning.
ReplyDeleteIt's all not within reach. It's even sadder than that. I just Googled the phrase, and a gannett.com site didn't appear until No. 20. There was coverage by other media of the campaign's announcement, and usage of the same slogan by Federal Way and Ogden.
ReplyDeleteYep, House of Mean, redux:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/134219/departing-reporter-blasts-ap-business-leadership-in-farewell-letter/
11:17 I'm sorry to hear about what's going on at AP's business secton, but if someone had called over here to find out, they would have known everything they wanted about this nitpicking nut's news sense.
ReplyDelete11:47 AM-I agree that May has been very busy. Our circulation numbers are up here in the midwest, some due to the Bin Laden death. My district might be in a double digit gain for the month, after a flat first 4 months. Memorial Day ads were much heavier than years past, car advertising is returning. What might be causing a large Sunday boost is the demand for coupons from the TLC Extreme Couponing show. Demand for multiple papers is reported to be very strong from both our office and retail outlets-not for news but for savings.
ReplyDeleteI was listening to a St. Louis Cardinals radio broadcast on Sirius/XM yesterday (for old times' sake -- I used to live in The Lou) and there were a couple of spots for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission. Guess what their slogan is? "St. Louis -- It's All Within Reach." Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteThe new G A N N E T T slogan turns out to be about as original as: Got news?
ReplyDeleteOh, excuse me: Got information?
ReplyDeleteJim Duff announced as new president and ceo of Freedom Forum and Newseum. Who is he?
ReplyDelete3:15 Unfortunately, I'm far away from my laptop, so can't write much about Duff with only my iPhone.
ReplyDeleteThis has been in the works at least since December, and is a very important development in the future of what is the original Gannett Foundation -- known as Freedom Forum for two decades now.
Duff is a lawyer who once served as legal counsel for Freedom Forum. More recently, he's been running the administrative side of the mammoth federal courts bureaucracy.
In short: He has no apparent background in charitable foundation management, or in museum administration. A very odd choice.
Jim, talking about odd choices, isn't Debow's background in broadcast news not newspapers? Why would we have someone who knows what they're doing in charge of anything? It's way more fun to throw things out there and hope it works than to actually know what you're talking about, apparently.
ReplyDeleteHere's news release on Duff:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/james-c-duff-is-named-freedom-forum-president-and-ceo-122888534.html
Now with Overby going, wish he would take Ken Paulson down with him. Won't happen. Too bad.
4:16 It's not at all clear Overby is fully retiring from Freedom Firum.
ReplyDeleteThe Freedom Forum press release leaves a huge question unanswered: Will Duff also succeed Overby as chairman of the board?
The release never says directly that Overby is retiring; it only implies that, by saying he soon turns 65.
If Overby stays as board chairman, and there's no clean sweep of the trustees, it's hard to see how Duff will bring about any meaningful change.
Also, the Freedom Forum release doesn't say anything about the Newseum's future leadership. Overby is also listed as chairman and CEO of the museum.
ReplyDeleteAnd, question: When did Alberto Ibarguen become a Newseum trustee emeritus? Indeed, I thought he was board chairman. It appears he's been replaced as trustee by former Gannett Corporate digital executive Michael Maness.
4:42 Duff is a legal-eagle, and I cannot believe he would sign up for this position if he wasn't going to be able to lead it unencumbered by an aging hanger-on.
ReplyDeleteThe press release says:
ReplyDeleteThe Freedom Forum was established in 1991 under the direction of Al Neuharth as successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co., Inc. Its work is supported by income from an endowment of diversified assets.
Isn't that endowment all Gannett assets?
Jim, you're asking too many logical questions. You get fewer answers at the foundation than you do at Gannett. But here is one to consider: how many of these dudes get free apartments above the Newseum?
ReplyDelete5:01 Yes: Freedom Forum was started with the $650 million in Gannett stock that resided in the original Gannett Foundation. Indeed, Freedom Forum IS the original Gannett Foundation.
ReplyDeleteThis is why the current, reconstituted Gannett Foundation has hardly any assets, so has little money to support worthy charities in places where Gannett does business.
to make it clear, after taking over the gannett foundation, Al thought that gannett stock wasn't performing well enough for the Gannett Foundation - Gannett basically had to buy back all the stock which allowed Al to create the freedom forum.
ReplyDeleteThe switch from Ibaguen to Maness is an interesting one - it keeps the Knight Foundation closely tied to the sinking fortunes of the Newseum. Knight has funded many great things, but in 2008 it sank $25 million into the Newseum. It disgusted many.
ReplyDelete5:28 It's called greenmailing: buy these shares or they'll go to an unfriendly investor.
ReplyDeleteAl's declaring Gannett stock a poor investment showed tremendous disloyalty to the shareholders who employed him for so many years.
Once again, for those who need the help:
ReplyDeleteLemming trolls are the ones who blindly follow Jim through his thicket of inaccuracies and gossip. They are the ones who respond to every criticism with a shriek of "Gannett is evil!"
They don't like facts -- facts hurt their tiny brains and confuse them.
This is the one and only definition of lemming troll.
My complaint with the Newseum is that it is all my era's history, and there's little there that excites the kids and grandkids like the dead elephant Roosevelt shot, or the Ft. McHenry flag. At the Newseum, there's lip service to the press in the revolutionary war, and civil war, but if you look at the displays it is all current-era stuff. It is very comfortable to go through it, and it is pleasant memories. But it's $20 admission to the Newseum, compared to free at the Smithsonian. It's like Chinese food: once you have it tonight you don't want it again tomorrow night.
ReplyDeleteAha, the representative of corporate P.R. reappears. And, yes, after someone suggested on another thread that Maryam has a consultant looking into the activities of Gannett's public relations office.
ReplyDeleteSo where is this lavishly expensive flack these days? Silence on that front, I fear. Is Robin working on a follow on to the branding campaign, or has she just retreated into her office to map plots to undermine Gannettblogspot.com?
I think this consultant is going to conclude what Maryam already knows: this operation has too many flacks for the news it is trying to manage.
I doubt Banikarim has anyone inside or outside doing an assessment of Pence's office. Marketing and communications may be related, but they're still separate functions.
ReplyDeleteYo, 5:54, then you're just a lemming
ReplyDeleteI dunno Jim. We seem to have an awful lot of identified slopping over of separate functions these days at GCI.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletePretty lame 7:11 I could think up much more original things than that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jim about Neuharth's disloyalty. But then we do we see his column in USA Today each week. He also showed up at last year' annual meeting to warm applause, and then in black tie with Overby at the Gridiron dinner (which I suspect GCI paid for).
ReplyDeleteSo why do others in the organization treat him so royally if he was so disloyal?
Who cares about the Freedom Forum. They haven't been part of Gannet for 20 freaking years. Start a FF Blog if you want. Enough already
ReplyDeletewhat about layoffs & or furloughs?!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteany real info?
9:01 When you look at it more closely, you see that the FF is really an arm of GCI. I think that is what Jim is gnawing at, and he is certainly right to raise these questions. How did Paulson suddenly get a job at the Newseum if this is truly an independent organization. And other than general incompetence which we all saw at USA Today, why did they shift him aside to what looks to me like a sinecure. Unraveling the secrets of the FF also unravels the secrets of GCI.
ReplyDelete9:37 you're dreaming. There is no connection. Way to make up a story that doesn't exist
ReplyDelete9:43, sounds like you're hoping nobody else goes fishing.
ReplyDeleteThere is a connection, and it a violation of federal laws for there to be one. Exactly how it works is still being worked through, but there is a prize-winning story there. I can see it.
ReplyDelete7:11, 6:38 here. Guess I struck a nerve. Hit too close to home. As we country folk say, it's the hit dog that hollers.
ReplyDeleteAl does whatever he feels like. Acts like the grand poobah of journalism. Criticizing the paper for Jack Kelley (Al hired him and took the kid on his boondoggle trips) yet taking a lifetime salary for his column. Buying up hundreds of copies of his autobiography to goose bestselling list placement. Hiring cronies at the foundation. Awarding jokers like Overby honors at the alma mater. Lobbying for Ken Paulson as editor. Little Napoleon set the tone for what Gannett turned into.
ReplyDelete11:57...That show has caused some kind of Sunday paper spike all right. Ladies buying 5-10 copies at a time right now. Hard to believe that trend will continue but it's of course hopeful. Then again we have a Sunday like this past one, the 29th. Being a "Holiday Sunday" there were no coupons in the paper and whatever networking is taking place they all seemed to know it. This in spite of that ridiculous ad campaign telling people how much savings and discounts and coupons are in the Sunday paper. Whoever started that should be tarred and feathered. That is so misleading it's turning off customers for they know they have to buy every item in the ads to realize that kind of savings. Anyway, most of our carriers had a 22 25 percent rate this Sunday. No coupons and added draws because people in Tenn. have no clue as to what the sales trends are here.
ReplyDeletewho really cares about the FF or the exec's, they don't care about all of us, they just want as much money they can get for themselves & screw you, any of your comments about this crap is worthless, it does not benifit YOU.
ReplyDeleteOdd statement from Jim: "Banikarim has anyone inside or outside doing an assessment of Pence's office. Marketing and communications may be related, but they're still separate functions."
ReplyDeleteFact is, in the new world order, Pence reports to Banikarim, so Banikarim can do whatever she wants with the marketing and communications group and function. Just as Banikarim now directs research with Reggie Murphy on her team, which was formerly part of ContentOne.
Freedom Forum announced today that James Duff will be replacing "retiring" Charles Overby as CEO.
ReplyDelete4:27 I've re-read Freedom Forum's statement, and it's still unclear what Overby is doing.
ReplyDeleteI did notice that the statement says the Newseum is "the highly successful museum of news, history and technology."
That's a different definition than I've seen in the past.
5:03 Why not throw the kitchen sink in as well. That's incredibly broad. I guess they want to put Ipods and Ipads in, if Apple gives them free and sponsors a section of the Newseum.
ReplyDeleteYes, my newsroom is crowded with reporters using their Ipods and Ipads. It's amazing how the old farts finally caught up with new technology.
ReplyDeleteI see great possibilities for Western Union buying a display to show how that American-as-apple-pie company once sent news across America, but now transfers money around the globe as a western competitor to the dominant and largely impenetrable Muslim hawalah system.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. Broaden the scope of the Newseum to cover non-news related concerns and you could GE to give us a history of the light bulb, and Detroit could find prime real estate on Pennsylvania Avenue to put up a showroom for the breathrough high technology of their new all-electric cars. Might bring in broader interests, but $20 a ticket is still steep.
ReplyDeleteHow do they get away with a 20 buck admission fee in a town with free world class museums?
ReplyDeleteThe ticket charge is indeed a problem. Not everything in Washington is free, and there are charges for the Phillips Gallery (impressionist art) and the Spy Museum, which is near the Newseum, and a couple of others that are private or run by foundations. But you are right and you can get around Washington fine without facing a museum entrance fee at the various Smithsonians.
ReplyDeleteI once thought that one of these budget fights Congress engages each year would result in charges for the Smithsonian, but Congress hasn't yet opted for that and currently subsidizes them instead.