He made this hyperbolic announcement in December 2008 to a Wall Street audience about a then-new initiative: "It will, I believe, upend the traditional thinking about content in our industry both in how we gather it, and how we sell it."
And there was this: "It also will allow us to develop and gather information much more efficiently by eliminating duplication and allowing our local entities to focus on what's important -- a deep, rich local report. It is the logical next step from our local Information Center initiatives, creating a national head to the local content gathering bodies."
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Until last month, that is, when Connell abruptly retired, and ContentOne was split into three parts. The reporting and editing part -- in other words, the old GNS -- was sent packing to USA Today, where Executive Editor Chet Czarniak was put in charge. And now (drumroll, please) it's been reborn as . . . the Gannett News Network!
All this is according to a recent Czarniak memo to the troops, announcing details of an expanding investigative project into federal highway project overruns.
So, after much committee meeting; brainstorming and bonuses paid all around, Gannett News Service became ContentOne only to be renamed Gannett News Network. (Right now, I picture CMO Maryam Banikarim rolling her eyes and updating her resume.)
In his memo, Czarniak also drops an oh-by-the-way paragraph about the Des Moines Register's decision last week to lay off its widely read agriculture reporter. Philip Brasher, you'll recall, was the paper's lone D.C. reporter on a beat of critical importance to the newspaper.
Referencing "Des Moines support," Cznariak writes: "The Gannett D.C. Bureau is working with Des Moines Register Executive Editor Rick Green to ensure Washington-based coverage of issues and lawmakers important to Iowa in light of a recent staff cutback by Des Moines. A communication plan is in place currently and firm staffing plans are expected to be resolved in July."
Isn't this the same Chet Czarniak who has been spearheading USA Today's spirited defense of the Jews-Delta story. I don't think we ever got a good explanation for what happened with the online posting of that truly weird story, and why. Guess Czarniak has suddenly found other things to preoccupy his attention.
ReplyDeleteDelta is certainly not going to forget that story.
ReplyDeleteDifferent buzzwords, same old tired results.
ReplyDelete"A communication plan is in place currently and firm staffing plans are expected to be resolved in July."
ReplyDeleteI think Gannett has a firm staff planned for every employee.
Ha. Maybe someone finally got a clue as to how ridiculous reporters sounded when they had to call sources and say "This is John from ContentOne" instead of "This is John from Gannett News Service."
ReplyDeleteProbably not, though. It's clearly part of the Gannett branding initiative. And it will stay that way for a few years until a light bulb goes off in some overpaid dimwit's head and it gets changed again with great fanfare.
The Washington bureau, when they refer to Content One at all, refer to it as "Content [extended middle finger.]"
ReplyDeleteGood luck to Des Moines with their plan to sub out GNS coverage for a dedicated ag reporter. The bureau will get right on that for them, in between covering the entire federal government for 81 other papers, with half the staff they used to have.
[Extended middle finger.]
Chet Czarniak's background is sports, sports, sports. So what does he know about federal highway contract cost overruns, and who came up with that idea?
ReplyDelete8:54 Dunno. Sounds like a prize-winner, if USA Today's investigative team can prove it's true. There's a March 2009 General Accountability Office report about how federal highway projects are notorious for cost-overruns, from Boston's Big Dig, to the Springfield, Va. I-95 highway exchange, a sphaghetti of flyovers and confusing interchanges known locally as the Mixing Bowl. GAO goes on to note there are also cost overruns in other federal agencies, too, such as Pentagon contracts for new bombers, etc. These stories won Pulitzers.
ReplyDelete9:02 Agreed. Also, for competitive reasons, it's better not to broadcast details of investigative projects for rival media outlets to see.
ReplyDeleteIt's ok, only Gannett employees read this blog, and they won't spill the beans.
ReplyDeleteIf federal highway contract cost overruns is the investigative team project, they better hurry up and finish it because I wouldn't be surprised to see this issue addressed in the debt limit deal Obama and Boehner are putting together today. One of the proposals floated is to give highway projects to the states to deal with in the future because they are more efficient in handling constrution contracts, the Interstate Highway project Eisenhower launched is completed, and states can use tolls to finance new state road construction. Cuts federal spending just like Republicans want, dismantles a lot of the Department of Transportation which has largely done its job, bolsters the states who are facing financial problems on the bond markets, and gives state politicians more playthings to get votes, and results in more efficient highway contracts issued by the states. Sounds like a win-win to me. Des Moines should be interested, because their state reporter will have a huge new workload telling readers where new toll roads are going to be built.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more obfuscation and double speak when dubow and gracia deliver quarterly results.
ReplyDeleteBonuses; they're all within reach...
ReplyDelete9:55 Here's Czarniak's full note on the federal highways project:
ReplyDelete"The database and investigative teams are working with Gannett's USCP newspapers and the Gannett News Network (the working name for the editorial group from ContentOne that moved to USAT) to help widen an investigation into highway cost overruns by the Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., to about 50 sites across the company. Blake Morrison and Tony DeBarros met with Kate Marymont and Laura Rehrmann this week to decide on the approach."
Re: 11:47: Whoo-hoo! A mention of Kate Marymont that hints that she's still alive and working.
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News did a solid job on this, and I see Sen. Schumer has called for an investigation, so we can expect hearings on this soon. You can't drive north to south through New York without getting tangled in traffic jams from this project, which has been underway for 11 years now:
ReplyDeletehttp://schumer.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=332720&
11:32 Bet there are projects like that one all across the country, with millions of car drivers fuming that the projects have been going on for a decade, and nothing seems to get done. Think of all the taxpayer savings if the unnecessary cost-overruns were eliminated, and more speedy efforts were made to get these projects built. What a hell of a series. How come no one thought of this?
ReplyDeleteJim, why don't you look back at other corporate initiatives that were hailed in meetings with Wall Street analysts but then fell flat. Video, for example, never lived up to the hype. How many videos are newspapers shooting these days, after seeing how little in revenues they bring compared to the relatively high costs? And what about highschoolsports.net? And so on. Gannett has long had a reputation for being on a perpetual search for the "silver bullet" that's going to make the company a ton of money, but with little to show for it.
ReplyDelete11:51 You are right. There are federal highway construction contracts going on in all 50 states, so it would be easy to pick out an example in each state, show the cost overrun and tell the story of the angry drivers in traffic jams, and then you have a national Gannett News Service story that all our newspapers can use. Once the series is completed, all the local newspaper has to do is pick out and highlight the local highway project, and they have a local story to sell to their readers. Magic.
ReplyDeleteSshhh, you are telling the world our secrets. Follow the advice of 12:50 and look for that "silver bullett" that turned out to just be tin.
ReplyDeleteSo if Content One was split into 3 parts, please share about the other parts?
ReplyDeleteContentOne split into 3 parts? The think sucked as one....now it's going to be three?
ReplyDelete3:15 Click on the hyperlinked words "Connell abruptly retired" for more details.
ReplyDelete@12:56 p.m.: Actually, I think Gannett Central Soviet is asking the community papers to do the work or at least putting out feelers to see which ones have active highway projects. I heard a reporter at my site talking about how to get the federal highway project info a couple of weeks ago, and this reporter certainly didn't come up with the idea on his own. He has enough truly local news to cover.
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ReplyDeleteChet Czarniak is one of the truly amazing stories at USAT -- truly symbolic of the last 10 years in terms of what is valued in editors and upper newsroom management. You can interpret that as broadly, narrowly or however you like.
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ReplyDeleteI am suspicious of the 8:37 post. Sounds like a good way to get people's names and numbers who are posting on this blog.
ReplyDelete6:50 If you were an investigative reporter just fishing around for where to start on a new project, who would you call? I don't think you are incorrect at all about this. It's not every day a reporter gets a random call asking what he knows about a local highway construction contract.
ReplyDeleteIf you Google that phone number, you'll see it's the generic number that pops up when people make free phone calls through gmail.
ReplyDeleteIt's a prank.
Jim, you are great at fishing out old corporate hype and showing how vapid it truly turned out to be. Please keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.everycall.us/phone-number/1-760-705-8888/
ReplyDelete7:26 and 8:00 are spot on. Let's not forget the ever opportunistic John Hillkirk, who is best looking out for Numero Uno and no one else.
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ReplyDeleteJim, where did you get the $9.4 Million figure?
ReplyDelete$9.4 million was Dubow's salary last year.
ReplyDeleteAll the corporatese in the world only goes to hide what's really going on. A quick translation: "As long we get our bonuses, it doesn't matter who (if anyone) is minding the store or if the store has any items to sell."
ReplyDeleteIt really is that simple.
I think that the design of the ContentOne logo was very telling as it appeared to be very similar to another popular logo of the time.
ReplyDeleteCan you guess what it is? Click here to see!
Come on Gannett! You employ many, many designers (well you used to, anyway)! Didn't you think one of us would notice? Or did you just not care? This is just another example of how corporate fails to put any real effort behind their initiatives, everything is done halfheartedly or implemented too late to matter.
4:16 Wow.
ReplyDelete4:16 PM Wow, that looks like a LEGAL issue just waiting to happen! Unbelievable. Very stupid.
ReplyDelete4:16 Plagiarism at the minimum, IMO.
ReplyDeleteJim, that Content One / Palm 1 thing is too funny not to feature with its own post!
ReplyDelete